This Is What An American Hero Looks Like

This week, a discharged Air Force airman with a criminal record of domestic abuse, including cracking the skull of his infant stepson, stepped into a church in rural Texas and murdered 26 people, at least a dozen of them children. Americans broke out into their usual arguments over gun control and whether “thoughts and prayers” are helpful; we argued over politicizing tragedy and legislating away rights.

But each time an evil human being decides to attack innocents, it isn’t the Twitter battles that stand between the monsters and children. It’s heroes. It’s men like Stephen Willeford.