{"id":88906,"date":"2018-02-23T13:55:05","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T18:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/?p=88906"},"modified":"2018-02-23T13:55:05","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T17:47:45","slug":"armed-deputy-florida-murderer-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/armed-deputy-florida-murderer-killed\/","title":{"rendered":"Armed Deputy Took Cover at Florida High School While Murderer Killed 17"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Armed<\/a>

Deputy Scot Peterson (Photo: Fox News<\/em>)<\/p><\/div>\n

Sometimes the solutions to complex problems are painfully simple.<\/p>\n

As the days drag on following one of the deadliest school shootings in American history, the missteps and cowardice of local and federal law enforcement agents have begun to surface.<\/p>\n

Topping the list is Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson, who took cover outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School while inside a deranged young man took the lives of 17 people.<\/p>\n

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel revealed the news at a press conference yesterday. He told reporters that video surveillance shows the deputy hiding behind a concrete column on the west side of the school. The deputy hid for at least four minutes while the murderer shot students and educators for less than six.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no words,\u201d said Sheriff Israel, who described himself as \u201cdevastated, sick to my stomach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel suspended Deputy Peterson without pay, but the New York Times<\/a> reports that Peterson submitted his retirement papers on Thursday after being with the department for more than 32 years.<\/p>\n

While Peterson is the latest law enforcement agent to drop the ball in this tragedy, he is by no means the first.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Israel, who hasn\u2019t been shy about using his new national platform to call for more gun control<\/a>, admitted that his office had received 23 calls about the gunman since 2008. He declined to provide additional details, but he\u2019s placed two of his deputies on restricted duty for potentially mishandling two of the calls.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:\u00a0Florida Gov. Rick Scott Announces \u2018Major Action Plan\u2019 to Stop School Shootings<\/a><\/h2>\n

The FBI also received a tip last month from someone close to the murderer who claimed that the young man had talked about committing a school shooting. This tip came just a few months after another person informed the bureau about an online comment from the gunman in which he said he wanted to become \u201ca professional school shooter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bureau revealed last week that agents failed to follow up on either tip.<\/p>\n

The failure of both federal and local law enforcement officials in this case reveals that even two decades after the Columbine attack, authorities still haven\u2019t learned the simplest lesson about school shootings: the perpetrator almost always tips his hand.<\/p>\n

As Sonny Bunch over at the Washington Free Beacon<\/a> points out, classroom gunfire is just the final stage in a long string of troubling behavior. The foiled shooting<\/a> last week in Washington State demonstrates that the best way to stop a school shooting is to intervene long before the murderer pulls the trigger.<\/p>\n

The efficacy of banning AR-15s, on the other hand, is far from certain<\/a> (not to mention unconstitutional). Perhaps American politicians should spend more time improving the strategies that work and less time debating the ones that don’t.<\/p>\n