How the Lessons of Columbine Saved Lives At Arapahoe High School 894
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Ray Sanchez reports at CNN that the handling of Friday's shooting at Arapahoe High School, just 10 miles from the scene of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, drew important lessons from the earlier bloodshed. At Arapahoe High School, where senior Claire Davis, 17, was critically injured before the shooter turned the gun on himself, law enforcement officers responded within minutes and immediately entered the school to confront the gunman rather than surrounding the building. As the sound of shots reverberated through the corridors, teachers immediately followed procedures put in place after Columbine, locking the doors and moving students to the rear of classrooms. "That's straight out of Columbine," says Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services. "The goal is to proceed and neutralize the shooter. Columbine really revolutionized the way law enforcement responds to active shooters." Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson credits the quick police response time for the fact that student Karl Pierson, the gunman, stopped firing on others and turned his weapon on himself less than 1 minute, 20 seconds after entering the school. Authorities knew from research and contact with forensic psychologists that school shooters typically continue firing until confronted by law enforcement. "It's very unfortunate that we have to say that there's a textbook response on the way to respond to these," says Trump, "because that textbook was written based on all of the incidents that we've had and the lessons learned (PDF).""
Re:Rule #1 (Score:4, Interesting)
Seems obvious to most Europeans. And my emphasis is on 'easy'; not never no way ever, else I'd be all for unconditionally banning bleach and kitchen knives and human-driven cars too. This needs a more nuanced fix than most would like to admit I think.
I *never* want to see permits for concealed carry or similar in the UK, BTW.
Rgds
Damon
Re:Rule #1 (Score:1, Interesting)
Never gonna happen in the US. The even deliberately misread their constitution (Second Amendment) to proclaim their "absolute" right to bear arms (forgetting the "in a militia"). They will give you millions of reasons: it is their culture/tradition (as was slavery I guess), bad guys will always have guns so you need to defend yourself etc. Even seemingly intelligent people cannot grasp the fact that if guns are controlled, only few resourceful criminals will be able to get them. And they are traditionally not the type to walk in a school and shoot dozens of students for no reason...
I don't know, perhaps some people like the fact that there is a Columbine or a Zimmerman incident every now and then to reminisce of the old west...
At least they are marginally better than Mexico in gun related deaths: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate [wikipedia.org]
Re:Rule #1 (Score:1, Interesting)
People going on a shooting spree are as much a victim of society as the people they kill. Society made them the way they are and is paying for that.
Are you fucking kidding me? Some of these shooters have mental issues, but if you think "I can't get my way!" or "I don't fit in because I don't fit in!" or "Nobody likes me because I'm different" justifies killing people who may or may not have been the ones who didn't like you then you are out of your fucking mind!
Your point of view on this means everyone (eg, "society") could be justifiably killed because some douche thinks the world isn't nice enough to them? Isn't that what Kim Jung Un thinks, too?
Sounds to me like you're someone who might take these same types of actions.
Re:police arive within 'minutes' (Score:1, Interesting)
Schools today treat the kids like goats staked out for lions to kill and eat. If I want to cause mayhem and kill, where do I go? A "gun free zone"!
Hey, everyone, come here and perpetrate your crimes, no guns here to worry about!
As for the political aspect of it, perhaps you missed the fact that this kid was a "Very Proud Of Being A Socialist" [realclearpolitics.com]
But then, you must be too since your goals of disarming the populace are identical to those of most socialist dictators. You should pay attention to the sig.
Re: Rule #1 (Score:4, Interesting)
No, people looking for a way to people use guns to kill other people. More often than not because that's the most efficient way.
There's a pretty good example of this in Switzerland. Just a few years ago they had a pretty big (by European standards) gun murder problem (far less than US).
How did they take it down to European levels in spite of every man having an assault rifle at home, courtesy of Swiss army? They forbade owning ammunition and mandated that gun itself is stored in completely disassembled state. They also forbade taking gun out of the house without special permit, which is difficult to get.
