A Courageous Person...

[kairos12]

snip:

A courageous school employee averted disaster on Tuesday by calmly talking down a man armed with an assault rifle who said that he has going to die and take as many others as possible with him. According to ABC News, Antoinette Tuff, the bookkeeper at the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Center, convinced 20-year-old gunman Michael Brandon Hill to empty his pockets and backpack of ammunition and lie down on the floor so that police could take him into custody without incident.



http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/21/school-bookkeeper-talked-gunman-down-in-atlanta-school-shooting/

[clarice]

1. A true Hero !!!! nt

[HappyMe]

2. k&r

Ms. Tuff is a real hero.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. OTOH, if Antoinette had been armed we could have had a really exciting shoot out and lots of bodies.

The media weeps.

[murielm99]

4. She was amazing, wasn't she? n/t

[PowerToThePeople]

5. Face to face with death... n/t

[BrotherIvan]

6. You mean she talked him???

Why didn't she whip out her piece and blow his ass away? Why does she want to make CCers look bad? Why does she hate gunz?

MS. TUFF IS A HERO

There's so much to this story that speaks to modern times in our country. This man felt he had no one to talk to and couldn't bear the loneliness of the hardships of his life. We're so cut off from our community because we have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and work three jobs just to get by. We live in constant fear of being one step away from total disaster because there is no longer a sense of a civil safety net. This man had no mental health options or just a place to turn to for help, and so he reacted like a cornered animal.

He decided, if he was going to die, he would take his easily-obtained assault rifle, go to a school and threaten to kill himself and others and tell them to call reporters. Going out in a blaze of glory to prove he exists and that people will at least remember his name, even if it is for the most heinous reason. If that doesn't scare the hell out of every parent, that anyone seeking maximum publicity now sees school masscres as the way to get it, then I don't know what. And our only answer as a country has basically been more guns.

And all it took was someone to show him some empathy, some humanity, and what could have been a major tragedy was averted. A black, female, public employee who has probably been threatened with layoffs and losing her pension and the busting of her union and lack of respect by some of the very parents whose children she just saved.

What a sad commentary on our country.

[Myrina]

8. ^^ This, x10 ^^

Thank you.

[MisterP]

7. the NRA's fantasies of being a lone-ranger cowboy gunslinger answerable to nobody

obviously have never had any bearing on reality--any more than toxic sludge is good for you

[ljm2002]

9. No kidding!

What a hero she was! SO glad she was able to calm the shooter and keep him in the office in the first place, and then getting him to lay down arms, wow... Just amazing.

K&R