(Fort Wayne) News-Sentinel
There are at least two important takeaways from the tragic shooting in Nashville, Tenn., recently when a nearly naked gunman stormed a Waffle House restaurant with an assault rifle, shooting four people to death before a customer rushed him and wrestled the weapon away.
People who are deemed possible threats due to mental illness or other legitimate factors must be prevented from possessing firearms.
It is up to all of us to be wary and be prepared for an active shooter situation and to be willing to take action if necessary and if possible.
We wrote in February, following the Valentine’s Day massacre that killed 17 in a Parkland, Fla., high school, that Indiana, like a few other states, has a “red flag law” that allows family members, guardians or police to ask judges to temporarily take guns away from those deemed a threat to themselves or others due to such things as mental illness, escalating threats, substance abuse or domestic violence.
Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson said shooting suspect, Travis Reinking, 29, who was wearing only a jacket during the attack, may have “mental issues.” U.S. Secret Service agents reportedly arrested him last July for being in a restricted area near the White House. He reportedly said he wanted to meet President Trump. They later took four firearms from him, including the AR-15 rifle used in the shooting.
State police in Illinois (where Reinking lived until last fall) revoked his state firearms card at the request of the FBI, and the four guns taken from him were returned to his father, who told authorities Sunday he gave them back to his son.
As of the beginning of this month, seven states have enacted red flag laws, but while bills have been proposed in both Tennessee and Illinois, both states have yet to pass them.
As to the second takeaway, many people are alive today because of 29-year-old customer James Shaw Jr. After taking cover behind a door as shots shattered windows, the gunfire ceased. So Shaw rushed the shooter, wrestling the gun away. The gunman then ran out. The Nashville Police Department tweeted out they had him in custody the day after the shooting. What would you have done if you were among those in that Waffle House?
In a column for The Washington Post in November, following a mass shooting that killed 26 people at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Tex., Ed Hinman, a director at the international security and consulting firm Gavin de Becker & Associates, wrote that in such situations you must be an active participant in your own survival, and he listed several scenarios and procedures.
But the bottom line, Hinman said, is, “When you’re out in public, before settling into your seat or spot, ask yourself: ‘If there’s an attack, what will I do? It only takes a moment to answer this question before you sit back, relax and enjoy your outing.”
It could save your life.
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