It is not just our marvelous military who saddle up and ride toward the sound of gunfire. When the heavily armed killer entered the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Jeanne Assam, a volunteer security guard, heard shots and immediately headed toward the gunfire.

When the gunman, who had just shot three people in the parking lot, came through the door of the church, she took cover, observed that he was heavily armed, and then bravely challenged him and when he refused to lay down his weapons, she "took him out," as she said in an interview.

The preliminary reports are that he was wearing some form of body armor, so one would suppose that Jeanne Assam is a fine marksman who took a head shot (or even better, one hopes, two head shots) and laid the man who had already murdered several people at a missionary school out dead and cold on the hallway tiles.

The televised interview was informative. The security guard, a former policewoman, was rather exotically lovely, calm, self-assured, just-the-facts-ma'am direct, and she described her actions quietly and without self-congratulation or maudlin weepy apology. She did what had to be done to save lives and knew it and accepted it.

I consider the military, policemen, and firemen all of the same nature, men and women who value their fellow man highly, frequently higher than their own lives. They are, at intervals, called upon to risk their lives to attempt to save their comrades--and even to save those who aren't necessarily appreciative.

This young, brave, selfless, and lovely young woman is no less brave, no less a hero, than soldiers who go into battle beside their brothers in arms. She deserves much praise and thanks.

I have only two negative comment regarding this entire affair. I find quite disagreeable the comments of the pastor of the New Life Church regarding his veiled disparagement of hired security guards. His comment was that the security guards were volunteers, not ""mercenaries that we hire to walk around our campus to provide security." Just what in the h*ll was the pastor disparaging paid security guards for? Are hired security necessarily evil or bad? What was he thinking?

I would make the assumption that, other than the security guards, the New Life Church would qualify as a gun-free zone. That is, in other words, it is an easy target for the disgruntled and crazy. Security, in the form of volunteer guards, hired guards, or allowing the church members who have concealed carry permits to pack heat would go a long way toward preventing more deaths at the hands of crazies who ignore the proscription of firearms.

And my second gripe is that I would bet $100 dollars that the gunman was NOT carrying an assault rifle. That is, it was not capable of selective fully automatic fire. The reporters are, as always, confusing guns that LOOK LIKE assault rifles with the real thing.

But again, thanks very much Mizz Jeanne Assam. You are a credit to the police force, to your church, and to the human race.

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