Last night while I was watching the nightly news, NBC’s Lester Holt said that the shooting in Parkland, Florida marks the 18th school shooting this year. With a look of sadness and bewilderment, my girlfriend immediately asked me, “Is that true?”
Holt went on to talk about living in a “new normal,” the implication being that school shootings on the scale of Columbine and Sandy Hook are now everyday occurrences in our country.
“It’s a lie,” I said to my girlfriend. “Or, at the very least, it’s grossly misleading.”
Consider the source. Everytown for Gun Safety. The gun-control organization funded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. That’s where this misguided stat is coming from. What Everytown has done is they’ve cleverly redefined “school shooting” to mean “any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds…”
When the public hears “school shooting,” they don’t think of the Metropolitan High School in New York, NY where a 17-year-old fired a gun, hitting the floor of a classroom injuring no one or Grayson College in Denison, TX, where a student accidentally fired a loaded gun, breaking a window. According to reports, she believed it to be an unloaded training weapon. The gun belonged to an advisor who was permitted to carry on campus. No one was injured.
Those incidents aren’t what come to mind when we hear “school shooting.” But they both appear on Everytown’s tracker. And the media does a piss-poor job of explaining this to viewers, wholly omitting these stories and others like them from their coverage. Watch the video below:
Cynics out there might say, well, who cares how Everytown defines school shootings. Mass killings are on the rise. Violence in this country has got out of hand!
Again, not true. This is more media spin. As I’ve written in the past, the reality is that there are about 21 mass murders per year involving firearms. That trend has been constant for almost two decades.
It is true that back in the ’70s and ’80s mass public shootings (which are a subset of mass murders, differentiated because they happen in public places, e.g. churches, schools, workplaces, as opposed to a home or residence), were less frequent than they are today but that’s because there were fewer people. When population growth is considered in the analysis, the apparent uptick from decade to decade disappears.
SEE ALSO: Mass Shootings on the Rise? A Definitive Inquiry
It’s also important to note that, generally speaking, crime is down. Violent crime, property crime, and the homicide rate per 100,000 people have all been dropping in recent years. This, despite the fact (or because of the fact), that we are more armed than ever before.
What does this all mean? That although things may appear to be worse than they once were, the opposite is probably true. Society is safer today than it was back then or, depending on the decade, as safe as it was yesteryear.
This is the description for one of this year’s “school shootings,” according to Everytown: “A criminal justice club student picked up a loaded gun, belonging to an advisor, which the student thought was an unloaded training weapon. She then shot at a wall target, unintentionally firing a bullet, which went through the wall and broke a window. The advisor was a licensed peace officer permitted to carry a firearm on campus.”
This doesn’t mean we can’t do more about school shootings. Why we haven’t done more to fortify schools against these attacks is a question worth asking. We’ve known since Columbine that high schools and colleges are likely targets.
Mental health continues to be an issue that flies under the radar after these tragedies. Reports say that the troubled perpetrator of the attack in Parkland, FL, had a bunch of red flags signaling that he, might, in fact, want to kill people. Including a post on a Youtube page that read, “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” The FBI was notified. But nothing happened.
As with most mass killings, the warning signs were all there. We just weren’t paying attention or doing enough to make a difference. For me, that’s where this conversation ought to start. How do we do a better job stopping mass killers before they have a chance to act?
I find it somewhat pathetic that every time there is an article is published pertaining to public shootings the comment boards are always over populated with comments by highly misinformed Bloomberg paid trolls repeating the same ignorant “common sense” gun grabbing lies.
We need to limit magazine capacity, we need to ban “assault rifles, we need to ban “weapons of war,” we need to increase the age for anyone purchasing a firearm, etc., etc., etc.
While not a single suggestion would have even the slightest effect on some crazy persons ability to cause as much chaos as possible. Crazy people and/or criminals do not, and will never abide by the laws. Disarming law-abiding citizens will only make it significantly easier for crazies and criminals to commit such acts of violence, regardless of whichever “vehicle” they choose.
Obviously, limiting access/entrance points, utilizing metal detectors and similar devices just like we’ve been doing relatively successfully for many years at airports, government buildings, banks, etc., would be the most feasible initial step to limit such tragedies.
Why would we not be protecting our children (and ourselves) with the same proven techniques that we already utilize protect our property with?
Politics seem to be the most likely answer.
The most obvious argument against gun control, is illegal drugs! As the restrictions and penalties increased involving (illegal) drugs, the violence associated with the drug trade increased exponentially!
We have had a “War on Drugs” for decades, yet in 2016 (according to the CDC), 63,632 people died from drug overdoses, which is about 65% higher than those killed by firearms that year, and a large number of the firearms deaths were related to the illegal drug trade!
I have simple idea to make school shootings a nonissue , if local police departments would have their officers start to take all their brakes at the nearest public school instead of the local 7-11, just get back in the car and park at a school . The presence of police officers parked in the lots of schools on a regular basis will make the crazies far less likely to choose a school as a target. The additional benefit being that kids learn that cops are there to protect them and the cops learn kids aren’t all bad . Also the best part is it really doesn’t cost anything , it just requires that we ask police officers to do something their already doing , it simply focuses their presence in our communities.
In the years past the reporters reported the news as it was. Now they are master fabricators. They use little known facts and build a mountain out of them. They call themselves investigator reporters. What a joke on people who listen to their stuff that smells bad. There are to many people in this country who have lost the ability to think for themselves. The children who who are crying for gun control do not realize that they are selling out their country and giving up their rights to defend themselves. Becoming mindless lambs going to the slaughter house. Only to satisfy a few politicians and insure their pay check. Those politicians will still be protected by the very guns that are outlawed. Please think Bout the history of other countries who gave up their rights.
And don’t use and hide behind your crap that it’s a constitutional issue because it’s not! SCJ Scalia already determined that the 2nd Amendment does not guarantee you the the absolute right to bare arms!!
😂
Thanks, I needed a laugh.
Ohh wait, you’re being serious?
If we didn’t have the right to bare arms tattoo artists would go out of business.
Hey Libtard Dan,
I’ll bet my last $$, that you’ve never been faced with an armed perp ready to kill you. And oh, of course he’s going to wait for you to call 9-1-1 before he robs you, maims you for life, or kills you or your loved one because you saw his face, even though he’s already got your wallet, watch, and wedding band, and has degraded you by making you drop your pants, while you beg for your life! 99% of the time cops show-up after the commission of a crime, that probably could have been prevented by an armed & trained individual. You dumb-ass (my most sincere apologies to every load-bearing work mule) butt-crumb! In every case mentioned here, where people were shot, if at least one person would have had a firearm, had been properly trained, and had had the courage to engage those murderous bastards, the list of casualties/fatalities would have been significantly less. Stupid sheeple, like you, get behind even dumber Libtard leaders like Feinstein, Bloomberg, etc. and their anti-gun rhetoric. You know nothing of real “gun-violence”, and your leaders know even less! They have armed guards protecting them day & night. What’s your excuse for being so stupid? It is a true case of the blind leading the blind!! Experience is an austere teacher, who renders little mercy, and even less pity. I sincerely hope to God that you are never faced with the afore mentioned situation or anything like it, but if you are, I also hope to God that the guy next to you is an armed LEO!. My experience has been that a cop is too heavy to carry, so I safely exercise my 2ND Amendment Right to bare arms, being prepared to defend myself, my loved ones, or even an innocent victim in the commission of a crime. And just so you can begin again to embrace reality like a grown-up, here’s a friendly reminder: GUNS DO NOT KILL PEOPLE, PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE, CAR ACCIDENTS KILL PEOPLE, DRUG USE KILLS PEOPLE, SUICIDE KILLS PEOPLE, NATRUAL DISASTERS KILL PEOPLE, DISEASE KILLS PEOPLE, FREAK ACCIDENTS KILL PEOPLE, BUT ULTIMATELY GOD CHOOSES WHO GETS THEIR TICKET PUNCHED WHEN ITS THEIR TIME. And for the record: in all my years of experience, over 31 years, in either carrying a gun for work or EDC I have never seen a gun by it’s own volition and power get-up and shoot a person. Every weapon, no matter what was used, the ever I came across that was used in the commission of a crime, was manipulated by an individual who made a choice. In some cases it was for evil intent, and sometimes, less often, it was in self-defense. And no matter how stupid your Libtard ideology has made you, I’m willing further to wager that if you had the choice between being carried by 6, or judged by 12, you would choose the latter. God help you!
Tony P.
Nahum 1:7
Fidelis ad mortem
Don’t believe this Web site! A gun being discharged is a gun that’s been shot! That means a gun shooting at a school! Your a sick twisted enabling killing sob of children and their teachers! Your too big of a chicken shit to call it what it is in the real live’s of these children, Radical American Urban Terrorism ! Your part of enabling these school children to get blown away by .223 rounds as if they were unarmed soldiers in combat!!
You should be sick to the core with guilt and shame to have let the greed of money thru Wayne LaPierre, the Republican Nationalist Politicalist NRA, and nationalist republican congress and NRA paid support Trump.
Hey Libtard Dan,
I’ll bet my last $$, that you’ve never been faced with an armed perp ready to kill you. And oh, of course he’s going to wait for you to call 9-1-1 before he robs you, maims you for life, or kills you or your loved one because you saw his face, even though he’s already got your wallet, watch, and wedding band, and has degraded you by making you drop your pants, while you beg for your life! 99% of the time cops show-up after the commission of a crime, that probably could have been prevented by an armed & trained individual. You dumb-ass (my most sincere apologies to every load-bearing work mule) butt-crumb! In every case mentioned here, where people were shot, if at least one person would have had a firearm, had been properly trained, and had had the courage to engage those murderous bastards, the list of casualties/fatalities would have been significantly less. Stupid sheeple, like you, get behind even dumber Libtard leaders like Feinstein, Bloomberg, etc. and their anti-gun rhetoric. You know nothing of real “gun-violence”, and your leaders know even less! They have armed guards protecting them day & night. What’s your excuse for being so stupid? It is a true case of the blind leading the blind!! Experience is an austere teacher, who renders little mercy, and even less pity. I sincerely hope to God that you are never faced with the afore mentioned situation or anything like it, but if you are, I also hope to God that the guy next to you is an armed LEO!. My experience has been that a cop is too heavy to carry, so I safely exercise my 2ND Amendment Right to bare arms, being prepared to defend myself, my loved ones, or even an innocent victim in the commission of a crime. And just so you can begin again to embrace reality like a grown-up, here’s a friendly reminder: GUNS DO NOT KILL PEOPLE, PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE, CAR ACCIDENTS KILL PEOPLE, DRUG USE KILLS PEOPLE, SUICIDE KILLS PEOPLE, NATRUAL DISASTERS KILL PEOPLE, DISEASE KILLS PEOPLE, FREAK ACCIDENTS KILL PEOPLE, BUT ULTIMATELY GOD CHOOSES WHO GETS THEIR TICKET PUNCHED WHEN ITS THEIR TIME. And for the record: in all my years of experience, over 31 years, in either carrying a gun for work or EDC I have never seen a gun by it’s own volition and power get-up and shoot a person. Every weapon, no matter what was used, the ever I came across that was used in the commission of a crime, was manipulated by an individual who made a choice. In some cases it was for evil intent, and sometimes, less often, it was in self-defense. And no matter how stupid your Libtard ideology has made you, I’m willing further to wager that if you had the choice between being carried by 6, or judged by 12, you would choose the latter. God help you!
Tony P.
Nahum 1:7
Fidelis ad mortem
I’m an Australian currently living in Canada, and also lived in the US for a number of years. I have been a gun owner all my life and would call myself a gun enthusiast (particularly the older stuff), I am also ex-military.
I like the fact that I can own a Garand, and numerous other firearms, but I am also a proponent of gun control.
Gun control does not mean a ‘gun ban’. I have owned firearms in Australia for many years, and the rules there are pretty strict, but you can still enjoy firearms.
The arguments you see all through threads like these, such as ‘the guns don’t kill people…’, ‘why not ban cars and knives then…’, ‘the way to sort a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun’, are not really very smart and I believe they hurt our argument, and amplify the view that ‘the other side’ have of us.
Mass shootings are not caused by guns, granted… but it is an inescapable truth that if access to guns is more difficult, then the average ‘psycho’ or bad bloke who is looking for a release.. will have a lot more difficulty putting his / her hands on one. That is a fact, evidenced by the law in Canada, Australia, etc. Yes, if you are a hardened bad guy, who is premeditating a crime, you can probably get hold of a firearm illegally if you know how… but I’d be willing to bet that most people shooting others in the USA don’t fit that category.
I had to do a training course, and wait 4 weeks for my licence to come through…. so what? Yes, I have to keep my guns locked away when I am not using them, (most of you likely do that now) but I can still go shooting whenever I want to. I can buy pretty much what I would want to (provided there is money in the bank!)… and the fact is, kids in Australia and Canada generally don’t have to worry about getting shot in school. And I can get out of a car in Australia and yell at some bloke for taking the parking space I was lining up for… without worrying about him pulling a gun on me.
