I wonder how many of you know anyone related to a school mass murderer. I do. As a result, discussion of the whys and wherefores of these mass murder events is not new to me. However, there are a few specifics that are relevant to the discussions of the recent mass murder in a Florida High School.
Probably the most utterly ignorant idea is advertising that a school is a “gun free zone”. This is the equivalent of “shoot here first”. Anybody intent on massive violence doesn’t want a firefight, they want a slaughter with minimal risk. It would be far better to post no sign or even a sign that says “Armed and Willing to Shoot” even if there is no ability to fight. At least create some uncertainty in the minds of a killer.
A passive response is not a defense. There seems to be this idea that a perfect defense can be created against assault. The history of warfare is that every defense can eventually be overcome and every offense can eventually be defeated. These various school mass murderers find ways to overcome school defenses. The Florida shooter was knowledgeable of the school, knew when the fire drill was going to occur, knew that said fire drill created the cover of chaos, knew where students would be concentrated for killing, and, finally, that there were only a couple of security guards to protect an entire campus of thousands of kids. In other words, the shooter might be crazy but he wasn’t stupid.
With modern technology, violent video games can be used to pre-plan and pre-test massacre plans. The military uses simulation and gaming to plan for various raids and attacks, and this technology has made its way into the civilian, particularly teen and young adult, video world. The gaming is now so sophisticated that team against team warfare is possible. Then add to this the untended side effects of psychotropic drugs and you have a prescription for mayhem.
By the way, the federal government could sponsor a Strategic Defense Initiative for the defense of schools and mass event situations. The advance of all kinds of survival and situational defense technologies would likely solve some problems and would also lead to another massive improvement in the business climate as it did during the Reagan years.
The politics of school shootings prevents real solutions to the mass murder problem. The left has for decades pitched gun control, but not solutions to gun violence. Their assault on the right to self-defense has turned guns into evil mystical things and gun owners into hateful beings. Their intent is to disarm Americans and place all weapons in the hands of the State even though a cursory review of history shows this results in enslavement. The left with its social justice advocacy is an undeniable threat to the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
After the Virginia Tech mass murder, I called the Attorney General of Virginia to offer some ideas. My basic point was that an active defense involving concealed carry in the schools was needed to augment professional security. Logically, a security guard is the first target of a shooter. He or she is visible if dressed in a uniform and, if taken out in the first stage of an attack, can be a source of additional weapons for a shooter. To be blunt, the idea of concealed carry in the schools went nowhere – then.
Many states, realizing that the “gun free zone” idea doesn’t work, have decided to train teachers and administrators in the use and care of guns and allow them to conceal carry for defense on school grounds. Is this a perfect solution? No. Some teacher or administrator just might experience a mental break. Some student gang may try to steal a gun from a teacher. Some teacher may shoot and miss. All of these are possible but not certain. What is certain is that a “gun free zone” is an invitation to mayhem and useless in the face of a determined school mass murdered.
28 comments
Call me a right-wing nut job, but yesterday’s listening session with POTUS and Gun Violence victims and today’s session with POTUS and state and local leaders gives me far more hope in appropriate actions being adopted quickly to protect our children.
Gun violence is only a sub set of violence. If you were to magically remove all the AR-15s from the face of the earth, that would not end violence or even reduce the magnitude of violence that captures our attention. If instead you focused on those targets that we hold precious (schools, churches, arenas,etc) and created a defensive “hardening” approach to keeping them safe (technology solutions for Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), dedicated emergency response teams with a 5 minute response time, increased numbers of on site public safety officers, improved protocols for day to day operations, improved social media monitoring – which is really part of ISR, etc.) then the gun control argument becomes less appealing as a solution because guns are less likely to be an attractive threat resource. When was the last time a US airline was hijacked by a gun wielding threat?
I don’t have a particular dog in the AR-15 debate. I don’t want to own an AR-15 unless the “Zombie Apocalypse” actually happens. I just don’t happen to believe the Gun Control debate is the only solution to end violence or even a particularly effective on.
I believe the second amendment continues to serve us today in the same way it did when it was adopted. It is intended to ensure the citizenry is completely able to defend itself against the government regardless of how the government chooses to impose its will on the people.
I agree that most random shooters seek out soft unarmed targets. Aren’t the successful ones almost always arrested later unarmed or they shoot themselves?
Here is another point, if people want to point to England, Australia, or Japan as good models – none of those counties share an unsecured border with neighbors who have heavily armed drug cartels. Ironically, the same party wanting gun control also opposes securing the border.
There was an armed officer on site:
http://www.fox13news.com/news/florida-news/sheriff-high-school-had-armed-officer-on-campus-that-never-encountered-the-suspected-shooter
The simple fact is that if assault weapons had still been banned that sorry little loser probably wouldn’t have been able to kill so many children.
The simple fact is that armed teachers would have stopped the sorry little loser before he every set foot in the school. Cowards like Cruz depend on gun free zones to provide killing fields for their hatred and madness. There is a history here for these school mass murderers, and it says gun free zones don’t work.
“armed teachers”?
Yeah, that’s exactly what we need.
No not teachers, they can’t handle a boy with ants in his pants without medication.
Real security !
My childerens school system received! 65,000.00
per school to install a camera at the front door to be buzzed in, then you proceed to the admin. office because there have been installed another door you have to be buzzed through once you have visited the administration.
With the forecast to be 70 today I bet the rear janitorial access will be propped open (as always) along with the doors to shop classes and the athletics.
