Amid the ongoing, charged debate over all things gun-related, two tragedy-provoked points keep resonating.
First, an armed officer was on duty at Columbine High School and a nearby (highway patrol) officer was fortuitously available. A slaughter still happened.
Second, for all the obvious help that background checks can be, they can never be as effective as an outright (and re-instated) assault-weapons/high-capacity-magazine ban. Nancy Lanza, the arsenal-owning mother of mass murderer Adam Lanza–as well as his ironic enabler-accessory-victim–would have passed any background check.