Lets go for sensible arguments, and also perhaps consider that having to have a licence to own a firearm is not really such a bad thing. Needing a licence to drive doesn’t stop us owning cars, does it?
No doubt you’ve heard it’s not just a public safety issue. It’s a Constitutional issue. Won’t go there rite now
I actually wouldn’t have an issue going through training and getting a license if it meant it:
-was approximately the same cost as getting a driver’s license. It could even be an add-on sticker, like ‘organ donor’;
-qualified you to own any weapon up to and including .50 caliber;
-was transferable from state to state;
-issuance was federal and trumped all state laws, or there was TOTAL reciprocity between states;
-was not hinged on owning a firearm at all, or owning a hundred, just like drivers licenses
If the laws in Australia are so easy to deal with, how many semi auto FALs, AUGs or our favorite the AR, do you intend to buy when you return?
Seriously.
You’re right, gun control is easy to live with if you don’t mind neutered wall hangers useful for nothing.
So tell me when the first criminal will abide by and follow these laws?
I can see it now, just a few more weeks and I will have finished my training and have the documentation to obtain a gun, then I am going to start my criminal career.
All That doesn’t prohibit us owning a gun …No…But it most certainly will be more costly and eventually be cost prohibitive to own one if you are a poor person. Its already happening in the U.S with some states. High cost for the permit…near impossible to get through red tape. Constant re-certifying (paying) the permit every so often. This is a tactic by the left in the U.S.. slow creep remove rights as they see them with the ultimate final victory of some, to eliminate the purchase of a gun by anyone.(although there is NEVER an actual end to the lefts demands. they are NEVER satisfied. If so… NAme one issue) They will deny that but look at the individual states with this issue and see how their laws have progressed in this manner. For example as of Jan 1 2018 California requires you go to an FFL dealer to buy ammo. WHat the HELL is that? Its also my understanding they are moving or have already done so…to background checks for ammo purchases and documented limits on the amount. What makes it right that a poor person cant afford a weapon for self protection due to all the fees and red tape and road blocks designed to eliminate or minimize the purchases when the left argues its voter discrimination and over the top inconvenient to require poor folks to have some sort of I.D to vote? WTF. Hypocrisy at its typical left finest. And the Media is fully engaged in their agenda now. Its finally crystal clear when I listen to Idiot commentators (not journalist or reporters, they no longer exist) on TV that don’t know a semi auto from a fully auto “assault weapon or even the difference in power of a hunting round and a “High powered 223” round. Yet they claim to be “highly educated” so they are not in favor of guns. The lunatics are finally running the asylum instead of common sense solutions that wont interfere with the constitutional right of 330 million people for the actions of half a dozen complete lunatic psychos that are taking in air some decent person that is no longer with us should be breathing. Its the same as making a law that Any man that feels like a woman today can use the ladies restroom with my 10 year old girl…when the population of those “transgendered” Individuals is less than .2% of the total population. Its completely insane. WHere the HELL are these whiney leftist agenda driven politicians when it comes to security fences armed school guards and metal detectors in the school. Too expensive??? WTF. Tell THAT to the kids in the schools and their parents. The do it in Philly and other high crime places why not protect ALL children the same. They did it in Airports…why not protect our children. Again…Hypocrisy and do nothing attitude is on the left as well. This was in place in the airports almost immediately after 911.
My apologies for the tone and the errors. My phat fingers are no good on this phone.
Ash, Liberalism is the failure you see, NOT American gun controls. EVERYTHING you have cited is being done in Chicago today yet law after law has destroyed each of your comment points. During the Mayor Daley years (1955-1976) I could buy guns at Sears and ammo at the hardware store and FOID cards did not exist. This Daley period gave us 10,900 dead (550 deaths/year) yet the last 20 years after slathering the population with laws there were 18,900 dead (950 dead/year). Most of these deaths were from pistols the AR15 straw man is lost. In addition, many of these hand guns were revolvers to prevent spent cartridges from being found by police after shootings so the ‘evil magazine’ is not at fault either. Finally, Concealed Carry did arrive in Illinois recently but the absurd training requirements and costs are totally abusive (and racists) towards the honest poor blacks who must live in this liberal sewer.
Sadly, Gun Registration and severe controls are the beginnings of governmental takeover of 100% of the countries that move to Totalitarianism in the last 200 years and there are NO exceptions. ZERO. Control the sick people – NOT the guns!
Ash you still don’t address the fact that majority of gun owners are responsible people who don’t abuse their privledge. Why should the majority pay for the crimes of the few? It’s just asinine if you ask me for people who didn’t order the food to have to pay for it. I’ve said it before, the media attention that’s given to these sickos is why they do what they do and copycat it. Yes, you have to report these types of things but then they paint the kid in alight to feel sorry for him. His mommy died and he’s an orphan. Boo-hop…my dad was sexually abused by his father and lived on the streets for 2 years before he ended up in a foster home. As far as I know he never shot up a school or hurt anyone. The pussification of this country has neutered the people and we are expected to follow this trend. It’s ridiculous. I’m not giving up my guns. I refuse to be part of this and the rest of you should let them know that as well.
Ash is an Australian living in Canada. I am Canadian born and bred. The thing we both have in common is the English form of government. We do not have a 2nd amendment to fall back on. Gun ownership is a privilege and subject to the whims of the ruling party of the day which doesn’t necessarily mean the majority as Canada runs multiple parties.
During the 90’s the great gun debate was on and the party in power were the Liberals who are leftist socialists. They initiated registration laws that were designed for one purpose: confiscation.
While Ash brings up the points of having to apply for permits to purchase and own, he fails to mention that to transport (for target) one must belong to a gun club. One cannot own a handgun UNLESS one is a practicing target shooter and belongs to a club. There is no carry permits. One cannot defend their property. Guns and ammo must be locked and stored separately. If you need your handgun serviced, you must apply for yet another permit to transport the firearm (locked in a case) to the gun smith. It simply gets absurd and yet THEY WANT MORE “control”.
Handguns have been registered in this country since the early 1930’s. Yet, Toronto gangs shoot it out year round with handguns. “Control” just imposes a whole bunch of stupid restrictions on legitimate gun owners AND gives the government a rolodex full of names of LEGITIMATE gun owners, their addresses and the list of what they own for what at any time might become the flavor of the month policy of confiscation. The NRA MUST NOT GIVE AN INCH, for if it does, one bit at a time, you will loose your constitutional right. One way for the leftists is to isolate the various disciplines: military, shot gunners, black powder, hand guns, hunters etc. They will pick on one group and break that group down while the others shrug with a “it doesn’t affect me” attitude. Here, they NAILED handgun owners, made certain calibers illegal, restricted barrel lengths, capacity. Now the leftist government has given the authority of illegalizing certain types to the police. That includes long guns. The long gun registry was brought into law and did nothing to reduce crime BUT gave them the list of owners. Thankfully, a conservative (republican) government came to power and cancelled this useless registry.
The whole thing is a mess, criminals are armed and we cannot defend ourselves. The Government no in power wants to re-instate the long gun registry yet again. When does the foolishness stop?
“blah, blah, blah, license…”
Says the man whose liberty is now entirely dependent on what his government says he deserves.
Violent crime (including firearms) is on the rise in Australia, Ash. I thought you’d solved that issue? Wait a minute, how could that be the case, if it’s illegal to own these weapons there? Could it be that you’ve only disarmed the law abiding citizenry, who wouldn’t commit these crimes anyway? Nah, just keep virtue signaling, and offer up magic thinking instead of real solutions.
“most people shooting others in the USA don’t fit that category [hardened bad guy]”
Really? That kind of ignorance invalidates most of your other assumptions.
I heard the same bull crap statistic from somebody arguing Tucker Carlson the other night & it ticked me off more then. Not a surprise that lying fake news propaganda pusher Lester Holt said it… When is somebody gonna “hashtag me too” that guys career down the toilet where it belongs?!?!?
Too many topics to little time. How about this-You can’t drink until you’re 21, Can’t buy a handgun until 21, why not no semi-auto rifles (centerfire) until you’re 21. Won’t stop all but could slow this down. Kids today are different today, less home supervision, no school discipline, social media, violent games. This is one reason M-1 carbines were not used in the past.
Not used in the past? For what? And what exactly does that have to do with buying alcohol? Look down the list a bit for comments on the M-1, and how far back IN THE PAST it was available. When you’re done with your virtue signaling and magic thinking, and would like to join the real world and make some sense, please offer some constructive comments. Preferably after having educated yourself a bit.
we got alot of estrogen on this web site!!
Why don’t you pour a extra-large cup of STFU?
People here are trying their best to come to grips with a problem and are trying, in most cases — yours excepted, to offer some solution.
Midwest Organics,
You ought to cut the lace off your britches if you a MALE! If you’re a lady, well, “There, there, sweetie”. And if you’re an “it” of sorts, you are on the wrong web-site. LOL! PATHETIC!
Tony P.
Fidelis Ad Mortem
Teach your children love, respect, and good morals and ethics. Raise them in an atmosphere of love, kindness and awareness with deference to our Lord. Be good people.
Then teach them to be heads up. Put the phone down and watch your surroundings. Teach them to look for the exits. Teach them to move across the panicking crowd, not with the flow. Teach them to get out of the crisis area. Then teach them if they have no escape and negotiation is not an option to get primal and be the worst victim they can. Take as many bad guys out with them as possible. Terrorists are hunting for victims. Ruin their day by becoming the alpha predator and rip into the villains. Fight, punch, kick, bite, claw and berserk them evil a$$holes until either they or you are dead. Use their surroundings as weapons. Get mean and dangerous! Teach your kids to fight! Teach them to fight like they’re the third monkey on the ramp to the ark and there’s only space for two.
We have an unhealthy fixation on guns. Too many people are too fascinated by them. There is absolutely no justification for large clips, or assault style rifles that have no practical use in our society. As an NRA member friend suggested recently. He could see no real reason anyone would have a need for more than 4 rounds in any self weapon for self protection. Yet gun advocates routinely suggest there is nothing wrong with extended clips that hold thirty, or more, rounds. I`m all for the 2nd Amendment, but our forefathers never envisioned the types of weapons and ammo we have today. What`s next? Rocket Launchers in every house? Common sense has to come into this discussion at some point. Nobody is suggesting that good people should lose their right to have and maintain firearms for hunting or self protection. There has to be limits.
Your friend has never had a rampant hog issue or been in shooting competitions. The number of rounds available will not change someone’s ability to kill others if that is their intent.
So no need for more than 4 rounds?.. Is that all the Police needs?…4 rounds?…Because as long as Police, drug dealers, thugs, and politicians can carry more than 4, i will have the same right. You know what pisses me off more than anything else?..When you Liberal scambugs infiltrate every sector, social media, and place in our society and release your poison pretending to be somebody else Get the fuck off this website. You are not a 2nd ammendment supporter or NRA member. You are a traitor. Go fool somebody else and take your Sociaslist, controlling globalist ideas to the Socialist country of your choice
I agree with Richard. I own a lot of firearms, and I am an enthusiast. I am also ex – military.
That said, I also acknowledge that the main difference between the US, and Canada / Australia, is that there are some hurdles to jump over before you can acquire firearms. Once you have jumped over those hurdles, you are good to go… as long as you follow certain rules (ie locking them up etc). Hey, you can still enjoy cars, despite the fact you need a licence to drive one.
Those hurdles put off most people, and as a result, guns aren’t readily available to most people who ‘flip’ because their girlfriend dumps them etc.
Guns aren’t the cause of mass shootings, they don’t pull their own triggers… this is true. But there is no doubt that keeping them locked up and not making them available to buy at your local sports store without a licence reduces the chances of fruit loops killing our kids… I’d be pretty sure that anyone here with kids would put their kids first.
Your NRA member friend? Puhleeeze.
The 2A was t drafted for hunting or home defense. It was drafted to keep a tyrannical govt in check. Just like keeping soldiers out of your home.
You’d be correct that our Founders probably didn’t invision arms like the AR15. But that goes for “both sides” (the individual and what they would be protecting themselves from).
(1) Please cite deaths from “Assault Weapons”. An “Assault Weapon” is a fully automatic firearm which are available but most for rich people that bought them pre-1986. You are ignorant of this point.
(2) “4 rounds is enough”? Pure ignorance. There was a woman last fall that had THREE assailants come into her home and chase her children into her attic. Her first shots missed thus she needed every round she had, far exceeding a joke number of “4” you cit.
(3) Should “Common Sense” be a “law” in Journalism? How about I be able to sue them for false use of gun terminology (“clips” vs. “Magazines”) or false use a statistics?
(4) If you don’t like guns please place a sign out front of your house stating “no guns inside”. But, you are a troll so why not admit it?
“our forefathers never envisioned…”
lie.
Look up the “Puckle gun”, created in 1718 – 73 YEARS BEFORE THE 2ND AMENDMENT WAS WRITTEN. In order to defend themselves against conventional threats, foreign or domestic, an armed populace must be armed with conventional weapons. It is dishonest (or blindly ignorant) to presume otherwise.
