U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- As the State of Florida mourns the loss of innocent lives on Wednesday in Broward County, I mourn too, but I am also angry. I am angry that the Florida Legislature has once again enabled an evil individual to take innocent lives because the Legislature refuses to acknowledge the fact that that evil people will not follow the laws it passes . . .
In the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the Legislature acts as if the laws it passes will stop criminals. Laws punish wrongdoing, they do not stop wrongdoers. Yet Florida continues to prohibit licensed law-abiding citizens from possessing the tools to protect themselves and their children from mass murder.
Despite the repeated failure of so called “gun-free zones”, the Florida Legislature has taken no steps over the past seven years to protect our children. While the responsibility for Wednesday’s events rests solely with the actions of the evil person who committed this act, it is the Legislature that has enabled such tragedies to occur. It is the Legislature’s inaction that has made such tragedies worse.
The Legislature has ignored the repeated requests of Florida Carry, other civil rights groups, and the law-abiding citizens of this state to give up the fallacy of “gun-free zones”. This body has left our children and their teachers defenseless. It has kowtowed to anti-freedom groups and has blocked or refused to hear common-sense legislation to protect our children and the professionals to whom we entrust our children’s care on a daily basis.
It is a well-established fact from numerous such events that bad people with guns will only stop their carnage when confronted by an armed response. Every second until that response occurs allows the murderer to kill and maim more innocents.
From 1987 until now, every time the Legislature has acted to restore the rights of law-abiding citizens to protect those for whom they love and care, those citizens have responsibly exercised the trust placed in them. Every time, those citizens have proven the claims of the anti-gun forces to be lies. Every time, the claims of dire consequences for returning rights to the people have proven false.
This case was not a failure of law-abiding citizens to act responsibly. This was another failure of law enforcement to investigate and stop a deranged individual. People did SEE something, and people did SAY something, but law-enforcement failed to fully investigate and prosecute the shooter for prior crimes.
Just as in Sutherland Springs, law-enforcement’s failure is being blamed on law-abiding citizens and their legal firearms. Law-abiding citizens cannot rely on law enforcement to protect them and must be given the means to protect themselves.
The time for half-measures and incrementalism is over. It is past time to give ‘we the people’, our teachers, and the parents volunteering in schools the ability to defend themselves and stop these tragedies.
The time to act is now. For years, many in the Legislature have touted their NRA ratings. They have claimed to be on the side of the law-abiding citizens with licenses who, for over three decades, have proven themselves more law-abiding than even the police officers who heroically responded Wednesday. Why then, should these same citizens be left defenseless while they await law enforcement’s response?
In every state that has allowed law-abiding citizens to carry in schools, the citizens have proven equal to the challenge. None of these states have suffered what Florida suffered Wednesday. Those state have eliminated a favorite target of the deranged individuals who commit such evil.
Florida Carry hereby calls on the Legislature to immediately:
- Pass emergency legislation to eliminate gun-free zones for law-abiding concealed carry licensees;
- Pass emergency legislation authorizing all teachers in public schools who possess a CWFL to carry their licensed, concealed firearm if they so choose, without repercussion;
- Provide immediate funding of one million dollars in grants for county school boards and sheriffs to implement pilot programs of the Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response (FASTER) Program in the State of Florida.
Though the Legislature’s inaction enabled Wednesday’s events, errors of judgment can be corrected if good people are willing to admit they were wrong. It is time for those who support the Second Amendment, who recognize that armed citizens are an asset, and who truly want to protect our children, to recognize and admit that evil will not obey laws.
Evil will not respect gun-free zones. Evil will not be stopped by anything other than armed response. The longer that response, the more innocent lives lost.
I am reminded today of the teachers at Sandy Hook who died trying to shield the children they loved from evil. An unarmed person is just another victim. An armed person is a force who can stop the carnage. It is within the Legislature’s power to make sure that if it happens again, the response will be faster and fewer innocent lives will be lost.
As a father of two public school children I cannot wait any longer. I want my children to be safe when they are not with me. I will not rest until the Florida Legislature takes action to protect my children and their friends. If it will not be done by those already in the Legislature, it will be done by those who replace them.
About Florida Carry
Florida Carry, Inc, is a nonprofit, non-partisan, grassroots organization dedicated to advancing the fundamental civil right of all Floridians to keep and bear arms for self defense. Their website is www.FloridaCarry.org.
Why is there a hypodermic needle on that sign? Is that supposed to indicate that the revolver is a .357 magnum and therefore on steroids?
Funny. I really hope they actually vet and train those teachers. We don’t want some Barney Fife / Rambo screwing it all up. (I’m OK with First Blood Rambo, but that second movie.)
I actually thought Rambo (the one from ~2008) was pretty good. The second and third ones sucked though. First Blood was definitely the best.
“Why is there a hypodermic needle on that sign?”
