The recent increase in on school shootings should disturb everyone. These are our children, our future. So let’s look at school shootings and the truth about teenage safety . . .
Guns are inanimate objects. If we’re really worried about our teenagers’ safety we’d ban another inanimate object: cell phones. Check out these the stats [via edgarsnyder.com]:
– 11 teens die every day as a result of texting while driving.
– According to an AAA poll, 94% of teen drivers acknowledge the dangers of texting and driving, but 35% admitted to doing it anyway.
– 21% of teen drivers involved in fatal accidents were distracted by their cell phones.
– Teen drivers are 4x more likely than adults to get into car crashes or near-crashes when talking or texting on a cell phone.
Texting while driving injuries and deaths are so routine that the mainstream media pays zero attention to the subject.
As do hundreds of thousands of teens. Because guns are scarier than phones and cars. Teens don’t look at their phone and think “this thing could kill me.” The thought process they apply to firearms.
Adults are supposed to be more responsible, more rational. For the same of argument let’s leave the more lethal threats to our children and examine the school shooting problem like adults, responsibly and rationally.
If you truly want to address violence directed at our children you have to discuss mental health.
The vast majority of school shootings begin — and end — with mental illness. Lanza, Holmes, Cruz were all school shooters whose serious mental illness was known to parents, neighbors, administrators, classmates, therapists and yes, the police. And yet nothing was done to remove them from society, to protect them and our children.
Gun violence restraining orders are designed to remove guns from identified threats — as if killers can’t get guns elsewhere (Lanza shot his mother and stole her guns) or use other methods to kill (the Columbine slaughter was a bomb plot).
You want to talk about safety from school shooters? Identify the threat and defuse it. Not disarm. Defuse. As in remove the threat. Isolate it. Contain it. There has to be due process, of course. But something has to be done.
Don’t get me wrong: the rash of school shootings has forced parents, neighbors, administrators, classmates, therapists and the police to become proactive. But again, “see something, say something” has to become “see something, do something.” Something effective.
But we can’t ignore on the other end of the threat, when our safety systems fail. Because all systems fail. [ED: gun control.] The answer: eliminate schools as “gun free zones” to provide immediate and effective countermeasures.
Truth be told, you cannot rely on armed law enforcement to counter a lethal threat in every school. That’s mathematically and financially impossibility. Where will they come from, who will pay for them and how will the vacuum created affect the very communities of these schools?
Equally, every poll shows that the vast majority of teachers don’t want to carry a gun in school. Nor do they want their fellow teachers or administrators armed.
As a firearms instructor I can assure you: anyone who doesn’t want to be armed shouldn’t be armed.
As for anti-gun teachers banning willing colleagues from being armed, no. Teachers and administrators who want to be armed to defend innocent life should not have their right to keep and bear arms infringed by antis. That’s counter-productive. And unconstitutional.
Former USAF Officer Bill Stein nails it:
I have the right to speak freely in the public square. Someone hearing that speech does not infringe on their rights. They have the right to listen to something else. They have the right to leave the area in which I am speaking (assuming it is a public place). They even have the right to express a differing opinion. But they do not have the right to silence my speech simply because they don’t like it, or they don’t want to hear it.
Substitute the right to keep and bear arms for the right to speak freely, and there you have it.
The bottom line: unless we address the issues discussed here, unless we identify and remove dangerous individuals from society, unless we have a fail-safe measure in place when that doesn’t work, we’re not serious about wanting to protect our children. In case you didn’t know.
There IS no increase in school shootings, or mass shootings for that matter. These events are about as common over the past 18 years as they were in the 1990s.
Bingo. Therefore I’m not particularily “concerned” about it. I am concerned about rampant progtards using the agenda item to advice their fascist agenda in the US. And their manipulation of the addle brained.
Thank God you replied to the authors FALSE narrative. We in the gun community are our worst enemy. We buy into the LEFTIST talking points and repeat them to each other. I would like TTAG to post a correction or post an article telling the TRUTH.
For now check out Harvard researcher David Ropeik’s article in the Washington Post just a couple of days ago….
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/school-shootings-are-extraordinarily-rare-why-is-fear-of-them-driving-policy/2018/03/08/f4ead9f2-2247-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?
