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Here is another story from:

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a248982.htm

If You Want to Stop a Killer, You Have to Speak His Language

In Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control (1997), Florida State University criminologist Dr. Gary Kleck observes that "most defensive uses of guns do not in fact involve shooting anyone.... More commonly, guns are merely pointed at another person, or perhaps only referred to ... or displayed, and this is sufficient to accomplish the ends of the user...."

The point was underscored on October 1st of last year after 16-year-old Luke Woodham, a student at Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi, allegedly stabbed his mother to death in her home, then opened fire on students at the school with a .30-30 rifle, killing two and wounding seven. Woodham was eventually apprehended by an assistant principal armed with a handgun. Had he instead escaped, he would presumably have continued his killing spree elsewhere. Madison County investigators subsequently revealed that they had uncovered evidence of Woodham's involvement in a secret satanic society which had compiled a hit list of other students and parents. Six other youths allegedly involved in the cult were subsequently arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Assistant Pearl High School principal Joel Myrick, in addition to his school duties, is a commander in the Army Reserve with 16 years of military experience and extensive training in firearms use and safety. He recently recounted for The New American the events surrounding what he describes as the "most horrible thing I've ever seen in my life."

Luke Woodham opened fire in a large, open area of the school called the Commons. Myrick, who was in his office at the time, recognized the sound of a rifle and rushed to see who was shooting. He saw Woodham, and momentarily considered rushing him, but concluded that the gunman would simply shoot him. Woodham noticed Myrick, but did not fire at him, apparently because there were so many closer "targets" in the vicinity.

Myrick, whose .45-calibre handgun was locked in his truck, watched helplessly as Woodham approached a tree behind which three students were attempting to hide, shooting one and firing at the other two as they fled. It was apparent that reaching his own gun "was the only way I was going to be able to do anything."

When Woodham turned his back and began walking down the school's science hall, Myrick took advantage of the opportunity to run to his truck. His plan "was to get my gun and return to the science hall as quickly as possible, because I figured that Luke was going door-to-door shooting. As I came around the corner [with gun in hand] he was coming out of the hall." As Woodham left the building, "I saw him and yelled 'Stop!' and pointed my weapon at him. He turned and looked at me and kept walking, a little faster, toward his car."

Myrick did not shoot at that point because "I was probably about 50 yards away and it was a little too far. And with kids and cars leaving the area I just didn't have a safe backstop."

Myrick started sprinting toward the car as Woodham started to flee. "He was going away from me, and the tires were spinning as there was dew on the ground. He headed toward an intersection in the parking lot, where he was going to turn right and get out of there." Fortunately, another car (whose occupants were oblivious to what was happening) had stopped at the intersection stop sign, forcing Woodham to wait for an additional few seconds, which gave Myrick "time to get down to the road that Woodham was going to turn onto, and to cut him off." Myrick was positioned across the road from some woods, which provided a safe backdrop. "So when Luke appeared in front of me I was going to shoot him, because I had seen the bodies laying out there, and I'd witnessed him firing a .30-30 at short range into people. When he finally got to the corner, I was on the edge of the road and I had my pistol leveled at him, aiming directly at his head. When he saw me he swerved off the road in an attempt to put some distance between us. He got into damp grass and, not being a very good driver, spun out."

From about 30 feet across the road "I could see his white knuckles on the steering wheel," Myrick continued. "I ordered him to freeze and not move, then quickly approached the side of the car, looked in, and kept the pistol at his head the whole time. I told him, 'If you move, I'm going to shoot you.' And he didn't move. He kept his hands on the wheel. The rifle was laying on the passenger's seat, barrel down toward the floor. I reached down with my left hand and opened the door and told him to get out hands first, and he did. I told him to lay on the ground, and he did. And that was it."

Asked if he regretted not having a gun at the start, Myrick said that from hindsight, and considering his military and firearms training, he wishes he "could have had a gun stuck up under my coat so that at the first shot I could have moved directly towards the shooting and neutralized him. Perhaps that would have been it, and there would have been seven kids that would not have been shot, and possibly one less dead."

When asked if he thought Woodham would have continued his killing spree elsewhere had he escaped, Myrick asserted: "I think that there's no doubt about it. He had 36 rounds remaining and the gun was loaded." And it could have become very personal. Myrick believes Woodham may have been heading for a nearby junior high school which he had attended, where "there may have been some kids he didn't like, or some teachers he didn't like, probably more than at the high school. And my son was there."

* * *

The Pearl High School incident, perpetrated by a troubled youth who had violated a multitude of federal, state, and local gun control laws, was indeed a tragedy. But the only armed adult on the scene earned the gratitude of his community for precluding an even more disastrous outcome.

- R.W.L.

THE NEW AMERICAN - Copyright 1998, American Opinion Publishing, Incorporated

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