Law Enforcement Response Saves Lives in Mass Shooting

I was saddened last month to read about the 12 people killed in a mass shooting at a California bar.  

I would like to commend the law enforcement response and honor the sacrifice made by Sgt. Ron Helus.  He and two officers from the CHP arrived about three minutes after the shooting began and engaged the shooter without waiting for backup.  The officers were following a new police strategy.  Sgt. Helus lost his life to save others.  
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I agree with the sheriff's quote from the article: “There is no doubt they saved lives by going in there and engaging the suspect. Who knows? We don’t know, we heard anywhere from 150 to 200 people in there. It could have been much, much worse."​

However, as I wrote about in a previous post, the FBI's study of mass shootings showed that private citizens can often engage the shooters much more quickly than law enforcement (this shooter did a LOT of damage in three minutes).   California has some of the toughest guns laws in the nation.  Tough gun laws don't keep bad guys from having guns, they only keep the law abiding citizens from being able to protect themselves.

Guns save lives!