Why? Because he stopped a politically motivated mass murder. And they’re just fine with the motive.
Leo Johnson stopped this lunatic even after a bullet shattered his left forearm. He’s a hero, and our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters don’t care. It doesn’t fit the narrative.
Mark Hemingway at the Weekly Standard writes:
There’s no question Johnson saved a lot of lives.
Still, Johnson has been living with the consequences of that day ever since. “I had to have surgery right away to clear all of that shattered bone and remove the bullet fragments. Maybe about a week or so after that I developed blood clots in my right lung—five blood clots. So I had to go back in the hospital. I got put on blood-thinner so I was in about seven days. After a couple months of therapy there was about four inches of bone that didn’t grow back so I had to have another surgery to remove about four inches of bone from my pelvis and have it put into my arm,” he said. “This whole ordeal, it was tough on my family. My mom is 73 and she has health issues. My grandma is 103—she just turned 103. And I’m their primary caretaker, so it’s been hard for me to get back on my feet and also take care of them so that they’re okay.”
In spite of the trauma, Johnson seems remarkably at peace and said he’s never even lost sleep over what happened. “Other than getting shot, obviously, I wouldn’t change a thing. I think God put me in that position to be there. Had [Corkins] not gained entrance here, he would’ve gone somewhere else and maybe carried out his plan,” said Johnson, noting that the Family Research Council was just one of a number of targets Corkins selected. “God put me there. He protected me. He gave me the strength to do what I needed to do.”
There’s a lot that should be said about Johnson’s heroism, starting with the fact that it hasn’t been widely recognized…
The Family Research Council shooting is one of the few inarguable examples of politically motivated violence in recent years, yet looking back a year later, the incident has garnered comparatively little attention.
Why would it? The FRC espouses opinions that aren’t in favor among our would-be gatekeepers of information. For once, the usual suspects haven’t been able to twist it all around to blame it on Sarah Palin, or the Tea Party, or libertarians, or the Koch brothers, or a rodeo clown in an Obama mask, or whoever’s out of favor this week. So they just ignore it. They keep their heads down. They pretend their own actions — in this case, a demented media campaign against a fast-food executive and anybody who dares to agree with him — have no consequences.
Read the whole thing. Leo Johnson deserves to be recognized for his bravery and sacrifice. Even if our friends in the media think the world would be better off without him and the people he was protecting.
In the meantime, the Southern Poverty Law Center refuses to take down the “Hate Map” that inspired Floyd Corkins to kill. He couldn’t get the job done, but eventually the SPLC will get what they want.
Update:
One year ago Leo Johnson was shot saving my life: http://t.co/wmigzEuHch. @MorrisDees, it's time for the @SPLCenter to stop fear-mongering.
— Quena González (@reepitweep) August 15, 2013