Sunny Hostin falsely claims 'good Samaritan' Elisjsha Dicken 'broke the law' by carrying a gun into Indiana mall, where he stopped a mass shooting

The co-hosts of "The View" attacked the "good Samaritan" who stopped an active shooter at an Indiana mall and got basic facts about the story wrong while dismissing the man's heroic actions as "lucky."

On Tuesday's show on ABC, Sunny Hostin falsely stated that 22-year-old gun owner Elisjsha Dicken "broke the law" by carrying his firearm at the Greenwood Park Mall, where he used it to stop an active shooter who killed three people and wounded two others with a rifle.

City of Greenwood officials called Dicken a "hero" and emphasized that he was "lawfully carrying a firearm" when he stopped the shooter.

But the ladies of "The View" criticized the argument that a good guy with a gun is the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun.

"They say that a good guy with a gun can control a bad guy with a gun. Well, we saw in Uvalde that that’s not true,” Joy Behar said, referring to a recent report that nearly 400 law enforcement personnel were at Robb Elementary School during the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas but had failed to stop the shooter. Whoopi Goldberg added that the same was true for the mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

But Republican co-host Lindsey Granger pushed back on their narrative, mentioning that "we saw that it is true in Indiana."

"It was true in Indiana. That was a lucky moment," Behar said dismissively. "And you know what? I feel like this: if you're a good guy with a gun you should not object to background checks or licensing or, you know, limitation on military-style weapons that kill thousands at once. Or hundreds at once. So, why can't they just pull that off?"

Later on in the discussion, Hostin criticized Dicken for taking action to stop the mall shooter, bringing up her own experience with firearms training.

"But with this good Samaritan thing. Listen, I was trained when I was at the justice department in firearms. And I was trained in defensive firearm training. It is very hard to hit a moving target," she said. "It is hard for people that are trained to hit a moving target. It is very lucky that that good Samaritan hit that moving target in that way."

She went on to falsely state that Dicken was carrying his firearm illegally.

"He had a gun permit, but he wasn’t supposed in the mall with a gun,” she said. "So he broke the law, even though he was a good Samaritan."

Indiana became what is known as a "Constitutional carry" state in March when Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) signed a law eliminating the license requirement to carry a handgun. Anyone who previously could obtain a permit to carry a handgun is legally permitted to do so without a permit in Indiana.

The Indianapolis Star reported that the Greenwood Park Mall had a no-gun policy, but attorney and firearms instructor Guy Relford told the paper Indiana's Constitutional Carry and Stand Your Ground laws protected Dicken's actions because he acted to save the people targeted by the shooter.

He compared the mall's policy to a "no shoes, no shirt, no service" sign, explaining that while a business could ask a customer that violates the policy to leave, no crime is committed unless the customer refuses to do so. In a case where the customer ignores the business' demand, he would be trespassing, which is a crime in Indiana.

"So the fact that (Greenwood Park Mall) had a no-gun policy creates no legal issue whatsoever for [Dicken]," Relford said. "And it certainly has no effect whatsoever on his ability to use force to defend himself or to defend the other people in the mall."

This was a point Granger made to defend Dicken from Hostin's smear.

“The law of Indiana is different than the law of the mall, of Simon malls. And I would say that takes precedence when you save a life,” she said.

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(h/t: Newsbusters)