Quite a few years ago, I worked on President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, aka Star Wars. It was a wild time where money flowed and unique, out of this world ideas led to huge leaps forward in technology. What is usually reported is that the SDI brought down the Soviet Union. To me, that is really the least of it. The technology leap literally created an entirely new world and tens of millions of new jobs here in America.
A School Defense Initiative, aka Star Wars Revisited, just might be appropriate at this time of anguish. The focus would be on the creation of technology to minimize the potential for mass school murderers to be successful. Even if it didn’t completely solve the problems of random crazy shooters, it would constitute a security technology leap and likely lead to millions of new jobs in entirely new industries.
The School Defense Initiative is really a third way of looking at the problem that has pitted Americans against Americans. It clearly avoids the emotions of the two sides in the argument by turning to America’s business and defense communities for answers to a very vexing problem.
Can the gun control folks object? They will probably demand confiscation now ignoring a little thing known as the 2nd amendment. This is as unrealistic as “gun free zones” and ignores a very significant lesson of history – namely that a disarmed population is all too easily controlled and enslaved by the State.
Can the gun owners object? If such an initiative were a legislative ruse to get at the right to own guns, then it would and should be resisted. The School Defense Initiative has to be technology focused and as free as possible of political interference.
There is no perfect defense or offense. A determined shooter or shooters will find a way to be evil, but with technology maybe it can be made so tough as to be unattractive. There is no problem when someone like Cruz or Paddock gets their murderous desires fulfilled in the world of virtual reality, it is when the distinction between fantasy and reality blur to the point that mass murder is the only solution to insane anger and frustration.
Just a final quaint and curious thought from the days of radio. “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” Maybe some very clever scientists and technologists can help to discourage evil and see to it that mass murderers do not succeed.
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Before the German National Socialist Party could begin implementing their genocide against Jews, they understood (as all socialists do) that the people they were targeting had to be disarmed first.
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These children in the Warsaw Ghetto probably wished their fathers had not allowed their guns to be taken away.
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Modern socialists believe that police are trigger happy racists, and also believe that only the police should be allowed to have guns. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2ae34fc86d253bbe6a01e2cd03f6fc2cb62d585f930edd7ed0387e89d9ee62d7.jpg
The illogic doesn’t matter. The end is to sieze all guns and give the State control. The people thus enslaved cannot challenge authority or regain their freedom. A thousand years of repression will follow if this were to happen.
Similar picture for the mass school shootings applies.
And the modern global socialists have the same idea. Western Europe stands as stark testimony to what happens when you disarm the people and Imprison them for speaking against their tyranny.
Always love to watch people reinvent the wheel..
Israel had a problem with terrorists attacking their schoolchildren. They solved it by putting armed guards in their schools.
Places in America that have armed security guards:
Banks
Court houses
Airports
Train stations
Office buildings
Shopping centers
Hospitals
Government buildings
Stadiums
Movie/TV studios
CNN Center
Reasonable people: “Maybe we should have armed security guards at schools.”
Brain-dead liberals: “You crazy right-wing nut job, all guns make everyone less safe!”
Another thing;
If Doctors are over prescribed pain killers there is a possibility that some have over prescribed the ADD & ADHD Medicines (mind dope) now combine it with
Marajunia.
I am with you guys on security 100%, now we still have to address the mental health.
With School systems taking the easiest way out by mentally suppressing students.
I know this from Coaching;
Please hold off on medication until after the Saturday morning games, they will be a go getter and more passionate about success on the field or ice.
Have you ever seen a slow Hockey Player?
Am betting that Cruz was on some combination of psychotropic drugs. This is a consistent part of these mass school shootings. The news media seems to duck the question because the agenda is anti-gun not anti-drug or anti-violence in movies and games. There is only one clear agenda on the left and that is anti-second amendment. Everything else is hidden because it blurs the gun issue.
There are something like 23000 gun control laws on the books. Yet somehow more law is going to solve the problem of gun violence in the schools. To be blunt, the left has only one agenda – strip the right of self defense from the individual and leave every citizen vulnerable to the whims of the State. Thus you get todays Western Europe and yesterdays NAZI Germany.
The “whims of the State” as you like to call it is the Constitutionally proscribed process of government. Seems to me that you contend that the solution to not getting your way in that process is to take up arms. I am not surprised, your type often shows disdain for the Constitution and displays their true unAmerican nature.
Supposedly, the State works for us not the other way around – but you have little understanding of what that actually means. The Bill of Rights belongs to you and me, not to the federal government. I am not surprised that your type simply has no comprehension of either the rights or the responsibilities of citizenship. You want to give up your freedoms, and that is your right to do so. But I am not willing to give up my freedoms, and that is my right to do so.
