Hero Aaron Feis the Disarmed School Guard
Aaron Feis
Most media reports have focused on  his  after-school job as a Stoneman Douglas High football coach ( here   here   here   here   and here ) â but  on Wednesday afternoon   Mr. Feis  was doing  his  day job as a school guard.  Mr. Feis  was legally disarmed by the federal government in  his  attempt to save potentially dozens of children from murder.
 Aaron Feis  was the right man in the right place at the right time  but  he  was legally prevented from using the right  constitutionally protected tool to do the job.  Mr. Feis  was shot on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School  shielding students from a killer with  his  own body. Ultimately   he  and 16 other people  mainly students  died.  Mr. Feis  was truly a remarkable and courageous man.
 Aaron Feis   husband  father  school guard  and football coach  rushed toward the fire and  by all accounts  engaged the shooter Nikolas Cruz soon after Cruz started shooting. The Sun-Sentinel reported that Feis "was one of the first to respond." When the "Code Red" went off  head football coach Willis May asked over the walkie-talkie whether the sounds were firecrackers.  Feis  retorted: "Those aren't firecrackers. I'm going in."
Per Sheriff Israel  Cruz then dropped his rifle and backpack and walked back down the stairs and exited the building. It is not 100% clear exactly when and where  Aaron Feis  made contact with Nikolas Cruz  and we will not know for sure until the sheriff's office releases more crime scene data  but we can make some reasonable inferences with the information available.
Broward County superintendent Robert Runcie is reported to have stated at a Feb. 15 press conference: "We had an athletic director  a campus monitor who responded immediately when there was signs of trouble in the school." Dave Hyde of the Sun-Sentinel wrote that "Athletic Director Chris Hixon and  Aaron Feis  died in the same hallway." Per the graphic in this Washington Post article  the four classrooms on the first floor in which Cruz shot people were all next to each other and close to the east stairwell. Only one person was shot on the second floor. This same article shows that Building 12 was adjacent to the school parking lot. It is logical to believe that  Feis  was in the parking lot ready to direct traffic as school was about to let out. As it has been reported that  Feis  died while shielding multiple students and only one victim was shot on the second floor  we can infer that  Feis  engaged the shooter on the first floor sometime soon after the shooting began.  Aaron Feis  likely was in the right place at the right time to save lives.
So why was  Aaron Feis  disarmed? Lisa Maxwell of the Broward County Principals and Assistants Association stated to the Sun-Sentinel:
What would have happened if Aaron Feis had had a a Glock on his hip when the Code Red went off? Two cases from the last several years serve as pertinent compare-contrast examples.
On May 3  2015  Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi attacked the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland  Texas where a free speech event was being held with about 150 people in attendance. Simpson and Soofi were armed with three pistols and three semi-automatic assault rifles. Despite being heavily outmatched in firepower  a single police officer working as a security guard at the event armed only with a .45-caliber Glock pistol shot and wounded the attackers and stopped the attack without any loss of life. Contrast this to the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine office in Paris on January 7  2015. Heavily armed men attacked Charlie Hebdo where they shot and killed 11 people and wounded many others. The first responder was a bicycle cop named Ahmed Merabet. As with  Aaron Feis  Merabet  had been disarmed by  his  government  as France has some the strictest gun control laws in the world  much stricter than those now being emotionally advocated in the United States.  Merabet  was shot and wounded and lay helpless to defend  himself  against  his  AK-47-wielding attackers  who then calmly walked over and shot  him  dead in the street.
If  Aaron Feis  had had a .45-caliber Glock in  his  hand and had been given the proper training  he  needed to do  his  job as school guard  I am convinced that  he  would have saved many lives after  he  bravely called out  "I'm going in." Rudyard Kipling once wrote: "Every so often  a few evil men must die so that weaponless dreamers may live in peace."
 Aaron Feis  was ready  but  he  had been unconstitutionally disarmed. How often must we watch innocent children die before we realize that the illusions of weaponless dreamers aid evil men?
