Print and electronic media have all been inundated with the horrifying massacre at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Lost from the national media is another case of a would-be mass murderer with an AR15, who opened fire on a crowd of people in Charleston, West Virginia. It happened within hours of the Uvalde atrocity. Why haven’t we heard about it?

On the evening of May 25, 2022, a man opened fire on a crowd of people with an AR15.

Before any of his bullets could find a victim’s flesh, a law-abiding armed woman in the crowd drew her pistol and shot him down.  He did not survive.

You can read the news account here.

Juxtapose that case with the massacre in Texas. The Lone Star State has a school marshal program where teachers who volunteer for the duty are discreetly armed with handguns. This policy was apparently not in place in Uvalde.

Suppose it had been.

Suppose one of those courageous women who died that day, hopelessly trying to shield young bodies with their own, could instead have spun on the threat and done what the woman in West Virginia did?

Those brave teachers and those poor little kids would all be alive and unscathed today.

This is why so many of us, including virtually every NRA member in attendance at the annual meeting this week in Houston, support the armed teacher program. It has worked in Israel since it was instituted after the Ma’alot school massacre of 1974.   

But snowflakes cannot grasp, or even seem to face, the concept. “What it takes to stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun” isn’t just an NRA mantra, it’s an absolute truism, as we saw this past week in Charleston and Uvalde alike.

It’s a shame the mass media can’t face that reality.

A tip of the hat to gun owners civil rights advocate Miguel Gonzalez, who brought the Charleston case to my attention.

45 COMMENTS

  1. There is not just one “silver bullet” for this problem but several. Every school district should have this as an option. After Sandy Hook there was some talk about also having veterans, retired LEOs, grandparents, and parents assisting with security at schools. I don’t know if that has been implemented anywhere yet but might be another option – I know some churches done this.

    • Patrick – What you suggest indeed has been implemented, first in Polk County Florida, more recently in every Florida county (apparently the last was Broward County, after resistance). It’s called the Guardian Program. (Mas, perhaps you have more direct information about this, as a Florida resident.) I recommend this video by Sheriff Grady Judd.

      https://youtu.be/j-Kb4XuHoKw

    • Yep. Hire the Charleston, WV as designated counter sniper. Fire any Barney Fife in charge from the Uvalde DPS. Assign 2 sheepdogs like Ms. Charleston to each school. 8 total guards for 4 schools, not 4 guards for 8 schools. Come on! Make sure that all the police believe in protecting the public first, and not preserving the wacko drug-addict psycho *#%! wanna-be anti-hero killers. Teach school staff to secure the doors 24/7.

      • Yes, I believe the Charleston, WV counter-shooter-also-female is a direct descendant of Annie Oakley, and a recent MAG40 grad. So how far was the telling shot that she made? Hooyah!

  2. There seem to be 2 prime directives in the media business. For decades “If it bleeds, it leads” has been what determines what gets presented. The deciding factor for not presenting seems to be “If it doesn’t fit the narrative, it’s not news”.

    As a member of the Baby Boomer age cohort, I have to admit that a whole lot of my generation drank the kool aid of the times and both weren’t good parents and failed to appreciate the consequences of many of their actions. Since critical thinking-or thinking at all-seems to be lacking in a substantial segment of the population perhaps Logic should be a required course in the public schools. I will admit that this could cause some conflict concerning content in other courses. But, I think that’s a good thing.

  3. OOPS! Forgot to mention that according to various press services (I know, veracity?), in addition to armed teachers, there are also neighborhood volunteer teacher’s aides who are also trained & armed. The sweet little old granny at the back of the room just might be more than she seems.

  4. Agree with the sentiments here. But every day, a new revelation comes out that makes the Uvalde shooting even more horrific. Local news in Texas reported that the Uvalde CISD Police Department took active shooter training two months ago.

    “Training material obtained by FOX 4 shows that no matter what, officers must stop the shooter before anything else.”
    https://www.fox4news.com/news/uvalde-cisd-police-officers-active-shooter-training-march

    Way to go, officers.

    • Indeed, the performance of local law-enforcement was disgraceful. See this link:

      https://www.nationalreview.com/news/border-patrol-agents-defied-uvalde-police-orders-to-remain-outside-school/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=first

      When the story first broke that it was a “Border Patrol Agent” that actually neutralized the killer, I thought WTF? That is not the job of the Border Patrol. Now I see why that happened. The Border Patrol had to pick up the slack and do the job that local law-enforcement (for whatever reason) was unwilling to do.

