# Has a rampaging nut been killed/stopped by armed civilians **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 14, 2004, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-rampaging-nut-been-killed-stopped-by-armed-civilians/279767 "2004-12-14T11:41:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-rampaging-nut-been-killed-stopped-by-armed-civilians/279767/21 "2004-12-14T19:54:00Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I could cite [Kim du Toit’s](http://www.kimdutoit.com/dr/weblog.php) weblog, but that was ignored in The Other Place. With apologies to the OP for continuing the hijack, but… For anyone who’s curious, the other place is a forum to be found here…[http://p086.ezboard.com/bnads](http://p086.ezboard.com/bnads). It’s a public forum, so I’m not sure what the coy reference is for? As for kimdutoit, as per the request at the other forum, how about actually saying which of the several hundred articles in that blog you’re referring to? ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-rampaging-nut-been-killed-stopped-by-armed-civilians/279767/22 "2004-12-15T03:05:06Z")
Not what you were looking for, but it halfway fits: The LAPD borrowed AR-15s from a civilian gun store to end the [Hollywood bank robbery/shootout](http://www.cnn.com/US/9703/01/bank.shootout/) in 1997. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-rampaging-nut-been-killed-stopped-by-armed-civilians/279767/23 "2004-12-15T03:29:38Z")
Here are some examples. This is from a [Newsmax](http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/12/104130) article by Neil Boortz, so you won’t want to cite it as a primary reference, but it contains enough names and dates that you should be able to Google the source articles. From the cite: > [@](#): > > Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi – 1998 > > After killing his mother, Luke Woodham took a gun to Pearl High School, where he shot and killed the girl who had broken up with him a year earlier. He killed two at that high school and injured seven. > > Assistant Principal Joel Myrick heard the first shot and saw Woodham with a gun. Myrick had a .45 in his pickup truck parked a quarter-mile away, off school property. You see, federal law said he couldn’t bring that gun onto school property. > > Myrick sprinted to his truck and got his gun. He got back to the school in time to confront Woodham as he was trying to leave in his mother’s car. He later said he was headed to the middle school to shoot more people. Myrick put the .45 in Woodham’s face and ordered him out of the car and on the ground. He held him there for the cops, saving lives. This is the incident I was thinking of. According to Boortz, a Lexis-Nexus search for the 30 days following the shooting showed a total of 687 articles. Only 19 of those articles mentioned Myrick. Only 10 of those said that Myrick used a gun to stop the attack. Continuing: > [@](#): > > Edinboro, Pennsylvania – 1998 > > Fourteen-year-old Andrew Wurst opened fire on an eighth-grade graduation dance. The dance was being held at a privately owned ballroom. The owner of the ballroom, James Strand, grabbed a shotgun out of his office and confronted Wurst. Wurst dropped his gun. One teacher killed, two wounded. Who knows how much worse it would have been if Strand had not been there with his shotgun. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-rampaging-nut-been-killed-stopped-by-armed-civilians/279767/24 "2004-12-15T04:44:57Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > Carl Brown killed 8 … So this is one that was stopped by an armed (and vehicled) civilian response. Except that he wasn’t stopped. He’d finished his massacree-ing and was on his way home. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-rampaging-nut-been-killed-stopped-by-armed-civilians/279767/25 "2004-12-15T12:51:37Z")
> [@AndrewT](#): > > Except that he wasn’t stopped. He’d finished his massacree-ing and was on his way home. How do you know he was finished? That’s the problem with these types of questions - it’s impossible to know what a person _would_ have done had he not been shot. ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-rampaging-nut-been-killed-stopped-by-armed-civilians/279767/26 "2004-12-15T16:57:47Z")
Yeah. George III. [size = small] sorry, couldn’t resist. Just glad someone did. ---
**Author:** ![audreyayn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@audreyayn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audreyayn)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-rampaging-nut-been-killed-stopped-by-armed-civilians/279767/27 "2004-12-15T17:48:10Z")
> [@](#): > > So this is one that was stopped by an armed (and vehicled) civilian response. Is that legal? Shooting him can be argued as preventing possible further deaths, but running him over with the car seems like asking to be sued. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-rampaging-nut-been-killed-stopped-by-armed-civilians/279767/28 "2004-12-15T18:05:09Z")
> [@audreyayn](#): > > Is that legal? Shooting him can be argued as preventing possible further deaths, but running him over with the car seems like asking to be sued. Deadly force to prevent a murder is legal. Cars or guns are both deadly force. I guess the question is whether or not jumping on him and hand-cuffing him would have been safe and reasonable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-rampaging-nut-been-killed-stopped-by-armed-civilians/279767.md?page=1)