Thank God He Was Carrying

All he was trying to do was go to work.

In the minutes that ticked by in the 8 a.m. hour on Monday morning, Judge Joseph J. Bruzzese Jr. was walking through the narrow alley in the shadow of the Jefferson County courthouse when a man got out of his car in the nearby bank parking lot and opened fire.

Police say Bruzzese returned fire, and a nearby probation officer stepped in and ultimately killed the suspect. Another man who was with the attacker, sitting in the car with him, was taken into custody.

The majestic Jefferson County courthouse on Market Street stood silent the rest of the day -- the two Corinthian columns support a pediment with a statue of Lady Justice; she stood brilliantly and stared out over the city of roughly 18,000 souls.

Given the odd shade of the skies due to the eclipse, the scene was disquieting.

In an emotional press conference hours later, Jefferson County Sheriff Fred J. Abdalla told reporters that Bruzzese drew a gun and fired at least five rounds at the alleged shooter.

"This individual laid in wait for our judge," Abdalla said, his voice wavering as he tears filled his eyes. "It just hurts. First thing on Monday morning, you have a judge shot in front of his courthouse. ... This was an ambush and an attempted murder on our judge."

Thank God Bruzzese was armed; thank God he had a conceal carry permit. If not, Abdalla would likely have been holding a press conference about a tragic ending for the judge.

This close call is eerily similar to the ambush-like shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise earlier this summer in suburban Virginia, when a gunman took aim and opened fire at dozens of Republican congressmen and two senators at a congressional baseball practice.

In a twist of irony, had Scalise not been there, our country would have been addressing a massacre. Because of his position as majority whip, armed Capitol Hill police were with him. The security detail saved the lives of his House colleagues and two senators.

Unlike the judge, none of those members at the practice, almost all of whom have a conceal carry permit in their home district, were carrying that day because you cannot carry a concealed weapon in Washington, D.C. (except for a few rare exceptions), and they had to go from the district to Virginia (where you can carry) to be able to practice.

Conceal carry permit holders tend to be one of the most law-abiding demographic of Americans, according to data provided by the Crime Prevention Research Center. Yet the argument about guns and conceal carry permits is one of the most heated in our country.

Guns have become a political wedge issue in the past decade -- it is used to be that both parties were robustly supportive of Second Amendment rights, and the push left began with the presidency of Barack Obama.

While it never hurt Obama in the ballot box, for Democrats who were gun owners liked him personally, those same Democrats sure punished everyone down ballot for his attempts to enact gun control by voting Republican locally.

The question is: What do they do now? For eight years, the Republicans played defense on the gun issue. Now they are playing offense. But no one knows whether the Democrats want to re-embrace standing by the Second Amendment.

"This is a new chance for Democrats to get right on the Second Amendment. Eight years ago they controlled Congress and had a significant pro-gun wing, a minority wing but still a wing," Brad Todd, a Republican strategist and founding partner of OnMessage Inc., said. "They won't take Congress back while being the anti-gun party."

The sheriff said at the press conference that years ago, he pressed Bruzzese to carry a weapon with him for protection. Why? Because of all of the "nutcases" around the country.

Thank God he did.

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