The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2018 stands as one of the most horribly tragic days in American history. Seventeen people died, and seventeen more were injured. The overwhelming majority of those deaths and injuries were children (legal minors) and students at the school. Words can’t begin to describe how vile and evil the entire situation was and is.
Many people called the school’s resource officer (the law enforcement officer on campus) a coward for not doing his job and going in to stop the shooting before it had gotten worse. What ended up happening is that the shooter ended up stopping on his own, left the campus, and was apprehended later.
Many people have also wondered what could have been done to minimize or stop this situation. If you’re one of those people, then, spending just under two hours watching the videos here will be incredibly eye-opening for you.
A court verdict this last week related to the Parkland shooting should give you food for thought, too. And, especially, if you’re a parent, you need to know about the implications of this (hat tip to here for the heads up on this verdict). Dakin Andone, Denise Royal, and Carlos Suarez write,
A jury has acquitted on all counts the former school resource officer who stayed outside during the February 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida – absolving him of wrongdoing in the rare trial of a law enforcement officer for his response to a mass shooting.
Think about that. If you know what happened that day, then, you know that Scot Peterson (that school resource officer) did not go into the school when shots could first be heard. He not only didn’t go in, he stopped other law enforcement officers from going in and stopping the shooting. There is no way that any sane, rational, logical person could come to any other conclusion than that Peterson has blood on his hands, the blood of children.
But Peterson faces no legal repercussions for abandoning those children in their hour of need.
And if you remember this story, then, you know that courts have ruled that law enforcement officers, despite what is implied in their name that they enforce the law, have no legal obligation to protect you or anyone else from harm from someone (even though harming someone else except in self-defense or by complete accident is illegal).
So, between these court cases, you need to realize law enforcement not only isn’t legally obligated to protect you, they suffer no legal repercussions whatsoever if they don’t protect you (or your children).
What does that mean for you? It means that you had better buy a gun if you don’t already have one, train with it, and have it with you at all times to be able to protect both yourself and your family. Because you can’t depend on anyone else to do it for you.