I'm already seeing it. The antis are under the belief that he must have converted an AK to full, because that's so easy. :P I'm under the belief that the common eye/ear witness has no idea what they see or hear. The police probably got a different story from every witness.

Well, don't forget he opened fire on members of the National Guard(REMEMBER KENT STATE!!!11).

So depending on how his politics shake out he could be portrayed as a broken hero. Broken due to lack of public health care or possibly global climate change.

In one story I read, I noted that the person saying it was an automatic weapon was a guy in a neighboring business who was a handgun owner. (He thought about trying to shoot him then changed his mind.) I can't remember what paper I read that in.

I went back and found the story I read. Here's the money quote:

Ralph Swagler stayed down in his restaurant until the shots stopped.

“I had my pistol; I wasn’t going up against an automatic rifle,” Ralph Swagler said. “I’m sorry. I wish I would have shot him in the back now as he was going toward IHOP, but I wasn’t clear on the situation.”

This was from the Reno newspaper.

Pretty soon after it happened one of the Reno news stations was calling it an "M-16". I haven't heard anything at all about what it actually was since then.

ubu52,

Ralph Swagler is a smart man.

A handgun is for self-defense, not for charging into battle.

I've got bad news for you: If you're in the building next door and someone goes in there and starts shooting at you, I'm not coming over there to save you. My Supergirl Underoos are at the dry-cleaners.

Tam,

I get that. I'm responding to 45er's comment and pointing out that Ralph isn't an "anti" and he said it was an automatic.

Possession of a pistol and a license to carry it does not necessarily make one a gun nut or a firearms terminology pedant. (For that matter, neither does a police badge or a DD-214.)

I would be willing to walk up and down the aisles of a gun show with somebody, and every time we hear something called a "self-loading" or "semiautomatic" rifle, I'll give you a dollar. In turn, everytime we hear a WASR-10 referred to as an "AK" or an "assault rifle" or "assault weapon" you give me a dollar.

Just make sure to give me a minute to buy my new Glock on the way out the door with my winnings. I'll also want to get a couple boxes of bullets and some spare clips before we leave. ;)

I only meant that antis are picking up on first reports and that eye/ear witness accounts are always suspect regardless of their views. The brain does fun things to your perceptions under stress. I think he made the absolute right decision not to charge an AK with a handgun. I also know that even avid gun owners have not heard or fired FA in person. I've had fellow shooters mistake my AR rapid fire for full, and it doesn't even sound close. I was making a point that the antis are taking the first eyewitness accounts and going batty. When the facts don't fall on their side, they will just switch the war shreik to "assault mags"

Tam: Exactly right. It's called self-defense not "Die Hard" for a reason.

BTW, you slipping in clips (and bullets too if you want to get really nitty) at the end of your terminology bet got me to snort my drink.

Bravo. Collect your free internet at the lobby.

In Tam's case, it's more likely she meant exactly what she said when she mentioned "clips". I'd be willing to put money down that she has more rifles that take clips than use magazines.

ubu,

There's a world of difference between knowing a weapon fires full auto, and deciding that there's enough chance of it to warrant avoiding getting involved.

Besides, bringing a handgun up against someone with a rifle makes for unfavorable odds at any time, regardless of the rate of fire of the rifle.

Ralph Swagler is a smart man who ought to be able to live to a ripe, old age. I recall an old saying, something like, "When a man with .45 meets a man with a rifle, the man with a pistol's a dead man."

Read what Mr. Swagler actually wrote

“I’m sorry. I wish I would have shot him in the back now as he was going toward IHOP, but I wasn’t clear on the situation.”

It would be a hard thing to shoot a person in the back. Totally legitimate in this case, but still a hard thing to do. He was not clear on what exactly was going on, so he waited until he had more info before acting. By then it was too late.
We all imagine that we would instantly recognize the guy with the rifle shooting people as a legitimate target, but this shows we can't. I am sure Mr Swagler would have been clear on the situation if the gunman had come after him, but that's not what happened.

Guns on full auto are hard to control, I'd be more worried about a semi-auto and a shooter who can aim than some spray-guy sky-shooting.

BTW wonder if this was one of the Gunwalker rifles the ATF has been pushing out the door, forcing gun-shops to conduct illegal straw-purchases?

I've met Mr. Swagler, eaten at Locals and shopped frequently in the mall in which the IHOP is located.

Had I been there that day, I would have cleared out as fast as I could regardless of what I was carrying. Even if I had a rifle handy (I often have one in my truck) I don't think I could have done any good. The IHOP adjoins US 395 and there's a crowded casino right across the street in the line of fire from the mall parking lot.

"We all imagine that we would instantly recognize the guy with the rifle shooting people as a legitimate target"

If I ever felt that way, it was worked out of my head very early on.

Not long after buying my first gun, I started reading Combat Handguns. The part that caught my eye the most in those magazines was the "It happened to me" section. Two things stood out: few people ever actually ended up needing to fire their guns and many of the letters from those in a 3rd party situation learned after that they had completely misread the situation.

The best example of that was a person who saw someone in scuzzy clothes tackling a guy in a suit. Turned out the guy in the scuzzy clothes was an undercover detective and the guy in the suit was a wanted criminal.

Unless someone is trying to kill someone I know, or is shooting at little kids, I doubt I'd get involved.

Moriarty, if you have a way to contact Mr. Swagler I would hope to extend the above thoughts that he did the right thing. I certainly hope that he doesn't feel guilt. I definitely read regret in his statement. Sometimes we hash things over in our heads and it can eat us alive. If he's out there reading, that's a tough spot that noone wants to be in.

If Mr. Swagler had shot the fellow in the back, based on seeing him with a rifle, I figure the story would all be about the racist tea party gun owner.

Mr. Swagler did the right thing. It is just a pity that there were not another 10 guys with pistols inside the IHOP. Then the gun with the rifle may have shot one or two of them, but the butcher bill would be lower.

Madman with a gun is stopped either by the last bullet of his weapon, or the first bullet of someone else's weapon.

It seems he had a history of mental "issues" - what do you wan to bet he was on anti-depressants?

The gun used was a pre-'94 Norinco Ak-pattern rifle. He had a WASR-10 (ROMARM) and a colt revolver still in the van, apparently unfired.