This case will not get headlines plastered across the internet and newspapers, and cable news will not breathlessly report the facts. This is certainly not the only reason, but it occurred at a business that has a notoriously bad reputation.
But once again, the facts add up to the presence of a firearm preventing more injuries and quite possibly loss of life.
It is the violent criminal’s worst nightmare.
The scene unfolded early Sunday morning in the parking lot outside of a strip club near Ft. Worth, Texas. According to the Associated Press, a fight inside Temptations Cabaret led to a man being ejected from the establishment. This only meant that the drama spilled outside.
It is unclear whether the suspect was armed inside the club or retrieved a weapon upon being ejected. Whatever the case was, he quickly escalated the situation to a dangerous level.
It was there that the man opened fire and wounded three individuals. It appeared to witnesses that the victims were shot randomly, and all were hospitalized but are fortunately expected to survive.
Club security sprang into action at that point, shooting the gunman and killing him. He was transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital where he later died.
Local officials quickly pointed to previous incidents at the business as a call to shutter it permanently. Two people were injured in a stabbing incident at the same strip club earlier this month.
County commissioners already declared that it posed a threat to community safety, and Sunday’s incident only reinforced that image.
Tarrant County Commissioner Manny Ramirez emphasized this point in a statement he released after the early morning shooting. “When we recognize that there is a clear and present danger to the public, we have the legal and moral obligation to do something about it…I have requested that the County Administrator of Tarrant County and the District Attorney…take all necessary and legal steps to immediately shutter this dangerous establishment.”
He added that the business should have been run out of town a decade ago.
Clearly the club does not have the best reputation and may not even have its doors open much longer. But the presence of armed security early on Sunday morning likely saved the lives of people whose only crime was their choice of entertainment.
The sad reality of modern life is that armed security is a must in many areas, and certainly in nightclubs where small incidents fueled by alcohol tend to escalate. It is also important that citizens protect themselves by being prepared, and many times that calls for being legally armed.
How would the early morning incident have ended without the intervention of armed security? Three people were already shot before the alleged gunman was put down. If there had not been people hired to protect the premises, an already bad incident may have ended in tragedy.
There are recent instances, and San Francisco immediately comes to mind, of local lawmakers wanting to clamp down on how far guards may go to protect life and property. With an enraged gunman firing indiscriminately into a crowd, there are few who would argue that the right call was made by security on Sunday.
And fewer still in Texas, which stridently upholds citizens’ rights to self-defense.
The loss of life is regrettable, but the shooter could have simply left the club after being tossed out and gone about his business. Instead, he attacked people and, in the process, put them and himself in mortal danger.
No matter the feelings one has about such an establishment, the presence of a good guy with a gun almost certainly prevented a Sunday morning tragedy.