Let’s not forget that approx. 91.5 people die in traffic-related incidents EVERY DAY in USA. That’s averaging Federal Highway Traffic Safety stats over last 5 years and dividing by 365. We’d better outlaw cars soon.
You stop them at the gate to the School with well trained armed security officers that don’t let them get past the gate as a last resort and that can go into place today, right now if the school boards will spend the money for it. There are a lot of other things that can be done but we can do this today. Common sense. Guard the schools like we guard prisons or Airports.
There reports by the MORON MEDIA clearly demonstrate WHY they are called the MORON MEDIA!
Many instances have been called out here!
One the most glaring to me is the IDIOTS showing a pump action single shot pellet pistol and calling calling it an Assault Rifle!
We need to ban the MORON MEDIA before any guns!
less than 18? well that must be OK then? ONE is too many. One in 10 years is too many.
Right, one is too many. The situation demands the right prescription which in turn requires that we understand the root cause (s) of mass shootings. Consider the fact that after World War 2, many surplus M-1 Carbines were readily available for purchase in the USA. This weapon could be obtained at low cost at most sporting goods stores that sold guns during the 1950’s and 60’s. The Carbine, like the AR15, was a semi automatic rifle that could easily be fitted with a 30 round (30 cartridge) magazine. This was a weapon of sufficient lethality to have been widely issued to and used by our forces during World War 2 and Korea. In the 1950s and 60’s there were very few gun regulations and laws, and the M-1 Carbine could even be purchased by mail order for $35-75 . Yet there were no mass killings either in schools or public places involving this weapon.What has changed? Clearly the hypothesis that the difference is the availability of semi automatic rifles with high capacity magazines is not consistent with the fact that military-grade, high -capacity low cost and virtually unregulated “assault” rifles were readily available during the 1950s and 60s. We need to better regulate weapon availability and access, but that approach alone will fall short because the root cause apparently is not the technology but more likely resides within the minds of perpetrators who can and will seek out methods of increasing mayhem and carnage until the real root causes are understood and addressed.
of course one is too many! but guns aren’t the problem! if so we should get rid of all the cars and blunt objects that kill way more people than guns have, unhinged people who can’t cope with stress and life it self cause society and the schools tells us that everyone is a winner! and no one should ever loose! but life is not like that so when they go out in real the world and life hits them in the face with reality they crack! and do something bad like take it out on innocent people! instead of teaching our children that life is hard and sometimes we fail and its ok cause it makes us stronger and taking responsibility for our actions instead of blaming someone else, like we used to do! people are the problem, not guns! or knives or cars, anything else!
The problem is if your going to cry about numbers they really should be true not just half true or kinda true . If you take the time and go look at Mr Bloomberg’s website https://everytownresearch.org/school-shootings/and read the list you’ll find many of the “shootings ” where guns going off without injury to anyone and none have any details . It’s a bit of a scam to make a problem where there isn’t one .
Nobody here would argue with you Patrick, your argument is a straw man. No one wants mass shootings, the question is what magic solution would you propose to fix the issue?
Instead of responding with blind and stupid emotion, maybe consider a real solution to violence in society, like the one Israel has implemented. There is an insightful article on Israel National News titled “Israel proves the NRA’s arguments” by Tzvi Lev, dated 15/02/18 that you should really look up and study.
When you’re done with your magic thinking and virtue signaling, you can join us for a real conversation about solutions.
Well having been a gun guy for 52 years, that is from the time I was semi legal at the age of 13 I have seen all kinds of Gun Controls, yes we had them about 40 years ago, and of course that dosen’t include the FFLs which is basically gun control. Did any of them hurt me, not really. Would any new control actually hurt me, maybe maybe not. Would I defend my Right to Keep and Bare Arms, of course. Do I daily carry, yes and have for about 40 years. Now I do take if off when I enter a School, a Bar, and of course Any Government Building. Yep our Gov won’t allow us to bring our firearms into their place of buisness, SAD. How about WE get together and change that one. Now I am a registered Independent which means I actually listen to the Right and The Left. I find both sides are mainly Hot Air fueled by Money. The author says the 18 shooting are in error, yet he makes a lot of excuses for says so. Sad, and the next School Shooting will be owned by US, Me included. Free Your Mind, do not Follow any Party, Man UP and Stand UP. Dave
Agree with you brother, don’t follow any Party, it’s all political theater to them, and they’re paid actors. However, it might be prudent to vote for party that makes the best show of protecting the Bill of Rights…and by “protecting” I mean standing against further “infringements”, of all Rights, including my Right to type this.
I first heard this on “fake cnn” and I knew this had to be wrong an f included negligent discharges. MMS MEDIA SUCKS
Two mass shooting this year, the rest were accidents, or crime related such as gangs , robberies etc. Two is still to much. Need armed guards in school!
guards can slow and stop the BS and active shooters who are cowards wont ever take on a armed guard because they would lose!!!
Pretty sure this year began Jan. 1st, a month and a half ago. And I’m sure there were NOT 18 school shootings in that time! If referring to the year of 2017? No! there were NOT 18 school shootings. But there certainly was a LOT of Fake News claiming there was!
you are correct! the numbers of shootings are wrong! big surprise coming from the media! and liberals who want to take our rights away! oh by the way… when that terrorist ran over and killed 8 people in NY city in 2017 I didnt here anyone trying to out law cars or trucks or ask for automobile control ?….interesting?
Why are you reading known trash like NBC? Lying and distortion are their specialty. Even Fox has to be watched carefully – they are influenced but not as badly. Rev. Dr. JRB
These issues don’t have easy answers. One major component of this problem, at least in this case, is the white supremacist Nazi aspect. Should we curtail the First Amendment in attacking that scourge?
Okay not eighteen, ‘only’ 16, still a lot for two months. I don’t care much as it doesn’t change my mind, my thoughts mirror the majority of comments made.
PLEASE, PLEASE read and comprehend what you are reading or don’t post which only spreads misinformation further (unless that is your plan all along). There were NOT 18 mass school shootings, NOR were there 16 mass school shootings.
Let’s be clear on what HAS taken place this year. Two (2) shootings at schools that would fit the definition of school shootings in the eyes of the common person. The other sixteen (16) shootings were made up of accidental discharges of weapons, gang activity, or some other scenario that happened to take place on a school campus. So we are clear, twice this year someone took a weapon to a school with the intent of shooting up the school. Sixteen other times something (many times accidental) involving a gun happened at a school so no what we think of as a school shooting.
Furthermore, in the case of the 2 actual school shootings the shooter was a disturbed person and red flags were all around. Until people take responsibility to report strange behavior things like this are likely to continue to happen. PLEASE PEOPLE, IF YOU SEE SOMEONE THAT IS ACTING IN A THREATENING WAY REPORT IT. DON’T BE AFRAID THINKING “WHAT IF IT’S NOTHING,” LEAVE THAT DECISION UP TO THE PROPER AUTHORITIES. BLOOD IS ON THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE THAT SAW THE SIGNS AND IGNORED THEM. BLOOD IS ALSO ON THE HANDS OF PEOPLE THAT BULLY OTHERS AS YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU ARE PUSHING THAT PERSON TO DO. NOT EXCUSING THEIR TURNING TO VIOLENCE BUT I HAVE ALSO NEVER WALKED IN THEIR SHOES GETTING PUSHED AROUND, LAUGHED AT, SHUNNED, MADE TO FEEL LESS THAN. THAT HAS TO DO SOMETHING TO A PERSON MENTALLY AND IS JUST PLAIN WRONG. NOBODY SHOULD BE MADE TO FEEL LIKE A SOCIAL FREAK AND THEN EXPECT THAT PERSON TO NOT SNAP AT SOME POINT. SAYING HELLO TO A LONELY PERSON AND ASKING THEM A SINCERE QUESTION EVERY NOW AND THEN CAN GO A LONG WAYS TO MAKING A PERSON FEEL PART OF THE REST OF SOCIETY.
ARE WE ALL CLEAR NOW? DID I SPELL IT OUT SO EVERYONE COULD UNDERSTAND?
Somebody did “say something” about this mentally defective fucktard but the “Authorities” (FBI) DID NOTHING………………(Crickets chirping).
I have to wonder …who holds more responsibility and to what degree…the person that sold the ammunition to this psycho or the dozens and dozens of people that now claim in the aftermath they knew it would be him and saw his gun collection and heard him say things and saw he posted he wanted to be a professional school shooter, yet said NOTHING…The FBI failed to follow up but maybe if there would have been multiple reports it would have gained traction. Again where are the metal detectors and armed guard like they have in Philly. are the other kids not worth it? this is for the morons on the left and the Media…they share as well. If the Media spent as much time on getting a program in these schools like that as they do on the daily minute by minute HAte Trump agenda it would have been done by now. They share the guilt as well.
very nice but the main problem is people don’t cope anymore cause they have been told that we should all be happy and be excepted no matter what! life is not that way!
Well said Richard !!!
“It is true that back in the ’70s and ’80s mass public shootings (which are a subset of mass murders, differentiated because they happen in public places, e.g. churches, schools, workplaces, as opposed to a home or residence), were less frequent than they are today…”
It may also be because the first Gun Free School Zone laws (subsequently invalidated as unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court) wasn’t passed until late in 1990, handing deranged killers the opportunity to commit atrocities in places that were guaranteed to be unprotected.
The children in any school or at any gathering have no way to defend or protect themselves from what we all have let our mental state in this country become whether the lack of elected officials to see the real problem and act on it, instead of passing another law, or weather it being video games that numbs the brain into thinking it is just a game, A long time ago I learned television can be a very good learning tool for my children but also it can be a negative tool teaching very bad things, remember when Lucy & Rickey were only seen in separate beds with one foot on the floor? and now it is nothing to see sex acts on that same screen along with killing’s. ” Remember ” video has evolved into a learning tool, good or bad. give the kids some way to protect themselves! give them instruments to defend themselves, or stop the real problem, remember as parents it is our job to protect them!
There is one factor being excluded from this school shooting issue. These virtual unknown, nobody, shooters, murderers that kill children and adults on school campuses and other venues, are seeking notoriety by having their name(s) added to the “Mass Murderer Hall of Fame!” Therefore, receiving infamy, that they would have never been able to achieve, otherwise!
By making schools gun-free zones, to include in my state anyway law abiding CCW holders as well, the government has converted schools into soft targets for the deranged. Allow TRAINED and CERTIFIED teachers and CCW holders to carry on campus and the threat of the unknown will be a discouragement to otherwise carefree lunatics. It would also allow for a quick stop to the lunatics that still want to take the gamble.
The families of the victims should be suing the legislators that voted to create these soft target situations.They should be suing the pharmaceutical companies making and pushing the psyche drugs these deranged lunatics are taking that are feeding the deranged lunatic frenzy.
Everyone wants to point the finger at the gun. The gun is not the problem. The person carrying the gun is the problem. What makes anyone think that if they remove the gun from the equation this individual would not have ran his car into a group of students waiting at the bus stop or walking to/from school. If someone is hell bent on killing people, they will find a way. That is what we need to focus on. Along with “how do we stop these lunatics faster?”
AMEN!
Look at the mass shootings and how many of the shooters were NOT on or had been ON psychotropic drugs that have anger and aggression among their side effects.
yes! that’s it! but will the sheep listen?
Typical argument from those trying to defend their own poor position. Rump does the same thing, NRA famous for this crap for decades. When you’re in a weak or wrong position, attack the attacker and try to baffle everyone by seeming to know more. The exact numbers don’t matter. It’s a simple moral or ethical issue, not a technical issue. These slaughters are NOT an acceptable cost for the AR / AK massive firepower worshipers. Get real and do what we know is right. No one is going to take away our revolvers and bolt action rifles, shot guns, etc. We’re an embarrassment to humanity.
Agree whole heartily
Every day about 30 people are killed in alcohol related accidents. Far more children suffer because of the use of alcohol – a drug which has absolutely no benefit to society. Yet you want to rant about weapons – which save far more lives than they hurt. Do something productive and start demanding “Booze Control”. After all, access to alcohol is not guaranteed by our Constitution. My guns are for protection and if you want them, you best bring a bigger gun with you. I fought for my country to safeguard our Constitution. And I would willing fight against our country to safeguard my God given right to defend myself.
You would like to think that. All these people want to do is control people and to do that you first have to take away their means of fighting back. Hence the attacks on out freedom of speech and freedom to have weapons. You must be one of those who is going to lie down and let the socialists take over here. You think the government is going to do everything for you so you can just sit there? Guess again. They (democrats/some republicans/socialists/communists/fascists) want you to think that. All they want is to be at the top in power and have a bunch of sheep working to give them all their money/land/freedom. Better wake up before we end up like Venezuela or N. Korea or China or any other of those types of countries. Once they get the AR/AKs, the rest will soon be taken away as well.
And yet, over a million people immigrate here legally (and at least half that illegally) every year…so, not such an “embarassment” after all. The freedoms we enjoy came as a whole package called the Bill of Rights; start messing with one and the others will also eventuall “be infringed”. Molon Labe.
Are you serious? Idiot , they take your AR or AK for starters , then its your revolvers, bolt actions , shot guns, etc. wake the fuck up .
