…Maybe.

Maybe yes, the principle of Sandy Hook Elementary School may well have still died.

However, if Principle Dawn Hochsprung had been trained and was qualified to carry a weapon; yes, Dawn Hochsprung may well have still died at the shooting rampage on Friday, December fourteen at Sandy Hook Elementary School as she lunged Adam Lanza in an attempt to overpower him. And yes, school Psychologist, Mary Sherlach, 56, may have died along with 27 year old school teacher, Victoria Soto who used her body to shield her first grade children.

Yes, they all may have still died…

However, if one of the three had been trained and had been certified to carry a weapon and had the courage to stand forward, take deliberate aim and pull the trigger possibly… just possibly, she may have defended and saved the lives of the twenty-six innocent children and adults that were massacred on this horribly sad and fateful day.

If one had the training and courage to stand forward, take deliberate aim and pull the trigger? Yes, Dawn and Mary and Victoria may well have still died…

But maybe not!

To be without defense, one is defenseless.

“Gun Laws!”

Let’s change the gun laws!

There is an estimated three hundred and fifty million guns in the United States of America and how does one govern 350,000,000 guns? Yes, if the gun laws on the states books were strictly enforced possibly fewer new guns or legally transferred guns would find their way into the hands of criminals and lunatics...

 Possibly.

To be without defense, one is defenseless.

 If one were armed, and has the knowledge and courage to stand forward, take deliberate aim and pull the trigger maybe we would not have a Columbine High School massacre or a Tucson massacre or a Aurora massacre or  now the murder of twenty-six children and adults in Newtown, Connecticut. 

Yes, I’m all for the banning of assault rifles and stricter rules for the purchase and/or transfer of new or used guns.  But let’s face it! No matter how strict our gun laws, criminals will always find a means to obtain a weapon!

As for lunatics?

The next lunatic may live next door to you.

The next lunatic may be the sweetest kid in the world… Until he becomes a crazed, killing lunatic.

Yes! Where needed strengthen gun laws.

But, yes, if there is not full school day security let the school principle or the Phys Ed coach/teacher or an ex-military person in each school be trained and certified to maintain a weapon within easy reach as this may be the only means to stop the next "Sandy Hook."

Statistics show that gun free zones around the world are always where the most innocent human lives are slaughtered. The same statistics show that people forced into unarmed helplessness will always be victims of violent crime. Two million Americans defend themselves with privately owned firearms every year and there is an instance of another school incident where the principal halted a similar disaster by retrieving a handgun from his vehicle.

Where there is a lunatic with the will to kill, all the laws in the world will not stop the attempt.

To be without defense, one is defenseless.

©December 16, 2012 / Mark M. Lichterman