By Peggy Tartaro,
Executive Editor

The Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson, AZ, dominated the news in the early part of the year, and, as is usually the case, brought out the pundits in force.

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) appeared on a number of television programs, primarily because he is an anti-gun Republican-newsworthy to those who get-and make-the news by headline, but not to those who study politics closely.

There have always been anti-gun Republicans. They tend to be from the Northeast, and if not from large metropolitan centers, then from densely packed and well-entrenched suburban bedroom communities of those big cities.

King, who hails from Long Island, is no exception.

Also unexceptional, sadly, is King's apparent willingness to accept every media invitation he gets.

Asked about the Tucson shootings, in which a federal judge and five other people were killed, and where several others were seriously wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), King called for a "gun-free" zone to be enacted around federal officials.

How this gun-free zone would be different from gun-free zones on college campuses, in malls and at large workplaces-where shootings have taken place before-would be enacted and, especially, enforced, King didn't say. He only said he it should be illegal to carry a gun within 1,000 feet of a government official.

It's interesting to note that Giffords, a Democrat, but from a different part of the country than Long Island, is generally held to be pro-gun, something very few mainstream media commentators mentioned at the time of the shootings, or in discussions of what should be done.

What shootings like Tucson have shown us over the years are a couple of key points, nearly always overlooked-or outright ignored-by mass media.

·Criminals who don't care what happen to themselves will act as they see fit, regardless of the consequences.

Whether it is the 9-11 terrorists, assassins like Mark David Chapman, John Hinckley or Virginia Tech murderer Vincent Cho, if you don't care whether you are killed as you carry out your actions, or don't care whether you are tried, convicted and incarcerated for the rest of your life, no law is going to deter you from carrying out your crime.

·American citizens, sometimes armed, sometimes not, are the first-and sometimes only-line against criminal activities.

Even if you don't believe all the meticulously researched statistics in John Lott's More Guns=Less Crime, or the work of sociologists like Gary Kleck, there's ample anecdotal evidence to support the theory that ordinary Americans stop petty crimes and keep bigger ones from escalating.

The passengers on Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001 were unarmed, but, when faced with the mind-boggling evidence that their hijacked plane was going to be used to kill other Americans, they seized whatever was available to fight back against the terrorists, likely causing the plane to crash far away from its intended target, in a field in Pennsylvania.

A staffer of Rep. Giffords, who had only been on the job a few days, is credited with saving her life, and greatly reducing the harm done, because he was a trained EMT-and because he used his training instinctively during the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Being armed with knowledge is often as useful as being armed with a gun.

But armed citizens have stepped in time and time again in situations like-and including-the Tucson shooting. In some instances, like Tucson, they didn't use their guns, but they did use their knowledge of firearms, to attack the shooter while he was trying to reload.
In other cases across the country-from high schools to shopping malls, armed Americans have ended mass shootings, despite the fact that in addition to exposing themselves to physical harm, they have sometimes exposed themselves to legal harm.

·Which brings us to my final observation, not an original one. So-called gun-free zones are often an invitation to the criminal, or the crazy, to attack with impunity, making them feel more secure as they attempt to carry out mayhem, that there will be less response, and less likelihood harm will come to them.

Whether it is 1,000 feet or an entire college campus or a giant shopping mall and its parking lots, more and more people, not just gunowners, are beginning to realize that "gun free" is an invitation to danger, not just to public officials, but to themselves and their loved ones.

Peggy Tartaro

Photo © Copyright 1998 Nancy Floyd, used with permission.