Are you a moron like the media commentator that don’t know one end of a gun from another?
Any semi skilled person can cause the same number of fatalities with a common auto Quail gun and buck shot given the school scenario. Its not the weapon its the set up. get these kids single points of entry like a courthouse, metal detectors and an armed guard. same as a courthouse. Its already done in urban schools why not all schools. are those kids any less valuable. Some folks are just Idiots and agenda driven when it comes to common sence solutions.
Does anyone remember when the issue of guns being carried by Teachers? The one teacher that was first killed standing in front of the children If he would have a CCP for school carry I promise the out come would have been much different. It remind me of a convenient store close to where I live, Large sign by front door NO GUNS ALLOWED they have been robbed around 6 time. They would do much better take out an ad to say no guns. Now If you thought there was a possibility someone may have a gun what would you do? Think people think!
Are you mad enough yet? Ready to march on Washington DC, and demand change? Keep your defensive arms, but ARs, AKs, and the like, have to go.
I’m with you brother.
Ask the churchgoers how they think about that idea. That mass shooter (in TX?) was stopped by a local that had both an AR and M885 ammunition (yes, steel core that was able to penetrate the perpetrator’s ballistic protection that he was wearing during his assault). Take both of those away and the casualty count would have been MUCH higher.
The change that needs to be demanded is the removal of gun free (soft, target rich) zones.
Ars are not the problems it the people
The guns do not kill people kill.
And we as parents if we have guns we need to lock them up. Unless you keep one out for home Invasion
Paul , you guys are just under informed or purposely misleading…..Ist off ARs (semi autos) are for self defense or hunting
AK same thing……a match and a gallon of gas can kill 300 people at a whack (Brazil last year) no one world wide has gotten that
high with even multiple guns and one shooter. 2nd Why do we insist on putting 2000 or 3000 targets (kids at school) in a environment where they cant defend themselves. Let them or some of them do homeschooling, its about 30% more educational and at one 20th the cost…. and if there is a crazy person , he or she isn’t likey to take out 6 if he goes after the whole family as one of them will likely get to a gun and take him out. We like to keep our kids at school getting the anti
gun rhetoric ….that’s more important than an education and saving taxpayers $9,500 per student.
Home schooling to reduce the target numbers? That is the stup… Oh, never mind.
I don’t understand you point.
ARs and AKs “… have to go.” ?? Do you mean that AR’s must go (be brought along) on the march? Or do you mean that only smaller “defensive” arms go on the trip and ARs must go away (be made illegal)?
Cain killed Abel with a rock are we going to outlaw rocks? There is a devil and evil in this world. Whether you accept it or not this country was built upon the evangelical Judeo Christian principles. You cannot make someone do right because it is a matter of the heart. Yes we must have laws but the more gun laws you have will not stop it. You are a fool if you believe this. Chicago has more gun laws than anyone in the world and more gun violence than anywhere in the world. That’s a fact Jack. The evil loves the shooting fish in a barrel concept. Whether we like it or not you can’t just make laws and say ok now govt you take care of it. That’s a fantasy. Reagan had it right because he used the teachings of Jesus about being stronger than the biggest bully. We have to arm some teachers and others in our schools. Here in my home we had a nut full of evil bless his darling heart and stupid head try to shoot up the school and our guard took him out. You don’t hear much about that. I am saying the Bible has the answers but you don’t believe it you just want to make more laws so you can get a tingly false feeling of security. Face evil head on by preaching truth, walking in love and go armed heavy as you can and be safe as you can.
WHEN WE KICKED GOD OUT OF OUR SCOOLS IN THE 70 s THE DEVIL MOVED IN AND IS NOW KILLING OUR CHILDREN
Amen brother! stop being sheep people!
I have been a law abiding owner of all sorts of firearms and done all of it in accordance with BATFE rules and regulations for more than 35 years. Your emotional and hyperbolic reaction to this event is exactly what we don’t need. This shooting is like most others the product of a mentally ill person and it is not the fault of his weapon of choice. Millions of us who are gun owners that never use our firearms to commit crimes do not support mentally ill persons in possession of any firearm of any sort. The BATFE form asks questions of the buyer at time of sale and expecting the criminals and insane people to be honest in filling out this form is no way to regulate who gets their hands on weapons. We need a new standard for screening lawful ownership and responsible use of all firearms, not more people getting mad and doing things based on emotional outrage. This is a time for reason and clear thinking and until more people see it that way and fewer people stop demanding nonsense without reason nothing will change. There are some facets of this problem that continue to be ignored by politicians – first, banning literally millions of things from being in people’s possession has never worked, example: prohibition. That was a dismal failure because people who want something bad enough will have it in spite of laws. The 1920’s gangsters like Al Capone proved that out. Second, until serious consideration is given to the problem of mental illness nothing is going to change. A question on paper is inadequate to keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them – the only thing that does is provide another law for unlawful people to add to their list of crimes when they lie on the form, get the firearm and then go do some evil deed with it. We need a national reporting system for the FBI to interface with the background checks that are performed at the time a firearm is sold and that system needs to be fed into by mental health professionals who treat patients who are a danger or pose a danger to society. Only the NICS check system fortified with this information will serve as a means to prevent the mentally disturbed from getting firearms from licensed gun dealers. This person had been known in the community for some time as a problem but he escaped scrutiny of law enforcement and was able to acquire several firearms and ammunition, and now we have this.
He passed legal NICS checks several times because he lied when filling out the paperwork. If he had been blocked from buying weapons lawfully, this person would have likely acquired them illegally on the black market. No amount of banning guns is ever going to be effective in preventing this kind of incident in the future. However, if all persons who have prescriptions for certain medications used to treat mental illness and those who have been determined by a physician to be a danger to themselves or the community at large, (psychologist or psychiatrist), were required to be reported as such in a mental health database which would only be accessible to the NICS system and FBI/BATFE agents and investigators, only that even stands a chance of keeping weapons out of the hands of those who should never have them. A restricted access database with individual’s information being submitted by the people who treat them limits the confidentiality problems that some would object to as an invasion of privacy. This measure alone would shield doctor/patient confidentiality except to the eyes of law enforcement, and in this case reveal persons who should be closely watched in the community and kept from skirting the law to obtain weapons they should not possess.
Forcing the majority of the people who make up law abiding society to comply with measures such as banning certain firearms does nothing to prevent crime – in fact it encourages it.
“Shall not be infringed”. 2A is not about hunting and self-defense, it’s about tyranny defense. The Founders certainly had technological parity in mind when they assured the citizenry’s right to prepare for armed resistance against a future oppressor. In 1791, the Army had flintlock,s and citizens had flintlocks…parity. Today, the Army has…well, do I need to make a list of the overwhelming weapons superiority of the Army vs. citizens? NOT EVEN CLOSE. And yet you want to limit us further? It doesn’t matter, the Bill of Rights doesn’t GIVE us the enumerated rights, it PREVENTS the Federal gov’t from infringing on them. Notice there is no enumerated right protecting you from personal risk…impossible, obviously. Therefore, enjoy the freedoms you have as a US citizen, prepare yourself to deal with the risks you face as an Earth-dweller, and if you don’t like it, well…don’t worry, some few of us law-abiding gun owners will still fight to protect your freedoms, even if you do end up rounding up all our guns.
Hi S.H. Blannelberry,
I like how you concluded the article with questions to help the core of the problem instead of attacking as many NRA members and the likes would so easily do.
To further add as someone previously commented to the fact that there is a high probability that the shooter was on some
kind of psychotic meds as is the case in almost all of these shootings I agree that we need a different approach into resolving these atrocities. Do we attack big pharma, well that sounds sensible at first glance but I strongly believe once you go deeper into problems you will find that Love, yes Love, will have a greater impact on changes for the betterment of society.
As M.L.K. has even stressed in some of his speeches, ” you can not suppress hate with hate, only love can do that”. Hell even president Lincoln has stated ” the only way to beat your enemy is become hi friend.
Bless you,
Mike
First of all, every school says it’s all about the children, but not really or we would not have these kinds of massacres. Every parent who lost a child should sue the school and local school board for failure to protect their child due to their lack of security.
This is the world we now live in, metal detectors and armed security, no place is safe without an effective deterent.
We all know the narrative, too many guns in the wrong hands. I say not enough guns in the right hands. The only way to stop these insane killers is to have someone onsite waiting and ready to respond. These politicians who cry about guns have armed guard security. Maybe they should surrender their armed protection if it’s okay for schools to be unarmed.
Laws are for the law abiding and for those who commit crimes, the system just lists all the laws they they broke which were always ineffective to prevent this carnage. Put a cop in every school with a gun, I’ll bet those that lost children would approve and those that didn’t would too.
I agree, but most schools already have one officer on campus. My high school did and that was 94’-‘98, he was a local LEO. So did this school. My only logical conclusion is that we need an armed trained individual (not the teacher, they have enough to worry about) in every, or at least every other classroom. They should be plain closed and carry a concealed PDW as to not distract the students due to a uniformed, armed presence. After a short time and adjustment period they (the guard) would just plend in and become an expected fixture of the classroom by the students and teachers. A similar form of security should be present at all major egress and ingress points, all other access points should be monitored either by camera or alarm. My other suggestion is based on something I saw after 9/11; a company was designing desks that could be hidden under to protect you from falling debris and were crush resistant up to a point. Now I don’t know if that company ever got any traction, but it gives me an idea. Make the students desks out of bullet proof or at least resistant material. They could even be designed to lay on their side and interlock and stack, essential making a wall of cover. If just these things alone were implemented, after awhile would be shooters would realize there’s a good chance they’ll get shot before even firing off a round and hopefully be deterred long enough for the red flags to be seen. Speaking of red flags, I get delayed quite often when purchasing firearms and often wondered why as I have a unique last name. Turns out, I lost my wallet with social security card in it and a criminal found it and got caught shoplifting (persistent offender) and purposely had only one form of I.D. on his person, my social security card! Fortunately I’ve never been denied, but getting put under further review is just an annoyance. Especially when I always end up getting approved anyways. So if I go through that because someone used my name and SS number as an alias, how did the FBI drop the ball on this guy! I’m sending in my VAF form to get my UPIN as soon as I get a copy of my fingerprint card from when I received my CCW. That should put an end to the delays. I wish we had magic wands that could make the world the way we want, but we don’t. So we have to accept the world we live in and move forward from there. That’s why I’ve suggested what I see as real world possible solutions.
I have to mostly agree, there is more security at airports and sports venues than at our schools.
The gun is the tool used not the cause of the murders, we have to figure out why there as so many people coming off the rails. The mass murders are a symptom of a deeper disease, virtually everyone I encounter seems to be simmering underneath as if they are barely under control of themselves. So many seem to be sitting on the edge waiting for someone to “offend” them so they can go off or they have been wronged so often they have become a timebomb.
Curtesy, manners, respect, common decency and common sense have become rare.
Well, They say “Bad news is Good for news”. Would be 1 way to raise their ratings……
One of the reasons school shooting have increased is because of the publicity they afford to the shooter. These pitiful sad excuses for human beings long for this publicity even though it is bad publicity. This can be avoided by never using their names. Additionally we can help avoid these School Shootings by having at least two armed security people in the schools and these persons should be all retired Police Officers or retired Military who can show proficiency in the use of handguns. Not only would that be a deterrent, these Security Officers should be able to talk to these kids and provide them with the morals values they need to be useful citizens.
God knows their teachers and parents aren’t teaching them those values. If the media didn’t show hours and hours of the situation, the suspects would not have so much notoriety, which is what they want, and then maybe the problem would diminish. The usual problem with the suspect is that they have a bad home life or they are a mental case or they spend all their time on the computer and not physically interacting with other people. They have no sense of what actually happens to a real human because they spend all their time playing shooting games where the victim is regenerated after they are killed. Maybe, instead of outlawing guns, we should outlaw violent video games.
As a nation we should be ashamed. We make a federal law saying no guns in schools, and then we obviously dont’t provide the means to protect them.
We should take responsibility and say we wanted these federal laws, now we must fund them federally.
Provide armed guards at every school.
Otherwise our children will continue to be sacrificed for nothing, but politics.
I personally think it’s better to leave school administration (including security) to the states. That way, people can relocate to a State that does it right, better than the Fed could. If you don’t like the way the entire country is run, then you have to emigrate, and I can’t think of too many places I’d rather live, even with all our nation’s imperfections.
Lester Holt needs to get his facts straight before he opens his big mouth, as he is a long time news journalist but would rather misled the american public, shame on you!
Florida’s certainly a tragedy we keep in our prayers. But 18 mass shootings this yr?
Facebook just blocked my attempt to share this post.
Why doesn’t anyone call out the media? Media overcoverage day after day weeks after a shooting is wrong! They create stories in the life of killed kids and embellish the tradegy! These nut case shooters crave the attention! Our media is hiving them and future shooters exactly what they desire! While the term “ guns don’t kill people, the media does” is a bit harsh, there is some truth to it! The media needs needs to be called out & redponsible for their unprofessional and greedy reporting performance! They own these killings by providing an almost hero creating persona of these wacko shooters! Maybe we need to turn the tables & demand 1st Amendment repeal/re-write every time these anti gunner media types cry for 2nd Amendment repeal? Stop making these killers out as celebrities! The media in this country is completely out of control & bias! They are, in my mind, a HUGE contributing cause to mass killings in America!
