The Futility of Trying to Prevent More School Shootings in America
It’s The Atlantic, so gun control has to be part of the discussion. But she’s right that anyone who really wants to kill people will inevitably find a way . . .
Virtually everyone I spoke with, from the FBI to academic researchers, told me it’s nearly impossible to stop a determined shooter; they’re always one creative step ahead. In one way, Dimitrios Pagourtzis broke with recent shooters: He used his father’s shotgun, rather than a semiautomatic weapon—although Pagourtzis made the shotgun far more lethal by using buckshot. In other cases—at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida; at Virginia Tech; at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut—the gunman used a semiautomatic weapon to wreak even more carnage. Stopping a young person from stealing his parents’ legally owned shotguns is impossible; but experts like Michael Caldwell say that restricting the sale of semiautomatic weapons would go some way to limiting the carnage.
“It may not decrease the number of incidents, but it would decrease the number of fatalities,” says Michael Caldwell, the University of Wisconsin professor, not just because he can get off fewer rounds, but because bullets fired from an AR-15 are so much more lethal. “You don’t have to hit the target straight on to kill a person. If you’re shot in the torso, it will kill you.”
Chris Cuomo Confounded by TX School Shooter’s Use of Low-Tech Weapons
To be fair, it doesn’t take much to confound Chris Cuomo . . .
Why couldn’t the Santa Fe, TX school shooter have used an AR-15? A large magazine? Or at least a bump stock? That would have made it easier to call for more gun control.
That was the subtext of Chris Cuomo’s lament on CNN this morning. Cuomo said that the shooting, “doesn’t set up great for the gun debate.”
Cuomo was presumably referring to the fact that the two weapons used by the shooter were a .38 revolver and a shotgun. Instead of being high-tech “assault weapons,” they both employ 19th-century technology, dating back almost 200 years old in the case of the revolver.
Australian army chief orders ban on so-called ‘death symbols’
And we thought the Aussies were made of sterner stuff . . .
The skull and crossbones is linked with “maritime outlaws and murderers,” the comic book characters the Phantom and the Punisher promote “vigilantes,” Spartans encouraged “extreme militarism,” and the Grim Reaper is “the bringer of death,” according to the order.
In his directive, (Lt. Gen. Angus) Campbell said “such symbology is never presented as ill-intentioned and plays to much of modern popular culture, but it is always ill-considered and implicitly encourages the inculcation of an arrogant hubris and general disregard for the most serious responsibility of our profession, the legitimate and discriminate taking of life.”
The order asked commanders to “take immediate action to explain and remove such symbology/iconography in any and all formal or informal use within our Army.”
Campbell’s policy provoked outrage in the Australian military community.
Same grief, different outcomes: Texas mulls school safety
See our earlier post on this . . .
In contrast to Florida, where the deaths of 17 teens and educators sparked a youth-led movement calling for new restrictions on gun ownership, the Texas tragedy saw elected officials and survivors alike voicing support for gun rights.
Abbott, who noted that the 17-year-old accused of the attack appeared to have used weapons legally owned by his father in the Friday attack at Santa Fe High School, on Tuesday was due to begin a series of meetings with educators and law enforcement officials on improving school safety.
“We need to do more than just pray for the victims and the families,” Abbott said on Friday at the school outside Houston following the attack. He said any legal changes considered would “protect Second Amendment rights.”
Concealed carry holder charged with felony after brandishing gun on I-90: ISP
Permit holders are about the most law-abiding people in the nation. That doesn’t mean some won’t screw up. And that the media won’t be all too happy to trumpet it when they do . . .
A concealed carry permit holder is facing a felony charge after he allegedly brandished a handgun Saturday while riding in a vehicle on the Kennedy Expressway.
Officers stopped a gray Honda sedan about 6:20 p.m. on Interstate 90 at Nagle Avenue and took 28-year-old Charles R. Peterson into custody after finding a loaded handgun in the vehicle’s center console, Illinois State Police said.
An off-duty Chicago Police officer reported Peterson was following him and had shown the gun after cutting him off in traffic, state police said. The handgun was found with a live round in the chamber and a loaded magazine was found near the gun.
Masked students rush into school with water guns, firecrackers… https://t.co/KAZOVmgBH7
— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) May 21, 2018