An ex-convict with an illegally-acquired AKM carbine and a Glock pistol strode through a Kansas factory yesterday afternoon, shooting his coworkers indiscriminately wherever he found them.  A single police officer with grim determination surged against the panicking human tide to confront and kill the criminal, saving an untold number of lives.

A heroic police officer single-handedly took on the alleged gunman — identified as C___ F___*, 38, by two law enforcement sources — who went on a shooting rampage at a Kansas business, saving “multiple” lives, Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said in a press conference Thursday night.

The officer, whose name was not released, was first on the scene and shot and killed F___ as he was being fired upon, Walton said. Sources said F___ was employed at Excel.

Walton described him as a “hero, as far as I’m concerned.”

We don’t know if this officer rushed into the building armed only with his sidearm, or if he quickly grabbed his patrol rifle or shotgun as he ran into the building. We don’t know if he was a “gun nut” cop who loved going to the range and to extra training classes on his own dime, or if he was an average officer with minimal training who only took his gun out of the holster twice a year to qualify.

What we do know is that this officer was the first person with a firearm to reach the scene. We know that he fought against his own natural desire for self-preservation, and rushed into a building against an unknown deadly force threat in order to give those around him a chance to escape and to live.

Because of this officer “only” three lives were lost and “only” 10 people were seriously injured.

A firearms instructor of mine who wears a badge in one of the more storied and dangerous precincts in the world looked at news of the shooting this morning and remarked, “I’m left wondering, again, if a few people had their CCW gun in their pocket, how much less damage would this animal have achieved?”

It is the question on the minds of many firearms instructors I know, and it is giving pause to millions of concealed carriers around the nation, and I’m should hope, their employers.

How many lives could have been saved if concealed carriers had stepped in?

We need employers to recognize that concealed carriers are the most law-abiding citizens in the nation.

We need employers to understand that these law-abiding citizens with firearms can save (and have saved) countless lives, and that so-called “gun free zones” only serve to empower those sick souls who desire nothing more than to lash against against the world in hate.

A handgun left at home or locked in the console of an employee’s car isn’t going to do anyone any good when shots break out on the factory floor, or on the other side of the cubicle wall.

Gun free zones get good people killed.

It’s time to for this failed and dangerous policy to end before more innocent and undefended lives are lost.

* Bearing Arms does not publish the names of mass or spree killers.