Thank goodness the Duncan, Oklahoma Walmart is not a “gun-free zone.” Because an armed citizen happened to be doing his shopping Monday morning and spotted a gunman shooting, victim fatalities were limited to two people. Brandon Curtis of Concealed Nation writes:

A shooting incident occurred in a Walmart parking lot this morning where a man and woman were shot and killed as they sat inside a vehicle. Immediately after, it is reported that an armed citizen, who was in the immediate area, drew his gun and put it to the head of the suspect and told him to stop shooting. Duncan resident Aaron Helton, an Army veteran, said he was at the Walmart at about 9:45 a.m. local time when he heard nine shots and saw the gunman, gun in hand. Another man walked up, put a pistol to the gunman’s head and told him to stop shooting, Helton said.

YouTube scren grab

The gunman then put his gun to his own head and killed himself.

USA Today adds:

Police responding to a call shortly before 10 a.m. local time found a man and a woman dead in the front seat of a car in the parking lot and another man deceased outside the car, Duncan Police Chief Danny Ford said. “It appears several rounds were fired into the car, and a handgun was found on scene,” Ford said. Authorities have not revealed a motive for the shooting. Ford said it appears a gunman shot the male and female victims and then turned the gun on himself. Ford said all three knew each other but declined to describe their relationships or identify them pending notification of immediate family. He did say one of the victims was a current or former employee of Walmart.

We will never know if the gunman, who was clearly mentally disturbed, would have gone on to shoot others had an armed citizen not intervened. But it is clear that an armed citizen stood in his way if he had wanted to spread the carnage.