Tragedy struck at a Traverse City Walmart when a 42-year-old male—now identified as Bradford James Gille, with several addresses across Northern Michigan—stabbed several shoppers on Saturday.
According to the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s office, all 11 of the victims are expected to survive.
The stabbings became a national news story within minutes, with photos and cell-phone footage of the parking lot confrontation beamed across the world.
Within the mass chaos and confusion, Derrick Perry, a Marine veteran licensed to carry a firearm, engaged the suspect in the parking lot. Assisted by a second male, they detained the individual at gunpoint until police arrived moments later.
In the wake of the 2020 Summer of Floyd, when social media was decorated by cell-phone footage of subway and street violence, something pernicious emerged: footage of passersby avoiding cries for help. The fear of getting involved caused normal people to ignore the plights of others in danger.
Everyone deep down knows exactly why this pernicious shift happened: the Progressive Prosecutors Project that took hold throughout the nation. Crime to persons and property become a secondary priority to social justice and notions of victim-oppressor dynamics.
Crimes were met with slaps on the wrist if a suspect had certain immutable traits. In an even more bizarre twist, progressive prosecutors seemingly brought the full weight of the state down on armed individuals forced into defending against this chaos.
In most cases, those individuals ultimately walked away with their freedom, but the process was the penalty. Kyle Rittenhouse was forced to endure a long and expensive trial and continues to be a pariah to this day in the minds of many Americans.
A more deleterious occurrence involved Daniel Penny. The former Marine saved countless lives on a New York Subway train when he engaged Jordan Neely after the latter threatened to kill everyone on board. Penny wrestled Neely to the ground, assisted by several passengers, and neutralized Neely—who ultimately died.
Penny was charged with criminally negligent homicide, and he only walked after a long arduous trial where the jury found him not guilty.
But a message might have been sent in the wake of Penny’s trial: We need our random heroes, now more than ever.
Good guys with guns are causing chest pain for white liberals. They don’t just hate the idea of a man with a gun, but the idea of an armed person saving the day is complete anathema to them.
Present for the Wayne Police Department’s press briefing for the CrossPointe Church shooting in June, journalists from the New York Times and various other national news platforms were overtly disappointed that an armed church member and a deacon driving an F-150 neutralized the attacker before the police arrived.
The Wayne chief of police was peppered with questions about the make and models of the firearms used, and the identities of the Good Samaritans. For obvious reasons, he refused to name the heroes in that event until they ultimately identified themselves weeks later.
But the Crosspoint Church attack unveiled the something key that we saw again in Traverse City.
The people of Michigan are tired of the bullshit narratives about guns and are sure glad that the good guys have them too.
Something in Michigan is afoot. We are tired of chaos and decline. Within some of them burns a subconscious ember of heroism emerging as though a national “all-clear” was given.
The good guys with guns are back.
Jay Murray is a writer for Michigan Enjoyer and has been a Metro Detroit-based professional investigator for 22 years. Follow him on X @Stainless31.
