# Are there any ways to have stopped the Florida shooter from buying guns?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-ways-to-have-stopped-the-florida-shooter-from-buying-guns/809423>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 23, 2018, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-ways-to-have-stopped-the-florida-shooter-from-buying-guns/809423 "2018-02-23T19:24:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 17

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**Author:** ![Tee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@Tee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tee)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-ways-to-have-stopped-the-florida-shooter-from-buying-guns/809423/17 "2018-02-26T04:27:55Z")

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> [@Sam\_Stone](#):
>
> This is looking more and more to me like a story about corruption in the Sheriff’s department. Deputy Peterson was part of an ‘officer in residence’ program designed to reduce response times for school violence. He was given a trailer by the school to live in, rent free. I’ve read that this particular program is either incredibly poorly managed, or possibly corrupt. An audit of the program showed that when those officers were actually needed in the school they failed to show up 73% of the time.
> 
> The fact that this officer was put there specifically for fast response to violent incidents makes his behaviour even more despicable. The fact that four other deputies hid behind their cars and did nothing while shots were being fired inside the school was a sign of poor training, or corrupt police, or a policy that did not give them the leeway to act.

I don’t consider a semiautomatic-wielding shooter to be routine part of “school violence”, and it is plain ridiculous to think one deputy chasing after such a school shooter with his service weapon is a good plan. It’s a wing-and-a-prayer plan, a certain-death plan, a no-other-options plan. It doesn’t matter who recommends it, we have SWAT for a reason.

Rumor has it there wasn’t just one, but four deputies. Four deputies conveniently positioned just outside of a school where an active shooter was, listening to gunfire, which happened over six minutes. This is also a ridiculous idea. And beside the point, because it’s deflection from the real problem of another disgruntled manchild with an AR-15.

Organized, predictable deflection.

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