      Yet, I would bet $100 against a dime that no one is ever held to account for this failure. The above story claims that “every action by those officials is under investigation by both the Texas Rangers and by the FBI.”

      Well, I know how that goes. It will be 100 miles of “investigation” but not even one inch of punishment for the guilty. They will “investigate” until this story drops off the radar of the public and the news media. Once the attention fades and the dead are buried, it will be swept into the old, reliable “Memory Hole”. Just you wait and see!

      • I believe you will be correct. I have no faith in The State for anything except incompetence and corruption.

      • Just a comment. My understanding is the Border Patrol agent received a phone call from his wife who was a teacher at the school. He was off duty getting a haircut. He borrowed the barber’s gun and went directly into the school. Not only did he save his wife and child but undoubtedly many other children. Unfortunately it was too late for the children in the classroom. I also understand that on duty agents were called to help with securing the area. Pleas correct me if I’m wrong here. For what it’s worth.

      • Nadine

        You are conflating TWO Border Patrolmen.

        Jacob Albarado borrowed his barber’s shotgun.
        He did NOT take down the shooter.
        His interview stated he didn’t enter the school.
        He DID save his daughter and other kids.

        The other agent drove 40 miles to get there, and received a head wound while terminating the shooter.
        Strangely (or not), I saw his name yesterday, today it seems to be “unidentified agent”.??

  5. The problem is Gun-Free Zones. As Mas has noted, these are fertile killing grounds for these psychopaths. This latest mass-murder in a Texas School, combined with its opposite case as outlined above, offers clear proof.

    Suppose that we harden schools and churches? That won’t solve the problem. There are still tons of “Gun Free Zones” remaining for the nutjobs to exploit. They can go after gun-free movie theaters (remember the Aurora Theater shooting?). They can go after gun-free shopping malls. They can go after gun-free hospitals and nursing homes. Wouldn’t that make the headlines? I can see it now:

    “GUN-MAN INVADES NURSING HOME. SHOOTS 14 ELDERLY RESIDENTS AND TWO NURSES!

    DEMOCRATS CALL FOR NEW GUN SAFETY LAWS AND RENEWAL OF THE ASSAULT WEAPON BAN TO COMBAT THIS ATTACK ON THE ELDERLY!”

    Yes Sir! The headlines just write themselves. The Anti-American Media would be delighted to open that new front for firearms-prohibition.

    We need to stop being so reactive. Action beats Reaction! This is true in politics as much as in self-defense.

    So, I have a suggestion and since you, Mas, are a leader of the 2nd Amendment Foundation, you are the right person to receive my suggestion. People have been asking “So what IS the answer?” Well, here is a concrete proposal for a course of action:

    1) I propose that the 2nd Amendment put together and file a lawsuit. It would be a “Test Case” type of suit.

    2) The premise would be that “Gun-Free Zones are Unconstitutional”. They violate the 2nd Amendment Right to Bear Arms.

    3) The target of the suit should not be a privately-owned facility such as a movie theater or a shopping mall. Rather, it should be a non-governmental facility that still performs a necessary public service. I would suggest suing a Public Corporation that manages a number of public hospitals and which also has a strict “Gun Free Zone” policy in-place at every hospital and facility that it manages. A privately-owned facility would raise side issues of “Property Rights” that would best be avoided by selecting a quasi-public facility (like a hospital corporation) as the target.

    4) The premise of the suit should be that the public is required to use these facilities to obtain health-care but they are being disarmed and made vulnerable to mass-murder events because (1) security is poor at these facilities but, nevertheless, (2) the public is being forced to disarm (in violation of the 2nd Amendment) to use these facilities. Because health-care cannot, in many cases, be obtained in these communities anywhere else, this is (effectively) forced disarmament.

    5) The long history of the failures of gun-free zones, of their use as killing grounds for psychopaths makes this an unreasonable risk. We will use the “Balance Test” of the Leftist courts against them. We will argue that the risks posed by an unprotected gun-free zone outweigh any dangers posed by concealed carry. We will point out that people with concealed carry permits are among the most law-abiding people in America and produce studies to prove it. There should be plenty of evidence to show that the dangers of gun-free zones are worse than any danger from law-abiding concealed carriers. Thus, the “Balance Test” will show that the public interest lies in the elimination of these gun-free zones.