It’s to indicate the enhanced penalties for having guns or drugs within 1000 feet of a school….
Well they should get a better sign. One could easily mistake that to mean that you c an have gu ns or drugs but not both (especially if you’ve been partaking of the latter).
Guns AND drugs prohibited!
No, that is a rail mounted syringe. They do not allow high capacity(>5 cc) tactical weapon mounted injection systems.
End the “gun free zone” myth
Have armed school resource officer when possible.
Train and arm a few volunteer teachers, staff and administrators to conceal carry. F.A.S.T.E.R. http://fastersaveslives.org/
Practice lockdowns and counter ambush skills.
Learn trauma first aid. https://stopthebleedingcoalition.org/
Save Lives.
Drop mic. Walk off stage.
Missouri Legislature authorized school teacher CCW 10 years ago with school board approval.
Missouri Legislature authorized School Protection Officer Training for teachers with 120 hours law enforcement training 4 years ago.
Still no school board approval.
“Still no school board approval.”
Of course not. I would be stunned if more than 1% of school boards would approve any protocol for arming staff and teachers.
WTF is a “resource officer”? Someone that operates a “resource center”/library. Arm the librarians, most have an attitude anyhow.
Very well said! The teachers and school staff are already there when an active shooter starts. Seconds count! Please check out the FASTER program at: fastersaveslives.org.
Somebody please blow this up into 100-point type and plaster it everywhere:
“An unarmed person is just another victim. An armed person is a force who can stop the carnage.”
More elitist commie sellouts like this “republican”. These scumbags are traitors.
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2018/02/17/gop-rep-rooney-ill-do-something-on-gun-control-but-not-necessarily-for-normal-people-some-freedoms-will-be-lost/
Oh be nice. Just because he bought his seat and is a bit of a loony social conservative tin hat type, you really expect him to sand up for any freedoms? I hope you are not banking on Trump either.
I’m banking on trump selling us out the first chance he gets.
Just like he has on every other conservative issue AMIRIGHT?
Oh wait…
GVW 2017 out!!!
I don’t get why anyone is surprised when you have a pessimistic outlook. I often disagree with your perspective, but your name is DOOMGUY. Your gloomy outlook should be expected.
I always liked Eeyore.
I am a teacher and I am very pleased to see the development of standardized teacher firearms training and certification. Ideally, they would work with school insurance companies to remove that block from allowing teachers to have firearms in states where it is legal.
I personally would rather our educators be EDUCATORS.
Asking them to provide security is above and beyond – they are already paid less than a nanny, and more is demanded of them. Asking them to take up arms to protect YOUR children in the event of an active shooter is WAY overboard.
Instead, consider using vetted veterans and/or sheriffs. You don’t need a lot. I’d be willing to bet that an actual armed officer patrolling the halls with his squad car out front would deter 99.9% of these cowards.
At the SAME time, any teacher which possess a CWP from their state should be given the OPTION on whether they want to carry or not. Do not FORCE them to become the saviors.
Lest you think that can’t work – the high school near me has a sheriffs vehicle and armed officer during the day.
Anyone shooting unarmed kids is by definition a coward, and likely easily deterred by the mere presence of someone that has the ability to fight back.
Specialization is for insects.
A modern adult should be able to handle a variety of situations, especially including defending life.
Weren’t there 2 armed cops at that school?
Teachers who are trained and want to be armed should be!
are you retarded
nobody anywhere is proposing any law that forces anybody to carry any gun anywhere
can you please take the most rudimentary steps to inform yourself before you make asonine comments on this blog
youre wasting our time
i was wanting leave my own comment about something else but now i have to respond to yours first
thanks
I hope you aren’t calling me retarded or asinine. If you did, you didn’t say why, and clearly didn’t read my comment.
Asking educators to be the first or second line of defense for YOUR child while you sit at home or work is real selfish of you. Also, many educators are left leaning, and afraid of firearms in the first place. Allow educators to carry, like in Utah, with a CWP. You still need other defensive options – locked doors, armed security, surveillance…
You, and others, appear to have an assumption that if a law is passed to allow educators to carry (I’m all for it, btw), that in every school, everywhere, some educator will choose to carry. I’d bet against that. Furthermore, if educators do carry, do they have a duty to protect? Cops don’t….. Paid security… DOES. So, why not both – educators get an option to carry with ZERO defensive liability (accidentally shoot someone else during an active shooter incident? Zero liability, period.), and paid security.
In the recent shooting, I believe the sheriffs were unarmed – reports indicated weapons were locked in their car, and therefore useless.
Show me where this is asinine and retarded. Offer an alternative.
“Do not FORCE them to become the saviors.” – You.
“nobody anywhere is proposing any law that forces anybody to carry any gun anywhere” – sound awake.