I point out that, once again, you attack without a single useful idea. This is a clear sign that your motivation is to undermine the Bill of Rights and you do so with great glee. By the way, it is my right to take up arms for the defense of self, family, community and nation against enemies foreign and domestic. You want to run away from that responsibility. (It is your type that posts “gun free zone” knowing that it is an invitation to a violent nut or terrorist. You bet on it as a way to attack the 2nd amendment. It is also your type that thinks a heavily armed police officer hiding outside a school is better than a teacher fighting for her life inside the school. You are Lenin’s useful idiot.)
No, sir, you do not have a right to take up arms against someone YOU perceive as an enemy. We have a Constitution and it dictates how conflicts are resolved. It does not in any way allow for vigilante justice. You are simply unAmerican, just like the rest of the right wing freaks.
Battle of Athens, TN. Look it up.
Again, Israel has very restrictive gun control laws.
Yeah. They certainly don’t want their large Muslim population carrying. Check the Maalot massacre.
Does this mean you can get behind gun control now since you are so afraid of the big bad Muslims in America?
I am behind Muslim control. If you won’t assimilate or integrate, get the hell back to your mid-east, Asian, or African hell hole.
Or Irish, eh? Ban St Patty’s Day!!
Or liberals. They hate the USA and have the stupidity to admit it.
You are the one here espousing legislation focussed on immigrants. The fact that you would hold the Constitution in such distain shows that it is you who hates the USA. You are as damaging to America as any Isis fighter or Russian mobster could hope to be.
We deport people all the time. You won’t even deport rapists, murderers, robbers who have no business being in the country. The Constitution is not a suicide pact, although the left is trying to turn it into one by destroying borders and undermining the unique American culture. If you think sharia law is as acceptable as American civil and criminal law, then you are the problem not me.
Umm, rapists, murderers, and robbers get deported (legal or illegal immigrants). But thanks for confirming your distain for the Constitution. And in no case, anywhere, does or can sharia over-ride US law. So you are dishonest as well – surprise!!
Sharia has already been judged superior to constitutional law in a number of specific cases involving Muslims. You are misinformed.
“Disputes over the laws of various religious traditions have occasionally made their way into U.S. civil courts, but the Supreme Court consistently has ruled that judges and other government officials may not interpret religious doctrine or rule on theological matters.”
The same principle applies to Sharia.
Sharia permits the taking of infidel women for sexual purposes. I sure wouldn’t want to be a female friend or member of your family.
As you know President Reagan’s “Strategic Defense Initiative” was a massive failure, but apparently you made some money off of it.
Question: If it was such a failure as you allege, then why did Presidents Bush and Clinton continue it? Under Clinton, it was called BMDO for Ballistic Missile Defense Office. It was subsequently and affectionately referred to as BIMBO in honor of Monica and Bill.
ROFLhttps://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2da0760f51911c7dc8afae267ca03adfedf7074b0bd5bcb90fd058205c34c198.jpg
ROFL https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2da0760f51911c7dc8afae267ca03adfedf7074b0bd5bcb90fd058205c34c198.jpg
Even the folks in the office liked it. Ask some of the retired military about it. Hilarious. On a more serious note. – read the comments by the kuala, Fran and Ollie trolls in regards to this article. They have nothing to offer because they want the guns not the solutions. Quite revealing.
So, yeah, make schools safe. Good idea. Then you need to tackle movie theaters, concerts, parking lots, churches. Or you could just address the root cause.
Also, apparently the good guy with the gun did not engage the shooter intentionally in Fla. Must have been outgunned. Imagine.
Somehow, in your troubled mind, you think that technologies to protect schools can’t be applied elsewhere. The root cause, by the way, is mental instability and insanity.
A cop is not required to sacrifice his life to save yours. In a survival situation, you and no one else must fight or die – no substitutes. That is why teachers, administrators and coaches should carry.
Or we could just do what the rest of the world has done. Frankly, if a trained police officer doesn’t think he can handle the gunman, why do you think a teacher or coach can. And what are you going to say when the first kid is killed by a disturbed teacher or accidentally? You like this sort of thing: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/utah-teacher-shoots-herself-the-leg-while-school
Or, as I favor, we could give vouchers without strings to parents and let them decide where to send their kids – public schools, private schools, home schools.
