President Donald Trump hailed the armed citizen who followed an active shooter into Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon and killed the attacker before police could arrive at the scene as a "great hero" on Friday, telling reporters that "It's a terrible thing, but thank goodness for a man that had a gun and knew how to use it."
I think the president's views are in line with what most Americans are thinking right now, and it's telling that none of the major gun control organizations appear to have even acknowledged the fact that an armed citizen charged into the danger and put a stop to the attack within just a few minutes.
Trump's comments echoed an earlier statement from the National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful lobbying group.
"Yesterday's terrible act of violence in Oregon serves as another reminder of the importance of a law-abiding armed citizenry," the NRA said in a post on X.
The bystander's actions "exemplify the heroism of everyday citizens who are prepared and ready to respond when innocent lives are on the line," it added.
The shooting has renewed debate over gun violence in the United States, where firearms are widely available and gun-related death rates are among the highest in the developed world.
"America's gun violence crisis is killing our babies. Enough is enough," gun-control group GIFFORDS -- co-founded by former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who survived a near-fatal shooting -- said on X.
It wasn't a "crisis" that walked into an elementary school armed with a shotgun purchased by his mom. It was a 16-year-old who wasn't legally allowed to possess it. If Giffords (either the organization or the former congresswoman who started the group) can articulate a gun control policy that would have prevented this horrific shooting without violating the rights protected by the Second Amendment, I'm all ears.
I don't think they can, though, because that policy doesn't exist. And even though Giffords, Everytown, and Brady claim that they have no problem with legal gun ownership, I'll be shocked if any of those groups offer unqualified praise for the heroic actions of the armed citizen who ran towards the danger and stopped the attack on innocent elementary school students and their teachers.
The most we might see is some mealymouthed statement along the lines of "While we are grateful for the actions of this community member, more guns in schools or in public places is not the answer to our gun violence crisis."
They might try to argue that armed teachers or even armed citizens can be mistaken by police as perpetrators of an attack, or that teachers don't sign up to become armed guards, or any other objection they can come up with.
Whatever their rhetoric, the question really comes down to this: if someone intent on killing kids enters a school with a gun, do you want them to be met with an armed response or not? I know what my answer is. Yes, let's talk about physical security. Yes, let's talk about behavioral threat analysis. Yes, let's talk about mental health. Let's even talk about parental responsibility. All of those things are important. But let's also talk about school resource officers and armed school staff.
I think we'd all prefer that someone intent on slaughtering school kids never sets foot inside a school, but if they do I want them to be met with lethal force as soon as possible. Waiting even three or four minutes for police to arrive is too long, and as we saw at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, showing up doesn't mean engaging the threat.
When evil walks through the door, the last thing we should want is for our children to be defenseless until help arrives. The only thing worse than a bad guy with a gun is a bad guy with a gun who knows there's no one there to stop him.
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