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Eleven Minutes and 2.3 Miles Away Equals 26 Dead
Townhall.com ^ | January 6, 2013 | Political Calculations

Posted on 01/06/2013 8:17:13 AM PST by Kaslin

Following NRA spokesman Wayne LaPierre's call for placing trained armed guards in each of the nation's public schools, gun control advocates went on the attack and refused to give the idea any meaningful consideration. We thought it might help to review the timeline of the shootings on 14 December 2012 to see if it might be a good idea.

Time Event
9:30:00 AM: Classes begin at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
9:35:53 AM: First known dispatch call - 911 Dispatch: "Sandy Hook School, Caller's indicated she thinks someone is shooting in the building."
9:36:15 AM: Shooting continues - Dispatch: "The individual I have on the phone is continuing to hear what he believes to be gun shots."
9:38:10 AM: Pause in shooting - "The shooting appears to have stopped. The school is in lock down."
9:38:50 AM: Police call for SWAT team - "We'll stage up the SWAT and go from there."
9:40:30 AM: Reports of shots fired - "Shooter's apparently still shooting in office area. Dickerson Drive."
9:40:55 AM: Connecticut State Police receive call and begin sending emergency units from western part of the state - "Troop 8 personnel, take Exit 10, left on 34, turn on Riverside Drive. Make sure you have your vests on."
9:43:45 AM: Female confirmed shot - Dispatch: "We have one female in Room 1 who has gunshot wound to the foot."
~9:45 AM: First responders/SWAT team arrive - begin an "active shooter search, checking every door, crack and crevice."
9:46:20 AM: Another report of person shot - Dispatch: "We've got an injured person in Room 9 with numerous gunshot wounds."
9:49:05 AM: Shooting finally stops approximately around 9:46 AM - "Negative on description. Shots were fired about three minutes ago."
9:53:25 AM: Suspect reported down - "Newtown's reporting one suspect down. The Building has now been cleared."
9:55:25 AM: Weapons report - "Be advised, we have multiple weapons. One rifle and a shotgun."
9:57:25 AM: Police notice to officers responding to call in plain clothes - "Any plain clothes responding, make sure you have you raid gear on, your raid gear on."
10:00:15 AM: Police complete search for any other potential suspects - "Ask the custodian, get a team up on the roof and clear the roof."

As best as we can tell from the timeline of the event, it took roughly 11 minutes for the first responders and police SWAT team to arrive at the school after the event began, after traveling the 2.3 miles to reach the school from the Newtown police station - a trip that in ordinary conditions would take approximately 7 minutes, not counting the time needed to get prepared to deal with the event. Their arrival precipitated the end of the event, as the suspect, Ryan Lanza, committed suicide shortly after realizing that armed police had arrived and were closing in on him.

Driving Directions from Newtown Connecticut City Hall/Police Station to Sandy Hook Elementary School

During those eleven minutes before the police arrived and finally closed in on his position, Lanza was completely unopposed by any armed individual, using the time to fire over a hundred rounds to kill 26 people - 6 adults and 20 children.

Would placing trained armed guards or police officers in the nation's public schools then really be so unreasonable? Shouldn't public officials have a special obligation to ensure the safety of our children when they are compelled to be placed in their care? Can there possibly be a good reason why the pro-gun control Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence's extensive 41 page-long list of all on and off-school campus shooting incidents since 31 January 1997 contains just one mention of any kind of security guard (for a 22-year old student offender, Law Thien Huynh, who first argued with, then killed security guard training class instructor Roberto Herrera, who had negatively criticized Huynh on previous occasions)?

Or is it good enough for public officials to place that kind of protection some eleven minutes and 2.3 miles away from the children in their care?


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: banglist; guncontrol; secondamendment
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To: hoosierham
Officer safety is THE most important thinmg these days.

Oh, I don't know. Spiking pensions is certainly up there. They also like spending time in the court room instead of on the street. More drill time for practice raids is a biggie. Meetings, lots of meetings...

One thing is certain: "To Protect and Serve" is now WAY down the list.

41 posted on 01/06/2013 12:05:52 PM PST by Carry_Okie (GunWalker: Arming "a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as well funded")
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To: gitmo
I wonder what the nation’s response would have been if one of the teachers or a student had used an illegal concealed weapon and had killed the assailant after he had killed 5-6 kids.

That's local news. Did you hear that Republicans are running us over the Fiscal Cliff?