    6) The overall goal of the lawsuit will be to either (a) force places that post “Gun-Free Zone” signs to also lay in extensive (and expensive) security measures to protect the members of the public who enter said places or, else, (b) force them to take down the “Gun-Free Zone” signs.

    In other words, the purpose would be to establish an expensive duty, to the property owner, that must be assumed if he/she/it decides to post “Gun-Free Zone” signs.

    Right now, there is no cost to posting these signs. These businesses can “Virtue Signal”, at no cost, by doing it. However, if they are forced to lay on expensive extra security as the cost of doing it, the calculus may change. A whole lot of these signs would come down in that case.

    The Left loves to use “Lawfare” tactics against Conservatives and firearm manufacturers. I am suggesting that we “Fight Fire with Fire” by launching a “Lawfare” attack on “Gun-Free Zones”. Probably, the 2nd Amendment Foundation would be the best group to launch such a “Lawfare” attack.

    What do you say, Mas? Will you float my idea to the legal minds at the 2nd Amendment Foundation?

    • I’ve been talking about “gun free zones” for over 2 decades. All it does is create shooting galleries for mad men. It seems to me that if a business doesn’t allow citizens to be responsible for their own safety, the business must be. If they allow a gunman to enter their GFZ and don’t have security on site to keep the customers safe, then they should be liable for it. Winning a lawsuit of that nature would make many businesses either allow the citizens to carry and protect themselves or they would hire security for their silly GFZ.

  7. “It’s a shame the mass media can’t face that reality.”

    It’s not that they can’t face it, but rather that they choose a neo-marxist/communist stance.

    What happened in Charlestown will get zero coverage from the FAKERS. That’s by choice.

  8. This is not about guns. This is about the Democratic Party trying to rev up the base for the upcoming election. They know they are going to get plastered in the next election, rightly so.

  9. What about the 19 good guys with guns that stood outside the classroom for a significant amount of time (not sure of the exact time, I’ve seen 40 minutes, 15 minutes, but either case is unacceptable) while the mad dog massacred students? I would like to hear your take on that Mas.

    Not that I think the axiom is wrong (good guys with guns are what is needed when an active shooter situation is happening), but why is it we are seeing these cases where people who are not only armed, but *specifically trained* for these situations handling it completely wrong?

    NR’s editors have this to say:

    Perhaps that slogan should be revised, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun and the willingness to act.” No Uvalde cops acted when it could have made a difference.

    This is cringe-worthy, but sounds accurate at this point.

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/05/the-uvalde-outrage/

  10. Regarding a previous post about ‘gun free zones’, I avoid them whenever I can. Too dangerous. I haven’t been to a live sporting or entertainment event is years. Businesses that declare themselves GFZ lose my business. I have no desire to walk into a two way firing range.

  11. Mas, Israel does not arm its teachers although some choose to go armed. Instead, every schoolhouse door is controlled by a trained armed guard who unlocks and locks the door. This is difficult to manage with a large school –but they manage!

  13. The media does not report on cases like this lest they inspire copycats.

    Inspiring copycats that push their narrative on the other hand, that they do not mind at all.

    It needs to be pointed out that if a person can fire a gun outside of a school for 12 minutes and then enter an elementary school, and then the police will not bother to go in for nearly another hour, then a Civil War era Spencer carbine, Henry rifle, or a percussion revolver (with extra cylinders) would have had the same ending. As would Biden’s over under shot gun. As would a can of gasoline or a machete.

  14. Comments from several sources place the blame on the failure to act squarely on the shoulders of the School District Police Chief. Per the latest (not necessarily the greatest-or completely accurate) places LEOs inside the building, but outside the class room and the Chief nixed an entry. Emphasis seems to have been on evacuating other classrooms.

    The Chief (hopefully soon to be former Chief) wasn’t in the Feds chain of command. Apparently they finally had enough.

  16. I always ask people I know that advocate for outlawing “assault weapons” what their plan is after these weapons have been outlawed and these shootings continue. We, meaning those that are for the 2nd Amendment, know that more laws limiting citizens God-given rights will not stop these shootings but only increase them. The people I ask that question have never had an answer. They have no plan, only a political agenda.

    • The people in charge have a plan.
      Registration (essentially, already in progress)
      Confiscation

  17. Latest story; Border Patrol Agent was in barber shop when things happened. Barber loaned him personal shotgun that he uses to stop the action. Does this mean ANOTHER shooting was stopped with a personally owned firearm. I just returned from church and took my Ruger off.

