Woman Who Stopped Shooter Foils Stereotypes

The NRA may tell us that guns are our only defense against mass shooters, but on Tuesday Antoinette Tuff proved that's not true. "In this story, the only thing that stopped a bad guy with a gun was a good woman with a heart," writes Joan Walsh at Salon. In an amazing encounter—captured on a 911 call—Tuff "gave a clinic in empathy." And it's also worth noting, in the wake of the racially toxic George Zimmerman trial, that Tuff is black.

"Of course, the race-baiters at Fox News, who were so agitated about the crimes of young black men a few weeks ago, have hardly rushed to emphasize that a young white man opened fire at a predominantly black school," Walsh observes. But Tuff reached across all the divides between them, found empathy, and love, and helped the man save his own life.. "I can only pray that a white woman faced with a heavily armed, mentally ill young black man would have done the same thing." (More Joan Walsh stories.)