42 posted on 01/06/2013 12:08:51 PM PST by Carry_Okie (GunWalker: Arming "a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as well funded")
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To: blu

don’t worry about your acuracy I recall reading about an incident, cop on one side of car bad guy on other 7 feet away both emptied their guns over 20 rounds neither person hit...of course more ammo will help, first to run out of ammo gives the other guy time to relax a little, and squeeze the trigger...hopefully its it bad guy who runs out first, but we know silly magazine capacity laws are not going to stop him from carrying what he wants.


43 posted on 01/06/2013 12:17:32 PM PST by rolling_stone
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To: Crapgame

And some didn’t change sadly ..... Still too focused on just catching the bad guy versus stopping the “mass” killing / slaughter per se....

Hope yer well, give em hell !

Stay safe !


44 posted on 01/06/2013 12:26:54 PM PST by Squantos ( Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet ...)
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To: rolling_stone

Which is why the backup mags are on backorder, and the changing of mags *quickly* needs to be worked on.


45 posted on 01/06/2013 12:51:23 PM PST by blu
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To: wintertime

“I do wonder about the mental fitness of many in our nation’s government owned and run prison-like schools.”
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I do wonder about the mental fitness of many in our school’s government owned and run prison-like NATION! I’m very serious, it is very stressful to me and I have a part time job doing telephone work from my home. I have been talking to a lot of people who seem to be just about at the end of their rope. I don’t wonder at all WHY they are so stressed.


46 posted on 01/06/2013 1:15:06 PM PST by RipSawyer (I was born on Earth, what planet is this?)
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To: Kaslin
Great post.

The time line issue has been utterly suppressed by the MSM.

47 posted on 01/06/2013 1:19:52 PM PST by zeestephen
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To: SkyDancer

“Where I live in Washington state it would take a deputy forty-five minutes to get to our place. If he’s not busy elsewhere.”
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I don’t doubt it at all. Probably thirty or more years ago I called the Sheriff’s department after midnight for something, I can’t remember exactly what but I was not in immediate danger. The thing I will remember until I die is that on that occasion the woman who answered the phone actually told me, “The Sheriff’s department is closed for the night.” I still have not figured that out. I would not be surprised if I called them in an emergency and they never showed up at any time. The anti-gun fools who say just call the cops and you don’t need a gun are idiots beyond the limits of idiocy. You can’t depend on the police unless you have them living in your house and even then you couldn’t be too confident. As a child I was fortunate enough to have an uncle who was a deputy sheriff who dropped by now and then but if we had needed to call him in an emergency he might easily have been half an hour away even though we lived in the center of the county.


48 posted on 01/06/2013 1:27:20 PM PST by RipSawyer (I was born on Earth, what planet is this?)
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To: Zhang Fei

“Precisely. In deep blue areas, the idea of having on hand at home or on your person a weapon of any kind to defend yourself is viewed as a sign of paranoia or some other kind of mental problem. That’s just the culture there.”
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Yeah, it’s amazing what some people have for a mind, the same ones who think you are paranoid to think you might need a gun to defend yourself think they need to be defended from your having a gun and the same people would say you are crazy not to have life insurance even though it is really death insurance and does no one any good until you are dead. They would also say that you need to have fire alarms and extinguishers in your house even though you are more likely to have a burglary than a fire.


49 posted on 01/06/2013 1:42:15 PM PST by RipSawyer (I was born on Earth, what planet is this?)
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To: RipSawyer

The sheriff in a town (Shelton) down the road (45miles) said he had to lay off some deputies and that homeowners should arm up. Or words to that effect. The closest sheriff department is 45 miles in either direction.


50 posted on 01/06/2013 1:44:42 PM PST by SkyDancer (Live your life in such a way that the Westboro church will want to picket your funeral.)
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To: sten
how about putting armed guards around crazy people?

They already do - look how well-guarded Congress is!

51 posted on 01/06/2013 2:07:24 PM PST by meyer (Proud member of the 53%.)
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To: Carry_Okie; Hope for the Republic; Gabz; BlueHeaven; verga

actually, there were several teachers who were heroes that day, not only the principal, but Victoria Soto especially. But if you read the events of that day, the entire staff behaved admirably. And saved many small lives - kids who went home to their moms and dads because of these teachers.

Evil? Useless? Vile? no, not at all. In fact they were brave souls who placed their lives LITERALLY on the line. I admire them and hope I would be as brave if I were in that position.


52 posted on 01/06/2013 3:23:10 PM PST by SoftballMominVA
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To: SoftballMominVA; wintertime; GladesGuru
Evil? Useless? Vile? no, not at all.

