In an epic self-awareness fail, several liberal commentators claim that Broward County police officers who remained outside as Nikolas Cruz massacred students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were "good guys with a gun." This, they believe, shows that a good guy with a gun doesn't always stop a bad guy with a gun. It apparently hasn't occurred to them that these officers who swore an oath to protect and serve weren't being "good guys."
Chris Cillizza at CNN led the charge on Friday, claiming "definitive proof" when it was only known that the school resource officer was onsite and failed to enter the building:
"To stop a bad guy with a gun, it takes a good guy with a gun," (NRA head Wayne) LaPierre said to applause from the CPAC crowd on Thursday morning.
... this latest shooting in Parkland, Florida, isn't an affirmation of that view. It's a direct rebuttal.
There was a good guy with a gun just outside the school when the bad guy with a gun started murdering people. The good guy with the gun wasn't the solution. He didn't stop it.
Resource Officer Scot Peterson wasn't a "good guy," because he didn't try to stop the killing.
Continuing:
... the idea that if only we had more good people armed we would be able to stop these sorts of things makes it extremely difficult to make any sort of progress on this issue.
There are countless times when good guys with guns have stopped bad guys with guns, including one school example among 11 identified here, and four school examples in a list of 12 mass shootings stopped by good guys found here. But facts clearly don't matter to Cillizza, and the inaction of Peterson doesn't change them.
Later Friday, it was reported that three other Broward County officers arrived at the school during Peterson's four minutes of infamy, and also failed to enter the building (UPI reports it was "at least two"; CNN's Jake Tapper reports "at least three").
That didn't stop former CNNer Piers Morgan from crowing that this inaction proved the "good guys" argument wrong:
Good grief. They weren't "good guys." With strength in numbers, they still didn't go in. Later-arriving officers from Coral Springs finally did.
Katie Pavlich showed Morgan that this failure really proves that other individuals in schools must provide for students' protection:
That the law won't sanction officers who fail to uphold their sworn duty strengthens the argument for adequate self-defense.
Others echoing Cillizza's and Morgan's bogus arguments:
- Elliot Hannon at Slate: "There Was a 'Good Guy With a Gun' ... He Did Nothing."
- Lisa da Moraes at Deadline Hollywood: "Revelation About Florida School Officer Blasts Hole In Donald Trump Plan To Arm Teachers."
- Nash Riggins at The UK Independent: "... if a good guy with a gun can’t stop a bad guy with a gun, what the hell can? Gun control. Everywhere. In every way. Right now."
It always comes to that, doesn't it?
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
