As we now know despite media reports, the shooter at Arapahoe High School in Centennial Colorado on Friday was a rabid communist who wore Soviet-era clothing to class.

Like most coddled suburban communists, he didn’t actually know anything at all about the poverty and misery inherent in the brutal system of government he championed. Instead, when he hit a very minor speed bump in life—being demoted on the debate team— this special little snowflake felt that his hurt feelings were enough to “change” his views on guns (which were quite obviously very shallow to begin with) and justify an attempt at mass murder. He entered his school with a shotgun, bandoleer of shells, and a small supply of Comrade Molotov’s famous cocktails.

Unfortunately for him, Araphoe High School had an armed sheriff’s deputy on campus and in the school at the time his rampage began. The deputy was at the other end of a long hallway when the shooting started, and was able to locate and close with the shooter very quickly.

Yet another angry young progressive had his opportunity to terrorize unarmed victims cut short in just 80 seconds by another good guy with a gun:

It follows the pattern of the Clackamas Mall, Oregon shooting on December 11, 2012. In that case, a gunman opened fire in the mall, killing three. Concealed-carry permit holder Nick Meli pulled his firearm but did not fire, seeing someone else in the line of fire. The shooter saw him, however, and used his next shot to kill himself.

These young men who enter crowded and undefended locations armed with a variety of weapons and with evil intent are cowards. Faced with even the least bit of resistance, they fold. At Sandy Hook Elementary, three days after the Clackamas shooting, the shooter also took his own life. The critical difference at Sandy Hook was that there was no one on-site to respond instantly to the threat. Police arrived approximately 10 minutes after the firing began.

When seconds count, the police are minutes away.

There is room for debate on whether the “good guy with a gun” in schools should be a uniformed police officer, or faculty and staff with specialized training. Frankly, evidence suggests that a combined approach are probably the best idea.

It has taken far too many young lives lost for the media to even begin to acknowledge that the “gun free zone” designation has turned schools into inviting targets. We need to push legislators to end this absurd policy before even more lives are lost.