The target
JEFFERSON COUNTY - Two students were shot at a middle school on Tuesday afternoon before teachers tackled a man with a high-powered rifle outside of the school. Authorities say the man is in custody, and one of the students is now in critical condition.
Now, that must have been one of those high powered, semi-automatic assault rifles the Bradys collectively wet themselves over all the time, right?
Authorities say Eastwood used a bolt-action, high-powered rifle.
Ooh. Guess not. I would like to know how the reporters know it was high powered without being able to to tell the caliber. There are bolt action .22s, you know.
9Wants to Know has learned he has a lengthy criminal history of charges, including assault, domestic violence and DUI.
Apparently, having a laundry list of criminal offenses (I'm assuming they mean convictions, but this is a journalist we're speaking of) somehow negates the gun-free-zone-barrier that surrounds schools. I'd be willing to bet if we had made it even more illegaller, Eastwood wouldn't have brought the gun onto campus. Because we all know that bringing a gun into a gun-free-zone is
Reese says Benke tackled the gunman first and other teachers piled on top of him.
Good for him and while a double-tap to the breastplate would have been a better, faster, safer alternative, we should applaud those who protect others at the possible cost of their own safety.
"I'm not surprised that David would tackle somebody like that. He's 6'5" and he knows how to handle himself."
Size has little to do with being bulletproof, mind you. In fact, it's one of the reasons why some people carry guns – to protect themselves from the physically superior. Still, I'm very glad he did what he did. He quite likely prevented more shootings.
Again, we have an individual who appears to have been a danger to society let loose on the streets. All the laws and restrictions and gun free zones didn't stop him. Additional laws against the already law abiding won't prevent others like him. Luckily there was someone who was able to overpower him with violence and it behooves us as a society to understand the difference between protective and predatory violence and to embrace the former as a means to stop the latter, even if it means allowing certain tools to be used to implement it.
Guns aren't a magic talisman. More than likely, an armed person wouldn't have been right there to see the guy and stop him before he began. And there's no guarantee that an armed teacher would have had a clear shot at him either. But the fact is an armed teacher is no danger to his or her students and if there hadn't been a 6'5" man with the ability to overpower the shooter, a 5'2" female with a 9mm would have had the ability in her hands.
I would like to know how the reporters know it was high powered without being able to to tell the caliber.