As far as the rest of the world, I wouldn’t exactly suggest we emulate Western Europe, Russia, or China. I would not emulate any muslim country. i would not emulate the third world sh*tholes in Africa or South America. As a citizen of these states, you can’t defend yourself either in word or deed against an oppressive government or cultural invasion by barbarians. (Sweden’s rape statistics are horrific and violence against the authorities is increasing in amount and sophistication. Just one example.)
Finally, perfection has never and will never exist within humanity. Maybe the best we can do is reduce the damage that the worst of us create – and that is why advanced technology as suggested by Warren’s article is so important. You want to take away my and other people’s right of self defense – I refuse. However, maybe we can agree to protect schools with better technologically sophisticated defense measures. (Unfortunately, you seem to be disinterested in doing so thus I must conclude that you have only one objective and that is to eliminate the second amendment and confiscate my rights to defend myself, my family, my community and my country.)
I am warming up to vouchers just because of this instance.
And those for the argument of the cost of vouchers and debt;
“I could care less about Va or the Federal Government Debt”.
The question of concern to me is “are schools actually schools – or are they convenient cages?” At one time, I would have said that the public schools were worthy of being called educational institutions. Now they appear to be cages to hold kids because society and parents can’t be bothered with the educational component any more. If you give a parent a voucher, they make the choices and they are responsible for them. Today, you have professional bureaucrats called educators who make “better” decision for the less than astute parent. Arrogance and self-interest drive these bureaucrats all too often, and the needs to the kid become secondary to to the politics that swirl around the very lucrative educational system.
Oh they are holding tanks for the State to monitor your childeren.
Public Schools are nothing more than supplemental education. Today’s parent must seek out quality education time with places like Sylvan and Tudors.
My Wife and I would love nothing more than have our children attend Lynchburg Christian Academy at Thomas Rd but that is financially out of our reach so now our childerens safety stands at the hands of legislators who can’t run a Metro , a toll road or even muster up the desire to end santuary employment.
W,
Goverment is the problem.
Most of these Christian schools have scholarship money provided by the churches. You can always find out if such money exists to help you. I know the costs are high, but the rewards in terms of a better and more responsible adult are great. My kids didn’t just go to public school. I had them in private Christian HS and just ate the cost. It has paid off.
The Mrs. is on it.
It would have been nice if LU tuition wasn’t being stopped for LCA students, they would be there.
“He had no idea regarding number of shooters, location of shooters within the building, and who was a victim versus who was a perpetrator. He could have shot the wrong person in the mayhem.”
Yet you want teachers running around with guns. You make the case against arming teachers right there if a trained cop is frozen or risks shooting innocents.
You like to vilify Western Europe but even Israel knows strict gun control is essential to providing for public security and safety. We are the only stupid ones. I don’t want to take your gun away. I want us to enact a modicum of control on what is now a free for all and makes our country one of the most violent in the developed world.
You have made my point, thank you. I want trained teachers and administrators and coaches moving around with guns to protect the kids and themselves. If a teacher refuses to be trained, then so be it. But having responsible plainclothes people walking around randomly creates the very risks that tend to discourage the mass murderers who are all essentially cowards.
As far as Western Europe, you have to be willfully blind not to see the unfolding disaster. Israel is in a survival situation. Every able bodied citizen must participate in the military as part of their national duty. We used to have something similar rather than the now volunteer military. I favor ROTC for every high school kid – not just the ones who want to eventually go into the military. It is good training. It encourages discipline and the importance of authority in your life.
“I want trained teachers and administrators and coaches moving around with guns to protect the kids and themselves.”
Why not just train cops to be math teachers. Seems to be safer – difficult to kill a student with chalk.
OK by me. The new math is pretty bizarre. Maybe some practical experience is needed in the teaching profession. Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.
The Goverment requires my families money for taxes for the public schools , we can’t afford hone school or LCA therefore
HELL YES!!! the Goverment *must* make public schools safe.
Tackle movie theaters , concerts, parking lots and churches , my wife an I will make the choice when and where to attend those places.
School is mandated by the Government therefore the Goverment is responsible for safety.
May I have a school safety voucher now.
Damn strait my hand is out. This time I want the check instead of writing it.
If you want to play the game, become a nuisance. Get a doctor to claim your child has a major communicable disease and needs special accommodations. Find out how to use the system to get what you want. Where I live, the little secret is that 1 out of 7 kids has some type of disability. The disabled kid cost $65k per year to educate. The normal kid about $12k per year. Think about what I just said 1 out of 7. Obviously a bunch of horse manure or maybe donkey manure, but those are the statistics.