  18. Columbine umpteen-point-oh.
    It angers me more now that it did with Columbine.

    And the red flags. The system isn’t just letting them fall through the cracks. It is all too often escorting them.

    Burns me up every time I hear adults (often police or SWAT or security) not taking action to protect innocent defenseless children & teachers.

    Last I knew, the recommended police protocol was first on scene enters.

    I knew that was the thing to do before I read the final details & analysis of Columbine. In fact, the minute I heard the security guard didn’t follow them in after calling for backup.

    Yet we keep getting reports of police & even SWAT waiting around while people die. Children. Teachers.

    Wear the badge.
    Be a responsible citizen (if you have the inclination and training).
    DO THE HARD.

    I would, however, personally add that I would go in, badge or not. I understand evil. I understand the dangers & risks. I also can think on my feet as well as improvise. I understand (to greater than the average adult anyway) how to manipulate. Distract. Disrupt. Attack.

    I said it when I heard about Columbine. And others. Badge or not. Weapon (firearm) or not. I go in. I have at least a snowball chance. Most kids & teachers (and definitely elementary school children) have no chance but luck or responders.

    Someone said the police, if on scene, wouldn’t let you. Maybe. If they could stop me. I can hear me telling them “Shoot me in the back” as I go in.

    I had been volunteering at the Boston Marathon some years back. Afterward, volunteers were invited to visit Fenway, walk the field and socialize. I had left my gear in the car but missed a small (favorite) stainless pocket knife. They gave me the choice to give it up and not get it back later or not enter. I laughed and commented I had been through a background check. Then I asked if they thought people couldn’t improvise weapons far more dangerous than my folding 1.25 inch knife. Blank stare (I get it. Not their call. But a SWAT Team standing by? Again?! BS.).

    I have coworkers who were pistol whipped, robbed multiple times, during pharmacy robberies. I thwarted the one robbery attempt I faced as a pharmacist. No one hurt, perp arrested in the pharmacy (police station 200 yards away). No hero. Just knowing what to do.

    And DOING IT.

    • Paul S.,

      If you attacked a mass shooter, and prevailed, stopping the threat, and not getting wounded, you would be a hero. If you attacked a mass shooter, and prevailed, stopping the threat, but got wounded, you would be a hero. If you attacked a mass shooter, and failed, whether you were wounded or killed, you would still be a hero.

  20. We would all like to think we would charge the gunman if we had the chance; but reports of combat experience note that it is not uncommon to freeze in the face of mortal danger. As Col. Cooper said, no one really knows until he has “seen the elephant”.

    Also, by some accounts 3-7 local officers attempted to breach the classroom much earlier; but two were wounded and they were repelled–understandable if the first two through the door took hits (albeit minor in retrospect) and their survival instinct kicked in and they turned to get out of the room–blocking the follow-on officers. Not optimal, but I’d use care in throwing stones. One took a scalp wound and that one can fairly say that he’d be dead if the bullet were one inch lower.
    That said, we all wish the 7 locals had burst into the room and spread out, with targeted officers staying on the move and the untargeted officers picking their shots. Easy to diagram–harder in real life, I’m sure.
    More police units need level 3 armor available near at hand. Given the distances one encounters in Texas, the Border Patrol Team’s response time was probably as fast as possible. I’m not sure where they started from, but if they were near the actual border, they may have traveled well over 50 miles after getting the call.
    The teacher who propped the security door open for convenience illustrates the problem with passive security methods. Then there was the failure of either one of the slain teachers to be armed.
    In Florida we do allow armed teachers–but there is still, I suspect, a selection bias amongst teachers to NOT be CCW permit holders, as most are Democrats. Teachers must take a special course and get permission from their administration. I think more teachers should take this step. The advantage of the armed teacher is that that person will not have to run to the sound of shots–they can simply get their children away from the door, lock it and set up a 90-degree ambush (with precautions to not shoot responding officers–possibly a coded blind that is pulled down over the door’s window to alert police that an armed teacher is inside). Defending a fixed space from which you cannot flee takes much less courage than charging blindly into a room held by a gunman.

    The unwillingness to face a modest risk of COVID for the benefit of their students suggests that many teachers will not be proactive “meat shields” for their students. Some heroic teachers have done so; but not all will impose their bodies between students and gunman. In any event, this is a poor strategy–one that suggests that the person was banking on this never happening to their school…or were prevented from arming themselves due to administrative/legal policy.

