Toward the end of his speech at the National Rifle Association’s Annual Meetings and Exhibits, President Trump invited two people on stage who used AR-15 rifles to stop attacks.
The AR-15, and rifles similar to it, are frequently targeted for bans among pro-gun control groups and politicians because of their use in mass shootings. Handguns, however, make up the vast majority of homicides by guns in comparisons to rifles.
Trump brought up Mark Vaughan, an Oklahoma County Reserve deputy, who stopped a knife attack that took place at work with his AR-15 that he had in his car.
“I immediately entered a building and ran down a hallway,” Vaughan recalled. “And saw a man attacking a woman, in the neck and head, with a large knife. I yelled. He stopped, paused for a moment, and ran at full speed towards me. At about 18 feet, I fired three rounds from my AR-15 carbine.”
Vaughan was then interrupted by cheers from the audience when he mentioned the weapon he used.
“Immediately incapacitating the subject. He was a determined attacker. Unbeknownst to me moments before, he had decapitated a coworker and had targeted several others in our operation to be attacked that day,” he continued.
Stephen Willeford, an NRA firearms instructor, stopped the mass shooting at a Sutherland Springs, Texas, church.
When it was Willeford’s turn to speak, he said his daughter first told him about the shooting that was taking place across the street.
“I ran out the door and I told my daughter to load another magazine for me … the Holy Spirit took over me at that moment and as I ran across the street, I yelled out,” Willeford said. “The gunman heard me inside, so did some of people from the church, so did my own daughter. He came running out of the church and started shooting at me. I put two shots, center mass. He stopped shooting at me, ran to his vehicle.”
Willeford explained the gunman was wearing body armor, but he was able to shoot the gunman in his exposed side and legs.
The gunman was chased down by Willeford and a driver named Johnny, but the gunman later killed himself down the road.
