HOUSTON – Gun rights advocate, CJ Grisham said two separate incidents over a thousand miles apart are proof the “good guy with a gun” trope is true.
“It’s a big decision to point a gun at another human being, whether you’re a good guy or a bad guy, and whether you do it for the right reasons or wrong reasons, it’s still a very big decision,” said Grisham, president and founder of Open Carry Texas.
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The retired Army First Sergeant commends the 22-year-old man in Greenwood, Indiana hailed a hero by police for shooting and killing a gunman at a mall.
“I’m glad that this individual was both trained and prepared to deal with what happened at that mall,” Grisham said.
Greenwood, Indiana Police Chief James Ison identified the gunman as 20-year-old Jonathan Sapirman, of Greenwood. Ison said the man opened fire in the mall shortly before closing time. Police say he continued shooting, hitting five people, and killing three, until a bystander, 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken, shot and killed him.
“The real hero of the day is the citizen that was lawfully carrying a firearm in that food court and was able to stop this shooter almost as soon as it began,” Ison said the night of the shooting.
Grisham learned of the shooting Sunday night as he watched the news.
“It definitely made me feel good that there was a citizen that was armed, but prepared to use that gun in self-defense or in defense of others, if necessary,” he said.
Grisham believes if more people were lawfully armed and trained crime rates would drop.
“The more people that are lawfully armed in self-defense, the lower the crime rate would be because criminals won’t want to take that risk,” Grisham said.
At a news conference unveiling the city of Houston’s gun buyback program with the county, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner vehemently expressed his opposition to Grisham’s perspective.
“Everybody has a right to defend themselves, but I’m not going to stand up here and say, ‘Arm yourself and fight back.’ Do what you [must] do, but I think the biggest weapon we have is working together and communicating,” Finner said.
He added he believes victims or other gun owners stepping in could cause more harm.
“Sometimes when you have a weapon it [doesn’t] work out for you. You might be an innocent citizen or victim, then you pull that weapon and that suspect already has a hand up on you. It can go either way,” the chief said.
“I think this is just a completely backwards ideology that law enforcement thinks that they’re the only one in society that should be allowed to defend themselves against criminals,” Grisham said. “The fact of the matter is, the Houston police officers want to be the only ones armed besides the criminals and they want us just to be the victim instead of preventing victimhood.”