Result: their murder rate went to European one, with gun murder collapsing. Because when the most efficient tool is disassembled and has no ammo, people use other more available but less efficient tools, which may or may not serve the purpose. It's very easy to kill someone with a gun. It's a lot harder to kill someone with a knife. It's exceptionally hard to kill someone with bare hands.
Re:police arive within 'minutes' (Score:5, Interesting)
I suggest that people with your attitude just GROW UP. I submit that people are dangerous. Almost all people have the capacity to kill, given the proper motivation. The people who are made infamous by these school shootings have found that motivation. A lot of the victims of these shooters have found the motivation as well, but they were denied the tools by society, and by people like you.
You act as if guns are the only tools which might be used by a mass murderer. This is slashdot - why don't we submit a survey, to find out how many people know the basics for making a bomb? It's not terribly complex, after all. A novice can collect a few pounds of explosive material, and design a simple time delay fuse, or even an impact fuse. A novice in junior high school can find the basic instructions on line, and begin to refine those instructions into a plan. I'm wondering how many elementary school fifth and sixth grade kids could do it, given strong enough motivation.
Then, we have gases. If guns are hard to get, gassing a school may become a more inviting method of mass murder. Or poison.
I've got a better idea. Instead of pointing fingers at the NRA, take a good look at Hollyweird. 24 hours a day, movies are playing that make teen idols of people shooting up shopping malls, residential areas, downtown areas, office buildings - you name it. I submit that the MPAA has invested untold billions of dollars, brainwashing the less stable elements of society to use firearms as a solution to their problems.
Of course, you can come to my house to confiscate my weapons.
Oh, what's that? You're not going to do that? You're going to send some other mother's children to do the confiscating? Yeah, that's what I thought. All mouth, and no action. You want to give money, and give guns, to young men who desire power and authority so that THEY can come bust my doors down, and take MY weapons.
If and when you and yours have achieved this Utopian police state that you dream of, I hope you enjoy it. I can see it now, Chicago Land all across the United States.
Re:no you just have lots and lots of stabbings and (Score:3, Interesting)
The UK gun murder rate is essentially zero because the UK police are drastically underreporting crime by a factor of 1/3 by conservative estimates. They have an investment in underreporting or failing to report violent crime.
Re: police arive within 'minutes' (Score:3, Interesting)
OMFG, what a delucion you have! You have low violent crime rates? Bwahaha, give me a break.
And yes, I feel perfectly happy - and safe - living here in Finland where we have much stricter gun laws and much smaller violent crime rates, thank you.
Re:no you just have lots and lots of stabbings and (Score:4, Interesting)
Most obvious way: Don't count them unless the person is dead on the spot. If they die in the hospital they're not counted.
There are many ways. Murder count does not equal body count.
Why are the police are claiming "credit"? (Score:5, Interesting)
It appears that the timeline is:
Shooter enters school and shoots 1 student.
Shooter kills himself.
Police respond.
Police claim credit.
Unless I'm missing something here, it doesn't look like the police response accomplished anything. They arrived after the crime was over and done with.
Re:no you just have lots and lots of stabbings and (Score:3, Interesting)
In the UK, a few behaviors have been publicized in recent years.
1) Report multiple-victim crimes as a single crime. I.e. if 3 people die, only one is counted officially.
2) Report murder as a lesser crime such as manslaughter.
3) Fail to report the use of a firearm.
There are other serious issues with crime reporting in the UK, but those are the most pertinent and egregious ones I can remember.
Re:Rule #1 (Score:5, Interesting)
School shootings are basically suicides.
It has been observed that suicide is kind of like a disease. Those prone to suicide copy the methods used by others. Suicide that gets publicity often brings on a wave of copycats.
For example, in Germany, the 'ghost driver' suicide method is an occasionally problem (deliberately driving wrong way on the autobahn killing themselves and those in the oncoming car). In most of the world going the wrong way on the highway is about being very drunk or very senile, in Germany it's an angry bastard killing him/her self and taking out a random car full of people.
IMHO we give these bastards too much publicity. It's partly on the gun grabbers that run the media.