“GOOD GUYS WITH GUNS” RAN FOR THEIR LIVES

By Akin Ojumu

After every mass shooting that occurs on American soil, there’s an established pattern of macabre dance and morbid drama that the American public have come to expect. Out of anger and frustration, the demand for enactment of gun safety laws becomes louder and more strident.

Progressive politicians of the Democratic Party dig up, and wipe the dust off, long forgotten gun safety legislations that had been buried deep in the back burner since the last mass shooting.

Predictably, conservative politicians and their masters at the National Rifle Association counter with fierce resistance to prevent such laws from getting passed. They erect an impenetrable high wall of defense against any law that would limit access to any gun, including dangerous military-style assault weapons and laid down legislative obstacles to scuttle efforts to tackle gun violence in America.

To rebuff the narratives that America’s gun culture is responsible for the mass murders that occur in America, rightwing politicians whose calloused souls have been sold to the gun manufacturers and the NRA throw up all sorts of flares to deflect and distract from the Americans gun addiction. These craven politicians often shamelessly claim that guns don't kill people, only people with guns kill people. Their propagandists at Fox News, Newsmax, and other conservative news outlets are also quick to point accusing fingers at mental illness, wokeness, critical race theory, women and their monthly periods, abortion, Black Lives Matter movement, LGBTQ movement, etc.

Their most favorite solution to mass shootings, however, is to put more guns in the hands of more people. Flooding American streets with more firearms, they believe, is the surefire way to prevent and stop mass shootings. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” is a common refrain from these gun worshipers. It’s a phrase that has become a mantra for gun peddlers and a nonsensical sloganeering that has captured the dull imaginations of gun addicts.

The stupidity of the logic behind the “good guy with gun” absurdity was laid bare at the recent mass shooting that occurred at the Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children along with 2 of their school teachers were murdered by a lone gunman wielding AR-15 assault weapon. 

A recently released footage of the tragic incident obtained by the Austin American-Statesman newspaper showed dozens of heavily armed policemen cowardly hiding behind walls and along the school corridors only a few feet away from the gunman who at this time was shooting and killing little children and their teachers in cold blood. Four minutes into the gunman's rampage, dozens of “good guys with the gun” could be seen in the footage fleeing for their lives as they heard the gunman fired several rounds of ammunition.

The “good guy with a gun” theory collapsed on its face at the Uvalde Elementary school. As a lone bad guy pulverize little kids with bullets from his AR-15, more than a dozen heavily armed good guys with AR-15s were found cowering and fleeing for safety. The good guys with heavy guns ran like wimps away from the sound of a gun. The same trigger-happy police who are quick to shoot and kill unarmed black men on the streets were scared shitless of a lone gunman wielding an AR-15.