What is really interesting is that some of the brilliant trolls who have posted here think that one or two armed security guards are sufficient to guard an entire campus of thousands of students with numerous entrances and exits to buildings and grounds. Apparently, to them, superman with x-ray vision exists but was just looking in the wrong place on the day of the mass murder.
You are correct, if the buildings get hot and humid, various entrances and exits will likely be propped open to let the heat out – or the students will be sent home early because the A/C isn’t functioning yet. The leftist trolls here have no solutions and try to distract from any decent discussion of solutions. Disgusting.
The future will have to be an armed force no if ands or buts.
Take guns away yea right , how will that protect a bleacher full of students and families on a Homecoming Friday night Football Game from a IED?
Your comment is strange. We send kids to schools and expect teachers to protect them yet you won’t give them the means to do so. If you aren’t going to arm teachers, then what would you do.
two days ago, I asked you what you would do if you aren’t willing to arm teachers. Your silence reveals a great deal about the inability of folks like you and others who post here to come up with any rational and reasonable approach to the problem. Apparently, all you want to do is gain political points that come at the expense of the kids.
There was an armed law enforcement officer on site.
But please keep talking, and do it loudly. Your POV needs to be heard: More guns in schools.
I disagree with it, but, hey, it’s your POV and everyone should hear the sound of you encouraging people to follow you off the cliff of electoral politics.
P.S. I carry sometimes and have guns of all kinds, but reasonable regulation scares me not at all. Apparently, POTUS agrees.
As far as public schools go;
The Goverment is to provide the security for our children when it is inadequate the Goverment is responsible.
Remember Government is the problem.
The Israeli approach is going to have to be implemented – and the sooner the better.
What is the Israeli approach?
Every teacher and administrator is armed with guns (superior to the average AR15) provided by the Israeli military. They carry their weapons with them openly into the classroom. Their training comes from the military and they must re-qualify annually (?) in a form of military reserve. The reason for this is that the Israelis experienced a massacre of children by muslim terrorists, and they vowed it would never happen again. It has never happened again.
Is this an extreme act. I would say no and many states are now allowing or planning to allow concealed carry by teachers and administrators because they know that gun free zones become kill zones for the deranged and the terrorist as well. I see no reason for concealed carry. Open carry sends quite a message and with modern technology every gun can be designed so that only one user can fire the gun.
The left in the USA depends upon ignorance to advance their ideas of gun control. Unfortunately, there are a lot of emotional and ignorant people who can’t be bothered to think though what should be obvious. Dr. Warren has hit it on the head here.
No argument here.
Can we also require uniforms and Guidance Counselor monitoring of any student social media accounts?
We can ask retirees to voluntarily guard schools to augment the professional security. I am sure there are plenty of very responsible seniors who would happily walk the halls and watch the entrances and exits. You might even arm them with non-lethal weapons like tasers.
There are privacy rights. However, maybe such rights don’t apply to open internet things like Facebook et al. Would make for an interesting legal discussion – certainly for parents of children under 18 years of age.
Just today the air conditioning quit working at my youngest child’s school.
All doors opened up.
The social media is awful for the proper growth of children. They don’t need it to obtain genuine friendships.
Yes we will need more than a couple of resource officers providing security. Today’s High Schools occupy 1000 students or better. If only 5% of these students have emotional developmental issues that they can’t grasp we are in trouble.
Israel has much tighter gun control than the US. That’s what Warmac is advocating here: Much tighter gun control laws akin to those in Israel:
https://nypost.com/2018/02/15/israels-gun-control-laws-can-make-the-us-safer-too/
Israel’s Haaretz goes into more detail:
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/mike-huckabee-gets-lesson-on-israeli-gun-policy-florida-tweet-1.5824374
Fact: Even those Israelis who pass through extensive hoops to get a firearm permit can only own one gun. And that’s a handgun — not a semi-automatic rifle capable of rapid fire. There are also limits on ammunition.
Fact: Israel limits gun permits to people who meet strict requirements of residency, occupation,or army rank. For instance, security workers, jewelers, hunters and West Bank residents are eligible for permits.
Fact: Forty percent of all gun permit applicants are flat-out rejected by the Israeli government.
Fact: Gun owners must renew their permits every year and immediately report any change of eligibility status to the Israeli federal government.
Fact: The US has one firearm per capita, the highest in the world; second is Yemen with 0.29-0.81 firearms per capita. Israel comes in 81st with 0.073 firearms per capita.
Fact: The Israeli government has even restricted firearm access to current Israeli soldiers when off-duty on weekends as part of a successful prevention program that has halved firearm suicide — and 80 percent of the suicide reduction appears to have come from the gun restrictions, rather than counseling.
You know what they also have in Israel? Strict gun control laws.
Gun free zones kill.
So does tobacco use, from the CDC,
“Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, accounting for more than 480,000 deaths every year, or 1 of every 5 deaths. In 2015, about 15 of every 100 U.S. adults aged 18 years or older (15.1%) currently* smoked cigarettes.
Its all about the cabbage. 20% of deaths cigarette related. Not gun related.
The death rate is always 100%..
Texting while driving is now the leading cause of death for teen drivers.. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/be90ec63765e63bc114e7a793826ee0f35f17649c53dce402ad20a9a72ffe910.jpg We need to ban the killer cell phones now.
There was an armed officer on site.
http://www.fox13news.com/news/florida-news/sheriff-high-school-had-armed-officer-on-campus-that-never-encountered-the-suspected-shooter