I live near Parkland, not that far away. My only comments are this:
1. A lot of people knew this kid was a threat to the school and students. Not much was done about it. There are over 3,000 students in that school. I can’t even imagine a high school with that many students in it. Just think about this, how wise is it to have a high school that big? I don’t know. But if you have 3,000 students, about the size of a decent village or suburban town, why the eff were there only 2 police officers on campus?
2. School security. Unarmed. Big problem.
3. What’s to stop some pervy nutjob from just walking in, kidnapping a teenager, then raping and killing that teenager? Seems like nothing’s there to stop someone.
4. Most of the schools outside of Parkland that I’m aware of, all have one way in to the building and one way out during classes with security at that bottle neck. To clarify there are emergency exits that sound an alarm and trigger security alerting personnel about what happened, when you use them. But I’m talking about the easy way in or out. A smart school has a vestibule area, you can’t just punch through drywall, doors are heavy fire doors, and there’s usually a window there or CCTV to verify who is coming in or out before they get buzzed in.
5. Metal detectors are a good idea. Kids bring all sorts of stuff to classes, including guns and knives. So in a day and age where a kid bites a piece of pastry and it resembles a pistol and gets expelled for that alone, how is it a kid sneaks in an AR15 and several mags and no one notices he’s got a gun case and backpack? Answer: only 2 cops and some security which isn’t very secure.
My conclusion is that the security at the school was near non-existent. Now that’s not the cause of the fatalities andd injuries, obviously the shooter is responsible for this. And the failures there were that everyone warned about this guy, and no one took him seriously enough, including the FBI.
All disasters are a confluence of failures. The shooter has criminal responsibility for this to be sure. But the school had lax security in place and no one took the shooter’s earlier threats seriously.
What you are describing sounds just like a prison complex…wake up dumb-asses and stop advocating that we do exactly what the tail wants the dog to do! The fact remains that yes 1 nut shot some folks but guess what the other 300,000,000+ of us did not…get over it!
Your opinion is appalling. Had it been you 14 year/old daughter with her head blown off, I wonder what your position would be. Changes are necessary. If AR’s and AK’s are not going to be scrutinized more, then something must be done with school security. That is the world we live in. If the aforementioned elements could thwart this kind of thing, it sure as hell beats a pile of dead children and teachers. I’m 2-A as it gets, but it is extremely difficult to defend the current climate of gun ownership. For all of us, there needs to be more thoughtful conversation. It is not a black and white scenario.
I’m as wary of incrementally increasing “infringement” as anybody, but I think one change we could make would be to raise the legal age of purchasing autoloading weapons to 21, maybe even 25. Give young adults some time to get over the angst they felt in high school, and wouldn’t significantly impede the rest of US (law-abiding freedom-defenders) from preparing to combat tyranny, as we see fit.
maybe so but the issue is still people not guns! i someone wants to kill people they will do so with or with out guns! they can use a homemade bomb or a truck even a pressure cooker! so…….lets deal with the real issue…people that need help!and lets teach children to cope instead of telling them life happens and everyone doesn’t have to agree with everyone!
No gun laws or bans will help. However, locking the doors when classes start so no further entry to school is allowed. Armed door sentry and camera’s at every door and hallway intersection and stairwell would be useful.
You’re ignoring the fact that the Parkland shooter took locked doors into account – he pulled the fire alarm so all the doors would be unlocked and masses of targets would be pouring out into the halls.
He not only took advantage of the fact that no teachers or administrators would be armed and able to stop him, but that the “locked door” policy would be ignored in case of a fire.
Clarification – – –
Here’s another similarity the ‘news people’ are conveniently forgetting: psycotropic, psycoactive, psycotheraputic drugs. With his known sense of reality one can be sure the Florida shooter was on one or more. Same at Sandy Hook, same at Aurora, Co. The other common criteria on all school shootings is – school. The country’s schools aren’t teaching the 3R’s anymore, they’re churning out snowflakes and memberships in the agrieved group of the month. It’s way past time to re-introduce the home schooling concept across the entire nation. Those that are doing it now are way ahead of the curve and their children are setting a great example.
As was said during the French Revolution; The task is to hold onto your head while those around you are loosing theirs.
Spot on!
I’ve been preaching the psychotropic drug issue for years, it’s JUST NOW getting SOME attention, but not enough.
Fact is, there is evidence that these kids are self medicating, without real supervision, and with drugs that are HEAVILY restricted in 22 other industrialized Nations, due to well known severe side effects, but NOT ours.
Hell, we give ’em out like candy.
Worse still, the long term effects on young men with higher testosterone levels isn’t really understood, except that many cases showed severe paranoia and aggression, especially when they stopped taking them.
It is suspected that’s why the medical records of Harris & Klebold were sealed.
Klebold had stopped taking them, according to those who knew him.
And now we hear of this again.
People talk about the Gun Lobby in Congress, but Big Pharma is huge compared to us, and EVERY single lawmaker is in their pockets, while many hold significant stock in those companies.
Stop using Sandy Hook as an example – It was nothing more than a fake op perpetrated by government to push gun control. Have you even wondered WHY that school was demolished after the incident? And done in record time? They needed to destroy ALL evidence that would prove that nothing actually happened there! Why wasn’t columbine destroyed? or any other schools? Will this Florida school be bulldozed? It’s the same reason that the 9/11 site was cleared so quickly (and disposed of), because the evidence does NOT support the government narrative (LIES)!
Here’s another similarity the ‘news people’ are conveniently forgetting: psycotropic, psycoactive, psycotheraputic drugs. With his known sense of reality one can be sure he was on one or more. Same at Sandy Hook, same at Aurora, Co. The other common criteria on all school shootings is – school. The country’s schools aren’t teaching the 3R’s anymore, they’re churning out snowflakes and memberships in the agrieved group of the month. It’s way past time to re-introduce the home schooling concept across the entire nation. Those that are doing it now are way ahead of the curve and their children are setting a great example.
As was said during the French Revolution; The task is to hold onto your head while those around you are loosing theirs.
Solutions to the problem will never be addressed, instead they will focus on the easy politically exploitable thing which is the gun.
The problem is the school and school systems.
First they put way to many kids in large centralized schools, in crammed class rooms, where they have a horrible environment to try to do what they actually are there to do which is learn.
Second, they “have” to let every one in. It is insanely hard to remove a student from the public education system even if they are a threat to other students or disruptive to the learning environment.
Third, they squash incidents. There is almost always a pattern of growing incidents or precursors. Arguments and threats are never taken seriously. Assaults and criminal activities are handled “administratively” cause oh well they are just kids.
Fourth, adults should not be in school with children… Why is a 19 year old in school will juveniles. For that matter, I remember high school very well. You don’t need to spend 12 years in school. The curriculum could easily be condensed to 10 years. After that, graduate at 16 years old on average either go to junior college or hit the work force… This whole dragging everything out till 18 is ridiculous.
Fifth, let them fail. Welcome to reality, people fail. I literally graduated with guys who couldn’t read. They couldn’t even read on an elementary school level and graduated from my high school. Seriously…. Why not let them fail. Passing them did them no favors in life. People have different IQ’s… Not everyone can go to college, and passing everyone completely devalues those who actually earned their pass. We need garbage men and truck drivers as much as we need doctors and lawyers. Let them fail, let them go to remedial studies, let them succeed in life at a level they can actually accomplish.
Lastly, there will ALWAYS be monsters in this world who will commit evil no matter what the world gives them or the environment they are surrounded by. It must be understood that law enforcement only protects society by deterrent. Like a door lock on the front door keeps burglars out. They cannot act until a crime has actually been committed. Individuals are responsible for their own safety and security. Maybe its time the general public becomes aware of this. Having two armed police on a massive campus didn’t prevent this horrible tragedy. If every other teacher were armed, more lives could have been saved.
Don’t make excuses and give into propaganda to accept having your rights taken away. Don’t give into the fallacy that if you give up your guns the world will be safer. Look at other places who did, is it working for them. No its not, it has never worked. Support the NRA, stand up for yourself and speak when you hear some idiot babbling garbage. Stand up for those who are to meek and constrained to speak for themselves. Thank a veteran for his service. Thank a police officer for his service. Know your neighbors, and be involved in your local community. And always do the right thing.
God Bless
Right On Lee!!!
I couldn’t have said it better myself…YOU NAILED IT!!!
God bless brother.
You ended with God Bless, yet you failed to mention one of the biggest problems with public schools – God has been removed. School teachers need to be of a moral and Christian background, as a minimum.
Considering that muslimes worship an ideology that is in direct violation of our Constitution, they shouldn’t even be allowed in the US, much less in our schools or government. Illegals and children of illegals need to be removed from public schools and shipped out! All of these invaders are diluting our nations beliefs.
Oh boy. Another religious racist. I worry about religious close minded morons like you. Religion, no matter who you believe in, should be about love, not hate. You are so misguided ad hateful.
The government has hundreds of buildings just sitting there collecting dust , turn some of them into schools so that he kids will not be crammed in the classrooms like rats. Another thing I heard that the FBI was warned about this kid ahead of time. Maybe they knew and let him do his bidding anyway , to provoke gun grabbers to start their crazy shit again. Could be just a rumor , but you never know. My stance is they should have vets, retired cops or whoever would be good with kids turned into security for schools all across the country. Again just a thought .!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now I’m wondering what S. H. stands for. What are you doing watching NBC and Lester Holt? Have you been living in a cave for the last few years? And the girl friend who tunes in to NBC? Dump her like a bad habit. She is. Wise up!
We had it on cuz we were getting ready to watch the Olympics. Go USA!
What surprises me is that there’s not school shootings everyday.
Take a look through YouTube and you’ll find kids as young as (probably) 13 making guns from scratch and making suppressors.
If law enforcement and YouTube wanted to prevent shootings they would go after those posters.
Next stop any and all postings from anyone under the age of consent in their state.
ALL of social media needs banned from the net.
“They” keep wanting to take away the “tools” that allow the mass shootings (firearms).
Why not take away the “tool” for the bullying that creates these killings (social media).
Like a previous poster on here said … in the 50’s 60’s this didn’t happen with M1 Carbines …
There was no internet and videos and social media then , that’s the difference !
I’m glad to see some of us are beginning to see the real problem
18,10,5,2, it doesn’t matter. One is too many. The amount of school shootings that happen in this country is horrifying.
Well, actually it does matter. Our population has increased and yet violent crime is less, property crime is less, homicide is less, we need to understand why and apply that knowledge to decrease this violence. As long as people are willing to resort to violence to get what they want, we have a problem.
600,000 abortions a year…pretty horrifying as well…but perfectly legal so people accept it
I just heard on the news tonight that Planned Parenthood is ADVERTISING for abortions !
I guess killing a kid before you name it is easier …
How many of those murdered un-named kids might have been the one to grow up and solve the problem of school shootings ?
I still think that to become a teacher you should have to take a gun safety course and be allowed to conceal carry in the school if you so desire. It should become mandatory for superintendents and principles to either be trained and carrying or have at their disposal a firearm to protect our children! We entrust schools with our children to provide a safe learning environment. Having gun free zones so these mentally ill people have free run is ridiculous! In this latest case, if the heroic gym teacher would have had the opportunity to carry he and the students he died for would be alive!
I’ve heard people say this would be bad if a teacher went rogue, but don’t we already vet these teachers before they get hired?! We are supposed to, for the safety of our kids.
You start letting these nut cases know there are armed personnel in the schools, they wouldn’t be near as likely to try something like this!
Our innocent kids need a safe environment to learn, let’s provide that for them!
South Dakota has passed a law which allows teachers to do just that – carry and they have to pass a gun safety class!!
South Dakota is far from the first such state to do that – other states have had the policy for years and, so far, there have been no problems with it. Some Texas schools have had armed teachers and administrators for a couple of decades. Exactly which schools and which personnel is not publicized – deliberately – so nobody knows how many there are and where, and the same is true of other states with the same law.
Let’s see if there’s any practical conversation about how students should respond in a situation like this. Let’s hear from someone experienced in armed conflict kinstead of a camera hungry crybaby)
For example ibstead of cowering on tge floor how about having some students poised near the door to interact with the shooter if he comes in, how about pile every desk in the room up into a big rats nest of desks at the door as an obstacle. Let’s discuss dynamic responses.
If I had a choice of which school to send my kid to I would go to the one that had a sign up that said some of the faculty is armed.
Having helpless victim-targets in a no resistance zone is silly and apparently inviting.
Exactly right, after every one of these school incidents I reiterate to my two sons (both teens): If you hear gunfire in school and your teacher directs you all to squat in a corner like sitting ducks, tell him “screw that”, throw a desk through the window, kick it out if you have to, but get out of there and as far from the shooting as possible, as quickly as possible (and maybe tell your classmates to follow you if they want to live).