You know, there is a reason that nobody goes to a police station, a gun show, a gun store, an NRA or Gun of American convention and tries to shoot up the place. The reason is they are COWARDS. Instead, they go after unarmed children in places where nobody has guns, or where bullets WON’T be coming back at them.
Arm the teachers and train them! Cowards most likely won’t go to schools when they know teachers are armed and will shoot you. This really is common sense. Simply hoping it won’t happen again is idiotic and blindly simplistic.
Yes it would be nice not needing armed teachers but that isn’t the reality we live in today. The fact is, we do need them armed. It’s a deterrence.
Harden schools, arm and train teachers and take an ACTIVE approach with steps that will be effective! Everyone else who is rich or important has armed security! Rich snob celebrities all do. National Nanny money-bags Bloomberg has armed security. He wants it all to himself though. He can be armed, because he’s got a lot of money, but nobody else should be. Well FU— Michael Bloomberg!
Harden schools so people can’t shoot through the doors and train and arm teachers. Cowards won’t go to schools with multiple trained armed personnel in them because…they are COWARDS!
Exactly.
I’ve said it before, in other forums. In Israel, where terrorist attacks like this–and that is what these attacks are, terrorism, whether we choose to believe it or not–are a daily occurrence, they have to take the matter seriously. Virtue-signaling and hand-wringing don’t cut it when people are dying. They arm the teachers–all of whom are military veterans–and have armed cops and armed volunteers from the local community on patrol in the hallways and on the school grounds.
The schools in Israel aren’t soft targets any more, so the terrorists stopped attacking them and went for lower-hanging fruit.
The next time a liberal whines at you about guns, ask this question:
“When you put your money in the bank, men with guns guard it, and you are fine with that. Why don’t you care as much about your children’s lives?”
I think this proposition in Florida is a good starting point, but I seriously have doubts it will gain traction in all the States, and I see other concerns, as well. In some States it will never happen. In some States some school districts will adopt it, but others in the same State will not, or will not be able to secure enough participants to make it effective. In some (possibly many) States the Teacher’s Unions will fight it tooth and nail.
That is why I believe there needs to be a Federal mandate to all the States to implement hardened security procedures in every school district. This does not need to be a Federal Agency, but Federal oversight of a Nationwide implementation will be required to insure compliance and consistency.
Partial implementation would only create target campuses among secured campuses and may deter some assailants in some locations while still leaving significant numbers of children at risk. Not acceptable.
I cannot convince myself that armed Staff and Teachers is the best long-term solution. It is a good starting point and the quickest “fix” to implement, but it is a strategy fraught with problems* from the outset. Teachers need to be able to focus on teaching and School Administrators need to be able to focus on administrative matters. We need to add to that mix Security People, procedures and equipment that are focused on pro active campus security working in concert with Administrators, Teachers AND Parents.
People might complain about subjecting children to a rigidly secured Campus, but the reality is today’s children will most likely grow-up to work and perform other life tasks in rigidly secured environments, and, I believe, that experiencing first hand these security measures will help children feel safer, more secure and be better prepared for adulthood.
Most importantly, though, I firmly believe that hardened Campuses with dedicated Security personnel and procedures is the only way to best insure the safety of America’s children.
* I think a big concern is that Teachers and Administrators would always be in a reactive defensive position. Attackers have consistently succeeded in their initial onslaught because the attack is a surprise and the attacker has chosen the time and place to initiate. With a dedicated Security Team, sufficient hardening of access points and effective patrol/observation practices, the intended attacker is denied the advantage of choosing the timing and launch point of the attack. Further, the intended victims can be warned in advance of any onslaught, which in and of itself would save lives and reduce injuries.
The attacker is always going to have the initial advantage. At some point security is counter productive. There are many ways to get around any security measures you put in place if you goal is to kill a lot of people. And the long term effects of ingraining the idea that only the government can keep you safe on a generation of kids is terrifying. I think the idea that a teacher has the ability and tools to protect is a much better lesson.
The idea of armed Teachers as the best defense for children in schools will never be implemented in the majority of school districts. Probably, not even in Florida. You are clinging to an idea that sounds good because that’s what you want to believe. It will never gain wide acceptance and where it does it will be unreliable and inconsistent in many cases.
Placing children in a secured environment is not teaching them only the Government can protect them. In case you hadn’t noticed secured businesses, public buildings, mass transportation and entertainment events are becoming more and more common and quickly expanding. Soon enough, they will be a “fact of life”.
An attacker who is contacted and stopped before he/she enters the campus grounds most certainly loses his/her advantage of surprise.
No security system is 100% fool-proof, but any security system is better than none, and one in place can be improved and upgraded. Personally, I expect nothing will be done and we’ll be mourning more dead children a few times again in 2018.
Americans say their children are their most precious “possession”, but do nothing serious to defend them. Sub 18 year-olds cannot own firearms legally nor carry them in public places, if we adults won’t do it then apparently those children aren’t so precious after all.
