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As authorities continue to investigate the shooting of a student and a teacher at Noblesville West Middle School on Friday, many key facts remain unknown. But we can at this point identify at least three important lessons from the attack.

1. Teachers are first-responders:The U.S. First Responders Association defines a first responder as any individual who turns toward an emergency rather than away.

Jason Seaman certainly fit that definition on Friday. The science teacher and football coach was shot three times, but still had the courage and strength to take down a student armed with two handguns.

Seaman isn't the first educator to be thrust into such a position. In February, Aaron Feis, an assistant football coach at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., was credited with saving at least two students' lives. Feis, witnesses said, shielded students with his body after a gunman opened fire. Feis died in the attack.

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Recognizing educators as first-responders isn't merely a symbolic gesture. It's an important recognition that our schools have long been on the front lines in combating many social problems. When poverty plagues a community, teachers respond. When a health crisis jeopardizes children, teachers respond. And when gun violence invades our schools, teachers respond. Sometimes by sacrificing their own bodies.

It's critical that they have the training and the resources (and the respect) they need to do a job that's more complex and daunting than ever.

2. It could have been worse:  I don't write that lightly.  I stood with parents outside Noblesville High School on Friday as they waited to comfort their children. I saw the strain on their faces. And heard the concern in their voices. It was a traumatic day for all who were involved.

But thankfully the shooter had two pistols and not an AR-15. Because the carnage, as we've seen in multiple attacks around the country, almost certainly would have been much worse if he had packed more firepower.

I also don't write that to play a morbid game of "what if?".  The point rather is to ask people to think about the strength of the weapon they're bringing into their homes and neighborhoods, and perhaps inadvertently a school, when they purchase a semi-automatic rifle.

I'm not trying to take your guns away. The U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that citizens have a constitutional, individual right to own a gun.  Even in the unlikely scenario that Congress were to pass and the president sign legislation banning the manufacture and purchase of semi-automatic rifles, the reality that millions of Americans already own such weapons would undermine the effectiveness of the new law. 

But consumers also have choices to make. If you decide you want a gun in your home, please consider carefully how much firepower you really need. Because sometimes the weapon you bought to protect your family can be used in ways you never intended.

3. Lock up your guns: U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler, in a recent meeting with IndyStar's Editorial Board, noted the alarming frequency with which guns are stolen from their owners and then used to commit violence in Indianapolis.

In 2016, researchers at Harvard and Northeastern universities found that at least 300,000 guns are stolen each year in the United States. Many are later used in other crimes.

Minkler and local police recently have been trying to alert gun owners about the importance of properly securing their weapons. The message: Don't leave guns in your vehicle, where thieves can break in to steal them. Invest in a gun safe for your home. Make sure children don't have access to the safe's key or combination.

We don't yet know how the Noblesville student obtained the guns he used on Friday. But we can surmise that he didn't go into a gun shop to buy them himself. Instead, he may well have obtained the weapons without the knowledge or permission of the owner.

If you own a gun, be responsible. Lock it up.  

And help prevent more families from suffering from the kind of terror that hit so many children, parents and educators on Friday in Noblesville.


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