The first thing they did was s delete all of the person’s Facebook and other Internet activities so, as in Columbine, the evidence of Bullying can be minimized and ignored. When the truth finally comes out at trial, it is old news and nobody reports much of it.
The worst part is: good Administrators and Sheriff’s Departments don’t have the information (truth) that might help them prevent this in their own jurisdiction.
You are correct. I was involved in a situation where a 16 year old boy tried to commit suicide by police. When the boy was denied returning to school the parents met with the principal and a counselor. The parents had always attended parent teacher confrences and the father made it a point to ask about how his son was doing socialy. The response was always the same.” Fine he’s such a well hehaved kid.” During the meeting to deny the child returning to school the counselor blurted out, “That poor boy, those kids have been torturing him for years.” When the father stated “So you been covering his abuse up and lying to me and now his life is destroyed.” The principal ended the meeting. Upon investigation it was determined by other student witnesses that the abuse included knocking the boy to the ground and kicking him in the head constant verbal and physical abuse. The perpetrators were the atheletes and children of the local “elites,” so nothing was done. So a 10 year old boy was abused for 6 years while staft stood by and watched then actively covered it up. That boy has spent 20 years in and out of prison. Yea,
The Liberal agenda in this Country is trying to do to us what they did to the Law Abiding people of Australia. Begin with taking away all semi auto weapons. My friend the collector told me when that happened what a sad day it was to see these beautiful weapons surrendered by ”Law Abiding Citizens” awaiting crushing and melting.. The Criminals will still have such weapons!! even if they took all guns and disposed of them the criminal element with unlimited funds$$$$ due to their CRIMINAL activities would still have these guns!!! So disarming the Law abiding is not the answer!!! What is the answer you say ? More Guns Is the answer!!!!! Make guns more readily available to the Law abiding public and good training! These school shootings would be less if they had more faculty trained and carrying defensive firearms and these shooters were dropped before they can do harm… This may sound harsh but look at the history of our Society’s violence has been in our History and has never stopped, What has happened is people have forgotten how to defend themselves and are terrified at the prospect of having to do so… These anti gun Liberals that want gun’s gone if you look closer at them they have $$$ and hire armed security to protect themselves and their families. They don’t address these subjects when brought up….
The students should be trained in gun safety starting in the third grade. Continuous refresher training should be mandatory. Eliminating “gun free” kill zones is absolutely necessary.
Ya don’t usually hear of shooters taken out by citizens with guns, but here’s one list:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/10/03/do-civilians-with-guns-ever-stop-mass-shootings/?utm_term=.fc092d419924
Here’a another:
https://crimeresearch.org/2016/09/uber-driver-in-chicago-stops-mass-public-shooting/
Liberals are the new Nazis.
Mr. Riggs, You couldn’t be closer to the truth.
I worked for Boeing in 1989…and a team of Australian aircraft mechanics from Qantas Air were sitting at our table for lunch,
and the subject “Gun Control” came up…everyone of those mechanics said that the ‘Crown’ got it way wrong.
One of them said,”When the British Parliament made the decision to take away ‘ALL’ firearms…we new as citizens we were
being led to slaughter”.
“Without the human ‘mental’ capacity to interact with a firearm correctly and safely will determine ones ability to ever own or
handle a firearm”. These words should be at the heading of ALL gun laws written by any legislation anywhere.
I have 2 questions :
1- how can a 19 yr old dip shit retard walk into a school, pull a fire alarm and lure everyone into the halls, kill 17 and wound 20 and no one stops him. Where are all the jocks? They had 2 armed officers permanently assigned to the campus….. so that works!
2- when did we become a country that puts our kids on tv to talk about watching their friends die, then glorify them and call them brave for bragging about how cowardly they were?
Apparently we’ve raised a whole generation of pussies.
Just sayin
Take all the guns and watch how the home invasions skyrocket. No guns, no reason to fear just busting out a window and helping yourself. Why do just the criminals have full auto-weapons?
Even Grunts, and Special Forces types have to learn that charging the shooter is the best option in a ambush or confined area. Running from the shooter is instinctive, but keeps ya in the field of fire much longer. The new Eastwood movie shows how problematic charging the assailant can be, even with an inept shooter.
The article on school shootings differentiates between shots fired that didn’t hurt anyone and those that hurt or killed people. A gun fired in a school setting or on a school campus is a school related shooting. The fact that no one was hurt is a fortunate coincidence for all involved. As responsible gun owners we cannot continue to ignore the fact that something needs to change if we are going to reduce the number of shootings like this. We need a meaningful, honest dialogue on how to address this. We can continue the gun-rights-at-all-cost mentality or we can be part of a working solution. Responsible gun owners have a vested interest in finding workable solution rather than waiting for pressure to build on our lawmakers that will result in potential overly broad restrictions. Let’s stop bitching and get to work.
A good start would be to enforce the laws already on the books instead of the standard knee jerk reactions when things like this happen. There should also be mandatory minimum sentences for all crimes involving firearms. As a former LEO, I can personally attest to the fact that charges of a felon in possession get reduced down to some misdemeanor charge in the overwhelmingly majority of cases. The ATF doesn’t prosecute felons or prohibited persons who attempt to purchase firearms and do not enforce the law against those who falsify the 4473 information. When they start enforcing the existing laws, then we can move on to other areas such as the mental health problem.
But… but… that might actually demonstrate how inept and ineffective the legal system is at enforcing the laws already on the books. Those writing these exercises in fantasy that are made into law aren’t paid for their intelligence and honesty, dontyaknow.
Didn’t the SC determine that lying on a government form such as the 4473 did not constitute a crime because of the 5th Amendment or some other such judicial idiocy?
Sorry but we’ve all learned that “meaningful honest conversation” about firearms is Progressive-speak for “we want to completely strip you of your civil rights for political purposes”. My meaningful honest answer is “no”.
It all went downhill when we took God out of school in the 60s. Even if you have doubts of there being a God, the thought of possibly spending eternity in hell kept me straight. We all have hatred inside us that needs to be controlled. For some religion works, for others some education on how to deal with emotions. But the easy solution for politicians and the non-thinkers is gun control. How well does outlawing narcotics work? Just ask all the people in rehab. We are falling for the trap of demanding mental evaluation before buying firearms. It will be written to disqualify you for ANYTHING involving any kind of therapy. Marriage counceling, bed-wetting etc. I believe required classes on behavioral science would be the most effective.
I completely concur. When God was driven out of our schools, guess who stepped in? I have always believed that this was part of an overall nefarious scheme, as stated in the 1958 book “The Naked Communist”. Take away America’s faith, religious guidelines and moral values, the nation can be conquered from within. Disarmament would be a requirement as well. The State will provide and secure. We’ll be the same “cattle” that suffered through decades of existence behind the Iron Curtain.
With all do respect, God has nothing to do with shootings, in school or out. The stresses on society today are amplified with the advent of Social Media…. Although I do not subscribe to FaceBook, instagram, nor do I tweet, I see plenty of negative being spread around. Our President does his fair share of hate and name calling on Twitter. One would expect many to follow our leader in trashing and name calling others. Civility has be regrettably harmed by the actions on social media.
God, religion, or whatever, the incremental effects of the liberal agenda have been corroding the culture since the early 1900s. The effects are cumulative, thus today we see horrendous violence perpetrated by children who have no morals, family, or identity.
I think a return to religion would help a lot. We used to keep our doors unlocked at night many years ago because 95% of our neighbors had a moral code of right and wrong. Then the agenda started that we shouldn’t push religion on people. We were just trying to ruin everyones good time. Then we had to stop disciplining our kids because it was cruel. Now we have time out and safe spaces if someone feels offended. They are crying for change now. But ironically this is the change that the hippy generation wanted. Let us decide what is right or wrong, not God. Let’s just get high. Now they take flacka that makes them listen to the voices in their heads tell them to kill and rape, and we are legallizing this crap more every year. We crapped the bed, now we must lie in it.
the writer of the article did not address how many actual school shootings have taken place in the article. Would be helpful to know that information. He claims not 15 and gives examples for 2. Does that mean 13 that had shootings?
Go look yourself
https://everytownresearch.org/school-shootings/
They obfuscate the data in a number of ways. Most of these are “gun fir d with no injury.”
Others indicate violence, it includes school grounds, meaning parking lots and gang bangers are included.
It’s called a propaganda list for fake news to cite.
Her we go again its the gun lets look at the real problem the School System failed, The FBI Failed they were warned months ago of the post on Facebook. Yes I feel sorry for the people, But lets focus on the real problem MENTAL ILLNESS the warning signs were there the proper personal missed it Shame on you. The gun didnt commit the action the person did.
Maybe the FBI failed because they are too busy trying to figure out the corruption within their organization that has been brought to light since the last presidential election. They just don’t have the time to deal with someone who is posting threats. I suppose we will have to do what we can for ourselves until they take away our means of personal protection.
Back in the 1950’s and 60’s a person could buy a M-1 Carbine with 15 or 30 round mags for less than a weeks pay. I never heard of any school shooting back then. So much for the assault weapon causing the crimes. ( I know an M-! Carbine isn’t an Assault weapon Neither is an AR-15.) It seems the U. S. took a turn for the worse during the late 1960’s about the same time the democrats and the Media started turning towards the left. Destroying all the old values of America. It continues today with the democrats and the Media at accelerated rate.
Well said
Here we go blaming a political party for what is obviously a mental health issue. Th “60’s” were a time of peace and love, not hate. The problem can be placed on government’s failure to keep firearms out of the mentally ill. President Trump in January of last year signed an executive order preventing President Obana’s executive order to keep firearms away from the mentally unstable. This and other concrete evidence, such as social media that are changing society is a harmful direction .Your unproven assertion that the “liberals” are somehow responsible for mass shooting is ludicrous. As an avid shooter and owner on many firearms, the issue is one that can be corrected. Society as a whole needs to call out those who wish harm, those in authority need to take action and the NRA has got to change there all guns to all people all the time. Finally somehow we need to get help to those who are mentally unsound. I for one, am willing to pay through taxes to protect society and my rights to own and enjoy firearms. Lets change this narrative directly to the health issues of our youth and deranged adults.
You’ve obviously not read alinsky’s “rules for radicals”, know nothing about the rioting and college campus terrorist groups such as “weathermen”, and ignore the increasing leftist spin of the democrat party.
As to support for treating the mentally ill, the great majority of “homeless” are mentally ill. Due to the machinations of the aclu, the mental hospitals were closed back in the late 60s, putting the helpless and the violent on the streets or in prison without adequate treatment or supervision.
More guns, less crime. Criminals don’t like getting shot.
The matter is the tragedy and not the erratic information of NBC media. I think that you lock of sensibility made you focus on the media mistake instead to talk about how to prevent or at least minimize this type of tragic events. There is a bias to understand the reality of our gun culture from both sides. The one pro guns and the one against it. I believe that it is time now to realize that we have a serious problem in our society and when schools are not safe, when cops are gun down without fear, when individuals with mental issues or guys with other serious records get legal access to firearms. It is time to take action and not being mare spectator of a reality that is killing innocent victims. I believe on the right the carry or own firearms being for protection or just for fun. But we can do it responsibly having a national databse and set of rules that NO mental or criminal gets access to firearms legally. You may tell that we already have many lawsand we need just to enforce them. But the reality its that those laws and/or procedures are not working to prevent fatalities. And we must do something about it positively.
Schools are SOFT targets! Our children in schools including colleges are treasures that deserve to be guarded like Fort Knox! School staff in great numbers ought to be background checked, trained in handgun use, and CARRY CONCEALED EVERY DAY!!! The police just can’t physically be everywhere. No One is willing to pay the taxes to double, triple, quadruple police presence at schools compared to today’s levels. Twenty-one year old college students who have obtained their Concealed Carry Weapon license must be allowed to carry concealed on campus! SOFT TARGETS MUST BECOME A THING OF THE PAST!!! The infamous AK-47 full, select fire rifle is being made right now in certain places that are DIRT FLOOR SHOPS! No computers are needed to build guns, and no laws will stop the attacks. The most recent school shooting took place “by definition” in a NO FIREARMS Zone according to Florida State Statute! The law had NO affect on the murderer who attacked. We MUST STOP CHOOSING TO BE HERDS OF SHEEP THAT AWAIT INEVITABLE WOLF ATTACKS! WE MUST COUNTER ATTACK THE WOLVES!!!
Schools are SOFT targets! Our children in schools including colleges are treasures that deserve to be guarded like Fort Knox! School staff in great numbers ought to be background checked, trained in handgun use, and CARRY CONCEALED EVERY DAY!!! The police just can\’t physically be everywhere. No One is willing to pay the taxes to double, triple, quadruple police presence at schools compared to today\’s levels. Twenty-one year old college students who have obtained their Concealed Carry Weapon license must be allowed to carry concealed on campus! SOFT TARGETS MUST BECOME A THING OF THE PAST!!! The infamous AK-47 full, select fire rifle is being made right now in certain places that are DIRT FLOOR SHOPS! No computers are needed to build guns, and no laws will stop the attacks. The most recent school shooting took place \”by definition\” in a NO FIREARMS Zone according to Florida State Statute! The law had NO affect on the murderer who attacked. We MUST STOP CHOOSING TO BE HERDS OF SHEEP THAT AWAIT INEVITABLE WOLF ATTACKS! WE MUST COUNTER ATTACK THE WOLVES!!!
