Armed school help, different outcome?

Armed school help, different outcome?

The Jan. 3 column by Eugene Robinson tells us this is the year to stand up to the gun lobby. He disagrees with NRA chief Wayne LaPierre to place armed guards in our schools. The national discourse of our mental health system, gun types, and clip sizes may give some of us a sense of accomplishment, but history instructs us there exists a true defense against bad guys with guns.

My uncle was a Fulton County, Georgia Sheriff’s Deputy in the mid-’60s when he was the first on scene at an armed robbery in progress. Fast-moving events resulted in both my uncle and the bad guy simultaneously firing their weapons at each other. Both hit their marks. After being treated at an Atlanta hospital, my uncle lived. The bad guy did not. My uncle had only a few seconds to assess the situation. He did not know the psychological makeup of the bad guy, or have time to note the number of cartridges in the clip the bad guy was using. All he knew, and all he had to know, was that this armed bad guy was a clear and present danger to himself and the surrounding public. Because my uncle was trained and armed, the outcome was good.

This story and too many like it leads to an obvious defensive measure to tragedies such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. In the opening moments of Sandy Hook, the principal and school psychologist ran toward the bad guy in an effort to stop him. Had these two American heroes been trained and armed, the outcome of this horrible day may have been very different.

Andy Olson

Villa Park