For those of you new to this blog, welcome. For the people who have been around a while, I think it’s fair to say that I’m very much “back the blue” in my viewpoint. Hell, I’m an ex-cop who trains cops and other first responders.
I have held my tongue since the shooting because I was sure that additional facts would emerge. Let’s get the big ones out of the way (usual objections to my worldview) before we start:
I support the Second Amendment. Unlike the clown in the White House, all amendments are inviolable until you follow the process to change them. No on-the-fly-modifications are allowed. So, keep your hands off my freedom. AR style weapons are quite literally no more dangerous than your great-great-grandfather’s semi-automatic deer rifle he bought through the mail from Sears in 1908. They are “scary” looking, but not any different than form, and the function is unchanged. The fact that the period between 1900 and 1990 is remarkably free of mass shootings points to cultural changes, not “evil assault rifles” being in the wrong hands.
Do a mass shooting and get executed. It’s that simple. Did you realize most “mass shootings” according to the current definition take place in large cities between criminals? The number of Lutheran versus Missionary Baptist rumbles is phenomenally low. It’s criminals doing this. Very few “good citizens” blow a cog and pick up a gun without some kind of warning signs.
Red flag laws are an obscenity that will be used to “SWAT” innocent people who have created an enemy without scruples.
The doors to the school were not secure. That’s the starting point. Increasing school security will have an impact on this kind of event. I work with people who are taking defense of schools into their own hands, and not waiting for the government. Wise people. But government schools require the government to step up and fortify the buildings. There’s more security at an ABBA cover band concert than most schools have throughout the country. That should be flipped on its head and changed.
So, you’re probably wondering the point of this rant? At the expense of absolutely nobody, I hereby declare that any mass-shooter response that does not begin by taking out the shooter with available resources is a failure. The first cops on the scene, or an armed janitor or security person, should find and kill the shooter as quickly as possible. Don’t stop to render first aid, don’t establish a containment zone, don’t delay for even a second. Find the killer and kill them.
That’s the policy of the best agencies. Speaking as someone who has worked in an armed capacity, or carried a concealed weapon since 1980, I hereby declare that if I’m on the scene, that’s my goal: take out the shooter.
Yes, I might be killed. But if all my experience pays any dividend, it is that I have brains enough to do it the best way possible. People who are current in Law Enforcement are younger, better trained, and have better equipment than a fat old man with a handgun. But they’d better step up and do it as well. Failure to engage immediately practically ensures additional death.
Will we have some cops shot as a result of this policy? Probably. But we know that victims will definitely die if we stand around for an hour and muster resources. “But they didn’t have a key!” Hey, let me tell you, they had a hooligan tool available – that’s a giant door opener of a tool. 
They could have bashed out windows in adjacent rooms and surrounded the guy and taken him out. They could have… well, the list goes on. Standing in the hallway does nothing.
The Uvalde force (I’m including all of the responding agencies) failed due to leadership and training. Individual officers, as evidenced by the radio traffic now released, were ready to go in. But they were awaiting the man in charge and his decision.
Chief, this is on your head. You did not train or command your force to protect the citizens. You proved that with your statement a day later that you were very pleased that none of your officers was killed.
Bubba, that’s part of the paycheck. I always understood that part of the bargain. Every cop I know gets it. Why didn’t you and your force?
