October 3, 2006
Since the horrific Sandy Hook school shooting, this post has garnered much attention, becoming the 2nd most read post in the history of this blog. Some comments left have attempted to deny the effectiveness of arming qualified teachers and citizens for self protection, requiring me to add an update of more examples at the end. Please read those after the original.
February 2016 - Sadly, these horrific events have continued, the latest being Parkland, Florida where 17 people lost their lives. The common denominator remains: GUN FREE ZONES.
The call for more gun control laws is misguided in my opinion as we have numerous gun control laws already that these shooters refuse to abide by. Why would they abide by another?.
Once again, tragedy has hit one of our schools in America. A gunman invaded an Amish School in Pennsylvania and several girls were brutally murdered. A tragedy beyond any comprehension since everyone knows the Amish people are very docile and peace loving.
Naturally, the gun control, anti-second amendment crowd can’t wait to jump on this, reminding us all of the other school shootings that have horrified communities. From Springfield, Oregon to Columbine, Colorado, they can’t wait to parade these tragedies as proof we need to take guns out of the hands of responsible gun owners.
Conveniently overlooked, though, is the one school shooting they never want to talk about, Pearl High School in Pearl Mississippi, October 1, 1997.
A 16 year-old student, Luke Woodham, after slitting his mothers throat, showed up at school with a .30-30 rifle and started shooting. Upon hearing the shots, the Principal immediately called 911 seeking help from the Police, as more shots rang out.
Assistant Principal, Joel Myrick, reacted much differently, though. Hearing the shots, he ran to his parked truck and retrieved his own .45 caliber pistol and chased Woodham down, holding him at bay by pointing the loaded weapon right at his face. Woodham stopped his carnage right there.
Assistant Principal Myrick then forced Woodham to the ground and placed his foot on the student shooters neck.
For an action as heroic as Myricks we would think the community would thank him, would honor him or otherwise show gratitude. In reality, they treated him as a leper, even though he stopped the carnage. All the gun control advocates saw was a teacher with a gun aimed at a student and who placed his foot on a student’s neck. That the student had brutally murdered his own mother and shot two young female students to death, while wounding 7 others, doesn’t faze them.
Had Mr. Myrick not reacted as he did, how many more may have died? How many Police may have been shot at and possibly killed also? They fail to see the student himself may have been shot and killed in any ensuing melee.
Are armed guards the answer for schools? As the adult shooters who have barged in to the schools at the latest shooting shows, metal detectors won’t stop them either. Could a properly trained and armed Principal be able to stop another shooting? I can’t say the Amish would even allow an armed teacher or guard, as their beliefs don’t embrace guns. That could also be why their school was chosen over others, they were unarmed, unguarded and an easy target. No one is ever targeted because they are too strong, only too weak.
I can’t honestly say arming a qualified teacher would stop all of them, but it sure did put a stop to the Pearl High School shooting, the one school shooting you will never hear the left gun control crowd embrace.
UPDATED Dec. 18, 2012:
Once again we have seen a crazed madman force his way into a school and murdering 20 small children and school staff. As expected, we are seeing knee jerk reactions demanding further disarming of the innocent public instead of allowing qualified school staff to arm themselves to be able to respond to an unlikely recurrence at another school.
Since this post was written many years ago, I am compelled to update it with more examples and articles of those who have saved lives with their own weapons against such criminals and madmen.
One such reminder is the emotional testimony of Suzanna Gratia-Hupp who witnessed her parents being gunned down in the 1991 Luby’s Restaurant shooting in Killeen, Texas. She owned a gun, but left it locked in the glove box of her car to be in compliance with the law banning guns in restaurants then.
35-year-old George Pierre Hennard did not care about complying with the law and slaughtered 23 people while wounding another 20 before committing suicide.
Some marginalize what Joel Myrick did in this shooting at Pearl, Mississippi, but the article "A Principal and his Gun" tells us, "Woodham knew cops would arrive before too long, so he was all business, no play. No talk of Jesus, just shooting and reloading, shooting and reloading. He shot until he heard sirens, and then ran to his car. His plan, authorities subsequently learned, was to drive to nearby Pearl Junior High School and shoot more kids before police could show up."
We also have Armed Parishioner shoots gunman
Appalachian Law School Shootings, stopped by armed students
Stabbing spree ended by armed citizen
Clackamas mall shooter faced man with concealed weapon, resulting in the shooter's suicide instead of continued carnage.
We also read, Stats Prove Gun Control Does Not Work
Nail salon customer packs heat, gunman leaves
Parishioner Killed Gunman in Texas Church Shooting
As for all of the hysteria whipped up over those evil "assault weapons,"
The real discussion needed is not further disarming innocent citizens, but how to more effectively deal with mentally unstable people.
