Posted on 02/24/2018 10:17:03 AM PST by John Semmens
The revelation that the site of the most recent school massacre had an armed police officer assigned to the school “disproves the conservative contention that ‘hardening the target’ is the way to go if we want to stop these kinds of gun tragedies,” says Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn).
The Senator was referring to the fact that an officer from the Broward County Sheriff’s office was permanently assigned to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where expelled student Nikolas Cruz killed 17 students and faculty members last week. The assigned officer, Deputy Scot Peterson, declined to engage the shooter and opted to remain outside while the massacre was unfolding.
“The deputy understandably chose to wait in a safe place for back-up to arrive rather than risk his life in what might have been a futile attempt to stop the shooter,” Blumenthal observed. “I think this shows the flaw in President Trump’s suggestion that qualified and trained faculty members should carry concealed weapons to deter armed intruders. A better plan would be to eliminate guns from our society. If no one had guns, no one could be shot. I think that’s the way to go if we really want to end these senseless crimes.”
Elie Mystal, editor of the “Above the Law” legal blog, backed Blumenthal’s argument, saying that “arming teachers would have a disproportionate racial impact. More black students will end up being murdered by their teachers. Statistics already show that minority students are punished at rates far exceeding their proportion of the school population. Arming teachers will just ratchet up the penalties from detention to death.” On the other hand, if Assistant Football Coach Aaron Feis had been armed he would have had an alternative to using his body to try to shield students from Cruz’s bullets.
Cruz’s deadly assault didn’t come out of the blue. There were plenty of warning signs that were ignored by the FBI, the Broward County Sheriff, and school officials who made a deal with law enforcement to go easy on student criminals so the school could qualify for more federal aid. “This widespread dereliction of duty shows why a law enforcement approach just won’t work,” Blumenthal argued. “Other countries that have disarmed the civilian population don’t have these kind of problems. We don’t see massacres like this in China or Russia. America needs to get past its obsession with our Second Amendment right to bear arms as a so-called bulwark against the theoretical oppression of a tyrannical government. Worse things can happen, as the Parkland incident has so clearly shown.”
Ironically, right now, a crew of several Palm Beach County, Florida, police officers are guarding Peterson’s home around the clock. This gives him more protection than law enforcement gave to the thousands of students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
As horrific as mass shootings in the United States have been, the toll in victims has been far short of the millions that have died at the hands of governments, like China and Russia, that have disarmed their populations. And on a per capita basis, the United States has fewer mass shoot victims than many European countries that have stricter gun control laws than we do—including Norway, France, Switzerland, Finland, Belgium and the Czech Republic.
In related news, despite unrelenting media and political propaganda aimed at demonizing guns, a recent poll conducted jointly by ABC and theWashington Post caused consternation by revealing that 57% of respondents felt that more stringent measures to deal with mental illness would be the more effective way of reducing mass shootings (President Trump’s suggestion) than the 28% who felt that stronger gun-control laws are the way to go (Democratic Party’s position). MSNBC host Katy Tur called the poll results “disappointing considering all the effort we’ve been putting into trying to shape the narrative on this issue.”
if you missed any of this week's other semi-news/semi-satire posts you can find them at...
https://azconservative.org/2018/02/24/senator-says-cowardice-of-armed-school-officer-disproves-good-guy-with-a-gun-theory/
All it proves is that everyone should be armed to the teeth.
What a GD moron. I would imagine he would propose we stop threats with positive waves?
Semi indeed.
It would have taken 4 cops to stop me from going into that school.
Who ever said Peterson was one of the “good guys”? He’s one of Weazel “I’m With Her” Israel’s boys. I’m no conspiracy theorist but I do find it odd that four of his deputies refused to intervene while these murders were being carried out. JMO.
If a guy has a gun and has sworn an oath to use it to protect his fellow citizens and fails to do so, then he is not “good”.
Just responding to the headline - the term good guy refers to people who have courage. It refers to virtue.
A guy who takes a gun and a paycheck promising to use the gun to protect people but doesn’t protect those people when they need the protection, is actually hurting those people. He is on the side of the perpetrator at that point, and is then a bad guy
Add to that that he has deprived the clients of good guy with a gu, in that a good guy with a gun should be the one collecting the paycheck protecting the clients, he is twice bad
Sen. Richard Blumenthal - He’s a vicious snake. Even looks like one.
Contrast the County Deputies’ (in)action with Stephen Willeford’s actions during the Sutherland Springs church shooting. Mr. Willeford was not a sworn peace officer, nor did he have any duty to get involved, yet he armed himself and did what he could. By all accounts he prevented more deaths. Truly a good guy with a gun. Too bad the BSO doesn’t have the same ethos.
Terminal ignorance.
I think you will find the failure to act stemmed from a variety of factors, some uncontrollable (confusion - “fog of war”), but some controllable. I’d like to know if the sheriff’s office has had current and ongoing “active shooter” training for all road patrol, SRO AND Command Staff, and whether their policies/procedures were up-to-date with the most current active threat strategies. I think you will find they weren’t in both cases and possibly that the SO did not issue ARs to all road patrol and SROs, but probably “Select” Deputies that were part of some special response unit. In any case, the failure really falls on the shoulders of the Sheriff and now with the meme that’s out there of it being called the “Coward Sheriff’s Office”, I don’t think Sheriff Israel and his top command staff will stick around too long. It reeks of the need for a leadership change. Just imagine being the leader of one of the largest Sheriff’s Offices in the country (they are in charge of Fire-Rescue in County served areas, too) with the national attention being paid to the abject failures of the department that arguably can be tied to deaths of some, if not all the victims...certainly not a career enhancing moment.
>
A guy who takes a gun and a paycheck promising to use the gun to protect people but doesn’t protect those people when they need the protection, is actually hurting those people. He is on the side of the perpetrator at that point, and is then a bad guy
>
Don’t forget, these are the guys that HAVE the kevlar vests and are legally allowed to be armed to the teeth (but, woah be the pleeb having a 8+ round mag in NY).
FOUR. ‘Highly trained’ (isn’t that the lingo the Left uses?) w/ the gear We can only wish to acquire, waiting outside, behind cover, under long after the shoots had stopped ringing out.
I haven’t read/heard anything about the SWAT team. Anyone w/ more details there?
Blumenthal is the Fake “stolen Valor” BS Combat Vet calling the kettle black.
To be a good guy it takes more than means. It takes
enough courage to act, as well.
Since anything associated with the NRA has just become a thoughtcrime, I think this quote from Orwell’s 1984 is apropos:
“By curtailing frivolous and “fighting” words, the Party seeks to narrow the range of thought altogether, such that eventually, thoughtcrime will be literally impossible.”
The CNN town meeting had everything but the 2 minute hate session, but it came close.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal - the “man” who lied about his military experience. Why would anyone believe anything he has to say?
All it proves is that everyone (patriot) should be armed to the teeth.
This ^
(small mod)
All the more reason to arm selected staff who won’t cower in a stairwell like that cowardly lowlife scumbag Scot Peterson did.
One could argue his lack of intervention contributed to the murder.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.