Montini: Anyone believe Donald Trump would have run into Florida school during shooting?

When I was a kid there was an older guy at the local Italian-American who tried to teach rudimentary boxing skills to neighborhood kids.

It was a mill town. Sooner or later, a boy was bound to get into a scrape. More than one, usually.

Even so, the lessons in pugilism weren’t nearly as valuable as some of the life lessons the old boxer taught.

A pugilist's life lesson

He said, for example: “The only people who talk tough are people who have never been punched in the face.”

I’ve seen this proven true again and again over the years.

And it was proven true, again, on Monday, when President Donald Trump boasted that he would have run into the Florida school where a shooting was taking place, even if he wasn’t armed.

Meeting with governors at the White House Trump said, "I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon."

Trump said that the sheriff’s deputy on site at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland when the mass shooting took place had "choked."

He called the deputy’s hesitant behavior, “frankly, disgusting," adding, “The way they performed was really a disgrace.”

Tough talk.

Just last week the president trashed Sen. John McCain.

More tough talk.

Trump had his chance to fight

I said last week that a guy who took five deferments to avoid service during the Vietnam War should know better than to attack a man who spend more than five years in a Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp.

But, no.

Likewise, a guy who took five deferments – four as a student and one for “bone spurs” that miraculously healed after he was ruled ineligible for the draft – should also know better than to attack the sheriff’s deputy at Parkland.

Trump had his opportunity to join a fight, to run toward danger, during the Vietnam War. He deferred. Again and again and again and again and again.

If he had ever been in a scrape – ever faced real danger – he would have known better than to judge how someone else reacts. Some individuals simply do better than others. Each of us may hope and pray and even believe that we’d have the courage to act, but until we are faced with such a situation, we don’t know.

One who 'defers' shouldn't judge

And if you’ve ever been in such a situation – if you’ve actually been punched in the face, or worse – you’d be reluctant to so quickly judge others. Or to talk tough.

Would Trump have run into that school building at Parkland?

I can’t say.

More importantly, he can’t say. Not for sure.

And even if he did head toward the gunfire he would not have been able to run.

Bone spurs.

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