The advances in AI and Robotics are just one set of technologies that might make for school defense multipliers. Robots are being used in hospitals to augment the movement of certain medically needed items. One advantage of robots is they are not restricted by gravity – they can hang from the ceiling and run on tracks. In addition, for security purposes, they can deploy virtually any type of lethal or non-lethal weapon – and can overcome an assault by a massive deployment of such things as mosquito drones. The number of ideas is virtually limitless – they just have to be focused on the problem.
Some schools will just have to be updated.
Maybe,
Sensors that pick up gun fire and immediately close access to other areas of the campus.
Trained undercover security tied in with the Senior Administration but not educational.
Will all of this require a Director or Commissioner of School Security ? Will it get the other kind of
Political, $$$$$ ?
I cannot escape the conclusion that the left is not really interested in solving the problem of mass murder in schools. Apparently they would rather scream about guns than do anything that solves the problems.
The AR-15 has been around in its current configuration since the 1950s. Thus over half a century has passed and during that time technology leaps have changed the world. Why so few of these leaps have been applied to protecting schools can only be explained by a lack of interesting in solving the problem and a desire to hang onto the gun control argument at all cost. The agenda of the left is basically evil.
So many things to address with this safety issue.
There are door jamming devices that could be place in each room. There are covers for metal doors you place on the opener on top to prevent it from opening.
Your going to have to train teachers to physically take down a student as in done with Juvenile service workers.
Candidate Barack Obama had security when he visited E.C. Glass High , shouldn’t these students have similar protection?
Let’s give the world of science a shot at solving this. A School Defense Initiative makes sense.
I agree science is one darn good tool in adressing this issue it is factual and does not discriminate unfortunately we have politicians therefore it will not be comprehensive, $$$$.
When President Reagan pushed the Strategic Defense Initiative, he was ridiculed by the left for wasting money. The nickname, Star Wars, was derision. I think under the current circumstances, the left would have a real problem deriding a potential way to solve the mass school shooting issue. The $$$$ aren’t really significant if a few billion saves a lot of kids and generates trillions in new businesses and new jobs.
Where the $$$ have significance is the quality products may be cast aside for an inferior product just because of a Government Contract Award tied into a PAC or the politician themselves.
I have absolutely no confidence in our politicians at all.
First law of politics, when the citizens are watching, pay attention or lose your job. This comes from the old African saying “When the elephants stomp, Pygmies hide in trees.”
Just as 9/11 handed term 2 to Bush I think this will undoubtedly have some Republicans led to slaughter this November.
These youth no matter if they are focused or misdirected in fact will register between now and October.
Two bad no Candidates will be able to say that character and trustworthiness matter, it will be emotions.
Odds are there will be more mass shootings of kids before the election. Almost certainly, sadly.
You are correct and this is sad.
And it will likely be from an illegal alien or a muslim terrorist. We have allowed gun free zones to be the soft targets of opportunity. However, the police and the school authorities now fully understand the problem that has been created and will react. One example, the cops in one location are creating a police substation at the school. In others, teachers are being trained and given the right to carry. My hope is that ROTC will come back into all the schools to teach discipline. Social media is now being more carefully monitored as are really troubled children. If Warren has his druthers, maybe we will get an SDI for the kids
Can we agree Cruz was in the JROTC? That he is a white supremacist?
Why do you think it likely an illegal alien or a Muslim terrorist? Any evidence other than your carrying a hammer with their names on it?
“And it will likely be from an illegal alien or a muslim terrorist.”
Actually the odds are it will be a white male American legal gun owner.
Is Cruz white? Maybe we can get CNN to clarify things. We know he was adopted – but from where? We know he has an Hispanic last name. We know he was on psychotropic drugs – you missed that one. Apparently he had both registered and unregistered guns – he liked the legal gun best. We know he was constantly involved in fights and other kinds of violence – yet nobody in authority did a damn thing to get his behavior under control.
So, you could be right. Sad regardless.
Keep at this idea, Warmac. Let it occupy your mind and time. Do not stray from dedication at putting machines to work protecting kids.
Robots with weapons. What could go wrong?
No problem arming those in schools willing, suitable, properly trained.
Arming machines? Around kids? Call me a skeptic. Trained people, yes, but machines, no.
I favor the use of technology to enhance school security. Not controversial here. Happy to have armed people in schools to protect students, too, but not just any armed people. Remember: In Israel, almost *everyone* serves in the armed forces, men and women alike. Not so here; Very special training and certification required.
Outstanding idea. It gets around the us versus them of the gun argument and focuses on the opportunities that technology offers to actually solve the real problem – protection of schools and more.