Most media reports have focused on  his  after-school job as a Stoneman Douglas High football coach ( here   here   here   here   and here ) â but  on Wednesday afternoon   Mr. Feis  was doing  his  day job as a school guard.  Mr. Feis  was legally disarmed by the federal government in  his  attempt to save potentially dozens of children from murder.
 Aaron Feis  was the right man in the right place at the right time  but  he  was legally prevented from using the right  constitutionally protected tool to do the job.  Mr. Feis  was shot on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School  shielding students from a killer with  his  own body. Ultimately   he  and 16 other people  mainly students  died.  Mr. Feis  was truly a remarkable and courageous man.
 Aaron Feis   husband  father  school guard  and football coach  rushed toward the fire and  by all accounts  engaged the shooter Nikolas Cruz soon after Cruz started shooting. The Sun-Sentinel reported that Feis "was one of the first to respond." When the "Code Red" went off  head football coach Willis May asked over the walkie-talkie whether the sounds were firecrackers.  Feis  retorted: "Those aren't firecrackers. I'm going in."
Per Sheriff Israel  Cruz then dropped his rifle and backpack and walked back down the stairs and exited the building. It is not 100% clear exactly when and where  Aaron Feis  made contact with Nikolas Cruz  and we will not know for sure until the sheriff's office releases more crime scene data  but we can make some reasonable inferences with the information available.
Broward County superintendent Robert Runcie is reported to have stated at a Feb. 15 press conference: "We had an athletic director  a campus monitor who responded immediately when there was signs of trouble in the school." Dave Hyde of the Sun-Sentinel wrote that "Athletic Director Chris Hixon and  Aaron Feis  died in the same hallway." Per the graphic in this Washington Post article  the four classrooms on the first floor in which Cruz shot people were all next to each other and close to the east stairwell. Only one person was shot on the second floor. This same article shows that Building 12 was adjacent to the school parking lot. It is logical to believe that  Feis  was in the parking lot ready to direct traffic as school was about to let out. As it has been reported that  Feis  died while shielding multiple students and only one victim was shot on the second floor  we can infer that  Feis  engaged the shooter on the first floor sometime soon after the shooting began.  Aaron Feis  likely was in the right place at the right time to save lives.
So why was  Aaron Feis  disarmed? Lisa Maxwell of the Broward County Principals and Assistants Association stated to the Sun-Sentinel:
What would have happened if Aaron Feis had had a a Glock on his hip when the Code Red went off? Two cases from the last several years serve as pertinent compare-contrast examples.
On May 3  2015  Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi attacked the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland  Texas where a free speech event was being held with about 150 people in attendance. Simpson and Soofi were armed with three pistols and three semi-automatic assault rifles. Despite being heavily outmatched in firepower  a single police officer working as a security guard at the event armed only with a .45-caliber Glock pistol shot and wounded the attackers and stopped the attack without any loss of life. Contrast this to the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine office in Paris on January 7  2015. Heavily armed men attacked Charlie Hebdo where they shot and killed 11 people and wounded many others. The first responder was a bicycle cop named Ahmed Merabet. As with   [TGT] Merabet  had been disarmed by  his  government  as France has some the strictest gun control laws in the world  much stricter than those now being emotionally advocated in the United States.  Merabet  was shot and wounded and lay helpless to defend  himself  against  his  AK-47-wielding attackers  who then calmly walked over and shot  him  dead in the street.
If   [TGT] had had a .45-caliber Glock in   [TGT]   hand and had been given the proper training   [TGT]   needed to do   [TGT]   job as school guard  I am convinced that   [TGT]   would have saved many lives after   [TGT]   bravely called out  "I'm going in." Rudyard Kipling once wrote: "Every so often  a few evil men must die so that weaponless dreamers may live in peace."
  [TGT] was ready  but   [TGT]   had been unconstitutionally disarmed. How often must we watch innocent children die before we realize that the illusions of weaponless dreamers aid evil men?