Every police officer in the country knows what to do if they’re ever at a school and some madman starts killing children: Run toward the danger and shoot the murderer until he’s very, very dead.
Tactically, it’s pretty simple. It’s what police are trained to do.
Nowadays, officers no longer wait for SWAT to arrive if some maniac is shooting kids. It becomes an individual officer’s responsibility, because every second that tics by means another innocent child could be shot and killed.
If you can’t handle this responsibility, don’t ever raise your hand, take an oath and pin on a badge.
Former Uvalde school police officer Adrian Gonzales should have known all this.
You’ll remember Gonzales from one of the school’s heartbreaking security videos, which was taken during the 2022 mass murder. He waited for more than three minutes outside the school as the maniac inside shot and killed 19 students, two teachers and wounded many more.
To be clear, Gonzales was there long before any other police officer arrived. The school was his responsibility. Any action he took could have saved lives. Instead, he waited outside, before entering while the maniac inside was murdering children.
Texas recently tried to hold him somewhat accountable for his misdeeds. Gonzales was charged with 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment. The charges were for the 21 Texans who were murdered and the others who survived their wounds. Gonzales pleaded not guilty to every single charge.
Prosecutors took no pity on him during his two-week trial, which ended last week.
“If you have a duty to act, you can’t stand by while the child is in imminent danger. If you have a duty to protect the child, you can’t stand by and allow it to happen,” special prosecutor Bill Turner told the jury during his closing argument.
After deliberating for only seven hours, the jury found Gonzales not guilty of all charges. He hugged his lawyers and left the courtroom a free man.
There is only one more trial stemming from the 2022 mass murder.
Gonzales’ former police chief, Pete Arredondo, faces 10 counts of abandoning or endangering a child. Arredondo was the one who called in SWAT and gave the mass shooter 77 minutes to commit his horrific acts.
Law enforcement has learned much from the Uvalde mass shooting. The horrific murders reinforced the need to take immediate action rather than waiting for SWAT.
I hope this point is well learned by every single police officer in the country who is ever assigned to a school.
It’s a job for our best cops. We used to call them meat-eaters. They definitely won’t wait outside while children are victimized. They will run to the bad guy and shoot him dead.
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About Lee Williams
Lee Williams, who is also known as “The Gun Writer,” is the chief editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. Until recently, he was also an editor for a daily newspaper in Florida. Before becoming an editor, Lee was an investigative reporter at newspapers in three states and a U.S. Territory. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a police officer. Before becoming a cop, Lee served in the Army. He’s earned more than a dozen national journalism awards as a reporter, and three medals of valor as a cop. Lee is an avid tactical shooter.
Remember, Democrats in Democrat run Chithole Cities are Democrats 1st and Cops a distant 2nd. 99% of these Uvelda cops are cowards! All these kids died because of these cowards!
Disgusting that this coward was acquitted. The message this sends is that you don’t necessarily need a backbone to put on the badge, anymore.
A couple of issues to think about. First, the police are under NO LEGAL OBLIGATION TO SAVE LIVES or even DEFEND LIVES. We all expect them to do exactly that and we all hope they will do “the right thing” but they are under no legal obligation to do so. Second, police are trained to contain a situation. This translates into them waiting for overwhelming odds and firepower to convince the bad guy to surrender. This obviously assumes that the bad guy would want to live in jail for the duration of his life and it assumes that the bad… Read more »
children would be safer with their own guns in school than depending on police that have no duty to protect and serve
Having come up in the Law Enforcement profession from the mid 70’s into then pass 2010. Carrying revolver and shotguns to semi-autos to patrol rifles.
Having been a LEO firearms and tactic instructor trainer for most of my working career.
One can give officers all the training in the world. But without the mental preparedness, and willingness what good does it do.
A finding of “not guilty” is unrelated to “any wrongdoing” and merely says the state did not prove the charged crime.
Makes one wonder if anyone on the jury has children in school. They show the lack of any common seance or a backbone.
sadly, the courts have ruled that leo’s are not responsible for anyone’s safety, unless they personally want to do so (that discretion we always hear about).
they have also absolved them of any financial responsibility and accountability when their actions violate a persons civil rights via qualified immunity, leaving us taxpayers financially responsible for something we didn’t do.
i didn’t think that any of these “officers” would be held accountable, they rarely if ever are. yet at the same time they want to be recognized as defenders of society, the only ones. good one, right?
Individual action will save more kids than armies.
HLB
We will only get the quality of law enforcement we demand.