Both "education" unions and administrators are rabid advocates for schools being 'gun free zones.' Teachers, through their union representatives and state education bureaucracies, effected a disproportionate influence to effect policies that put those kids at obviously unreasonable risk. To that degree, they were complicit in their own jeopardy, but more importantly, they are accountable for the jeopardy of other people's children under their authority and responsibility. The result was to make the scale of this massacre or one like it inevitable. They desired authority over other people's children but were unwilling to allow or provide adequate security measures.

That, my dear, is the essence of covetousness: to desire control without assuming REAL responsibility. Covetousness IS evil.

In fact they were brave souls who placed their lives LITERALLY on the line.

Acts of "bravery" are often precipitated by the lack of apparent alternatives. They did the right thing in a crisis, but with limited options. That does not exculpate them for the positions they advocated that put them there.

53 posted on 01/06/2013 5:08:09 PM PST by Carry_Okie (GunWalker: Arming "a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as well funded")
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To: gitmo

“North Carolina just recently offered free CC classes for all teachers. The classes all filled up within minutes.”

The problem is that North Carolina ain’t Newtown, Connecticut (as it was before or is now after the shooting).

I live 10 miles away, used to drive through Sandy Hook every night on the way home from work.

Attitudes are different here — especially amongst the “educator class”.


54 posted on 01/06/2013 5:42:27 PM PST by Road Glide
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To: Road Glide

Lanza should have been killed the second he shot out the window to gain access to the school.

Armed administrators and teachers would not have prevented him from gaining access inside the building.

A mix of security personnel and armed teachers would probably be best.


55 posted on 01/06/2013 5:54:53 PM PST by Delta Dawn (The whole truth.)
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To: Road Glide
agree with the reasoning behind your arguments, but I also believe (prior to this shooting) if you had made the offer to train and equip the teachers and staff at the Sandy Hook elementary with firearms — that not a single one there would have taken up the offer.

I'll bet that would hold true for the majority of all schools nationwide.

56 posted on 01/06/2013 8:20:21 PM PST by Alaska Wolf (Carry a Gun, It's a Lighter Burden Than Regret)
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To: hoosierham

I may have been in error;it appears the OSHA only recommends all weapons be barred rather than mandating same.

I know from having read a number of company policy manuals that corporations seem to do several things:first ban all weapons;second,rely on the police to deal with violence;third,reluctantly spend money on physical bariers,often with the person designing the barrier having little idea of the effectiveness.

Case in point: installing bullet-resistant windows in a facility that requires the workers to leave the “protection” of those windows and interview visitors before admitting.What good is a bullet-resistant window BEHIND you?

And the fleeing punk who just shot a police officer then went over an 8 foot chainlink fence topped with barbwire in seconds-simply by climbing at the corner using the post braces and fence clips for hand and foot-holds.

EFFECTIVE phyical barriers are costly,and can be rendered ineffective in a moment by careless ,lazy,or criminal act of someone on the “protected” side.


57 posted on 01/07/2013 8:52:06 AM PST by hoosierham (Freedom isn't free)
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To: hoosierham

Here is another FR discussion related to OSHA gun policy:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1928857/posts


58 posted on 01/07/2013 9:01:00 AM PST by hoosierham (Freedom isn't free)
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To: Kaslin

The government schools are now a full-blown spiritual, moral, intellectual, and PHYSICAL threat to our children.

So, the only real solution is for first graders to be in the care of their armed MOTHERS, at HOME.


59 posted on 01/07/2013 9:10:11 AM PST by EternalVigilance (The First Amendment does not separate church and state. But it should separate school and state.)
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To: SoftballMominVA

The teachers and principal who had only their fragile bodies to attempt stopping the killer could be alive had they a gun or two or three..and been willing to USE it without hesitation.

The instant Lanza made a threatening move he should have been shot down but kind of hard to do without the proper tools.

Workplaces can be so safe there is nothing to use as a substitute.The old-fashioned letter opener (think STAB the shooter) has been repleced by a safe little plastic contraption with a guarded blade so you can’t cut anything but an envelope.

And I daresay no one who hasn’t thought about it beforehand would grab even a sharp pencil or ballpoint pen to thrust into the shooter’s eye;because it takes a certain ruthlessness that most find repulsive.People condition to alwyas be nice can hardly fight effectively against as viciuos killer.


60 posted on 01/07/2013 9:13:26 AM PST by hoosierham (Freedom isn't free)
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