Armed Citizen, Not Police, Prevented Massacre In Oregon

News of a shooting in Oregon earlier this week was eclipsed with news of an even more tragic one this past weekend. However, one important detail you will not hear in the mainstream media coverage is the fact that both could have been as devastating as each other had it not been for an armed citizen who stepped in and saved lives at a mall close to Portland.


As reported by local news station KGW News Channel 8 Friday, 22-year-old Nick Meli stepped in to prevent masked shooter Jacob Tyler Roberts from killing scores of people at the Clackamas Town Center Mall.

Meli, who has a concealed carry permit, positioned himself behind a pillar.
“He was working on his rifle,” said Meli. “He kept pulling the charging handle and hitting the side.”
The break in gunfire allowed Meli to pull out his own gun, but he never took his eyes off the shooter.
“As I was going down to pull, I saw someone in the back of the Charlotte move, and I knew if I fired and missed, I could hit them,” he said.
Meli took cover inside a nearby store. He never pulled the trigger. He stands by that decision.
“I’m not beating myself up cause I didn’t shoot him,” said Meli. “I know after he saw me, I think the last shot he fired was the one he used on himself.”

The shooter killed two victims, and seriously injured a teenage girl, but upon seeing an armed citizen ready to shoot back, Roberts ended the killing there by taking his own life.

As the KGW report notes, even police in Oregon have failed to acknowledge Meli’s role, with the Sheriff crediting only local officers and deputies with “hunting down” the shooter. In reality, the shooter was already dead when police found him.

This kind of incident occurs with regularity, yet is rarely if ever given airtime by the corporate media.
If teachers at Sandy Hook had been authorized to be armed, they too could have stepped in in this fashion.
The National Safety Council, notes that guns are used some 2.5 million times a year in self defense against criminals, meaning that firearms are utilized to protect innocent lives in 80 times more cases than they are used to end lives.

Indeed, in some states, many teachers already are armed. As KMOV St. Louis news reports, St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch will visit schools this week to discuss increasing security, including putting guns in elementary schools.

Fitch acknowledges that most high schools and some middle schools, including those in West County, already have armed school resource officers.