Americans Who Stopped France Gunman Were Friends Since Middle School

The three American men who stopped a shooter on a train in France have been friends since middle school.

Here's an argument for staying tight with your old friends: The three Americans hailed as heroes for taking down a gunman on a train in France have been hanging together since as far back as middle school, according to the New York Times.

Anthony Sadler, 23, Alek Skarlatos, 22, and Spencer Stone, 23, had gone their own paths in life – Skarlatos is a National Guardsman in Oregon, Stone is in the Air Force and stationed near Portugal and Sadler is a college student in California – but were reuniting for an epic trip through Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Spain.

Nobody knows how many lives they might have saved when they were on a Paris-bound train and heard shots, spotted a man with a gun wrestling with a passenger, and rushed the guy, tackling him and holding him down until authorities arrived.

The Associated Press reported that the man had a handgun and an assault weapon. 

Stone reportedly suffered a severe cut to his hand when the gunman slashed him with a box cutter, but was more concerned with using his paramedic skills to help another passenger who was bleeding. 

“He’s always been a hero to me. Now he’s an actual hero. He deserves it. He put his life on the line. They all did, and I’m just very, very proud of him. So proud,” Stone's mother told the AP.

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