The problem is not the gun, but the person holding the gun, or the knife, the baseball bat, hammer, screwdriver or whatever else they decide to use to kill others.
After all, school children in China are and have been under assault by madmen and they have very strict gun laws where few are able to own a gun.
Lastly, I'll leave you with one thought to ponder. If training and arming qualified teachers and school staff will not protect our children, how does arming secret service agents protect Barack Obama's children? Are his children more important than yours?
15 Reasons Another Assault Weapons Ban is a Wasted Effort
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21 comments:
You tell 'em, Lew!
Rosie was going on about gun control on The View. Doesn't Rosie have bodyguards with guns protecting her? Maybe she can propose legislation providing every family that entitlement?
It was Rosie's rant that inspired my post. Yes, she has employed guards and they have applied for permits to carry. I don't know if they went through but I'd bet they have.
Isn't it amazing how many on the left desire to remain armed or be protected by someone armed, but wish to deny us the right to be armed ourselves?
I can't think of anything more hypocritical than the average liberal view of most everything.
Everything about the left is hypocritical--what we call wrong they call right. When they have a scandal the Republicans are plotting against them.
Aside from abusing rights of others and embellishing themselves with the very rights they choose us to be denied of they are paranoid creatures to say the least.
I've read that the Assistant Principal once carried his gun to school. Recently, a law was passed prohibiting him from doing so. He had to park his truck at least a quarter-mile away to store his gun inside legally. Had he been carrying his firearm on his person, perhaps more lives would have been saved. Funny how criminals have the upper hand when we take guns away from the law abiding citizens. I once saw a bumper sticker that read: If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.
You're right, Mark. The one I like is, "if guns are responsible for killing, then pencils are responsible for misspelling."
Everywhere I've heard that they restricted legitimate gun ownership, crime thrived.
Criminals don't worry about complying with the laws.
If guns kill people, then spoons made Rosie fat.
Ref:"Anonymous said...
If guns kill people, then spoons made Rosie fat.
"
She used multiple weapons...knife, fork, spoon, and deep dishes with many re-loads!
So stupid. The point is that if gun control were more strict, this asshole wouldn't have been able to murder two children, period.
Jessica, unless you have devised a way to travel back in time to un-invent the gun and gun powder, reality is that guns are here. No written law on paper has yet stopped a bullet.
You may as well pass a law requiring criminals to obey the law - DUH!
Guns are here and criminals and madmen do not care squat what law is passed.
Feel free to explain why Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws, but also has some of the highest gun murder rates.
If you don't like guns, fine by me, don't buy one.
But don't try to stop me from defending my family when someone who doesn't give a damn what law you pass tries to harm them.
Please explain what you will do to require criminals to obey the law.
Your facts are inaccurate. The Assistant Principal stopped the boy while he was fleeing. He was already done shooting. He stopped him NOT WITH A GUN, but with a car.
Get your facts straight.
http://www.cnn.com/US/9710/02/miss.shooting.folo/
In the USA, there has NEVER been a school shooting that was stopped or interrupted by a civilian (teacher, parent, student, staff, or bystander of ANY kind) carrying a firearm.
Regardless of whether you think arming civilians is a good idea, or a bad idea, let's keep the fact straight.
Sorry, but your spin won't work. He did in fact stop the kid who was leaving, not fleeing, to head to another school to continue the carnage.
No longer online at its original site, but still posted on other sites is an article, "A Principal and his Gun" where we read, "Woodham knew cops would arrive before too long, so he was all business, no play. No talk of Jesus, just shooting and reloading, shooting and reloading. He shot until he heard sirens, and then ran to his car. His plan, authorities subsequently learned, was to drive to nearby Pearl Junior High School and shoot more kids before police could show up."
Also not often mentioned by agenda driven media, Woodham did not use an "assault weapon," but a lever action 30-30 hunting rifle.
Yet another fallacy to your point, even if he hadn't been planning to continue his carnage at another school, he needed to be apprehended. He had just shot and killed others. How would you propose apprehending him or holding him until Police arrived? Had an unarmed Principal approached him, wouldn't he likely have just shot him as well, possibly requiring a lengthy manhunt with the potential of more people being killed?
Woodham gave up all pretense of an innocent teenager as soon as he killed his mother and went to the school to keep killing, later claiming "insanity" because his girlfriend broke up with him and others goaded him into it.
The jury didn't buy it and he was convicted.
Another little problem in your assumptions is that the Principal had to leave the school grounds, go to his truck, retrieve his gun, take ammo from a separate case and load his gun, then return to the school.
