“Sean McCutcheon—an officer in the Lloyd, N.Y., police department and a school resource officer (SRO) for Highland Central School District [somewhere in the picture above]—accidentally discharged his gun at 1:38 p.m. Tuesday in the hallway of Highland High School,” usatoday.com reports. I think the word they’re looking for is “negligently.” Oh wait. Maybe not. “No information has been released on why the gun went off, and the department’s investigation is continuing.” One of those “gun going off” deals eh? I don’t think that means what they think it means. Meanwhile, the town suspended its SRO program. According to stargazette.com, “Administrators were exploring hiring trained security personnel with law enforcement backgrounds and allowing them to carry their side arms in the building.” Nope. Not good enough. Let’s review . . .
As a graduate of the SIG SAUER Active Shooter Trainers course, I can tell you that an active shooter scenario in or near a school presents a very specific set of challenges for anyone attempting to save innocent life. To counter a school shooter you need to be fast, smart, experienced, accurate, careful and deadly. And not necessarily in that order.
During an attack, an armed defender could face booby traps, smoke bombs, bombs, multiple shooters, shooters masquerading as students, friendly fire, etc. We’re not just talking about Adam Lanza-style “lone wolf” crimes either. A terrorist attack (remember them?) could be a highly coordinated assault backed by serious firepower. It might continue for days.
When the you-know-what starts flying, a cop with a gun is better than nothing. Training or no training. But if we’re assuming (as we should) that a school resource officer (stupid name) doesn’t have to be a cop, then we can consider the idea that cops and ex-cops are a lousy choice for this line of work. In fact, they’re a particularly bad idea for the following reasons . . .
1. They look like cops
Active shooters aren’t stupid. And they are motivated. If they know an armed cop stands between them and their evil intentions they will kill the armed cop before moving on to other targets. In that sense, a uniformed cop in a school might as well wear a big badge labeled “shoot me first.”
Balanced against that: the deterrent effect of a shiny badge and a police uniform. Yes, well, counting on active shooters to be cowards—to take the path of least resistance by attacking a school without a cop—is a fundamentally flawed strategy. What if they don’t?
Would the Columbine killers have chosen another school? Adam Lanza may have chosen a different target if he’d known that Sandy Hook Elementary had a cop in situ. But we don’t know that for a fact. We do know that most spree killers carefully plan their assault (e.g. Anders Behring Breivik).
Putting a uniformed officer in a school is not entirely security theater for concerned parents and politicians. Common sense suggests that it has some deterrent effect on active shooters. But I reckon it’s not enough of an advantage to overcome the benefits of hiring an SRO who isn’t a cop.
2. They act like cops
You can have the world’s most highly-decorated SWAT officer strolling through your school—ready, willing and able to kick some active shooter ass—but he’ll still be a cop. Not only does he represent authority, but he’ll project it. Physically, through the uniform. Culturally, through their attitude and interactions.
While a uniformed RSO should know what to do in the event of an active shooter (note: should), he or she loses much of his or her ability to prevent spree killing. Their obvious status as a law enforcement makes gathering mission critical intel from the student population difficult.
High schoolers drink illegally, smoke pot, engage in underage sex and generally do things that they don’t want their parents, school administrators and especially the police to know about. Culturally, it’s not cool to pal-up with the po-po. A uniformed RSO is, generally speaking, out of the loop. That’s not a good place to be before, during or after an active shooter attacks.
3. They think like cops
Cops are like airline pilots: they endure long periods of extreme boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. OK, adrenalin-pumped activity. Cops deal with the boredom by interacting with their brother and sister officers and cruising their beat.
A uniformed RSO is isolated from other cops. As stated above, they’re pretty much isolated from the school population, too. So they slip even deeper into a state of boredom than usual and, let’s face it, switch off.
I have no idea how an RSO came to fire his Glock .45 in a school but I’d bet dollars to donuts (so to speak) boredom played a part. What were you thinking when you took your gun out Officer McCutcheon? I guess I wasn’t Chief. No. No he wasn’t.
A negligent discharge is bad enough. Being caught napping (perhaps literally) by an active shooter or shooters would be immeasurably worse. But cops can’t help it. They’re trained to react to crime not prevent it or, more to the point, actively guard against it. Retraining them? Good luck with that.
The Alternative
The NRA says cops in schools are the answer to the threat of spree killing or terrorist attack. Wrong. It’s an answer. It’s not the answer.
The answer to this problem—which is not going away no matter how many unconstitutional civilian disarmament laws are inflicted on law-abiding citizens—is a non-uniformed force of School Resource Officers.
Individuals who can ming with the kids. Men and women with the right mindset and skill set for the job, including active shooter interdiction training. People armed with a concealed carry weapon wth access to body armor and an AR-15-stye rifle.
The answer also includes training-up and coordinating armed parents, teachers or administrators. The sooner we face the fact that our safety requires a measured and appropriate response outside of the law enforcement community, the safer our children will be.
Some liberal moron that CNN was speaking to just said “I hope the gun-lobby doesn’t latch onto this and say ‘guns don’t kill people, people kill people’ … … There are a lot of factors at play. Whethere the student had mental health issues or were on drugs…”
This is a perfect example of people killing people, no matter the tool they use. They’re in complete denial that their hoplophobia is irrelevant.
