Faculty Member Tackles Student Gunman In Washington State

Preliminary details are still sketchy, but it sounds like a teenager in Lacey, Washington decided to seek attention in one of the worst ways possible, firing two shots into the air at school before being tackled by a teacher:

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A teacher is being credited with stopping a student who allegedly fired multiple shots at North Thurston High School Monday morning. Nobody was hurt.

Lacey police say a school resource officer made a radio call about the shooting just before classes started at 7:30 a.m. The resource officer reported moments later that the shooter was in custody.

Police say the shooter, a 15- or 16-year-old boy, was armed with a handgun. A spokesperson said the suspect fired two shots into the air.

Witnesses say the shooting happened in a common area and that a teacher tackled the suspect.

“I think it’s heroic. I think it’s guttural. People rise to the occasion when they need to do something. I think, in this case, it probably prevented worse things from happening,” said Commander Chris Ward, Lacey Police.

Early media accounts are notoriously inaccurate, but it does not appear that the young man with the handgun pointed the weapon at anyone, and there are no reported injuries from the shots fired.

The male teacher who tackled the young man was incredibly brave and we commend him for his swift actions.

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It will be interesting to see where the young man acquired the pistol, since he was far too young to acquire one legally.

I’m going to play the odds, and guess that it was a firearm that his parents kept for self-protection, probably hidden on a closet shelf instead of locked up in a fast-opening, keypad-operated gun safe as it should have been.

Folks, a keypad-operated gun safe costs about as much as two boxes of premium defensive ammunition; a key-activated safe even less than that.

There is no good excuse to leave your guns where unauthorized people—whether minors or other adults—can easily access them.

You have a right to bear arms, folks, and that right comes with responsibilities. One of those responsibilities is the safe storage of those arms when they are not in your immediate control.

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