‘Active Shooter. We’re on Lockdown:’ Why We Need Good Guys With Guns

When any of us is in mortal danger, we do one thing: call the police. And we call them for one reason: they have guns.

By Joshua Charles Published on February 24, 2018

“Active shooter. We’re on lockdown.”

Those five words from my mother were the most frightening text I ever received. She’s been a public school teacher for nearly 20 years. Just a few short months ago, an active shooter was just a few blocks from her elementary school. No one knew if he had made it on campus. Police were called, and eventually they caught him several more blocks away. But for about 30 minutes, it was sheer terror for my family and me, and no doubt many others.

Thank God no one was killed. The shooter never made it on campus. But throughout the ordeal, I kept trying to text my mom one question: “Are the cops there yet?” Even the slightest delay in her response caused my heart rate to rise, my breath to quicken. I knew she had to take care of her students, but all I cared about at that moment was that she would be coming home to me that day. For nearly 20 minutes, I simply did not know what was going on.

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The great moment of relief arrived. “Cops on campus.” It wasn’t over, but for me, that text, and knowing the police were there quickly, diminished my fear. Not to be clichéd, but the good guys with guns had arrived, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t because the cops were stronger, or faster or better people. I was relieved because they had the firepower to protect my mother and her students from those who would do them harm.

The Reality

For those who insist on honesty, this is the reality. No matter how much we may protest, hate or despise it, the fact is that when any of us is in mortal danger, we do one thing: call the police. And we call them for one reason: they have guns. No one can deny this. Those who do, lie first to themselves, then everyone else.

And those who act as if it’s some perverse cliché, that “the only thing that can beat a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” would call the good guys with guns themselves, if they were endangered by the bad guys with guns. All of us know this. The only difference is that some of us acknowledge what all of us know to be true.

All that anyone wants in that moment of supreme horror is one thing: for the good guy with the gun to show up.

Many have decried as “crazy” the idea that teachers, or at least some of them, should be armed. I agree. It is crazy. But not the idea itself; rather, the fact that the question must be on the table at all. Having armed guards at schools should also be on the table. Schools in Israel have had armed guards for many years, and school shootings are virtually non-existent there. A wide variety of policy ideas should be considered. Somehow, we must be able to communicate to would-be shooters that their contemplated crimes will either be impossible, or swiftly stopped.

For students, for parents and for teachers, waiting even 10 minutes for the arrival of police is like waiting an eternity. And while I was blessed to not have body bags at the end of my own frightful experience, I know what that eternity feels like.

All that anyone wants in that moment of supreme horror is one thing: for the good guy with the gun to show up.

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