Why There Should Be No Armed Guards In School

From Bryan over at Why Now?

A veteran uniformed police officer stopped by his bank and walked in on an armed robbery in progress. Both the cop and the robber had six-shot revolvers. More than two dozen shots were fired at a distance of less than 20 feet and neither was hit. Fortunately no one else was injured but the bank’s lobby was a mess. The robber gave up after he ran out of ammo, while the office still had bullets. The robber reloaded once and the officer twice during the incident.

An off-duty officer stopped by his favorite bar on his way home after work. Just after he sat down, two men came out of the men’s room and one of them had what appeared to be revolver in his hand. The officer drew his auto-loader and fired 14 rounds at a distance of less than 15 feet. Neither of the men was hit, and they surrendered. The weapon turned out to be a pellet pistol designed to look like a Smith&Wesson large frame revolver. The officer was a member of his department’s pistol team and a range instructor.

These were trained police officers that I personally have seen group their shots on a timed course at 75 feet. When confronted with a shoot situation, their accuracy disappeared. You have to be a stone-cold killer not to experience an adrenalin surge and a blood pressure spike in a life or death situation. You experience hearing loss and tunnel vision as your brain stem prepares the body to fight or run by diverting blood from ‘unnecessary’ systems. Training reduces the problems, but they can’t be eliminated.

Given these realities, what are the realistic chances of someone with less training and seasoning than an NYPD SWAT officer being able to make the head shot required to take out a shooter wearing soft body armor and firing an AR-15 at you? An armed guard at that school would have been the first person to die, and wouldn’t have prevented anything. The shooter knew what was going to happen, and that is a huge advantage.

Had They Been Right 20 Children Would Not Now Be Dead

There is a national shift about gun safety. There is a national shift about how we take care of our own inside our own borders. The NRA still has yet to make an official announcement about the massacre. 31 pro-gun lobby Senators refuse to go on the air and discuss the implications of this latest tragedy.

This is the tipping point. After over 3 decades of crying “What about the children?” it has finally come home that the conservative approach to social issues has been wrong.

Had they been right 20 children would not now be dead.

SNL Gets It Right

Of all the shows to be classy, I would never have expected Saturday Night Live to get it right.

Note the girl right in the middle. Tell me she is not aware of the significance of this event.

Thanks to Raw Story for showing me this video.

Perspective

You need to go read the whole post.

(Balloon Juice) All I can think right now is how many moms have Christmas present hidden all over their house and were told this morning that their child is dead. How many of them will now look at a Christmas tree, knowing their child will not be there on Christmas morning to open the presents lovingly purchased and wrapped and hidden? How many of these parents struggled for years to get pregnant, and now their kid, because of some lunatic with an easily accessible gun, is dead? How many grandparents who waited for 30 years to have a grandchild, have plane tickets booked for the Holidays, and now need to change those plans and come up earlier to bury their grandchild.

How the hell John can write a thoughtful, eloquent post like that at a time like this is beyond me. I am unable to get past being mad as hell right now. My only saving grace is the grief I have because of my own past experiences at loss.

Weather Update

I just returned from doing laundry and shopping. Between the time I left the house until I returned, the wind has picked up (out of the north!), the snow – which had been slowing down – has increased, and the temperature feels to have dropped. I have yet to check weather.com. Not that they would have any report on the amount of snow that has fallen so far, but at least I can get the temperature and wind.

Vikings Vs Bears

The Bears are losing this game more than the Vikings are winning. The only bright spot has been Adrian Peterson. Again, how are the Bears 8 & 4?

8 & 4?

The team I am watching play the Vikings are not an 8 and 4 team. The Vikings are not looking any better than they have all season, yet they are ahead by 2 touchdowns. What is with the Bears?

Ouch!

That is going to leave a mark!

(Alternate Brain) Mitt Romney. All the charisma of a plastic picnic fork with three of the tines snapped off. May have run the worst campaign ever. And that includes New Coke, McCain/Palin and France in 39.

You will find a link to the list of the Top Ten Gobsmacking Politically Humorous News Stories of 2012 over at Alternate Brain.