Thank you, that has been my mantra. It is time to stop those who wish harm on the innocent and our first responders. The government has the power to fix this by a developing a data base and more mental health support. If it means raising taxes to fix the mental health problem, I am willing,,,, so as to protect my love of firearms.
We have perfectly good gun laws in this country! The problem is enforcement. That youngster had a psychotic history and that alone would ban him from being a legal gun owner. Even in states where you need only a drivers license to legally buy a firearm there is a required background check, a criminal record, dishonorable discharge from the service,domestic abusers, drug users, and people with psychotic problems, even treatment for depression cannot own a firearm of any sort. We don\’t need gun bans nor more gun laws in this county we only need to enforce what we already have in place.
It doesn’t matter what “we” believe. It only matters whether a corrupt media can successfully convince a majority of Americans to believe…
We need Jesus back in the schools… help our kids truly help other kids not just say we do and feel good about our selves and pat our self on the back for getting our pics on TV or in the newspaper for saying we make a difference cuz we started a anti bullies group and it works! Ya sure it does,the kids that wants the five seconds of Fame for saying they make a difference keeps on being the SOB’s that still pics on kids that look different or don’t have nice clothes or are not as popular as the cheer leader or football player or king/ queen of the schools. Ya they help just like the mom’s and dad’s that tought them to be SOB’s… The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree people… Kids that get pushed around kicked or giving wet Willie’s or called nasty names,or pushed into the girls bathroom or locker room then called a pervert cuz the cool boys think there cool an tuff when they do it to a smaller boy that’s quite and a “Christian” the boys and girls that are pushed around are going to get back at the one’s that hurt them one way or another some how some way some day, and it won’t be a hug it will be much worse… Our “One Nation Under God” needs to be just that…. We need to put the “BIBLE” and “JESUS” back in our schools and heart’s and our great country and the world to make a difference be for it’s to late… Just look at the past and the country’s that took the “BIBLE” and “JESUS” out of there society… there is murders every day, homosexual sickness, dad’s killing there kids,mom’s killing there kids, kids killing kids…Our Court’s judge’s,the government, vice president, president and other so called “godly MEN” killing, commenting fornication in our nations capital and not getting punishment for it, but blaming it on some one else… And you wonder why our “kids are killing kids” and acting like nothing matters when they brake the law… Look at who they have as a role model… Wake up America before this great ” Nation Under God” is no longer great or a nation… Just read “HIS STORY” and “History” to see what happens to a Nation that turns it’s back on the “One and only True GOD and HIS SON JESUS” we have other nations wanting to blow us up and kill our families and it will happen if we don’t turn to GOD and repent and start to make a change now in our neighborhoods schools churches home’s in our Nation’s Capital and make a change in our Hearts now today befor more kids Families mom’s and dad’s are killed murdered molested kid napped and…. Start to really make a difference today… by putting “The BIBLE and JESUS” back into America now today and Truly LOVE One Another and “PRAY”…
no, we don’t Jesus or bibles in school. There is a separation of church and state for good reason. We do need better parents giving their children a good moral foundation and it’s not the job of public schools to provide that. wtf is wrong with the guardians/parents of these kids that they keep guns accessible to the kids they know are psychotic? Nancy lanza, if she wasn’t killed, should have been sentenced as a murderer.
No sir, that is not the answer to the mentally ill.Your god and prayer can not treat mental illness
Although I am very disappointed in the way media across the board has chosen to slant facts to fit their defined narratives, I enjoy the fact that the left are their own worst enemy and biggest roadblock to their own agenda. Think about it. The more they jump up and down and push the idea that we a less safe, even when it’s not true, the more people wake up to the fact that the ultimate responsibility for the protection of one’s self and those they hold dear lies solely with them. The more they talk about additional firearm restriction and make it feel eminent, the more law abiding gun owners they create; the safer society gets for all the non-criminals and the more dangerous it gets for the criminals who are no longer running into soft targets. So as long as their strategy remains self-defeating, I’m a big fan of it.
I agree Tom…People need to make tuff decisions and be pro active to rid evil from our communities.
GOOD will overcome EVIL…history has proved it.
God bless.
We have perfectly good gun laws in this country! The problem is enforcement. That youngster had a psychotic history and that alone would ban him from being a legal gun owner. Even in states where you need only a drivers license to legally buy a firearm there is a required background check, a criminal record, dishonorable discharge from the service,domestic abusers, drug users, and people with psychotic problems, even treatment for depression cannot own a firearm of any sort. We don’t need gun bans nor more gun laws in this county we only need to enforce what we already have in place.
That hits the nail on the head. While I feel bad for anybody with a mental disorder, I also don’t understand why they should be treated as if nothing is wrong with them and they’re “normal”. Don’t blame a gun for a people problem. In the case of the Florida shooter there were warning signals that were ignored, similar to 911 and Benghazi don’t you think? Should we blame Benghazi on the embassy or 911 on air planes? Nope the warning signs were not taken seriously. People with mental issues have to be taken seriously if they exhibit threats to other people, political correctness be qdamned!
Amen Steve…That’s it exactly.
God bless
ANSWERS:
1. Hollywood creating movies more horrific every decade.
2 Role models praise God and are ridiculed, fined and banned but the NFL prefers weak knees, felons and domestic violence to to American values.
3. 2000 year old Catholic Church is here with Jesus who loves everyone even if you don’t love him back.
4. Direct correlations to many social problems including school murders is the secular media and Hollywood despise Jesus, promote casual sex and abortion, ridicule high profile individuals for standing up for God, Country, Flag and all that is decent. And politicians that stand behind the evil in society under the guise of PC, women’s rights to decide whether their baby lives or dies, drug companies and insurers unwilling to contribute to a prescription drug solution, no legislation for illegal and criminal immigrants.
Look at the difference in society from 1960 forward and it’s easily recognizable, decline in moral values, family disintegration and liberal politicians that side with everything that has negatively caused America to lose it way and exceptiinalism. Thank God we are here to make America Great Again.
I’m one of our ancient seniors. A fraternity brother and I talk about when these changes began and why. We have in narrowed down to the very late ’60’s to early ’70’s but we really haven’t been able to come to any conclusion as to why it happened. We do agree that we have become way too tolerant and too complacent when it comes to explaining to someone who is ‘wrongheaded’ what their errors are.
2000 year old catholic church, one of the greatest, most profitable businesses of all time! We don’t need more people being exposed to a bunch of pedophiles in the name of religion.
Morality and decency can be taught and fostered without forcing jesus down people’s throats.
ESAD
Murder is already illegal and carries the life in prison or death penalty. You will not thwart a criminal with paper laws when he is willing to die to cause harm. A physical deterrent is all the criminal mind understands.
I am from CA, and I am a huge advocate for the 2nd Amendment… CA has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, yet all those laws don’t stop bad people from gaining access to guns!!!
The real solution has to start with the parents and at an early age… I have always had guns and other weapons readily available to use of needed, and my children always knew where to find them (and how to use them)…
Teach your children to understand and respect the tools, as well as when to use them!!!
Trump may have been correct when he said the media is the enemy of the people. When the media reports facts without spin they are a great asset to our country, when they taint the facts with their political agenda is where things go bad. Most people are such sheep they believe, without question, what their favorite news source reports. They all have to compete for ad revenue, so the more provocative, lurid and salacious the better. Better yet, throw in some sex to help sell it. As for our kids, why is it we have less security on our school campuses than at banks. Is money more valuable than the lives of our children. There are plenty of examples of security in place in transportation and business establishments that makes school security seem feeble at best. Check out the security at government offices, apparently our government officials are more valuable than anyone else in the country. Trying to place blame on the tool used for the mass killings is like blaming opioids for overdoses. You are addressing the symptom not the source of the problem.
Why is it that drunk drivers top the list for the number of deaths in this country but the news rarely reports one? It would take the whole news hour! If a gun is used the information travels 3000 miles in seconds. No ban on drunk drivers, no ban on cars, no limit on car speeds to a level that would prevent death. Now with guns, ban high capacity magazines, ban a certain style of gun, control where you can take a gun so only lawbreakers take a gun there anyway and on and on. They sell cars to alcoholics, they sell them to mentally disturbed, no bans here yet those cars and those drinkers just keep on leading the death rate. Maybe because of mega dollars spent by liquor companies lobbying. Maybe because politicians are also alcoholics. As sad as it is killing has gone on as far back as we can trace mans existence, the instruments have changed, and will continue to change, but humans are still the killers not the instruments.
This insanity is directly related, or relative, to the “dumbing” down of America, relative to the rampant egotism and separation from reality, relative to the lack of common sense that withers the possibility of strong character and a deep, strong, sense of purpose and responsibility. The Spartans (all their less attractive ways not withstanding) had “it” right! … Yes, I have some pretty martial ideas about SOCIETY, RESPONSIBILITY and CHARACTER! … Someone here mentioned the Swiss, they have mandatory (10 years of on call / periodic training) military service, encourage weapons proficiency and private ownership of. Switzerland is perhaps the best armed and trained country per capita in the world today!
So, 18 months mandatory “service”, be it military, or “civil” for those who for reasons of conviction of conscience or faith wish to contribute according to the mandate of one or both of these.
An education system that works not just for the moneyed, … Radical idea, right? SMH!
COMMON SENSE, RESPONSIBILITY, PURPOSE, EDUCATION, SERVICE, …. COMMUNITY HEALTH!
“An Armed Society Is A Polite Society”. ~ Robert A. Heinlein ~
Oh, BTW, the Swiss are polite.
I love reading from intelligent people that have good things to say that makde sense, like those of you that believe that the AR15 didn’t kill all those kids the other day, well brilliant minds it WASN’T a Ball and Cap rifle it was an automatic weapon, which was designed for war, we are not at war in this country. YOU have NO GUN RIGHTS!!! You only have privlidge to hvae a weapon. YOU have no rights in this country or any other, “Rights” are a made up idea, if they are truly “Rights” go look up 1942 Japanesse American citizens, 110,000 American citizens were stipped of their “citizenship” because their parents were born in the wrong country, so just when you need your “rights” your government takes them away, no judge, no trial, just off to the enternment camps. I have a feeling once any of you that support the “right to have a automatic weapon” looses a wife or child due to some clown picking it up and firing at will, backs off your unfounded claim of “gun rights”
If you can read try reading the constitution of the United States especially Article II of the Bill or Rights.What part of ” the right of the people” which is written only in Articles II and IV do you not understand?
You are just as uneducated about firearms as the clowns from CNN reporting. He didnt have an “automatic” military style weapon. You think by creating new laws will help. It won’t. Bad people will always find a method to create the carnage. If you take guns away from good people, the bad will get much worse
You sir are unintelligent. Owning a firearm of any type is a huge responsibility and with that responsibility come the RIGHT of ownership and use. That firearm was semi-automatic as are all civilian models Your use of “automatic weapon” is incorrect and mearly fans the flame of your imagination. Yes American Citizens were entered along with many Japanese who were not American Citizens during WWII. And another fact you so conveniently left out. Many young Americans of Japanese decent from those camps joined the American Armed Forces and fought in Europe.
not really. most of us are rational and can separate the murderer from the tool. sucks you aren’t able to do that, but that’s your problem
Bruce you are a perfect example of the type of person America doesn’t need. First of all an AR-15 is NOT an automatic weapon. It is a semi automatic rifle. It only fires ONE round when you pull the trigger. An automatic rifle continues to fire until you release the trigger. Maybe you should do your homework Mr. brilliant mind. Second, we are at war in this country. We are at war against people like you that don’t seem to have a clue about what the Second Amendment means and continue to try to tear it down along with all the other things that make America Great. Third, by your reasoning if I were to lay an AR-15 down in a hallway and pull the fire alarm then it would shoot anybody that exited any rooms trying to evacuate the building. Oh that’s really brilliant. Fourth, we do have rights in this country. They are called The Bill of Rights for a reason. I cannot speak about the Rights that were stripped from the Japanese People in the 40’s. I can only hope that we learn from our mistake and that it is never repeated. Last but not least, I have lost someone close to me to gun violence. That doesn’t mean I think we should enact more gun control. Gun control is not the answer. We need to address the problem. The problem is the person using the tool not the tool itself. All it did was make me realize that I am ultimately responsible for the protection of me and my family. We also don’t need people with your Brilliant mind. I think people like you with your Brilliant mind are part of the problem. So you are free to leave any time you’ve had enough of our “gun rights” and the way we do things in The United States.
You are incredibly ignorant and ill informed.
Bruce,
You sound like a complete uninformed rambling snowflake high school kid. Just so you know. Because most crazy leftist don’t.
BTW and “automatic weapon” is illegal unless special permit is applied and paid for moron. Another whole layer of security aside from basic federal background check. and the weapon has to be registered prior to 1986. Gees I hate libtards
What? I can’t believe you would watch NBC nightly news!
