It's Happened Again; Armed Personnel Thwart Campus Shooter

WASHINGTON - Sept. 4, 2024 - PRLog -- Only about a year ago in Jacksonville, Florida, a crazed and well armed White Nazi gunman, intent on killing Black people, was forced to leave the target-rich environment of the historically African-American Edward Waters University when he was confronted by an armed campus security officer.

Thwarted in this attempt to kill Black people, he went to a nearby Jacksonville Dollar General store where, because no one was armed and could stop him, he was easily able to kill three African Americans.

This was a powerful example of how having an armed person on campus can either deter a crazed gunman intent on mass murder, or can neutralize him far earlier than outside first responders with guns can get to campus, said public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who used the event to successfully support arming at least some campus police at his own George Washington University.

Yesterday, there was another tragic mass shooting, this time at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia.  The result is that two students as well as two teachers were murdered, and some nine victims of the shooting were taken to area hospitals.

It appears that it was only the presence of school security officers already on the scene, who almost immediately confronted the student with the gun and forced him to drop his weapon and surrender, which prevented far more murders and malicious wounding of innocent victims, says Banzhaf.

This quick end to the rampage brought about almost immediately by armed personnel already on the scene emphasizes one of many recommendations Banzhaf, a former security official and security consultant, made to schools in an international study (https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=202210...) of simple and inexpensive steps schools can and should take to slash the risk of deaths the next time a crazed gunman appears on a campus; a tragic event which is readily foreseeable and virtually inevitable.

Unfortunately - although it's been almost two years since the study with its recommendations was published in the University World News (https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20221011124140599), and about 25 years since the Columbine school massacre - too many schools (including lower grades, colleges and universities) have not taken even routine precautions to protect their students and teachers should their school be the next target of a crazed shooter.

So here are two instances, virtually only a year apart, where having armed personnel on campus to confront an active shooter clearly saved many lives because they were able to stop his bloody rampage much sooner than first responders who typically take at least 3-5 minutes to arrive.

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