According to a recent NPR article, school shootings are actually less common than they were in the 90s. The difference is that none of them in the 90s had the body count of Newtown or Parkland. Also, the national news wasn’t 24/7 ubiquitous then, so we hear more about all these things than anyone ever used to.
aside of the Simson trial , the death of Michael Jackson, and a few others … How many ‘news events ” lasted beyond 2 weeks in each news cycle ?
answer;
a bunch of shootings that the anti gunners have played on for 5 weeks + this time . CAN ANYONE REALLY SAY MEDIA IS NOT COMPLICIT IN insanity?
Then we need a ban on ar 15 type rifles and high capacity magazines.
No. We don’t. Bans don’t work. Ever.
Simplistic solutions rarely do, usually with dire unintended consequences:
“We have lots of opioid over dose deaths. We need heroin ban! …Shit, now we have even more OD deaths. We need War on Drugs! …Now we have powerful drug cartels, full prisons, corruption and even more ODs.”
Killers will find a way. We need killer control, not gun control.
The UK started firearms confiscations in the 1920s and banned handguns in 1996, this what it got them, all stats are from the “Home Office” and reported in UK news.
“2,034 violent crimes per 100,000 people in UK
The U.S. has a violence rate of 466 crimes per 100,000 residents, Canada 935, Australia 92 and South Africa 1,609. 2010”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196941/The-violent-country-Europe-Britain-worse-South-Africa-U-S.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/5712573/UK-is-violent-crime-capital-of-Europe.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4581871.stm
Kitchen knives are being used in as many as half of all stabbings in the United Kingdom and has prompted a group of doctors to call for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives.
An individual has to demonstrate that he had good reason to
possess a knife, for example for fishing, other sporting
purposes or as part of his profession (e.g. a chef) in a public
place.
“The manufacture, sale and importation of 17 bladed, pointed
and other offensive weapons have been banned, in addition to
flick knives and gravity knives.”
A spokesperson for the Association of Chief Police Officers
said: “ACPO supports any move to reduce the number of knife
related incidents, however, it is important to consider the
practicalities of enforcing such changes.
This was 2005 in Britain in 2017 below
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/
Machete-wielding moped gang ‘mugs entire street of innocent bystanders’ in Manchester
“Knife crime in London increased by 25% in the year to September 2017 London saw an increase in knife related incidents by almost 25%, accounting for 35% of the total knife crimes in the UK, with 12,980 reported cases.” this means the UK has over 37000 knike crimes a year, it has been reported that there is going to be an effort to ban some knifes.”However, knife crime is rising across the UK, not just here in London”
That’s stupid. The killer at VA Tech killed 30+ people with pistols. The MSD shooter used 10 round magazines. The Columbine killers used pistols, shotguns, knives, & pipe bombs in the middle of the assault weapons ban. You’re buying in to the media & progressive talking points hook, line, & sinker. AR15s & guns in general are not the problem. Do you idiots realize the standard AR15 cartridge (.223 Rem/5.56mm Nato) is one of the smaller & weaker centerfire rifle calibers? Most hunting rifles use larger, more powerful rounds. But if you listen to Feinstein & the like, the AR15 is the most powerful, dangerous killing machine ever conceived. You’re a moron.
I think we should tell the little commies that they have to turn in their cell phones and cannot purchase one until they are 21 yrs. old . the cell phones are not protected under the first amendment since they were not dreamed of when the first amendment was written. bet that would play well. Could use the # of deaths per yr. of people driving and texting to justify. ” If only one life was saved”…….
I’ve been saying that all along, no drivers license or cell phone till you are twenty one, kids are killing people like crazy while driving and texting. Also no video games until you reach the age of twenty one due to all the violence. lets not cherry pick, wanna mess with peoples rights, lets mess with everybody’s rights.
If someone is dangerous enough to disarm (and hope that you got all the guns and that they can’t get more), then they’re dangerous enough to involuntarily commit to a mental institution. It’s hard to go on a murder spree from a padded cell.
A parallel
If teacher can not be trusted to control/operate a firearm, how are they competent to be entrusted with the mind/body of an impressionable yoot?
I agree. While allowing teachers to voluntarily carry is a great step in the right direction, I’m concerned by the idea that a school would employ a teacher who either has no will to protect his students, is to unintelligent to be trained, or is delusional enough to think that being disarmed is the best way to protect the students. I don’t think forced teacher carry is the worst idea in the world.
The article is spot on but, since we’re not antis, it behooves us to get our ducks in a row and keep them firmly in place so that we leave the antis as few avenues of attack as possible. As such…
“Lanza, Holmes, Cruz were all school shooters…”
Holmes was not a school shooter. He shot up the Century 16 Movie theater (AKA Century Aurora) in Aurora Colorado. That building is located on the grounds of Town Center at Aurora which is part of City Center Aurora.
