“The armed assailant doesn’t plan on you fighting back. He plans on having a gun, doing all the shooting, and you’re just a sitting duck. Well, the ducks need to shoot back.”
With the astounding rate of crazed killers engaging in active-shooter incidents across our beloved nation, citizens are indeed in positions whereby carrying a firearm enables them to preempt or abbreviate any potential attacks upon themselves or others. As a tough-as-nails Florida sheriff put it: “Ducks need to shoot back” and he exemplified that message at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida.
No, it’s not Southeastern University’s mascot or anything like that, just a reference to “sitting ducks” in the crosshairs of a perpetrator’s gun, intent on mowing down throngs of people without resistance. Many active-shooter episodes we’ve witnessed across TV screens, Facebook scrolls, and print media are rife with misery and mayhem. Amid the chaos can be one or more embedded citizens whose exercised right to bear arms can abate such travesties. But how, especially since firearms on campus is illegal?
Well, a Florida sheriff stepped-up and launched a pilot program to teach self-defense, indoctrinate faculty and staff in handling active shooter-based scenarios, while also respecting state law by extending the power and authority vested in him by the State of Florida.
A legitimized method to comply with state law regarding prohibition of firearms on campuses, the chief law enforcement official in Polk County, Florida sort of knighted participating professors and staff. He dubbed them “Special deputy sheriffs,” swearing-in and granting each the legal authority to carry firearms and engage the monstrous malignancy of an active shooter. Special deputy sheriffs are essentially auxiliary, volunteer personnel without the compensation and/or full-fledged rigors required by full-active deputy sheriffs. In this case, special deputy sheriff’s will be seen in classrooms and around campus, much like a school resource officer…minus the typical accoutrements of a cop.
Dubbed the Sentinel Program, it is championed by widely-known tell-it-like-it-is Florida Sheriff Grady Judd who leads the Polk County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) in west-central Florida. Hand-selected and highly capable law enforcement deputies duly certified in firearms instruction provide all that is necessary to potentially abate a campus catastrophe the likes of Columbine and Sandy Hook.
Speaking to media about the Sentinel Program, Sheriff Judd issued a “call to arms.” According to a Fox13News.com report, Sheriff Judd said “The armed assailant doesn’t plan on you fighting back. He plans on having a gun, doing all the shooting, and you’re just a sitting duck. Well, the ducks need to shoot back.” There’s no quackery in his statement whatsoever. And Southeastern University administration was open-arms to becoming armed and specially deputized to fulfill the mission, should evil lurk near or on campus.
Words of a Warrior
Sheriff Judd is regaled for pointedly punctuating his remarks to media or anyone else, leaving no gray areas. In what became national news in 2006, Sheriff Judd’s candid retort elicited mostly praise from citizens and wide-acclaim from law enforcers around the nation.
Standing at a podium forested with media microphones during a post-shooting press conference in September 2006, one reporter slyly inquired as to why Sheriff Judd’s deputies shot a cop-killer 68 times. With rapid-fire readiness, Judd replied concisely, “That’s all the bullets we had.”
His perspectives and do-what-you-gotta-do commentary garners praise and a national fan base. Some police colleagues of mine glorify Sheriff Judd and derive immense pride working for him and many Polk County citizens who appreciate that caliber of firebrand lawman. It is reassuring to hear a law enforcement leader stand behind his deputies, as Sheriff Judd does without fail. In this Fox13News press statement, he makes it emphatically clear how he cares not for “political correctness” but for doing the right thing lawfully, unequivocally, including eliminating deadly threats to lives of Polk County citizens and/or law enforcement officers.
In September 2006, a gunman fled a traffic stop in Polk County. K9 Deputy Vernon Matthew “Matt” Williams and his dog, “DiOGi” pursued the suspect on foot. Pursuant to an exchange of bullets, Deputy William and DiOGi were killed. The cop-killer fled again. In a massive manhunt, SWAT officers located the suspect concealed under a bunch of brush and overgrowth. The bad guy came out blasting. What followed was a massive presence of cops who, after commanding the assailant to surrender, engaged in a gun battle. In that exchange of bullets, it was ultimately determined that the suspect perished from 68 bullet wounds fired by law enforcement.
In subsequent press briefings, Sheriff Judd said, “I suspect the only reason 110 rounds was all that was fired was that’s all the ammunition they had.” And that is Judd’s classic and unmistakable way of exuding leadership for which he is labeled “a cop’s cop.”
The aforementioned incident transpired in Lakeland, Florida, the same city in which Southeastern University now has trained and deputized professors and support staff to preclude active-shooter possibilities. Incidentally, the final moments of this incident culminated in the suspect’s death on the fringe of several public school campuses. The elementary schools were placed on lockdown and, had the bad guy gotten into any school classes, one can imagine the realization of macabre intent. These and similar scenarios define why the Sentinel Program is imperative, despite the ongoing controversy and debate surrounding armed teachers.
Hoping to have the message behind the Sentinel Program spread across the nation, Judd says “If you’re not afraid of a gun, get one. Become proficient. Get a concealed firearms license and carry it. And if you need to shoot somebody, shoot ‘em a lot.” As a Fox News reporter said of those comments, “That is classic Judd.”
For the purpose of legitimizing Southeastern University professors’ firearm possession on campus, Sheriff Judd conferred the authority of his agency to grant rights for teachers/staff to bear arms with a focused intent on preventing active-shooter instances. My only reservation is, should something go awry, will liabilities attach to the PCSO and, by extension, tax payers? I am not opposed to the Sentinel Program. I implore firearm legitimacy and proficiency. As a risk management-minded individual, I assume contingencies are considered.
I am assured and confident in a NRATV video titled “Trained, Armed, Ready,” affording a portrayal of actual Southeastern University faculty and staff being trained by Polk County Sheriff’s Office deputies adept in firearms handling and proficiency. After viewing the NRA video, what do you think about the philosophies factoring into the Sentinel Program?
As Sheriff Judd qualified, special deputy sheriffs are not being given authority to be police on campus. Instead, a narrowed scope engenders reaction only if/when responding to “the active assailant, the active shooter, on the campus” Sheriff Judd articulated.
We are at the stage of societal evolution (devolution?) where a publication called Campus Safety Magazine is now among other trade industry journals. Its publisher is currently offering a free Active-Shooter Threat Assessment Checklist geared toward law enforcement. For the Special deputy sheriffs empowered by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the checklist sheet could very well supplement Sheriff Judd’s Sentinel Program training…but I do not think it necessary knowing how he and his deputies are thoroughly on-point in the active-shooter Sentinel training endeavor.
Sheriff Judd’s calculus is rather simple: “You’re a moron if you post a sign that says ‘gun-free zone’. Does that make you feel good?” he asked incredulously.
Loved-one in college or not, how do you feel about the Sentinel Program concept?
