The internet is buzzing today over a horrifying video of a deranged man who opened fire on a Bay District School Board meeting. Clay Duke, a former convict, said he was angry about his wife being fired and that he was going to die. Here is the unbelievable video (you can see the uncut version here:

Much has been made of this incident. Luckily, the only person shot ended up being the shooter, who was shot by a security guard and then apparently took his own life.

And it was because of just that — luck.

Much has been made of the woman seen in the beginning to the clip, Ginger Littleton. A member of the school board, Littleton tried to stop Duke by hitting him with her purse, before he knocked her to the ground and pointed the gun at her. He ended up letting her go. Littleton said she felt that she needed to do something to stop the shooter from the defenseless men left in the room before the police could get there.

Before the shooting, board member Ginger Littleton, who initially exited the meeting, snuck back in and tried to disarm Duke, swinging her purse at his arm holding the gun.

“I knew that he had the gun right there. There wasn’t anything I could do. My plan A was to try to get the gun away from him. Unfortunately, because I’m probably not smarter than the average bear, I did not have a plan B,” Littleton told “Early Show” co-anchor Harry Smith.

Littleton’s attempt was unsuccessful. Duke, a large, heavyset man dressed in a dark pullover coat, got angry, turned around, and she fell to the floor, as board members pleaded with her to stop. Duke pointed the gun at her head and said, “You stupid b–” but he didn’t shoot her, she said.

Littleton said she it was her concern for her defenseless colleagues that drove her to take such a risk.

“Their shield was a three-ring binder and [their] lethal weapon was a ballpoint pen. They were lined up like ducks in a pond. And this guy was very scary. So, I could either leave and I knew something bad was going to happen. I could either leave and try to live with myself if it did or go back and try to at least delay or divert until we could get some help,” she said.

Littleton was exactly right: her colleagues had nothing they could use to defend themselves against this crazed gunman. As you can see in the video, the gunman was there for over six minutes. He was able to walk in with a gun and fire multiple gunshots at unarmed, defenseless men before a security guard was able to get into the room and take him down. The school board superintendent, Bill Husfelt, was able to do nothing but plead for his life when the gun was pointed at him.

Had it not been for the fact that Clay Duke was unable to aim correctly, how many lives would have been lost yesterday? It was nothing but luck that kept those school board members alive.

Now, imagine if someone, anyone, in that room had been carrying a gun. How quickly could Clay Duke have been brought down? Had someone there been armed, he might not have been able to fire his first shot. It’s another example of why it is so important to carry a weapon. In the countless instances of mass shootings, they all have one thing in common: had someone present been carrying a gun, countless lives would have been saved. Gun control advocates like to ignore that little nugget of logic, but keeping guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens does nothing but ensure that they are defenseless when confronted with a gun-wielding criminal (who likely didn’t care about breaking handgun laws to acquire their weapon). Making schools gun-free zones does nothing but set up easy targets for situations like the Columbine shooting, the Virginia Tech massacre, and this school board shooting to continue happening. A gunman can rest assured that no one will be there to take him down while he murders innocent people. Gun control does nothing more than make innocent, law-abiding citizens sitting ducks when a dangerous situation arises.

We should be thankful that no one was hurt or killed in the altercation yesterday — and remember the importance of maintaining a well-armed populace.