Important headlines for March 22nd
Bottom Line: These are stories you don't want to miss and my hot takes on them...
A Good Guy With a Gun Stops a School Shooting Katie Pavlich, The Hill
Hot Take: The story of the Maryland school resource officer who stepped into a school shooting to put an end to it stands in stark contrast with what's been going on in Broward but that's not the only point to be made here. Research over the past twenty years has revealed that more lives are saved by defensive use of guns than taken by them. We don't know exactly how many lives were potentially saved in Maryland this week because of the use of "a good guy with a gun" but school resource officers aren't the only ones who can be "good guys with guns".
What separated the student who carried out the attack and the resource officer who ended it? They both had guns, right? So, was a gun the problem? No more than it was the solution, right? The difference was the intent of people. People who want to end "gun violence" would be well served looking at the underlying conditions that have led to people seeking destruction with an object rather than the object itself. The object is a good as the intent of the person using it. That's why research has shown more lives are saved by them than taken by them – because thankfully there are still more of us than them and thank God for the hero in Maryland who had the ability to save lives.
State Troopers to Guard Stoneman Douglas Amid Security Issues (NBC 6)
Excerpt: Just a month after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School made security a priority, new incidents this week including students found with weapons, a sleeping on-duty deputy and the alleged trespassing of the shooting suspect's brother on campus have raised more safety questions at the Parkland school.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said he's deploying eight state troopers to the school, while Broward Sheriff Scott Israel released a statement Wednesday saying that every deputy will be held accountable and "any failure to protect the public will not be tolerated."
Meanwhile, Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said security at the school "continues to be an urgent priority."
Hot Take: What does this really say about the failure of leadership in Broward? The state has had to step in to specifically secure a school? Are you serious? Yesterday Jeff Bell, the President of the Broward Sheriff's Association in an interview called out his perceived lack of leadership of Sheriff Israel while noting that 100% of the officers he represents share his perspective. In a he said, he said, type of argument – it's increasingly looking like Jeff is making an awful lot of sense.
Until tomorrow...