The 29-year-old hero from Waffle House shooting: ‘I saw the opportunity and I took it’
A 29-year-old man credited with saving numerous lives Sunday morning after he disarmed a man who opened fire on an Antioch Waffle House said he was just trying to stay alive.
James Shaw Jr., 29, said after feeling cornered he saw an opportunity to tackle the man shooting into an Antioch Waffle House. He said he doesn’t feel like a hero.
Police spokesman Don Aaron told reporters Sunday morning that the Waffle House hero rushed the suspected shooter, disarmed him and threw the AR-15 rifle he was carrying over the counter.
“I don’t really know, when everyone said that (of being a hero), it feels selfish,” Shaw Jr. “I was just trying to get myself out. I saw the opportunity and pretty much took it.”
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“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” so they say. Usually, a statement that definitive is expected to come with some kind of evidence. Failing that, it should at least come in for re-examination when something in the real world contradicts it as clearly as this incident does.
You’d think, but I’ll lay money you’d be wrong. The claim about stopping bad guys with guns can’t be disproved any more than it can be proved, because it isn’t about facts — it’s a profession of faith, and what’s more, faith in a notably blind and pitiless god that hungers for what we hold most dear.
Congratulations and best wishes to Mr. Shaw, and peace to the victims in Antioch, TN and their bereaved friends and loved ones. Take care of yourselves and each other, everyone.
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