Trent Franks: 'I Wish There Had Been One More Gun' In Tucson

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday that he wishes one additional person had possessed a firearm in Tucson on Saturday, presumably to use on Jared Lee Loughner.

"I wish there had been one more gun there that day in the hands of a responsible person, that's all I have to say," Franks said at a briefing, according to Politico.

The argument that more firearms would result in greater security -- especially in cases such as the one over the weekend -- has been a common argument for gun-rights activists, bolstered by headlines such as this.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) came to such a conclusion in a recent interview, claiming that "if there had been guns there for people to defend themselves with, perhaps the carnage could have been less."

But as William Saletan wrote for Slate, there is often a fine line between success and catastrophe. In this case, Joe Zamudio, the armed man (with no proper weapons training) who helped stop the shooting spree, may only have subdued the alleged shooter -- instead of shooting an innocent bystander -- by chance:

That's what happens when you run with a firearm to a scene of bloody havoc. In the chaos and pressure of the moment, you can shoot the wrong person. Or, by drawing your weapon, you can become the wrong person--a hero mistaken for a second gunman by another would-be hero with a gun. Bang, you're dead. Or worse, bang bang bang bang bang: a firefight among several armed, confused, and innocent people in a crowd. It happens even among trained soldiers. Among civilians, the risk is that much greater.

We're enormously lucky that Zamudio, without formal training, made the right split-second decisions. We can't count on that the next time some nut job starts shooting. I hope Arizona does train lawmakers and their aides in the proper use of firearms. I hope they remember this training if they bring guns to constituent meetings. But mostly, I hope they don't bring them.

Comments

[goodpyr]

12:08 AM on 01/20/2011

Rep.Franks.So far I've not come up with any references of either military and or
law enforcement training in your background.Thus your wish for someone else at the
shooting of Rep.Giffords to have a gun was a misguided belief that your "hero" would ride in
guns ablaze and shoot the gunman missing all innocent people that were searching for a
safe place to hide.I have an advantage over you.I've been under fire and it is the most
chaotic event one can experience.
Nam '65 - '66

[speckitis]

08:47 PM on 01/14/2011

I'm certain by now that someone has pointed out that one of the individuals who tackled Loughner had a gun. Perhaps Mr Trent should propose a bill that only psychics be allowed to carry guns.

[dustbunny44]

10:35 AM on 01/14/2011

Franks' argument is disproven with this recent shooting incident. Arizona has the most lax gun laws in the country, there was as much a chance for people to take down the killer themselves as there is ever going to be, yet he kept on shooting until his insanely-sized clip ran out. The only other guy there with a gun was quoted as saying he didn't pull his gun out for fear of being thought of as another shooter by the police, and as he considered taking his gun out he was actually thinking of shooting the wrong guy because of the way the scene revealed itself to him.
So no, you don't get the fantasy that a shooter is taken down by those around him. You get the reality that guns get into the hands of more unstable people, and innocents die as a result.
That has been proven!

[Donna Kott]

08:25 AM on 01/14/2011

This guy must have still been talking in the wake of the tradegy. If we didn't have to dissect every single thing everyone says these days, things may not be taken out of context. No one would want anyone esle to have died on that day, the victim or the villian.

[LittleMittens]

12:16 AM on 01/14/2011

To anyone that has ever actually been in a civilian firefight, it is too surreal when it is happening to actually have the where with all to actually reach for your own gun. Having lived in a drive-by area of Los Angeles for 9 months, to the tune of one drive-by a week in the neighborhood, the first reaction is to hit the ground. Not stand up, look around, reach for your pistol, cock it, take aim, and start returning fire...romanticizing you'd be John Wayne in that situation, is just a fantasy without serious training...

[justplainfedup]

11:35 PM on 01/13/2011

That was predictable.

[treadway123]

11:26 PM on 01/13/2011

I can just see another accident unfolding in front of my eyes when some one alse rushed in an thought the was responsable enough to take him out, but by than another man/woman had taken the gun from the shooter an that responable person shot the wrong man!

[Giveadamn]

11:19 PM on 01/13/2011

I wish there had been one more law banning firearms!

[breathestolive]

11:02 PM on 01/13/2011

I guess he never heard the saying "Two wrongs don't make a right".

He needs to talk to my mother, STAT.

[darrtown]

10:55 PM on 01/13/2011

Quote from Steve King in the article:
"Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) came to such a conclusion in a recent interview, claiming that "if there had been guns there for people to defend themselves with, perhaps the carnage could have been less.""

Police tend to focus on anyone with a gun in a shooting situation. They don't automatically know anybody's intentions so an innocent trying to help could easily get hurt. And don't forget crossfire effects. It's not a perfect world. I live in Tucson and I think Mr King would be better off sending words of condolence and healing rather than foolish advice on how to make things worse. mr king if you can't say something comforting, please, don't say anything at all about this.

[dustbunny44]

10:40 AM on 01/14/2011

But this is Arizona. Nowhere else is there going to be more guns around, unless you force everyone to have a gun (just like you don't want to force everyone to drive - not everyone can).
No one returned fire, no other gun helped stop the killing.
Can anyone link to a shooting that was stopped by the proximate guns of strangers?
Has it ever happened at all?

[mw21]

10:54 PM on 01/13/2011

And in the sadly ironic but not so unexpected category, gun sales in Arizona are soaring.

[DLCA]

10:20 PM on 01/13/2011

There was another person, a law-abiding person, with a gun and he almost shot one of the heroes who had taken the gun from that guy and was holding it. Only trained people should be able to have guns at political events.

[ShadowRedux]

11:08 PM on 01/13/2011

Correct.

[americancolonyinhell]

10:12 PM on 01/13/2011

Perhaps a policeman should have been there.

[boymom]

10:05 PM on 01/13/2011

deserves a second read:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elayne-boosler/we-are-getting-tired-of-p_b_46196.html

[Hillbilly49]

09:58 PM on 01/13/2011

Guns serve a purpose; to end the lives of mammals.


Gun owners who say anything else are only groping for a superior moral justification for their gun fetish.