Had he been permitted to carry it on his person or have it in his desk, it is very possible he could have stopped Woodham in the school before he killed both students. He might not have been able to save both, but it is very likely he could have saved one.
But he complied with the written law of no guns on school property as most of us do.
Woodham ignored those laws, they meant nothing to him and they mean nothing to others who decide to shoot up schools, malls or any other place.
When you devise a way to make criminals obey the law, then maybe we won't have the need to be able to defend ourselves.
Since this post was written a few years ago and has recently garnered much new attention, please check back in about an hour as I will be updating it to show even more example of where armed citizens have stopped gunmen and saved lives.
Jessica, the madman or criminal will always get their hands on guns. If someone came into your home to harm you or family shouldn't you be able to defend them just like Rosie?
If the gun is the problem and must be banned, you have to wonder why such staunch gun control advocates like Dianne Feinstein armed herself when she felt threatened?
"Senator Feinstein is a staunch gun control advocate. Despite her stance, in the 1970s, she obtained a concealed firearms carry permit, and carried a handgun with her. A CCW permit was then rare in California, and was the only such permit in San Francisco. At the time, she was the target of a terrorist group that had shot out all the windows in her home. She no longer carries a gun."
Even though she no longer carries today, that we know of, she she felt her life might be in danger, she armed herself.
Yet now she works very hard to remove your right to protect yourself as she did.
Actually, Nick Malik, YOU are the one who needs to get his facts in order. You said, "In the USA, there has NEVER been a school shooting that was stopped or interrupted by a civilian (teacher, parent, student, staff, or bystander of ANY kind) carrying a firearm. " The shootings at the Appalachian Law School in 2002 was stopped by two students who retrieved guns from their vehicles and ran back to stop the criminal. Technically they were not "carrying", but if the rules allowed it, they would have been. At least they were able to get legal weapons and bring them to bear on the criminal who was shooting people.
Here a link to my source: http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/04/01/13/lang.htm
Mr. Lew, THANK YOU! I am from Pearl, MS. My 2 cousins were at the High School that day. One was thankfully running late, so he had not gotten there yet. The other was walking up to the building and when he heard the first shot, he knew what a shot gun sounded like as HIS FATHER, MY UNCLE HAD TAUGHT HIM ABOUT GUNS/SAFETY/USE. (Sidenote: this same cousin was killed on his 4th tour in Iraq in 2011) Anyway, you are correct. The Assistant Principal did go back to his truck to get his LEGAL weapon to stop Luke! And you are also right that nobody speaks about this because of this. Around here we all felt this man was a hero. Luke killed his mother in a horrible manner, and then killed 2 innocent students and wounded others. He planned and knew exactly what he was doing! I was on my way to my sisters house at the exact time this was taking place and all of a sudden police were coming from all directions. They were running people off the roads! I was terrified as we didn't know what the hell was going on. Once I got to my sisters, she opened her door crying saying "Someone has shot students at the High School" and we were both terrified for our cousins and all of the students. This was her school! I'm a bit older and didn't go to school there. She knew teachers, principals there!
Anyway, you are so correct. Take away our rights as citizens to the RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS and it doesn't matter as the criminal element will still get weapons as they do now. Thugs, rapist, murderers get out of prison and get a gun, right off the street! I know this to be true as I've known a few "thugs" in my life. They've said it's easier for them to get a gun than a "law abiding citizen". Sadly, it really is.
All y'all out there saying "take away the guns" let me ask you this: someone is kicking in your door and has a gun, you don't; man, wouldn't you, at that moment, do just about ANYTHING to have a gun to keep that MADMAN away from your family, children???? People you better wake up!!! We lived through this awful event here in Mississippi. Every time another school shooting happens, they mention other ones, but never mention Pearl. It's because THE RIGHT THING WAS DONE!!!! Train the Principles and teachers that want it on how to handle/carry/use a firearm and those crazy kids might just think twice about going on that shooting spree!!!!
PearlGirl, thank you for supplying a first hand account. I am glad y'all treat him like a hero down there because that is what he is.
I'm also very sorry to hear of your cousin. Those like him are the real heroes from our Military.
Was Mr. Myrick prosecuted for having a gun on campus? Did the district fire him?
His gun was off campus until he retrieved it to stop Woodham. I have never read or heard of anyone suggesting charges against him.
According to the Wikipedia entry for the crime in question, the shooter was leaving the school, his car got stuck in the grass, and that was when the assistant principal caught up with him and held him at gun point until police arrived. There is no mention of him intending to commit more shootings at another school.
That is about the poorest effort to discount what the Assistant Principal did that I have ever read.
Think about it, had he not acted as he did, regardless of how he stopped, you have a crazed shooter on the loose with a firearm still in his possession.
Would you assume no one else will be shot?
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