Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told “Fox News Live” Saturday that while on the ground in Uvalde, he spoke to a wounded officer who told him police response units were “scrambling” to find a tool to open the school door to get to the gunman on Tuesday.
He learned that the locked steel door only opened outward, “not inward,” making it more difficult to break down.
WTF? That’s normal, commonplace.
Doors which would be used as emergency exits normally open outwards. That is so that a the press of a panic-stricken crowd will not push inwardly opening doors closed, impeding a fast exit.
I don’t know about Texas (or Uvalde), but in many jurisdictions outwardly opening exits are required for commercial and public buildings. I was under the impression that it was in the National Fire Code.
But apparently we’re to believe that Texas cops have never seen that before, never trained for it, and don’t have tools to deal with outwardly opening doors.
Added: I’m a mean person. Witness Uvalde police at work.
(More Tip Jar Options) |
I know Uvalde is a small town out in the middle of BFE nowhere, but their police force is neither the best or brightest.
Not bright at all. Catch the end of this 3 minute video explaining how the shooter got in, and how the police responded.
The context is the cops waiting outside the locked classroom doors.
“Some people are now asking DPS why police officers didn’t try to shoot the suspect through the windows of these classrooms, when they were locked out from those doors.”
Right now, DPS does not have an answer for that.”