Why would the attacker even have to enter the campus? The only things those defensive measures are good for is keeping some kid (who doesn’t want to kill everyone) from bringing a knife or gun to school or a sporting event. I have yet to see any real effective security for preventing a mass murder in my daily life short of a prison, but if the security theater makes people feel better and protects our rights, knock yourself out. (And yes, I will admit that the anti-hijacking security is better, but if I’m ever killed taking a flight I don’t think it will be in the air)
At Columbine, VA Tech, Sandy Hook and Parkland the attacker most certainly did enter the Campus, as well as a few others. In Santa Barbara and Las Vegas the attacker did not.
I like your phrase “security theater” and I mean that sincerely. Some of it is just that. The fact still remains that security theater is becoming more and more common, except, of course, where school children are theoretically being educated.
The City of Los Angeles has implemented fairly rigid school campus perimeter security, including metal detectors, dedicated Officers and suchlike, yet last week a girl sneaked a pistol onto Campus in a backpack, dropped the backpack and the gun discharged wounding a male student in the head and another female student in the wrist. It’s like Old Lodge Skins said, “Well sometimes the magic works. Sometimes it doesn’t.”
Nonetheless, you will see more and more perimeter and building access hardened security in the years to come. Even Churches are organizing volunteer Security Teams utilizing Congregation Members with CCW permits.
Just tonight, my county sheriff, none other than Grady ‘Because they ran out of bullets’ Judd was on the news stating unequivocally that police response is far too slow to do *anything* to stop an active shooter, and that the only solution is to have someone, *anyone*, with a gun at the scene to stop the shooter.
I fully expect to see legislation introduced to allow armed security in schools.
I also fully expect to see the Leftists shriek like banshees when it happens.
As Derry mentioned above, it’s a simple choice, do they love their children, or do do they love their fantasy of a ‘gun-free zone’ more?
It’s time to call their asses out on their bluff of them ‘loving children’…
Cottonmouths are venomous, a law should be passed against cotton
Now, now, we have no idea how many school shootings have been prevented because the guy who wanted to murder a bunch of kids decided that he didn’t want to commit a felony.
…wait a sec…
(snicker)
Reminds me of the comment others have made about the spree killer who is armed to the hilt and barges up to the front door — only to walk away dejected and defeated because there was a “no firearms” sign on the door.
i have an idea
what if the fbi focused on using its vast investigative and surveillance powers against only actual potential criminals who want to wreak havoc and create carnage instead of its political enemies
they complain about russia russia russia but then do everything in their power to act just like the kgb
were watching
were not stupid
this was a watershed event
we need no more evidence at this point to reach the logical conclusion that the entire doj in general and the fbi in particular is either hopelessly corrupt or inept or a combination of both and is therefore not worth keeping in place without major major reform
that would include firing everybody anywhere near the top of the heap
nobody can stay
theyre all tainted
“this was a watershed event” – I doubt it.
Arm resource officers with rifles and train the. so they can take on mass shooters.
DON’T give teachers weapons. Teachers should focus on teaching and if they get absent minded and lose a weapon or have an ND, they is a far more probable threat than the remote possibility of a school shooting.
SurfGW,
Bologna. The simple way to guarantee — yes I said GUARANTEE — that there are ZERO negligent discharges:
(1) carry ON BODY
(2) in a SECURE HOLSTER THAT SECURELY FITS/RETAINS their firearm
(3) and insist that teachers keep their hands off unless there is an attack.
As for the concern that armed teachers will leave their firearms in bathrooms, there is a simple way to guarantee — yes I said GUARANTEE — that there are ZERO firearms left in bathrooms:
(1) install hinged shelves IN EVERY toilet stall
(2) which BLOCK THE STALL DOOR when opened
(3) and insist that teachers place their handgun on that shelf.
They cannot possibly forget their handgun in the toilet stall because it literally blocks their ability to exit the stall.
This isn’t rocket science.
YES. A two men popo “SWAT” team in each classroom. With M4/M320. A level 4 vest and PASGT for every kiddy. THATS what we need to teach them.
Every reasonable sounding objection to carry as a solution to mass shootings is a bunch of if that people have a hard time proving because the ifs have never happened.
Attempts to solve the human condition and the evil in the hearts of some by passing laws restricting the tools by which they can act on the evil in their heart will forever be futile.
The penalty for premeditated murder is a lot more severe than entering a gun free zone with a firearm.
Florida was invaded by liberal New Yorkers over many years. Just as Washington State and Oregon were invaded by liberals from California.
That is the underlying problem with both regions. The only way to really address this problem is for conservatives in these states that have been invaded is to become politically active. I have met many Californians who have invaded Tennessee and Kentucky and this conservative will be getting politically active.