One Thing Stops Mass Murderers: A Gun

Early in the morning of December 5, 1999, off-duty Las Vegas Metro police officer Dennis Devitte was one of the customers at Mr. D's Sports Bar, at Rainbow Boulevard and Oakey Drive, where he and some pals had gone to hear the band Pigs in a Blanket.

A little after 1 a.m., three armed robbers charged through the back door with guns drawn and their faces covered with T-shirts or bandanas. "I'd only been in the bar a short time and was talking to friends," Devitte later told an interviewer for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Then, "I saw a ruckus at the end of the bar." ...

"One of the gunmen went right by me and shot a man in a wheelchair, hitting him in the shoulder," Officer Devitte recalled. "I only had my small .25 cal. off-duty gun, which isn't very accurate, so I knew I had to get really close before I could start shooting. Otherwise I might hit someone else."

The robbers might have taken a moment to consider the name of the band, which was also made up of off-duty officers. Mr. D's was often referred to as a "cop bar," though the IACP contends Officer Devitte was, curiously enough, the only patron armed at the time.

Officer Devitte dug the toy-sized handgun out of his pocket and approached 19-year-old Emilio Rodriguez, who was firing into the crowd with a .40 cal. pistol. "I went straight at him as he turned and started firing at me," Devitte said. "He kept firing and hitting me, but I held my fire until I got to less than 18 inches from him."

The incident took 20 seconds and was recorded on the bar's surveillance tape. Rodriguez did Officer Devitte a lot of damage, but mostly to the extremities. Officer Devitte shot Rodriguez eight times-twice through the heart-before the officer finally fell, the robber's last round having blown out his knee.

Rodriguez stumbled out the front door and died. The other two robbers fled.

"Dennis was bleeding from everywhere," recalled Mike Richards, a fellow officer who was playing in the band. "I yelled for towels. Then I tried to get Dennis' gun from him. Even though one bullet had blown his right hand apart and another had hit his right thumb, he wouldn't give it up. He told me there were still two more bad guys."

"Please tell my wife I love her," Devitte told Officer Curtis Wills, as he lay bleeding from his wounds. "I did the best I could. I hope I didn't hit anybody else."

The following year, Dennis Devitte--who recovered and returned to duty--received the highest honor in law enforcement, as the IACP named him America's Police Officer of the Year.

There are two reasons no innocent parties died at Mr. D's that night. One, beyond any question, was the selfless courage of Officer Dennis Devitte.

The second reason? One of Emilio Rodriguez's intended victims had a gun.

'Gun-Free Zones'

Almost a decade later, on Nov. 6, 2009, America found reason to honor another pair of brave civilian police officers, as Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. army psychiatrist about to be deployed to Afghanistan, reportedly shouted 'Allahu Akbar' and opened fire at a soldier readiness facility in Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 28.

Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley and Sgt. Mark Todd responded separately within three minutes of the report of gunfire. Returning fire, Sgt. Munley was hit by the mass murderer's rounds in her wrist and both thighs. Sgt. Todd then delivered the rounds that ended Hasan's brief career as a jihadist-providing the current White House doesn't intervene to commute his pending court-martial sentence to singing three rousing choruses of 'Cumbaya.'

But Hasan had reportedly fired more than 100 rounds, requiring him to change handgun magazine several times. Why didn't any of the hundreds of Army personnel in the room shoot back, ending his killing spree far sooner?

Because they couldn't.

"Time after time, public murder sprees occur in 'gun-free zones'-public places where citizens are not legally able to carry guns," The Washington Times editorialized the following week. "The list is long, including massacres at Virginia Tech and Columbine High School along with many less deadly attacks. Last week's slaughter at Fort Hood Army base in Texas was no different-except that one man bears responsibility for the ugly reality that the men and women charged with defending America were deliberately left defenseless when a terrorist opened fire."

Among President Bill Clinton's first acts upon taking office in 1993 "was to disarm U.S. soldiers on military bases," The Times points out. In March 1993, the Army imposed regulations forbidding military personnel from carrying their personal firearms and making it almost impossible for commanders to issue firearms to soldiers in the U.S. for personal protection.

Some have argued Mr. Clinton only formalized a policy which already largely disarmed our servicemen when they weren't at the range or in combat. It's not clear how that makes it OK-especially in an era when 'safe zones' seem increasingly few and far between.

"Because of Mr. Clinton, terrorists would face more return fire if they attacked a Texas Wal-Mart than the gunman faced at Fort Hood, home of the heavily armed and feared 1st Cavalry," The Times editorialized.

Maybe-providing the Wal-Mart didn't specifically ban guns on its property, as many shopping malls do (though such bans seem curiously-and unconstitutionally-selective. Why don't they apply to warrantless police officers?)

But mass murderers do generally have a harder time of it in Texas, nowadays, thanks to the legislative response to the second deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, which also occurred in Killeen, Texas-home to Fort Hood.

In 1991, George Hennard drove his pickup truck through the window of a Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, jumped out and began firing two pistols at the defenseless customers and employees inside, killing 23.

As Jacob Sullum of Reason magazine pointed out in a syndicated column in November, one customer, Suzanna Hupp, saw Hennard gun down her parents. Mrs. Hupp later testified that she had brought a handgun with her that day but, to her bitter regret, left it in her car, as required by state law.

Suzanna Gratia Hupp ran for and was elected to the Texas state Legislature, where she was able to win approval of a "shall issue" law that requires authorities to issue a concealed carry permit to any resident who meets certain objective criteria.

Unless they join the Army.

Safer In Afghanistan?

In an interview on CNN the Monday night after the Fort Hood shooting, news anchor John Roberts asked Mandy Foster-wife of one of the soldiers shot and wounded at Fort Hood-how she felt about her husband's upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. Ms. Foster responded: "At least he's safe there and he can fire back, right?"

Mr. Clinton's deadly rule disarms even officers. "Six of the dead and wounded had commissions," The Times points out. And this despite the fact that "All the public shootings in the United States in which more than three people have been killed have occurred in places where concealed handguns have been banned."

President Obama claims there will be a thorough investigation to figure out how the Fort Hood massacre came to occur, and how future repetitions can be prevented.

If he means it-and I have serious doubts-he could and should:

1) start by admitting there's no "mystery" as to Hasan's motivation: This murderous assault was committed by a radical Muslim jihadist whose medical school associates know full well he had taken up class time to present slide shows-slide shows!-that justified jihadi violence. This guy actually attended the same mosque as two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, speaking enthusiastically about and making repeated efforts (as Army Intelligence well knew) to stay in personal contact with the mosque's radical cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki. (see www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6521758/.html) ... and

2) repeal the Clinton self-defense ban, re-arming American military personnel on all U.S. military installations. Right now.

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and author of The Ballad of Carl Drega and the novel The Black Arrow. See www.vinsuprynowicz.com/ and www.lvrj.com/blogs/vin/.