Home carry can save lives. On Monday, August 30th, a dementia-addled senior citizen went off the deep end in a mobile community on the very north side of Normal, Illinois. Yes, the same Normal that is home to Illinois State University.
Ron Reiner, 66, apparently started his rampage by killing his wife. He then walked around the neighborhood shooting people as opportunities presented themselves. This went on for several minutes before police arrived. Even then it took officers the better part of two or three additional minutes to catch up with Mr. Reiner. They traded shots with him more than once.
He ended up killing one other woman and wounding several additional people before Normal PD rolled up and took him down.
Fortunately most folks were at work and few kids were around. Not only did Reiner shoot at a lot of folks, but Normal police fired a lot of rounds at the suspect that missed. At least two officers fired to slide lock.
Also under the “unfortunately” category: one one officer was seen wielding a long gun. Supposedly three-quarters of the department is AR- certified, but none of them thought to have either department or personal carbines in their squad cars.
I drove through the neighborhood Saturday and saw a shot up car and other bullet holes. On one hand, thankfully nobody else was wounded from errant rounds. On the other hand, I suspect the folks living there don’t have a few thousand dollars to make repairs. Hopefully they have insurance and that insurance covers the damages.
Below is the video released by the Illinois State Police. In it, there are the 911 calls including one fellow who kept an eye on the shooter and at one point said something about going back to his place and getting his own gun to put an end to the rampage before officers arrived on scene. The 911 operator advised against that and fortunately he took their advice. When cops are rolling up hot on an active shooter call is a VERY poor time to have a gun in your hand. Unfortunately, he wasn’t carrying his gun when this started. Or anyone else. But it’s Illinois where only about one in six-ish people have FOID cards and about three in a hundred have carry licenses.