To the Editor: A good person with a gun is valuable

The following letter to the editor of the Toledo Blade was published on June 30, 2015:

Your June 24 editorial “Firearms and forgiveness” is not only wrong in its opinion, but also is wrong in fact.

Sadly, the House State Government Committee removed places of worship from the bill you cite more than two weeks before you published your editorial.

I say sadly because a good person with a gun might have prevented the deaths at the church in Charleston, S.C., just as persons carrying concealed firearms limited deaths at New Life Church in Colorado in 2007, and prevented injuries when a man with a shotgun kicked in a door at South Side Freewill Baptist Church near Spartanburg, S.C., in 2012.

You asked: “Does any sane person believe such a law [allowing concealed carry in churches] would not raise the risk of carnage to unacceptable levels?” How much more “unacceptable” can we get than nine dead at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston?

If The Blade does not believe that a good person with a gun can stop a person committing an act of violence, why do people call 911 and ask for people with guns to come to their aid?

It’s not a question of whether a good person with a gun can help. It’s only a question of how long The Blade wants victims to have to wait for help to arrive.

CHAD BAUS

Archbold, Ohio

Editor’s note: The writer is secretary of the Buckeye Firearms Association.