Uvalde, Texas isn’t the kind of place most of us had ever heard of. As a city of about 15,000 people, it was probably most famous for being the hometown of actor Matthew McConaughey. Now, it’s known as the site of a horrific atrocity.

As bad as the massacre was, though, what makes it all the worse was reports that the police waited outside rather than entering the school to deal with the threat.

The allegations were enough to kick off a probe by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Now, though, things have gotten bad enough that there are reports the Uvalde Police Department that they’re no longer cooperating.

The Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde Independent School District police force are no longer cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s investigation into the massacre at Robb Elementary School and the state’s review of the law enforcement response, multiple law enforcement sources tell ABC News.

The Uvalde police chief and a spokesperson for the Uvalde Independent School District did not immediately respond to requests for comment from ABC News.

According to sources, the decision to stop cooperating occurred soon after the director of DPS, Col. Steven McCraw, held a news conference Friday during which he said the delayed police entry into the classroom was “the wrong decision” and contrary to protocol.

Other reports, meanwhile, say that the reluctance to speak with law enforcement is mainly coming from the Uvalde school district’s chief of police. Either way, it’s a complete mess, and the public is right to demand answers about why that wrong decision was made.

As we learned after Parkland, the protocol has been for law enforcement to enter the building during an active shooter situation so they can deal with the threat. At worst, the officer draws fire so innocent people may be able to escape.

What you don’t do is wait outside so the only guy in the school with a firearm can kill as many people as he wants.

These days, the Uvalde police are the butt of a lot of jokes. There are memes aplenty roasting them for cowards, but what sticks with me most is the fact that I know damn good and well that nothing will come of this, really.

The police, you see, have no duty to protect you from violence.

On one hand, I get it. They can’t have a duty to protect people because then any individual who was harmed by violence could sue the police for failing to protect them.

But the deeper problem is that this also protects them when it’s clear they did pretty much everything wrong.

Meanwhile, we have anti-gun activists working hard to pass gun control, claiming it’s essential to protect us from harm. Many of them tell us we should call the police if there’s a problem, that the police will protect us.

How can they still say that with a straight face? How can they look at what happened and honestly believe any such thing?

We just saw 19 children gunned down while the police waited outside. These are kids the same age as my daughter, for crying out loud. If the police in Uvalde wouldn’t protect them, then why would they ever protect my middle-aged butt?

The simple answer is that they won’t. They have no obligation to do any such thing, so they won’t. It’s on me and mine to protect ourselves. For that, we need firearms.

More than that, we need the best firearms as we determine them, not what the government decides we can be trusted with.

Unfortunately, the “police will protect you” crowd is so convinced of their own righteousness that they won’t even listen to what we have to say.