Examples of Inept Policing Are Not Arguments for More Gun Control – Opinion

In the aftermath of the horrific mass shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde Texas, I’ve been drowning in silly arguments in favor of restricting gun ownership. From telling me that hardening schools isn’t 100 percent guaranteed to stop shootings to pretending that banning AR-15s WillThey have made a variety of absurd claims about stopping shootings. One of the most braindead arguments in favor of gun control that I’ve encountered is the poor performance of law enforcement officers, who failed to prevent the Uvalde shooter killing 19 children and 2 adults.

There has been a lot of negative feedback about the police response to the shooting. It is becoming worse that more information becomes available about the response of police to the shooting. Steven McGraw from the Texas Department of Public Safety admitted Friday that the response to the assault was seriously flawed.

TX Dept of Public Safety chief Steven McGraw states law enforcement didn’t let parents in because 19 officers were already in the school and “there was plenty of officers to do whatever needed to be done” and that “from the benefit of hindsight” they made wrong decisions. pic.twitter.com/yx6JMcQlht

— Andrew Kimmel (@andrewkimmel) May 27, 2022

McGraw acknowledges that officers made the “wrong decision” by failing to enter the school as the gunman shot the children and teachers inside a classroom. McGraw confirmed there was a gap of 40 minutes between when law enforcement arrived at the scene and the moment they entered the classroom to confront the gunman, who was then killed inside the classroom. The agents that stopped the gunman, however, were Border Patrol agents and not local police officers.

The DPS director explains that the delay was the result of the commanding officer on the scene believing they were no longer dealing with an “active shooter.” However, this explanation is contradicted by the four emergency 911 calls that were made by children from inside the school. McGraw acknowledges that up to 19 officers were present in the classroom. But they weren’t trying to get into it.

Although a timeline more clearly defined of #Uvalde has emerged after the latest press conference, it brings about more questions…
What’s the point of the commander calling for the barricaded subject to be moved from active shooter? When there is a 911 call from children inside?

— Katie Jeffries (@Katie_Jeffries) May 27, 2022

They believed “no [more] kids were at risk” at that moment, and that “there was time” to obtain keys to the classroom from the janitor.

This is precisely why anti-gunners feel that greater gun control will be the best way to prevent mass shooting deaths. This argument, along with the ineptitude displayed by the Florida officer responding to the Parkland shooting four years ago, shows that even good men can’t stop school-shooters. This position is essentially saying that these are two instances of law enforcement not saving lives. Never be a situation in which heroes with firearms can stop, or prevent, a school shooting – or any other type of mass shooting for that matter.

This argument, out of all those made by the anti-gunner lobby, might be the most straightforward to discredit.

True, police can fail in many situations. This is one reason why personal guns should be owned for self defense. Police are just minutes away when seconds matter, as they often say.

However, this ignores the fact that there have been plenty of situations in which police – and even civilians – have stopped active shooters. This is the Washington Examiner reported:

According to FBI data, there were 61 active shooting incidents in 2021. There were 103 victims and 140 injured. Twelve of those met the definition of “mass shooting.”

In the 61 shootings, 30 perpetrators were apprehended by law enforcement, 11 shooters killed themselves, one died in a vehicle crash, one is still at large, and 18 were killed by someone else — including four citizens.

There have been many stories about school resource officers who stopped campus shootings. These situations are not covered by the mainstream media.

Why is that?

However, the truth remains. The fact remains that armed officers CanStop mass shootings. They will not be able save every person in any single situation where a mad gunman commits mass murder. This is something that nobody disputes. This does not appear to be a problem for those who advocate gun laws. They would save far more lives than having children protected by armed security.

Recent research has shown that there are reasons why mass shootings occur in cities, courts, and at sporting events. Mass shooters who kill dozens of urban students is something we rarely see in news reports. Each of these has armed security and metal detectors. Surveillance cameras are also available. At this point, anyone arguing for more gun control and against hardening schools should not be taken seriously – their focus is disarming the public, not saving lives.