The shooter, Wesley Neal Higdon, had been reprimanded for talking on his cell phone and not wearing safety glasses. He left work for about half an hour, then returned to kill 5 people and then kill himself. During the shootings, he apparently had time to reload his handgun. Again, we have a tragic shooting where a criminal bent on murder and suicide was the only one armed, and as a result, the law abiding, unarmed people died.
I’ve talked about the problem with so called “gun free zones” before, and this is yet another example. The fact is that criminals, especially those bent on committing murder and then suicide, are not going to obey gun control laws, or company policies that forbid guns at work. Instead, only the law abiding employees are going to abide by such laws and policies. This means that when a deranged criminal decides he is going to go on a murder/suicide spree, he is the only one armed. Indeed that is likely why this criminal was able to fire his gun so many times, then reload, and fire it again. Had his coworkers been armed, this murderer may have gotten off a few shots, but I doubt he would have had the chance to reload and kill more people.
Sadly, the anti gun groups will use this tragedy as “evidence” in their quest to further ban guns and the right to self defense, despite the overwhelming evidence that gun control doesn’t reduce crime.