The risk of a bias to action is friendly casualties. The actual result of a bias to inaction is known - well, sort of. If the “foreign” deputies hadn’t showed up when they did and gotten medical help into the school when they did, the death toll could have doubled.The bias to inaction, as it was, may have doubled the death toll compared to “riding to the sound of the guns.” Worst case, an uncoordinated action could have gotten probably no more than one deputy killed, and probably no more than one or two students killed. But that is worst case thinking, had the deputies gone in who were theoretically protecting the school, the probable result would have been the saving of several lives and several nonlethal casualties as well.
I understand that any casualties due to uncoordinated deputy action would have been a scandal. The parents of a student killed as a result would be hard-pressed not to be bitter. But what of the dozen or so rifcleshots aimed deliberately at the same or only possibly different students?
The other scandal in this affair, in addition to the fact that the perp was allowed to become the monster he did, is the fact that the schools are too big. “Bad things start to happen when you get more than 500 to a thousand people together in the same place.”
Well, now we know that Peterson knew it was gunfire coming from inside the building, which puts a whole new light on the case.