- The FBI had been informed the guy was dangerous.
- Guidance counselors and a sheriff's deputy wanted the kid committed, which would have greatly curtailed his access to weapons.
- His classmates thought he was dangerous.
- There was an armed deputy on the scene.
- Yet he legally obtained weapons and killed seventeen kids.
- There is no evidence Cruz was ever committed. Coincidentally, the school resource officer who recommended that Cruz be “Baker Acted” was Scot Peterson — the same Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy who resigned amid accusations he failed to respond to the shooting by staying outside the building where the killings occurred.
I live part of the year in LA. In LA, the police responded to the North Hollywood Shootout by gearing up. Any given LAPD squad car has four handguns, two tasers, a shutgun and an M4 as well as two full sets of body armor. I honesty don't blame the guy for not going in - nobody becomes a high school deputy because they want to be a hero. And unless we want to hire a bunch of heroes, we either (A) gear up or (B) acknowledge that a slight chance of getting murdered is the cost of going to school in the United States.
Or de-escalate the commonality of antipersonnel weaponry.