Twin Falls isn’t a huge city. It’s got a population of a little over 50,000 people, which means it’s not all that much smaller than my hometown. That means it’s not small enough that everyone knows everyone else, but it is small enough that there are a surprising number of connections. A mass shooting at a busy fast food restaurant was likely to be an ugly thing for such a community, where many people were touched by something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
But while there was an unfortunate loss of life, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We’ve talked about that.
And the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms sent out a press release on Monday applauding the heroic actions of Jordan Salinas and the off-duty police officer who engaged the attacker.
In the aftermath of Saturday’s terrible mass shooting incident at a Twin Falls, Idaho In-N-Out Burger, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms agrees with local authorities that the intervention of an armed private citizen, and an off-duty police officer, undoubtedly distracted the gunman and saved many lives.
“Clearly from the videos we’ve seen, the citizen, identified as Jordan Salinas, disregarded his personal safety in a courageous effort to stop the shooting,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “You can’t invent that kind of courage, especially when it involved taking on a dangerous man, who was armed with a rifle, when you’re armed with a Five-Seven pistol. While our thoughts are with the victims of this attack, we are grateful that a good man stepped forward, in harm’s way, to courageously intervene.
“We still don’t know the identity of the off-duty officer who also engaged the gunman,” Gottlieb added, “but we’re certain the good citizens of Twin Falls are indebted to him as well. We’re impressed how two good guys, acting independently of one another, moved in on the perpetrator, causing him to retreat until uniformed officers could arrive and handle the situation.”
Published reports say Salinas, a healthcare worker and caregiver to his wheelchair-bound brother, has practiced regularly with his pistol ever since reading about another mall shooting in Boise. Like any armed citizen, reports say he had hoped such a day would never come, but when he found himself in the middle of chaos, his self-training took over.
“As in the past,” Gottlieb observed, “the gun prohibition crowd is nowhere to be seen or heard. The fact that Mr. Salinas had a silencer on his pistol further demonstrates that good people can own modern handguns and sound suppressors, with which they can accomplish good things.
“We commend the actions of Mr. Salinas and the unidentified, off-duty officer,” he concluded, “and we also commend Idaho lawmakers who have made it possible for law-abiding citizens to be armed in public so they may not only defend themselves, but protect others when a deadly emergency unfolds.”
I wouldn’t say that the anti-gunners are nowhere to be found. They’re out there. Those who have spoken out just happen to be pretending that Salinas was in the wrong to fight back.
I won’t rehash my take on the burning stupid there, but it is absolutely ridiculous what some are trying to claim.
Jordan Salinas is an advocate for training. He’s a believer in putting rounds down range in a way that comes as close to fighting as he can. Some have critiqued his tactics in that moment, but I’m not about to. For one thing, I don’t feel remotely qualified. For another, I wasn’t there, so I have no idea what might have been the best course of action in that moment.
What I do know, though, is that by preparing himself mentally and physically as best he could, Salinas was able to step up in the moment and save lives. What’s more, Salinas’s use of a suppressor does a lot of damage to the whole argument that law-abiding citizens don’t “need” these devices. I’m not a fan of the 5.7 round, but part of that is because when it comes to giving my cash to a mugger or shooting him, I probably come out cheaper giving him my wallet if the round is a 5.7. That’s a personal preference, though, and it sure as hell worked for Salinas.
We don’t know anything about the off-duty officer, which is a shame, because he’s a hero, too.
Still, a good guy with a gun stepped up at a moment when it was about the lives of others, and he helped stop the threat. Even though he didn’t kill the bad guy, his own comments to ABC News make it clear that the moment the big, bad killer met someone with teeth of their own, his confidence evaporated.
For all the screaming about how armed citizens don’t stop mass killings, this is yet another bit of evidence that shows they do, and why they do.
Right now, the country needs to be celebrating the good guys with guns, because the only way this ended sooner was if someone else had been armed who could respond quicker. The police were still minutes away.
Despite how much they’d have all liked to have been on the scene when everything went down, we need to remember that we can only guarantee that the police will get there in time to draw a chalk outline around your body.
In a world of cowards or bystanders, be a Jordan Salinas. Be a Stephen Williford. Be an Eli Dickens. Be a Jack Wilson.
Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.
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