A: the gun jammed at one point, and
B: an unarmed person confronted the shooter, closed the gap and maintained at least a 5 foot distance to the shooter, and which point the shooter decided to flee.
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la- ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I've been in the Army too, and that "useless" comment is rediculous. I don't blame the guy however as I know of examples of the press misinterpreting what someone actually says. It is true that when you are unarmed or armed with a small handgun your chances of survival are generally better at close range than at long range against a BG with a long gun. A young teenage boy years ago once successfully defended himself against an intruder with a rifle at close range, for example, and there are many examples in history of a BG having his rifle taken away from him after someone was able to close the gap.Oscar Stewart was focused on the comforting rhythm of the Torah reading when pops of gunfire cut through the sanctuary.
Stewart watched fellow congregants of Poway Chabad jump to their feet and run toward the exits as if in slow motion, away from the violence unfolding in the lobby on Saturday morning, the last day of Passover
The 51-year-old Army veteran began to follow them. And then, in a split-second decision, he turned around.
Stewart doesn’t know why. In retrospect, the Orthodox Jew thinks it might have been the “hand of God.”
Whatever it was that moved through him in that moment, it propelled Stewart into the lobby. He saw the young man — who authorities say was 19-year-old John T. Earnest — in a military-style vest wielding a semiautomatic rifle.
“Get down!” Stewart yelled in the loudest tenor he could muster.
The gunman fired two more rounds in response.
“I’m going to kill you,” Stewart boomed. This seemed to rattle Earnest, who began to flee.
From his time as a sergeant in the Army, Stewart knew that the rifle would be useless if he was within five feet of it. So he kept close to the shooter as he chased him into the parking lot.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/rabbi-in-cal ... -bloodbath" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;The shooter got into a Honda sedan. Stewart, seeing the man reach for his weapon, punched the side of the car. The man started the ignition and let go of the rifle.
That’s when Jonathan Morales, an off-duty Border Patrol agent, shot four bullets into the car. As the shooter sped away, Stewart and Morales took down the license plate number.
Although it's still not clear yet from the reporting when exactly the jam occurred and or what significance it had to the shooter stopping his attack, the bottom line is intervention from one or two who decided to be sheepdogs instead of sheep lowered the number of dead and injured. Sadly this point still seems lost on the anti self defense crowd, who prefer to advocate for even more gun control laws that mass killers won't obey anyway, and will only interfere with good peoples ability to protect themselves effectively.The Los Angeles Times reported that Goldstein recently asked a Border Patrol agent to attend the temple while armed and it apparently paid off. The agent gave chase to the suspect and fired as he sped off.