Exercising The Right
Fifteen-second Samaritan
The New American reported online on July 18 about 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken stopping a mass shooting in the Greenwood Park Mall in Indiana, where a deranged man armed with two rifles and a handgun started shooting defenseless people. Dicken reacted quickly, pulling out his own handgun and mortally wounding the shooter. The attacker was able to claim three lives, but authorities say it would have been much deadlier if not for Dicken’s brave actions.
The New York Post later clarified that Dicken was able to end the mass shooting in just a few seconds. The shooter exited from a restroom and opened fire on shoppers, but Dicken immediately pulled his gun and fired 10 shots at the shooter, who was 40 yards from Dicken. The gunman tried to retreat to the bathroom, but collapsed to the floor due to his injuries. Greenwood Police Chief James Ison told the media during a press conference that “the surveillance video shows [the gunman] exit the restroom at 5:56:48 p.m…. He was neutralized by Dicken at 5:57:03 p.m.”
The story received widespread attention, and Second Amendment proponents highlighted how it perfectly demonstrated that an armed populace can stop deadly mass shootings in a matter of seconds. This rang especially true considering Indiana recently passed a constitutional-carry law allowing state residents to carry concealed firearms without needing a permit, which is exactly what Dicken was doing. These details were very upsetting to anti-gun pundits, who almost seemed annoyed that the gunman wasn’t able to continue shooting people. Fox News reported on July 18 about left-leaning Twitter users who were upset that Dicken was being hailed as a “Good Samaritan.”
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