[Note: the gun that fired the bullets was an FN FiveseveN. The ammo which gave the gun it’s reputation for vest penetration is restricted to law enforcement sales.]
Wow. Obviously, someone stole the piece from a Mexican law officer. RIGHT? Because Mexican police are PEACE OFFICERS.
I’m waiting for that officer to be disciplined for losing his gun. I’m sure that’ll happen.
I have never handled or shot one of these, and after reading of your “adventures” in owning one, I have ZERO desire to even look at one. Not when I have Colt, Glock, Ruger, Smith & Wesson, Dan Wesson, SIG, Springfield Armory, Browning, Auto Ordnance, Taurus, Remington, etc to chose from. There are too many other choices out there to fixate on one with known quality and severe customer service issues like this handgun.
There is always, LOL, the national guard.
I’m still not sure how you could possibly hold and/or fire than monsterman monstrosity. My hand hurts just thinking about it.
The Democratic Party doesn’t only think it can get along fine without us; behind the curtain, they are, in effect, undergoing a sort of merger with the GOP. Don’t vote for either side of that coin EVER AGAIN.
In my opinion, you’re better off withholding your vote if they don’t allow other parties to come and play.
Hey, I have no problem with this. If Sen. Feinstein says ‘all veterans have PTSD,’ then all veterans are entitled to a VA Disability rating that starts at 30%. It wouldn’t stop me from buying a gun from a private seller; it would, in fact, finance my planned arsenal upgrades.
I figured my flat brim baseball cap, ironic Ts and skinny jeans gave me away as a CCP holder. I guess not!
If this bullshit passes, I am moving to Mars, and keeping the US Constitution with the added Amendment: None of these current Rights shall ever be threatened, altered, or infringed. Anyone who attempts to threaten, alter, or infringe on these rights will be shot repeatedly until dead, or incapacitated to a drooling “Pudding pack sucking” state that requires a crash helmet for everyday romps through society.
I would look into the Lasermax Guide Rod laser if you can afford it. It replaces your factory guide rod so it will work with any holster. Also, the proximity to the bore line is closer. Some people prefer Crimson Trace laser grips. If you can’t afford those, try the Laserlyte subcompact laser (v2) which will run a couple hundred bucks cheaper! Good luck and great choice of weapon! If you’ve even thought about picking one up in .45, I highly suggest you do so. My XD-45 was what finally swayed me from my 1911 stubborness. The first polymer pistol I ever shot was a Glock back in the 80’s – I thought it was garbage. Every Glock I’ve shot since has reminded me why I don’t buy Glocks. If half of these Glock fanboys shot an equivalent XD back to back with their preferred choice of tactical tupperware, they’d all sell their Glocks and the XD would be the most popular pistol hands down. I’ve always considered it a matter of ignorance. Everyone knows what a Glock is so for those who wish to buy a gun based on a name, they get what they deserve. When your Glock blows up on you, get it replaced and sell it and come to the XD side.
You know the old saying-“we (the press) just report the news, we don’t have an agenda”. That of course is blown out of the water by the fact that were they to be objective in reporting, they would also offer the counter-argument and allow the watcher/listener to arrive at his/her own conclusion. Do not hold your breath awaiting this as you will end up a SMURF.
Maryland is a pretty solid example. Current Maryland Law has universal background checks (photo ID), handgun registration, and online safety. 90% of crime guns from Baltimore are bought within Maryland. 60% of crime guns recovered in MD overall were bought in Maryland.
Yet, Maryland is the middle of the pack on “gun deaths” and among the worst (47th i think for 2011) for homicide. Of the 2718 crime guns recovered in MD in 2011 that were bought in MD, where are the prosecutions?
I read this study. Maryland is a model state… if you are criminal.
I think when i looked at ATF trace data for CA, most crime guns recovered in CA were from CA… so the same reasoning applies there.
We should ban the solar system. It looks like a 10,000fps buck-and-ball pattern fired blindly from Mrs. Biden’s shotgun.
Hay hay with all the progun bills passing and no antigun bills even made in that state I think I want to move there.
MD has a two-feature ban in the works, too.
I’m not sure what plunged means when SWHC closed last Friday @ 9.82 and today at 9.77 for a whopping .5% drop.
Lol! 45$. More from the depths of uselessness.
If awoken in the middle of the night, my wife and I have a plan: I grab the guns, she grabs the phone and we both grab the same corner, facing the doorway.
Not to long ago, I would up clearing my own house, which I never expected to do. I took the dogs out for their morning walk, leaving the front door unlocked, as per usual. (the only person out at 5:30 am in my neighborhood, normally, is me) Anyway, I had gotten just down the block and a cop car came rolling down the street, moving at maybe 10 mph, going the same direction I was, obviously looking for someone. Yours truly promptly turned around, headed home and entered the house, gun drawn. I felt like a fool and it also made me realize that, as much as I don’t ever want to have to clear a house, I might have to do it at some point.
I worked as an SRO for six years. You have no clue how much information students are willing to pass to SRO’s if you earn that trust.