Nashville vs Uvalde Police Response to AR-15
Dianne Feinstein, MSNBC, gun control activists claim Uvalde police were justified in being scared and not following active shooter training
Last week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, gun-control activists and their media allies celebrated a new report that showed Uvalde police were scared to go into the elementary school for over an hour because the mass shooter had an AR-15-style rifle. The anti-gun crowd claimed this proved that even law enforcement believes the AR-15 is more dangerous than any other style of gun and needs to be banned.
That narrative is not holding up well after the Nashville Police Department released the body cam video Tuesday from a mass school shooting. It showed a perfectly executed, active shooter response that stopped a woman with an AR-style rifle in just 14 minutes.
Uvalde Police Scared of AR-15
The Uvalde news came from a Texas Tribune report on new evidence showing hundreds of officers didn’t enter the classrooms for over an hour because they were afraid of facing one AR-style “battle rifle.”
“You knew that it was definitely an AR,” a police sergeant said, “We had no choice but to wait and try to get something that had better coverage where we could actually stand up to him.”
“It wasn’t just going in guns blazing, the Old West style” - Uvalde police
Nineteen children and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary. Children called 911 from inside the classroom while police stood in the hallway. Read my story last July on the anger from law enforcement over the Uvalde police response.
AR or AR-15 is shorthand for a style of rifle with certain cosmetic features. It does not function any differently than a standard wooden rifle.
One of the Uvalde Police detectives told investigators, “Once we found out it was a rifle he was using, it was a different game plan we would have had to come up with. It wasn’t just going in guns blazing, the Old West style, and take him out.”
Uvalde Police Supporters
In response to this report, the Uvalde police suddenly had a lot of supporters. Feinstein tweeted:
If the Uvalde shooter didn’t have an AR-15 style assault rifle, the carnage he unleashed could have been ended much sooner. That’s not my analysis. That’s the opinion of the police officers who were on scene.”
The California Democrat then added, “We can save lives by ending the proliferation of assault weapons in our communities.”
As I wrote on Monday, the FBI reports were 441 people killed in all of the United States in 2021 by any type of rifle.
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell said the Uvalde police were “terrified” because an entrance wound from an AR-15 is always smaller than an exit wound.
“None of those officers were embarrassed by how afraid they were and they shouldn’t be,” O’Donnell said on his TV show. “There is no other rational feeling to have in the presence of a loaded AR-15.”
O’Donnell pointed out that some of the law enforcement in Uvalde had AR-15-style rifles and said that made them more scared.
“They were afraid to go against an AR-15 with an AR-15 and that was a reasonable fear,” he said.
“None of those officers were embarrassed by how afraid they were and they shouldn’t be,” Lawrence O’Donnell on Uvalde police
Actress and liberal activist Mia Farrow is another new Uvalde Police supporter but doesn’t know that the AR-15-style rifle is not fully automatic. She tweeted:
The Washington Post reporter Ashley Parker has been writing for months just about AR-15-type rifles. She tweeted that the Uvalde police were “terrified” of the “particular gun — the deadly efficient and lethal AR-15.” (As opposed to a non-lethal gun?)
Good Cops Backlash
I asked the retired law enforcement, who I interviewed last July, if the news of the Uvalde police’s fear of the AR-15 was legitimate.
“I don't care if that shooter had a LARS rocket. That is irrelevant when you are responding to an active shooter situation – especially when it involves children,” said Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith, the spokeswoman for the National Police Association who is a retired officer of 29 years.
“There is no excuse for waiting an hour and 20 minutes because we might get hurt. We are not suicidal, but we have to run toward the shots.”
“I think they used a poor excuse in order to justify their cowardice,” Zeek Arkham was in law enforcement for 16 years. “I’d rather use my sidearm in order to make the attempt in saving lives, than sit outside and twiddle my thumbs with the excuse of ‘I’m outgunned.’”
“Doesn’t change my opinion at all. Uvalde guys were scared and had poor leadership,” said Deputy Sheriff Sidney Blair, who had a long career in law enforcement at the national level.
However, retired NYPD detective Angel L Maysonet said:
The Uvalde response was different in that when the shooter entered the classroom, he likely killed all those kids in an instant. There was sadly, likely no one left to save. He was confined and likely had “dead” hostages.
Nashville Police Redemption
Unlike in Texas, the police in Nashville went directly into the Covenant School at arrival. They didn’t stop once as they cleared the rooms, tracked the woman who just killed three children and three adults and ended the threat.
Smith called it “the textbook response and exactly what we have been trained to do since Columbine High School.”
Retired LAPD Homicide Chief Sal LaBarbera pointed out, “If you watch this Tennessee shooting, these officers were armed the same as Uvalde. Same weapons.”
Arkham, who has extensive training in active shooter situations, said, “I’m glad Nashville went in and showed bravery in the face of danger, as the overwhelming majority of cops would have done.”
Smith said she hoped regular people watch the video (above, you have to accept the violence warning) from the perspective of the Nashville police officers responding.
I want every person in this country who has wanted to defund the police and vilify the police to watch it ask themselves, "Would I do this?” Most would say no. American cops have to say, “Yes.”
I want to be clear that the police in Uvalde….