Most school shooters being on S.S.R.I. anti – depressant drugs is left out of ALL COVERAGE of this issue ….. why not ban BIG PHARMA DRUGS ?
Because, plainly, blanket banning “BIG PHARMA DRUGS” is tinfoil hat nuttery on par with banning semi-auto rifles.
Yeah, brain science is in it’s infancy but hey, let’s never find out how the brain works! There’s the answer!
Because SSRIs help millions of people cope with depression daily. Don’t be a dumbass just because it’s easy.
I’ve been on SSRI’s and one of the “Black Box Warnings” is suicide and harming others! Altered mental states!
Blah blah police were called 40+ times blah blah. That’s the end of the argument for me.
Those limp-dik pos OT-sukin officer-safety worthless broward cowards are 100% to blame for these deaths and the current assault on gun rights
I’m confused. Here I was, firmly convinced that, when it comes to murders, it is the person who pulls the trigger that bears 100% of the blame for the ensuing death. Now, here you come along and tell me that somebody who simply failed to act, while having no legal duty to act, mind you) to stop the actual murderer from being free to pull the trigger (while being under absolutely no compulsion to do so, and acting solely out of free will and evil intent) is 100% responsible.
What next? Should we make the leap and say that the NRA, or Smith & Wesson, truly ARE to blame–that is, if the actual killer is not? I mean, they did nothing to stop The Monster either, did they?
Sure, I can understand your loathing for the ‘authorities’ who failed to act; Yes, they should be censured, figuratively pilloried, and bankrupted financially. However, no matter how egregious their acts and failures might be, they are NOT ‘responsible’ for what happened, in any logical sense. Nor are they responsible for the resulting righteous indignation. That, too, is the fault of The Monster, who wounded ALL of us, in one form or another, by his actions that day.
The Murdering Monster, the one who killed, is the one responsible, and he will, I hope, be most righteously executed. 17 times in a row, if possible. In several imaginative ways. Over a long period of time. Soon.
Yes, LEOs are not required to save lives or act proactively to prevent a crime, but once one is reported they are required to investigate at the minimum. The Sheriff had a duty to act as soon as Cruz was accused of a crime. According to Cruz’s mother, he placed a gun to her head and his bother’s head on two separate occasions. She said she told the Sheriff of this and in turn was told nothing could be done.
Placing a firearm to a person’s head is assault with a deadly weapon.
As what you say is true, I cannot argue with you; However, once again, no matter how awful the conduct of the law-enforcement people was, they are NOT responsible, nor are they even slightly culpable.
They may be reprehensible, cowardly toadies, but they are not murderers. Even if they had made an arrest, or submitted charges to a DA, the penalties for a juvenile or ‘young, first-time’ offender would’ve been minimal–for example, perhaps a couple of years in a youth detention facility, there to become more highly educated in proper criminal behavior and methods, only to be released at the age of, say, 19–just in time to go to a local school with a rifle, maybe, to get his revenge.
Once again: Only the person who pulls the trigger bears the responsibility. We can bemoan all of the ‘coulda, woulda, shouldas’ forever, but it remains that The Monster had the free will to kill and chose to use it; Nobody forced, coerced, or convinced him to be a Monster. That is all on him.
“Adults are supposed to be more responsible, more rational.”
Jeff…..in case you missed the obvious…..there have been extremely few adults spawned by the last two generations, with the threat of zero fast approaching.
Just saw a news story with a heavy dose of spin:
https://nypost.com/2018/03/27/maryland-school-gunman-who-fatally-shot-ex-killed-himself/
The headline is “Good guy with a gun didn’t kill school shooter” and that’s what the zealots are going to focus on. Not the fact that despite not firing the killing shot the officer was the reason that only one person was sadly murdered and not more.
Unexpectedly weak arguments. We need nothing more than to cite the immutable AND INDELIBLE 2nd Paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. Gun-grabbers can do their worst, they will not profit from it, AND
YOUR RTKABA WILL OUTLIVE EVEN THE IDEA OF AMERICA.
“But we can’t ignore on the other end of the threat, when our safety systems fail. Because all systems fail. [ED: gun control.] The answer: eliminate schools as “gun free zones” to provide immediate and effective countermeasures.”
We can’t stop every stupid MF from claiming that they are “protecting us” but we can nut a few and put them up naked on a 30′ pike for the crows.
