A TEXAS HERO

Mark Wilson, the good Samaritan credited with saving another man's life by jumping into the middle of a gunbattle on Tyler's downtown square, was known for taking life head-on. Friends weren't surprised to hear that the 52-year-old factory employee sacrificed his own life by confronting a gunman firing an AK-47 assault rifle. "He is the type of person who would grab his gun and go," said Lewis George of Dallas, Wilson's former brother-in-law and best friend for 30 years. "If it was me, I would have been running the other way. Mark, he took life head-on."

Wilson was shot several times by David Hernandez Arroyo Sr. during a deadly shooting spree outside the Smith County Courthouse. Arroyo, wearing body armor and armed with a high-powered assault rifle, also killed his ex-wife and wounded his 23-year-old son and three law officers.

Wilson, who lived in a loft apartment on the square, had apparently just returned home after having lunch with a friend when he saw Arroyo walking down the street, shooting people, friends said. Wilson, who had owned a gun range in Tyler, went to the street and confronted Arroyo with a handgun. One eyewitness said they traded shots, initially missing each other until Arroyo hit Wilson. "The gunman walked up to Wilson and shot him while he was on the ground," Tyler Morning Telegraph Publisher Nelson Clyde III is quoted as saying in today's editions of the newspaper. "I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was sickening."

Arroyo was wearing a military flak jacket and a bulletproof vest. But by distracting Arroyo, police said, Wilson prevented him from fatally shooting his son, David Hernandez Arroyo Jr. "Based on what we can tell, Mr. Wilson may have saved [the younger] Arroyo's life," Tyler Police Chief Gary Swindle said.

More here





Politicians holster the polemics on gun control: "The national debate over gun rights, for decades among the most searing and divisive of political issues, appears to be all but over in Congress. That means that the assault weapons ban, a signature achievement of gun control advocates that expired last year, probably will not resurface anytime soon. Conversely, congressional leaders and the Bush administration haven't put a priority on efforts to expand gun rights. 'There's a perception that Washington is not the place to take the debate at this moment,' said Saul Cornell, a historian who is director of the Second Amendment Research Center at Ohio State University. He said that politicians on both sides see little advantage in pressing the issue."




Gun control in Canada today: The US tomorrow?: "Canadians firearms owners, like their American counterparts, view their guns as symbols of tradition and independence. Unfortunately this is where any similarity ends. Americans are blessed with the Second Amendment. We in Canada have no such protection. In fact Canadians possess no gun Rights at all."