The ignorant arguments from the left and the right are why our kids keep getting killed. How long are we going to tolerate this ridiculousness.
Okay, we have all heard it, “We need common sense gun control!” First of all, there is no such thing. Unless you are willing to ban all firearms, including hunting weapons, you have no gun control. If you think you can just ban just AR-15s, it doesn’t really work that way. It is a zero sum proposition…all or nothing. If that is where you want to go, fine. Good luck with that.
If you decide you what to keep “some guns”, then like an alcoholic you have to first admit you have a problem, and you have to take steps.
First step, realize there is a threat. Second, how to stop or mitigate the threat. Rather than the boring and typical drooling bleeding heart response (More gun laws!), the problem needs to be attacked like an engineer or tactician. You already have three million (or more, not to mention the black market) or so guns on the street and several thousand disturbed or angry people that have access to them. You understand you can’t stop the threat due to contingent unknowns, so what steps to you take to mitigate it?
What steps are you going to take to make the public spaces safe? Okay, baby steps. Schools seem to be very soft targets, and innocent kids are dying. What concrete steps are you going to take to mitigate that threat? I’m sure every school says it can’t happen here (statistically that is probably true). The Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida probably felt the same way. But it did. So what do you do?
First, lock the school up tight as a drum. Treat it like top secret information.
As case study, I would offer our own Northampton High School. All students are issued smart cards (I would take that a step further and have them clearly visible at all times, worn around the neck with lanyards). They can’t get into the main building without swiping in. The card is also their official school id. I would also recommend breaking the school up into sectors that require card access. If they lose it, they don’t get back in until the lost one is disabled and a new one is activated.
Sheriffs deputies are on duty during school hours. I would take it another step and post police at the main entry and exit points when school starts and ends, spot check ids randomly. Visitors are not allowed to loiter on campus, period. I would require the police to investigate all strangers. As it stands now, visitors remain outside until it is verified that they have a reason to be there. I would also issue a temporary visitor pass smart card, which can be tracked and disabled at any time.
Another step would be for the Schools to engage in full blown Active Shooter drills once per quarter. We have fire drills all time, why not teach kids what to do if there is an Active Shooter?
It all seems pretty basic, something all schools should be doing.
I can hear it now, “Where are we going to get the money for that?” Here’s a clue. Just skimming from massive government sanctioned fraud, abuse and waste, even just 10% of it would free up billions.
I get angry when these things happen at Sandy Hook or this latest in Florida. Selfishly, I think it could be my kids, or my nieces and nephews or my theater kids that I love like my own. I get so angry when I hear nothing but more vapid rhetoric and empty platitudes instead of problem solving. Are there any adults left out there?
Oh, I forgot, it’s Russian involvement again. How could I forget…the brilliant FBI couldn’t follow up on real actionable intelligence because resources had to be used to stop the awful Russian hacking of our elections.
Keep on Rocking in the Free World…fools.