A sniper watches the school seized by attackers in Beslan, North Ossetia, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004. Attackers wearing suicide-bomb belts seized a Russian school in a region bordering Chechnya on Wednesday, taking hostage about 400 people, half of them children, and threatening to blow up the building. At least two people were killed, one of them a parent who resisted an attacker. (AP Photo)

from what I read and hear, a sizeable number of civillians got their guns and were involved in the shootout and aftermath, hunting down the God-damned bastards that murdered the kids.
I think that even if the russian army had wanted to keep the civiliians out they would have had an even more troublesome time with the parents.  As it was, the civies helped contain the vermin.  If my kids were in there it would take a lot for me not to grab my AK and go in there after them and kill whoever got in my way.

I'm convinced that the terrorists never intended to release the kids.  They were going to wait until they had the world's attention and then kill every single one they could.  Thankfully the balloon went up before they were ready and many of them escaped, otherwise we might be seeing dead over 1,000

Speaking as a Christian, I have to say that may those child murderers burn hiddeously forever in hell.  Jesus took a very dim view of harming children- hang a millstone around their neck and toss them in the sea.-- how's that for being passive?

drilled and tapped directly to the reciever.  A few of them came into the US market, but few people wanted to drill holes in their guns.