The good and bad of shooting response

We saw the good and the bad in terms of the response to a mass shooting within the past few months, as a catastrophic failure to properly respond to such a shooting was laid bare in the past few weeks as more and more reports come out about the response, or lack thereof, to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Contrast that with the situation at the Greenwood Park Mall in Indiana, where Elisjsha Dicken saved countless lives when he drew his pistol, engaged and killed a mass shooter.
Dicken is undoubtedly a hero, and the famed “good guy with a gun” that many who are vehemently against gun control.
“We will say it again: The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” the National Rifle Association tweeted after the mall shooting.
News outlets pointed out that Dicken’s actions were more the exception than the norm, as an examination of 433 active shooter attacks in the United States between 2000-21 showed only 22 ended with a bystander shooting an attacker, 10 of which were a security guard or an off-duty police officer.
Just because it’s rare doesn’t mean it’s not important, however. Ask the people who were in that mall that day if they are glad Dicken had a 9mm on him when the shooting started. My guess is that they would all tell you the are overjoyed Dicken was there, was armed and took action to kill the shooter. Many people walk around armed and claim they would be prepared to stop a mass shooter, but to actually draw your weapon and engage him would take nerves of steel. We have nothing but respect for him.
Then, there is the disaster that took place in Uvalde. The more that is revealed about that situation, he worse it gets.
For 77 minutes, nearly 400 law enforcement officers from numerous state and federal agencies stood gathered in the school, and did nothing to stop the massacre that was taking place. They stood around and talked. They fumbled with classroom keys. They put on hand sanitizer. They brought in shields, tear gas and gas masks. They paced. But for whatever reason, these heavily armed, highly trained officers waited over an hour to engage and kill the shooter inside Robb Elementary School. In the aforementioned Indiana mall shooting, the shooter killed four people before Dicken killed him 15 seconds later. How much damage do you think a shooter can do in over an hour?
We at the Chronicle are ardent supporters of police, who have an incredibly difficult job to do in the face of more and more people who continue to belittle them, degrade them and seek to take their funding. And while we know we live in an area that will continue to support police officers both here and nationwide, this was a catastrophic failure.
That we even have to continually have this conversation is another issue altogether. Something is clearly broken in this country. It is often said “an armed society is a polite society.” Well, the United States is the most heavily armed country with more guns than people, and laps the field in industrialized nations in terms of mass shootings. If anything, they are happening more frequently and we are become less and less polite in this country.
What does it all mean? Sometimes civilians save the day. Sometimes the people who are supposed to save the day don’t do so. The U.S. slogs on, unable to wake up from the nightmare of constant mass shootings.
The truth is the solution to our issue is complicated and multifaceted, and may very well lie in the middle of the extreme positions taken on the issue by people on both sides of the aisle. And, in true American fashion, that middle ground won’t be discussed much, which is why we likely won’t see a solution to this issue anytime in the near future.
In the meantime, thank you, Mr. Dicken, a true good guy with a guy. And shame on you, whoever was calling the shots in Uvalde. You were supposed to be a good guy with a gun.

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