Posted by Phil Lee (216.250.238.73) on November 19, 2000 at 10:38, Revised 1/28/02:
There have been a number of school shootings in recent years, and only one has been stopped by the police. Whatever benefits police provide to society, stopping a school shooting in progress is rarely one of them.
In the best known case, the shooting at Columbine High School where 13 were killed, heavily armed police on the scene made virtually no impact on the outcome of the deadly massacre. With nearly a dozen officers stationed near an exit door just 15 steps from the door into the library, the police made no attempt to enter the building, walk the 15 steps, and confront the murderers while one murder after another was being perpetrated there. Police commanders decided that protecting officers from risk to their lives was more important than attempting to stop the murder of student after student after student ....
By contrast, private citizens have stopped several school shootings with one case being in Mississippi where the principal of the school retrieved a gun from his car and confronted the shooter stopping him without firing a shot. In the best known case, a heroic and unarmed student Jake Ryker, who was a NRA member, tackled the shooter at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon.
Passing gun laws is what keeps politicians' careers alive. Enforcing the law is what keeps the rest of us alive. If we can't count on the police, decent people must depend on themselves. That is the constant lesson of these shooting incidents.