How an Armed Assistant Principal Stopped a School Shooter

Luke Woodham, 16, school shooter

Dec. 17, 2012 - The nightmarish school shooting in Newtown, CT last week reminds us that lives could have been saved if some of the staff at Sandy Hook Elementary had been armed. One of them might have been able to take down killer Adam Lanza, thereby saving a dozen or more lives. Gun owners sometimes use their weapon to defend themselves or others but these stories rarely make it to the front page.

Sometimes a gun is used defensively against an animal. Sometimes it's used against a lunatic shooting at kids in a school, and sometimes the hero is a staffer of that school. Assistant principal Joel Myrick, for example, who undoubtedly prevented more killings by using his own hand gun to ruin a killer's day. Myrick used his own pistol to stop a shooting on October 1, 1997 at Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi. Time Magazine reported the following:

At 8 a.m. on Oct. 1, Luke Woodham, 16, bookish, overweight, an atheist filled with hatred for God and his own existence, drove a white Chevy Corsica up to his high school. That was already a sign of trouble: the young man had poor vision and was driven to school every day by his mother.

Uptown: Teen Shooting Victim ID'd

One of the THREE victims in Friday's triple shooting in Uptown, Chicago has - finally - been identified. "Tim" now has a last name. Kudos to News-Star editor/reporter Lorraine Swanson for staying on top of this sad story (see her story here). Meanwhile, only The Bench correctly noted that THREE, not two, people were shot in the mid-afternoon incident. (See: UPDATED: Triple Shooting In Uptown, Mourners Gather) Even the police - as of late this morning - were still confused and seemed unaware of the third victim, who was shot in the shoulder with non-life threatening injuries.

UPDATED: Triple Shooting In Uptown, Mourners Gather

UPDATED, 8:30 PM THREE PEOPLE WERE SHOT, ONE KILLED in the 4800 block of North Sheridan Road in Uptown at approximately 3:30 this afternoon. One died immediately. Two other victims ran south, steps away, into the parking lot of J.J. Peppers convenience store. One collapsed, in serious condition, in front of a check cashing store. A third victim, shot in the left shoulder, ran into J.J. Peppers yelling, "They're shooting!" The manager called 911. The Bench arrived at the murder scene around 4:00 p.m. A large crowd of people, perhaps as many as 100, gathered to watch the police investigation from beyond the wide border of yellow tape. THIS EVENING, at 8:00 p.m., approximately 25 people had gathered in front of the murder scene. The young man who died is known at "Tim," or "Tim Tim," and resided on the 900 block of W. Lakeside Place in Uptown. Most of the people who gathered tonight to pay last respects to Tim, one of three people shot here today, were 11-15 years old. There were several drunk adults in attendance as well. Mourners stepped over large clots of blood that remain on the sidewalk and in the gutter to deface the storefront with spray painted graffiti. Graffiti was also sprayed on the sidewalk that said, "RIP Tim Lakesides Finest." About 30 candles were lit in Tim's honor, with a bottle of vodka lovingly positioned in the middle of the pyre. This evening, as The Bench looked on, one young woman yelled at us, "What you lookin' at, why you still here? Why don't you go up the street and ask why this happened!" The answer is not up the street, I felt like telling her, I'm looking at why this happened. It happened because Tim was killed - and two others were shot - by a black gunman in the prime of his life. It happened because parents have not instilled values and respect for human life in their children. It happened not because there didn't happen to be a cop standing there expecting somebody to start shooting at Tim, it happened because a young black man made the conscious choice to kill. It did not happen because a gun decided to kill; it happened because a man decided to use a weapon, in this case a gun, to murder. The gunman might just as well killed with a knife or a blunt instrument, which happens commonly. Tim was murdered today because people like the girl who yelled at me cannot see that their own community honors and respects and breeds people like the man who killed Tim. It happened. We should all grieve for Tim, a man who was obviously in a bad situation. I don't know enough about Tim, God rest his soul, to know if he did anything to cause this shooting. Let us grieve for Tim, his family, the nation. This happens all to frequently. More, with a photo, from News-Star and more photos at Uptown Update.

So Long, Motherf&$^#%@

Big time murder chief dies, ironically, of natural causes.

George Habash is dead. He was the founder of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He died in Jordan, according to associates. For your entertainment, read about the great deeds he performed.