How the ‘good guy with a gun’ became a deadly American fantasy

At the end of May, it happened again. A mass shooter killed 12 people, this time at a municipal center in Virginia Beach. Employees had been forbidden to carry guns at work, and some lamented that this policy had prevented “good guys” from taking out the shooter.

This trope – “the good guy with a gun” – has become commonplace among gun rights activists.

Where did it come from?

View the complete June 7 article by Professor Susanna Lee of Georgetown University on the Conversation website here.