““There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”
“The means of defence agst. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.”
― James Madison
“When one with honeyed words but evil mind Persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.”
― Euripides, Orestes
“In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People.”
(Canton, OH, Anti-War Speech, June 16, 1918)”
― Eugene V. Debs, Voices of a People’s History of the United States
“To conquer a nation, first disarm its citizens.”
― Adolf Hitler
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/tyranny
CCW teachers and staff who wish to continue carrying at school are the best option for multiple reasons. That said, offering financial incentive for teachers to carry is a flawed plan. I’d rather have a teacher who puts their own time, money, and effort into carrying protecting my kids than a teacher who is merely jumping at the chance to pad their paycheck. School districts offering training for teachers is great. Financial bonuses will be problematic.
The answer is simpler.
No one can protect you on an individual level. Those lying fucks that claim they can are grooming you for anal prostitution.
YOUR GOVERNMENT (your fucking ahole neighbors who needed a job) WON’T STOP CLAIMING THAT IT CAN, UNTIL YOU OR SOMEONE ELSE PROVES TO THEM, THAT THEY CANNOT PROTECT THEMSELVES.
History has already written.
The sad truth is that if he gets his way, Hogg will kill more people than Cruz. Way more.
HOW DID CRUZ GET IN?
All entrances have either buzzers or alarms activated in central/security when doors opened and all major schools have CCTV on doors / hallways and other common areas. Some have CCTV in classrooms. Was he invisible when walking past office(s) and where offices empty with a student population est. at 3,000? Passed by multiple classrooms and no teacher or student noticed along with maintenance staff? An individual walking down hallways with exposed guns and NO ONE did anything? Was everyone either blind or DIDN”T WANT TO GET INVOLVED AND LEAVE IT TO SOMEONE ELSE!
BLAME LIES IN THESE GROUPS OF ADULTS AND STUDENTS THAT DID NOTHING!
BEFORE THE GUNFIRE!
BEFORE THE SHERIFF DEPUTIES SECURELY BEHIND THEIR VEHICLES!
BEFORE THE DELAYS!
Were there exterior CCTV – were the CCTV CAMERAS operating – WAS ANYONE WATCHING THE MONITORS?
BASICALLY, IT APPEARS THAT NO CARED ABOUT SCHOOL SECURITY – BEFORE SHOOTINGS!
Everyone the did NOTHING are also responsible from staff to student that saw CRUZ!
I’m sure many veterans with concealed carry permits would be willing to volunteer in schools at least until they get their teachers permitted and trained.
The problem is most teachers are brainwashed and the unions are leading the charge on disarming citizens.
Just to make light of things….
The teachers are as dumb as a bucket of rocks, which is what is now being issued to them.
Not sure I think all these shooter are mentally ill.
They may be just be twisted freaks. And evil.
Just because someone does something that most folks wouldn’t do, doesn’t make them crazy.
They may just not give a shit. They know what they are doing is wrong, but do it anyway.
Certainly the case in the Austin Bombings and is my bet on Las Vegas.
I could be wrong and it really doesn’t matter – some POS will always do something evil.
Because they want to……
The numbers are off for traffic fatalities related to texting.
How big is the problem?
In 2015, 2,333 teens in the United States ages 16–19 were killed and 235,845 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor vehicle crashes.1 That means that six teens ages 16–19 died every day from motor vehicle injuries.
In 2013, young people ages 15-19 represented only 7% of the U.S. population. However, they accounted for 11% ($10 billion) of the total costs of motor vehicle injuries.1
I’m depressed. We are losing America, schools don’t teach, we’ve lost freedom of speach( we just don’t know it yet), doctors working for the government, “are you a gun owner” and a U.S. government more worried about the health of a Katookian then the health of America and it all went to hell in a hurry.
The young people who perpetrate the mass shootings have a common thread in their backgrounds. They are “square pegs”, “oddballs”, “weirdos”, etc. What do teenagers do to kids who are “different” like that? They bully them, that’s what. Some of the kids in Florida admitted that Nikolas Cruz had been “ostracized”, a fine euphemism for “bullied”. The people who blame the NRA, the obvious failures of the local authorities and the FBI, and firearms need to accept the fact that if they were among those who bullied a mass shooter, they are like Dr. Frankenstein, complicit in the making of a monster.
Simple.
Until The Return, the forces of evil will prevail in this world. I read the book; there’s no stopping it. Only delay.