To begin this article, I’d first like to offer my deepest condolences to the family, friends, and acquaintances of those who had their lives taken in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, May 24. These lives were senselessly taken, and my heart is broken that this occurred.

I’ve been wanting to write something up on this for weeks now, but I wanted to wait until a bit more information was available before I gave commentary on initially reporting that is often false or misleading. I feel comfortable now that enough credible and accurate information is available to take a critical look at some of the actual facts about this case and to provide a brief commentary on what we (believe) we know.

In this article, I’d really like to consider things such as the police response and discuss whether the police truly do have the legal responsibility to enter an environment such as this. I’d also like to honor those who were lost and opine on things we as a society can do to help ensure violent incidents like this don’t occur with such frequency in our schools.

Background

Those of you who are faithful members of SOFREP.com likely already know that my professional background is in law enforcement (my last two years as a police officer were as an SRO) and that I am currently the director of safety for a school district in the suburb of a large midwestern city. In other words, every side of this tragedy hits me hard, both personally and professionally.