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My hope is that somewhere in the public discussion someone will ask: can we learn from these type shooting incidents what, if anything, seems to work to stop or mitigate the scope of the incident? Then, possibly the public can be presented with the facts about at least two school shootings or attempted shootings where an armed individual confronted and stopped the shooter before it became a mass casualty situation. One was at a law school in West Virginia where other students, licensed to carry a handgun, retrieved their guns from their cars and confronted and stopped the shooter. A second was a high school inPearl, Mississippi where a principal (or assistant principal) used his personal firearm to contront and stop the shooter. The U.S. Justice Department itself conducted a study of the impact of gun control laws just a few years ago and concluded that these laws had no impact upon crime rates. Maybe some highly emotional folks could be impressed with these facts and recognize that in a free society it is probably impossible to prevent mentally ill or evil people from committing mayhem, but that law abiding citizens with firearms can limit or stop the incident at least in some cases.
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