    It is interesting that mass school shootings did not become a “thing” until the late 1980’s; but prior to 1968 there was no minimum federal age to purchase a firearm.

    A decade or so before my attendance, students would leave their shotguns with the vice principal when they came to school, so they could pick them up and hunt birds after school. But that stopped when our county declared itself a bird sanctuary.

  21. Thanks for identifying the news about the Charleston event. It’s difficult to believe that they failed to get it out for national circulation. Imagine that.

    The woman in Charleston didn’t need an AR, ballistic shield, directives, a master key, a helmet, body armor, a detailed plan of action from someone “in charge,” or a phony narrative about someone in security having confronted the gunman prior to her doing so? She took on a thug armed with an AR with just a handgun? No backup? No tactical, mass shooter training class? Didn’t opt out because “The police should be here any minute”? She was willing to risk her own life and safety on behalf of others, doing it solo? Well, imagine that, all of that.

    Meanwhile, down in Texas, where they long-ago created an alternative version of the old saying, “All show and no go,” preferring “All hat and no cattle” instead. Considering what is known (at this moment, at least) about the lack of proper and courageous action found under too many hats present on that campus, serious consideration should be given to adopting “All hat and no _ _ _ _ _” as an updated, more correct version of that same old tired saying.

    It’s a shame that the woman from Charleston could not have been present in Uvalde, even if she wasn’t decked out in a big hat, badge, or that little something reflecting the latest camo fashion rave. Perhaps she could have prevented it from becoming a killing field. Little doubt that she would have made an attempt, at the very least.

  23. Notice that school shootings became more commonplace right after the Gun-Free-School act was passed in 1990. Maybe the predators noticed that they now had a “defense-free zone” in which to exercise their frustrations and anger.

  24. As I’ve thought about school security, I imagined that school districts would have to spend a lot of money to harden their schools. Not true. If teachers paid for their own training, and armed themselves, that would require exactly ZERO dollars to be spent on school defense. In other words, even poor school districts could defend themselves if they have the will to defend themselves.

    As Mas wrote, Israel has been doing this strategy successfully since 1974. No need for guessing.

    • Roger, as I’ve mentioned before, a relatively inexpensive way to improve a school’s security is to install sensors on every always locked exterior door and maybe windows too. Anytime a door to the outside is opened, the person responsible for security is notified and he/she can immediately check it out and close that door to prevent unauthorized entry. Any school employee who attempts to disable one of those sensors should be severely punished for the first offense and fired the second time.

    • Yet, there is a problem with American teachers. They are afraid of the China virus. Would they really shoot a goblin? At least the leaders of teacher unions are afraid of the China virus. I’m sure some teachers would make good defenders, but others would be like Barney Fife, or worse.

      • which is precisely WHY the teachers must volunteer, then take/pass the training, before carrying their Little Friend along with them to school. Most of the volunteers in the Ohio FASTER Sves Lives programme are folks who already have their Mother May I Card and carry on a regulr basis. Don’t forget, when Ohio deigned to “allow” their citizens to carry, in order to get theie Permission Slip they had to take serious proffessional training, on their own nickel. I believe that started out with a requirement for 12 hours of formal training by qualified professionals (read: expensive) but I think it got soon reduced to eight… which is far more than almost any other state. So anyone who already carries had made quite a commitment. The volunteer pool in Ohio at least, drew from this subset. Not a Barney Fife in the lot of them.

      • There is nothing wrong with taking precautions (e.g. vaccination and masking) against COVID. Even if it doesn’t kill you, it can permanently ruin your health. Not taking precautions is like walking into a busy street with your eyes glued to your cell phone.

        The problem with the majority of teachers is that they have totally bought into non-violence regardless of the situation. In their minds, if you use force to stop a mass murderer, you are no better than he. They won’t fight back to save anyone.

  25. WR Moore,
    I would love to be one of the volunteer Grandmas! I’ve talked about it for years.
    I’m a Mag grad., and I qualified as an Expert marksman in the AF. I’ve also taken many other firearm classes.
    I’ve slowed down over the years, but my aim is still true.

    • I would volunteer to be an armed security person at a school too. If any potential murderer with a gun comes into my school, I’ll blow the lungs out of his/her body with my high caliber 9mm assault weapon of war.

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