treo, Assam was a security guard, albeit voluntary, at a church where they had goine with armed security for several year
s already. From about 2:50 to 3:50 in the video, Assam and the Pastor explain that they have people of the church serving as security guards who are licensed to carry guns and that on any given Sunday, about half do so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRcWpU4bGNc&feature=related
Note that the guards are not "hired mercenaries" as noted by the pastor, but church members. Apparently, having "hired" security guards would be a bad thing as by the pastor's reference to them as "mercenaries."
If the church had
hired armed security guards, then they would have to be legally licensed as armed security guards. However, the security of the church was attended to by volunteers who had legal CCW permits to carry guns. As such, they don't fall under the guise of the same laws.
The reason the whole "security guard" thing is in question has to do W/ the efforts of the media to portray Jean Assam as MORE than a private citizen.
In many respects, she was. She had law enforcement experience with multiple departments and while she had never shot at a living person previously, she had drawn her weapon "countless" of times in the line of duty (see video, 2:40). I don't know many CCW folks who have the experience that she has had, certainly not many who are former cops who have had to draw their gun countless times in the line of duty. What normal CCW person has that sort of background?
She was a private citizen who was volunteering to provide security to the church as a guard who had law enforcement experience. She was acting in the capacity of being a security guard. What is so hard to understand about that?
The main complaint is that the " private citizen " aspect is getting dropped the local media tends to give the perception that she was acting in some type of law enforcement role that day. Again implying that only cops should have guns
I am sorry that this shooting was not by a legally armed CCW carrier, visiting the church for the first time with no affiliation with it, who was not volunteering to provide security for the church, and that she did not have considerable LEO experience so that it would be yet another shining example about how a regular CCW Jane Doe (or John Doe) can make a significant difference to the public at large. However, that isn't what went down. You are worried about semantics, but failing to understand the reality of the situation. Just because Assam was no longer a cop does not mean her experience disappeared. You want her to be called an usher who was allowed to carry in church, but note that her purpose for carry was for the protection of the church. In other words, she was serving in an armed security guard capacity under the direction of the church.
If you want to talk semantic problems, how about Assam attributing her success to God and not to herself. She believes it is proof that she was acting with divine control by God because of the firepower difference between what she had and what the gunman had. Sort of by her own admission, without God, she could not have defeated a guy with more powerful guns, as if the power of the guns is the only thing that determines the outcome of a fight. The notion that Divine intervention is required for self defense against more powerful adversaries and the notion that pistols can't beat rifles or multiple guns are pretty silly. Why she discounted her training, experience, and mindset and couched everything under the guise of God is beyond me. It is good she has faith and maybe that is how she has to couch things in order to deal with the stress of shooting another human, I don't know, but I am more inclined to believe that she performed as well as she did because she knew what she was doing.
And yes, .223 is considered high powered and is recognized by the NRA for High Powered Rifle competition via their inclusion of M16s and their equivalents for high powered matches.
http://www.nrahq.org/compete/highpower.asp
