Thursday, December 5, 2013

Lessons from Sandy Hook.

Remember last year's shooting at Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School?  20-year old Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother, and then 26 people (plus himself) at the school.  Recordings from various 911 calls were released yesterday.  Some of the lessons to be learned (again):

- The recordings include anguished people inside the school describing the killer continuing to fire.  Apparently three of the 911 calls to state police went unanswered (there were seven recordings released).  Police arrived within 4 minutes but it took them another 6 minutes to enter the building.  Lesson?  Calling 911 won't save you from a determined killer.

- The first priority of police is to protect themselves.  Of course there is nothing inherently wrong with that most natural instinct, but it did delay their entry into the building (they thought there might be a second shooter nearby).  Similar concern apparently also delayed entry into Colorado's Columbine High School shooting scene a decade earlier.  Lesson?  The police can't save you either.

- By now it should be obvious that "gun free zones" aren't necessarily gun free.  And surely they make tempting targets for determined killers.  Lesson?  Laws only deter the law-abiding.