MCCAIN: Thank God for Nashville’s heroes! I can FINALLY lay to rest dark spectre of Uvalde cowards

Students and families at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee join the growing list of victims of mass shootings.

For the nineteenth time in 2023, a place of learning has been attacked by a deranged, armed assassin.

Yes, these senseless tragedies have become routine. But that doesn’t mean they are easier to handle.

That heartbreaking feeling one gets upon learning of a school closure only gets more acute. It’s more painful because this problem is only getting worse.

At The Covenant School in Nashville, three nine-year-olds and three adults were killed.

Remember their names: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, William Kinney, Cynthia Peak, Mike Hill, and Katherine Koonce.

I hope the killer rots in hell, and I’m sure he will.

I know it’s hard to feel anything other than sadness right now. But with this tragedy comes a reminder that all is not lost. There is still courage, competition, and heroism in this world, even now.

Watch the body cam videos of the cops who arrived on the scene first. You’ll see some of what our law enforcement men and women, in their prime, do every day.

One of the cameras is strapped to Officer Rex Englebert’s chest. The other is carried by Officer Michael Collazo.

Remember their names too.

We now know that when they stopped at the school, 28-year-old Audrey Hale, armed with two assault-style rifles and a pistol, was firing on police cars.

Nashville Police Chief John Drake says Hale was shooting through a second-story window and appeared to have had some type of weapons training.

Despite the danger, Englebert and Collazo immediately got out of their cars, grabbed their weapons, and ran toward the school. Each was flanked by at least two other officers.

‘Let’s go,’ Englebert yells, using a key to unlock the doors.

They didn’t know what they were going to find. There may have been reports of a single shooter. But initial reports are notoriously inaccurate.

Look how they move. Listen to his orders. They are professional and cautious. But, above all, they seek speed.

‘Next. Go,” says Engleberg, after clearing a room.

He keeps pushing the officer in front of him to move on.

‘Come on, come on,’ he yells, constantly on the move, constantly searching for the shooter.

They sweep the classrooms, check the bathrooms and try all the doors. Then gunshots ring out again and they run towards the sound.

Englebert goes up the stairs, apparently two or three at a time. He fires more shots and mutters a curse under his breath.

He and the other officers turn a corner. Hale is there and it’s over in seconds.

One cannot watch this video and not be surprised by the stark difference between his actions and those of the police in Uvalde, Texas, who responded to the tragedy at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022.

In Uvalde, the police did not enter. It is a shame that will never be forgotten.

Uvalde School Police Chief Pedro Arredondo also arrived at a scene to the sound of gunshots. But rather than treat that emergency as an active shooter situation, he determined that the armed killer was “hunkered down” behind a classroom door.

An 18-year-old gunman was allowed to stay in a room with dead, dying and traumatized children for more than an hour while officers waited in the hallway.

For 60 minutes, Arredondo and his men, almost all armed to the teeth, hesitated.

He told them to find the keys to open the door. Disgustingly, it was never closed.

Compare that to the response in Nashville.

The time between the initial 911 call and police confronting Hale was less than 10 minutes.

It took what appeared to be a Herculean effort by journalists and the public to get the details of Uvalde’s failure from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

“We’re not going to publish anything,” Arredondo infamously told CNN in the days after the shooting.

But finally, everything came to light.

“My first thought is that we needed to evict,” Arredondo later told investigators, “We have it contained. … There will probably be some dead there, but we don’t need more here.’

It was the wrong call.

He puts the lives of policemen before that of children. His decisions went against active shooter training, and may have cost lives. His lingering shame is a great disgrace to the profession. Cowardice is unforgivable.

I can’t be sure, but I’m assuming these Nashville police officers had Uvalde in the back of their minds as they rushed to the scene.

Surely they didn’t want to be in the body camera footage, lingering in a hallway, while children died.

Well that’s good.

Americans expect a lot from our law enforcement professionals. They must know that their actions will be evaluated.

However, the police must also know that they will not be unfairly judged. And that they will be celebrated when they do the right thing.

The political slogan ‘defund the police’ became something of a rallying cry on the far left. It was even tolerated by moderate Democratic politicians when it was convenient.

That’s why you should watch the video of officers Collazo and Englebert. That’s why we need policemen.

And they weren’t the only heroes that day.

The footage also shows a remarkably calm woman, presumably a teacher or administrator, standing outside the school as officers arrive.

She informs Englebert that the children are locked up (something else that may have saved lives).

And we’re hearing the story of Evelyn Dieckhaus, who died while trying to pull a fire alarm, presumably to warn her classmates.

Nor can we forget these acts.

After Uvalde, the nation was shocked after the police failed to be exposed. Let’s apply that same brutal assessment to Nashville.

The police did their job, but why was the shooter able to get into the building?

It is too early to hold this school to account, but it is a question that must be answered.

ask yourself. Is there a cost that you would not pay to prevent a similar tragedy from happening at your loved one’s school?

And why was Aubrey Hale able to buy seven guns at five gun stores, according to police?

A source close to the family reportedly claimed that Hale was “but high-functioning” autistic. Chief Drake said that she was being treated by a doctor for an “emotional disturbance.”

If red flags have been overlooked, if gun laws have failed, and if new legislation is needed, we need to know and act.

And the next time you get a chance to thank a police officer, do it.

You may need them to save your life.