Corey Comperatore, Hero: As a Man Does

We need heroes.

In the wake of Saturday's assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, almost all of the attention is focused on Trump and the reactions of the political people, and that's neither surprising nor inappropriate. Former President Trump was the target, after all, and this was an event that upended the political situation around this year's elections to a large degree, the extent of which may not yet be known for some time.

There is another hero that came out of this event, though, and we must remember him, as he died, but he died with courage and honor, protecting his wife and daughters, as a man does. RedState's own Brittany Sheehan and Mike Miller brought us that story.

Previously on RedState: Victim Murdered By Trump's Attempted Assassin ID'd As Corey Comperatore, Former Fire Chief

Daughter of Man Killed in Trump Assassination Attempt Posts Poignant Statement About Dad's Last Actions

Brittany wrote:

A former volunteer fire Chief for Buffalo Township, Corey Comperatore, age 50, lost his life after being struck with a bullet shot by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. According to his sister, Dawn Comperatore Shafer, Corey was hit as he shielded his daughters from the gunfire that ensued just minutes into Trump's speech.

While we mourn the loss of Corey Comperatore, we can be grateful that men like him exist.

There were men like this on the Titanic when in 1912 that great ship struck an iceberg and sank into the icy waters of the North Atlantic.

In 2012,Swedish researchers found that the concept of “women and children first” hasn’t been adhered to at all in maritime disasters — with the glaring exception of the Titanic. Of the passengers on board, 70 percent of women, but only 20 percent of the men, survived.

But for a more recent example, we must look ahead to a day 100 years later, to the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado, and a movie theater. On July 20, 2012, a maniac entered the Century 16 theater in Aurora and proceeded to take 12 lives and caused the injury of 58 others from gunfire. I will not dignify the shooter by naming him, and what became of him is a topic for some other time; I will not sully the memories about the men I am about to describe by naming him in the same story as them.

Their names are storied.

Matt McQuinn dove in front of his girlfriend and her older brother to shield them from the gunfire. They lived. He didn't.
John Larimer, who had just joined the Navy, stood between life and death for his girlfriend too.
Air Force Staff Sergeant Jesse Childress saved the life of fellow airman beside him.
And Jonathan Blunk pushed his friend Jansen Young to the floor and lay on top of her.
"Even after I was thrown under the seats I kept thinking, 'This is it, I'm going to die,'" Young said.
He took the bullet instead of her.
"I don't know how to give my life back to someone who has given their life to me. How do you do that?" said Young.

My family, at that time, made our home in Aurora, and we spent the following morning in a dizzy state of anxiety as our daughter's boyfriend had told her he, along with a friend, had been planning to attend a late show of the "Batman" movie that had been screening at the Century 16. She called and texted and received no reply until almost noon; he was fine, he had gone to a different theater, he had just then woken up. Our daughter and the then-boyfriend are now married and have three kids.

What I found interesting at the time was the breathless reporting on these young men's heroic actions. "Why," I wondered to my wife, "...is this news? Wouldn't any man do the same? Should we be surprised by this?"

We should not. And we likewise should not be surprised by the courage and heroism of Corey Comperatore. He did as a man does - he protected his family, even at the cost of his own life.

Sadly, some downplay his heroic sacrifice by leveraging this incident for political purposes, and those people should be ashamed of themselves.

There are things a man does: He works, he provides, and most of all, he protects. A man stands between his family and the dangers of the world. A man fights, and, if necessary, kills, and in the final extreme, dies to protect his family. That is the essence of manhood; every manly attribute, courage, honor, fortitude, strength of body, and strength of will, are focused to that end. These are lessons that my father and grandfathers hammered into me from early childhood, mostly by example.

These things are what make a man a man. These things are what make Corey Comperatore a hero; he died with courage and with honor, protecting those he loved at all cost. Now, today, a day after the horrible event, we can mourn the loss of Corey Comperatore. But we should also be grateful, now and always, that men like him live.

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