I know I'll be quoting someone without attributing it, but here goes: there are good cops and there are bad cops.
On the subject of cops in general, I've seen 3 cops stand by watching and laughing while a guy beat the living hell out of a woman just across from the 96th&Broadway subway stop in Manhattan. I've seen Texas cops stop by my next door neighbor's house to make sure she was ok because her paper was on the front lawn 2 hours after she normally picks it up. I got pulled over on the Whitestone Bridge because an NYPD officer thought my left rear tire was looking a little too flat. No hassle, nothing. One of my friends was beaten within an inch of his life and dumped in the middle of a busy intersection by two members of the San Antonio PD beccause he "looked gay." That was almost 2 years ago and he still doesn't have full use of his left arm (pretty important if you are a musician). Some are good, some are bad.
My guess is that most of the members of the SWAT team at Columbine wanted to go in and get the job done. For crying out loud, this is SWAT. They live for this stuff. And they die for it as well. What most likely happened is that they were given orders to wait, and they obeyed the orders. I could go into a rant about how police are becoming too militarized, but I won't.
Now, to re-hijack this thread.
Speaking of sheep/wolves/sheepdogs, couldn't the Columbine tragedy have been averted or at least severely curtailed if the teachers were allowed to be sheepdogs i.e., CCW while on school property? Would the author of the article at the top of this thread go along with that?
Generally speaking, the police just can't get where they need to be in order to prevent or intervene in the vast majority of violent crimes. Logistically, it's impossible. It is blinding yourself to reality to believe that the police can protect you from harm. That is not to say that I disagree with the sheep/wolf/sheepdog analogy. I am just saying that I am also a sheepdog; I just don't wear a uniform.
If there are any cops reading this that don't believe that I should be allowed to carry a gun, or believe that I should not be allowed to carry the same guns/shotguns/magazines/anything-else that you have access to, let me just say this: armed citizens are everywhere; cops are not. We can be your backup. We will watch your back, just like we watch everyone's back. We are armed, we are trained, and we are vigilant.