The shooter in Paducah, KY, was arrested after he surrendered to the principal -- who had picked up the shooter's gun after he put it down.
The shooter in Springfield, Oregon was "taken into custody," by police -- he was not subdued by armed civilians or school personnel.
I can't recall enough to find specifics based on "that law school in NY" or "that courthouse in TX," but I don't seem to recall that armed civilians were involved in stopping them.
Not that I'm against law-abiding civilians carrying weapons -- I'm all for it, in fact. But the cases in question don't support the original claim.
The shooter in Pearl, MS, was thwarted by the assistant principal who had a weapon in his vehicle that was parked off campus. The asst. principal was in the national guard or some such and was licensed to carry the weapon. He had to park elsewhere, if I recall correctly, and he retrieved his gun despite the law about no weapons on campus. But I may be remembering this incorrectly. It’s been a long time.
The Texas courthouse shooting occurred in Tyler, TX in 2005, where a civilian with a handgun saved the life of a child from a shooter with a semi AK-47.
The law school shooting was in VA, but involved students tackling the shooter, not shooting him. My bad.
The point is, I just gave you two, off the top of my head, so your original implied assertion, that it has never happened, is false.
See my link upthread: http://www.davekopel.com/2A/OthWr/principal&gun.htm
Vice principal stopped school shooter by retrieving his Colt 1911 and screwing the barrel into the shooter’s ear.
The “courthouse in Texas” was the Tyler, Texas courthouse shooting incident on 24 Feb 2005. A crazy lunatic with an AK-type rifle illegally modified to fire full auto shot his wife coming out of the courthouse and then proceeded to pin down law enforcement for several minutes. The police were unable to return fire accurately and Arroyo (said lunatic) apparently had more than enough ammo to keep dozens of police at bay. A citizen (Mark Wilson) retrieved his 1911 from his apartment on the courthouse square and flanked the shooter. Wilson then shot Arroyo in the chest and back multiple times - these being the first hits anyone had managed to score on the lunatic. Wilson ducked back behind a parked car for cover and to reload, and popped back up to assess his target. Arroyo was still mobile and upright, and Wilson ran his pistol dry shooting him. Unfortunately Arroyo was wearing body armor and Wilson’s .45 caliber rounds were unable to penetrate or cause disabling injury. Arroyo turned and fired at least one round, possibly more, at Wilson. Wilson dropped back behind the car (probably wounded) to reload, at which time Arroyo came around the car and shot Wilson at least three times, killing him. At that point, Arroyo appears to have decided that it wasn’t fun any more and left the scene.
Wilson was credited by all the officers at the scene with having saved all their lives at the cost of his own; if he hadn’t intervened, Arroyo would probably have killed most of the cops and civilians in the square. Tyler is rural and help would have been a long time coming.
Wilson may have died, but he accomplished his goal of stopping the lunatic’s rampage.
You need to recall a little better. The Tyler, Texas courthouse shooting was a 24 February 2005, incident in which David Hernandez Arroyo Sr. opened fire on his ex-wife and son in front of the Smith County Courthouse in Tyler, Texas, then engaged law enforcement officers in a shootout. Arroyo was using a semiauto MAK-90 version of a Kalishnikov.
Local resident Mark Allen Wilson was returning to his nearby apartment when the shooting began. Wilson, who held a Texas concealed handgun permit, is believed to have responded to seeing Arroyo shoot his wife by drawing his own weapon, a Colt .45 caliber pistol and approaching. Arroyo was already engaged in a heated gun battle with sheriff's deputies and Tyler police officers and apparently did not see Wilson.
Wilson fired one round at Arroyo, causing him to stumble. A witness saw the round strike Arroyo and saw "white puffs of powder-like substance" come from Arroyo's clothing. This appeared to be the first time Arroyo was hit or injured during his attack on the courthouse. Wilson then took cover behind Arroyo's truck.
As Arroyo approached, Wilson stood up and fired again at Arroyo over the truck, hitting him; however, Arroyo was wearing a bulletproof vest, and Wilson's shots did not disable him. Arroyo turned and fired at least one shot at Wilson. He faltered and disappeared from view behind the truck, where Arroyo fired at him three times, killing him.
As Arroyo approached, Wilson stood up and fired again at Arroyo over the truck, hitting him; however, Arroyo was wearing a bulletproof vest, and Wilson's shots did not disable him. Arroyo turned and fired at least one shot at Wilson. He faltered and disappeared from view behind the truck, where Arroyo fired at him three times, killing him.
Wilson's intervention, which ended with his death, probably prevented Arroyo from killing others, including finishing off the two sheriff's deputies, a police officer, and Arroyo's son, who had already been wounded.
Arroyo attempted to flee the area in his truck with a number of police officers in pursuit. Arroyo stopped and again exchanged gunfire with police, whereupon Sgt. Rusty Jacks used a Colt AR-15 rifle to fire five shots, one of which struck Arroyo in the back of the head, killing him instantly and ending the battle.
Stories and reports of the shootings at the Appalachian School of Law can be seen here.
It was not the Paducah, KY school shooting, but that in Pearl, Mississippi, ended by an armed teacher: when on 01 October 1997 then 16-year-old Luke Woodham entered his school with a rifle and began firing rampantly, killing his ex-girlfriend Christina Menefee and her friend Lydia Dew, and wounding 7 others before Joel Myrick, the assistant principal, retrieved his .45 automatic from the glove compartment of his truck and subdued Woodham. When Myrick asked Woodham of his motive, he replied "Life has wronged me, sir".
"Here was this monster killing kids in my school, and the minute I put a gun to his head he was a kid again," Myrick said.