Thank goodness she WASN'T a security guard

By Jeff Riley

Like most pro-gun activists, I have been following the media accounts of the shooting that occurred at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It seems that, just like Eric Flack of WLW here in Cincinnati, they report incorrect facts or leave out important information relevant to the story.

Case in point: I keep reading or hearing reports referring to Jeanne Assam, the hero who stopped the church shooter in Colorado Springs, as a "security guard". She was not - she was a private citizen with a Colorado concealed carry license volunteering to protect her church. Based on the following information it probably was better that she was not officially employed as a security guard at the Church:

Colorado Springs current law restricts security guards employed by a Security Guard service to carrying only revolvers!

In the wake of the shooting, the city is thinking about changing the law to allow security guards to carry semi-automatic firearms. From the Los Angeles Times story entitled "Colorado Springs may change gun rules for guards":

In Colorado Springs, where a troubled young man brought an assault rifle, two semiautomatic handguns and 1,000 rounds of ammunition to a church, security guards aren't allowed to carry anything more powerful than a revolver.

That could change early next year, when the city will consider a proposal to permit licensed security officers to carry semiautomatic weapons. "... It's just a common-sense issue. Do you want an old, outdated six-shooter up against a machine gun?" said John Pepe of Cheyenne Mountain Security, a private firm in Colorado Springs.

The existing ordinance dates back to the early 1980s, City Clerk Kathryn Young said. Though the ordinance itself does not specify what types of weapons a guard may carry, an attached policy spells out that guards may carry revolvers capable of holding as many as
eight rounds of ammunition. The allowed revolvers, which can have 4- or 6-inch barrels, include .38s, .38 Specials and .357 magnums.

...The regulation applies only to those who work as paid contract security officers, city spokeswoman Sue Skiffington-Blumberg said.

The story goes on to note that the restriction on semiautomatic weapons did not apply to volunteers such as church member Jeanne Assam, who was volunteering to protect her fellow congregants at New Life Church during at the time of the assault.

Assam returned fire with a Beretta 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun, hitting Murray several times before he shot himself in the head.

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which favors tighter firearms controls, said ..."we allow ordinary citizens to carry these things around. Why we do that, I don't know. But if we're going to allow that, we're probably forcing the hand of security guards to do the same," he said.

The real solution, he said, is for Congress to enact a new ban on assault weapons. "Then we wouldn't have to have an arms race going," he said."

So Mr. Helmke sees the logic in allowing security officers to have the same firepower as a potential assailant...but continues to do all he can to remove citizens like Jeanne Assam from having the same firepower as a potential assailant.