They should bring back electric chair for this guy . I’m sick of my tax dollars paying for food for these nut cases
The media speaks of the number of mass killings ( any mass shootings are to many) and then they speak of the deranged mind of the shooter ??? and finally there is an out cry for the restriction of weapons…which will only affect the law abiding gun owner.
I think we should start with one basic question: How many mass killings has there been in the last ten years that took place at a police station ????? NONE you say….Well there may have been one but the bad guy didn’t get very far. So it is reasonable to conclude that these deranged people have presence of mind enough to understand that they need to choose defenceless targets in order to keep from getting shot. Schools / Churches / and other defenseless gatherings just shake their heads and ask for someone else to do something …..yet they do little or nothing to help themselves. Basically they conclude that “This could not happen here”…..well it does happen. The shooter in Florida had to get into the school to trigger the fire alarm. No one was watching the gates / doors. Start by monitoring the perimeter of the grounds with cameras that use volunteers (retirees, grandparents or parents) in short shifts. Anyone that has no business entering the school should be stopped at the door . When students enter in the morning they need to pass by a trained officer with a service dog that can detect weapons and drugs, More teachers need to get trained to carry a concealed weapon. The defence has to start where the attack may happen. The possible victims must take some responsibility for their own safety…the sooner they realize that the better..The police can not be everywhere at once and that is a fact…Remember the church shooting was mitigated by an X-serviceman that saw what was happening and grabbed his rifle. The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun…On the scene…and YES I am X-military…
Aside from this poorly thought out article. This is what should really piss you off. Coincidentally to many other shootings that happen in this country, there was a drill happening on that day. Think about that, do a little research. It doesn’t take much to see right through the smiles on the crisis actors’ faces as they follow the script given to them by the ones who govern us. No matter who you are dealing with, republican or demonrat, they are all systematically trying to disarm the population, it’ll take years, but it’s clear that little by little, state by state, they are chipping away at our right to defend ourselves, not only from criminals and such, but primarily from a rogue government that is obsessed about control and power over all. This is another false flag.
Thanks Gun America moderators for showing your left leaning stance in life.
Reader beware of this deceit.
So the FBI knew about this guy but did nothing. I wonder if they might have had time to intervene if they weren’t so busy with their Clinton and Obama ordered political witch hunt against President Trump.
Isn’t is great how everyone in the comments seems to already have an answer to the problem yet none of it is practical. Go ahead, do something then…yeah, not so easy, is it? The problem is human nature, not guns, not video games and TV, not a lack of a belief in God. How about being more critical thinkers and stop doing yourself an injustice of believing everything you are told by the media outlets and social media. Maybe think for yourself for a change. This is what is wrong, an identity crisis on a national scale. Do tell, how do you fix hundreds of thousands of years worth of violence and cognitive complexity? The answer is, you can’t, especially with population rapidly increasing on a daily basis. You can’t account for everything and the modern world is so padded with protection and safety measures that when something bad happens, it stops society completely. How many people could survive if that went away? It won’t last forever.
Shawn – This is a very good reply. Thank you for posting it. The road to civilization has stepping stones. So that what we need is a culture change. We need to move away from violence as a means to solve problems. It is a top down kind of problem that has always plagued humanity. The U. S. military budget just got the largest increase in history, despite the military not asking for it and already having 5 times what the nearest other nation has. What does this tell people about the philosophy of the current administration ? Neanderthals did not sit down at bargaining tables to make agreements as to which tribe gets what territory, they just fought with whoever they found on what they called theirs. The Roman Empire called it all theirs. We as a country can get past this if there was a concerted effort to do so.
One other thing – the lack of mental health care and the lack of a means to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally unstable has to be addressed.
I have some problems with your statement that the military didn’t ask for increased funding and that our military has “5 times what the nearest other nation has”. First of all, I have no knowledge of the American military ever refusing an increase in its budget. I think your statement merely supports the underlying intent of your post which is to denigrate the current administration and paint it as “war mongering”. The US has been involved in a continuous conflict for nearly seventeen years and our equipment is, in some cases, at the end of its usefulness therefore diminishing our ability to prosecute military action. The extensive use of certain aircraft in war zones has led to many of them not being grounded due to a lack of replacement parts. My niece is a US sailor and she has had very limited exposure to personal defense weapons due to constraints on the use of live ammunition.
Do me a favor and post your sources for the statements you made. If you don’t, you’ll be shown to be nothing more than a fact less liberal intent on pushing the liberal agenda at the cost of the lives of our military and truth.
The first time someone starts firing back at an active shooter, that coward will become an active runner. This POS was just shooting at random through doors , so if someone had fired back through the classroom door, this POS would have run as fast as he could back home, thats what cowards do.
Nearly any shooting brings on these discussions. I am a gun owner. I seldom have the urge to shoot anyone.
Most of these shooters are loners, many with encounters with police, and as this one, a history of psychiatric treatment.
Perhaps it would be best if we all seek to engage ourselves with more folks on the edge of sanity and routine loners.
A lot of people must have seen the Florida shooter’s Facebook posts. No one became alarmed and took any action?
I believe in my right to own a gun, and carry it if I wish. For those who do not, I do not wish to make a law that forces you to buy a gun, any more than I would respect a law that forbids me to own one.
Post-shooting discussions never seem to suggest that armed school guards, mental health care, and secure mental hospitals would save more lives than tired arguments about high capacity magazines, assault rifles, combat weapons, black rifles, etc.
I have a lot of rocks in my yard, no one is afraid of them, but they could be used as lethal weapons. The restrictions on legal, law-abiding gun owners because of insane killers is ridiculous.
Anti-gunners would stand outside the prison when this shooter is found guilty of murder and protest his execution.
I remember hearing Lester Holt speaking of this statistic but he did not reference a source. I guess the new norm is the media reporting whatever information they want to draw more viewers. This was a tragic event and the media is very quick to spin the events to mirror their opinions. The loss of this community is immeasurable and hopefully these families can heal.
No offense, but spare me the attempt to fight data with data. Common sense went out the damn window some time ago. The real problem is Facebook and the media. That’s it!!! The real reason these things happen is not because the population is higher, it’s because your glorified for doing something evil anymore. My ak style “assault rifle” isn’t any more of a threat to innocent people than I am. I have never used it and God forbid I ever have to use it to defend myself. But I feel safer knowing I have it. I wonder why they don’t report in the total of guns owned by people compared to these crimes. I don’t care if they got it legally or not. If someone wants a gun to hurt people they are gonna find one. I have 2 friends who got into trouble like 20 years ago for stupid stuff and the one will never be able to own a firearm legally: he knows and begrudgingly excepts it. The laws are fine. The vast majority of gun owners aren’t the problem. When I was watching footage of these kids most were on their phone. This would be a good thing in the right context: calling 911, talking to family, etc. But it’s clear most were posting on Facebook and Twitter for real time feedback. Are you freaking kidding me???? Charge these pricks in a huge pack!! He’s shooting you anyway, might as well make him earn it. Little pussy probably would have run away. And if not, again he’s shooting anyway. I get that it’s easier to say this not being in the situation. But I am trying to train myself to fight back if God forbid I’m ever in this type of situation I can at least try. We have this mentality of sheep lead to a slaughter anymore. Fight back!!!
When I was a kid we were taught to duck&cover during air raid drills. Maybe rushing a shooter should now be taught. However, a 10 round mag limit would make that a more doable option, since it seems to be done successfully when a shooter is reloading.
Never believe the media on face value. They no longer truly report the news, they push their agendas and try to make news on their own. I don’t know anymore which is worse, US news or Pravda. We have gone along way in the US in 50 years and it has been in the wrong direction…..
Thank you for an article that asserts facts and tries to clear up the misleading comments from the media.
Simplifying the solution to this problem down to gun control is the work of the same people who give every child a trophy, whether they win or lose, and never give them restrictions. A child who is taught that their every effort deserves a trophy, regardless of how lackluster it is, and is never made to mind any rules because they don’t want to stifle curiosity, is set up for severe disappointment in life. If parents don’t set boundaries, and rules have changed so teachers aren’t allowed to set them, how will a child learn how the real world works?
The frustration a young adult experiences when they learn employers won’t give them a huge raise for showing up late for work every day, and the rest of the world doesn’t accept the fact that they are “special,” is the fault of parents.
Parents who teach their children that they will only reach their goals through hard work and perseverance are fulfilling their obligations. It’s a parent’s job to teach children that bad behavior has consequences. Parents need to be teaching their children how to handle and respect guns, not let them learn about them via Grand Theft Auto. Parents need to parent their children, not be their friend. I strongly believe that the lack of parenting is the real reason for the decline of our society.
But this solution requires a lot more effort than banning guns. Of course they want to take the easy route again. We shouldn’t expect more out of them.
Stating that there were 18 incidents of firearms being discharged within a school so far this year is likely to be interpreted as meaning there were 18 incidents of students being murdered within schools this year, which is what came to mind when I heard that report. That statistic should be just as troubling to us however because any firearm being discharged has the potential of killing someone, and there should never be a firearm discharged within a school unless it is in defense of someone’s life!
We are best to either keep quiet at times like this, or seek common ground with those understandably reacting with outrage and desperate for answers. This shooter, like most of these, had some obvious mental health issues, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was on, or had been on, some type of mood altering pharmaceutical. How do we keep weapons away from murderers without infringing on other’s rights?
To the author:
First I am a huge second amendment supporter living in Florida.
The more intelligent answer to your girlfriend is, Lester Holt is an easily influenced and mislead DOLT, evidenced by his reporting from a “Cardboard North Korean resort” (and he’s a New Yorker).
If in fact the statistics are skewed because a simple weapon discharge counts is not the issue. Truthfully (1) it’s still an unacceptable breach of security no matter what. Unfortunately school districts down here function as an autonomous entity, very much like an Indian Reservation……until the shit hits the fan, (2) NOTHING JUST HAPPENS! This child had been on Broward School District Radar for quite some time. How he avoided the Department of Juvenile Justice prior to this (age) is a mystery; (3) The psychotic break is a function of the multiple traumatic events. All predictable. I promise you there are school psychologist notes somewhere.
Finally (4), to us “semi-automatic” is just a projectile delivery system; no matter long gun or hand gun. Everyone else sees it as devil worship. It’s just a god damned magazine fed rifle, for which each shot fired requires a pull of the trigger. Unlike it’s fully automatic close relative being carried by every member of Law Enforcement you saw on television. “It’s just a rifle Jon Boy”
You want results? Do the same thing we did after 9/11. To hell with privacy we have lives to save, break down the autonomy of these school districts, rip it out of their naive hands, and create a new paradigm; the same way we reinvented DCF. Do it now
Hmmm… Seems to be these mass shootings tend to take place in Gun Free Zones. I wonder why that is ?
You hit the nail on the head. To someone bent on doing bad, a gun free zone is a target rich environment. This cowardly dude ran with those fleeing. He is a gutless puke who would NOT have gone into that school if he even thought that someone might blow his bleeping head off.
The only thing that stops a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun. We would like to think that that is going to be a policeman but when seconds count, the police are minutes away. Too bad that brave coach wasn’t packing a Glock instead of the admirable set of kahonies.
We often see “No Guns Allowed”, and “Gun Free Zone” signs during our daily activities. That will continue to be an “Open Season” sign to those who wish to create havoc killing innocent people. During one of the mass school shootings a few years ago the SWAT team stood outside for hours unsure how to proceed while the gunman continued to shoot people. Take Down all the No Guns signs, replace them with Armed Citizens signs, allow teaches to carry after proper training. Switzerland is the most populace armed country in the world, yet they have virtually no gun problems among their citizens.
Societies that abandon God and pursue moral decay on the level that we have, in the “good ol’ USA”, cultivate these kinds of events and then blame inanimate objects for causing all the problems. The problem is we don’t parent anymore and resent anyone that points out that the monsters on our streets were someone’s kids. Sure, we need to fortify schools and our homes too, but is that a solution or a consequence?
Absolutely!!
Exactly…today’s Parents have become apathetic to parenting and are so wrapped up in their own insolent and vapid lives (FB, Instagram, etc…) that they’re shirking the very duties they should place above all else.
I read a post where someone said, “I guess they don’t teach common sense in school anymore”…that’s the apathy I was referring to. As I’ve told my daughters throughout their lives, their behavior and how they comport themselves is a direct reflection of how they were raised.
That’s why Holt is known as ‘Lying Lester’. Since he got his big break, Lying Lester has really gone far left.
Blue Dog…. You are an idiot.
How about schools start restricting access to the buildings? Magnetic locks and key cards are expensive but would go a long way in preventing these types of things from happening. Restricting guns further won’t help when someone can gain access to a building, pull the fire alarm, then explode a bomb.
Blue Dog, The only response I have to your asinine post is to say, Go hump your handler’s leg.
Really, the lambs ignorant response is to name shame. Go back to kindergarten.
You want to stop (or, at least cut down) on violence and mass murder?
1.) Turn off the idiot box (I don’t care which one: TV or video game, and yes, maybe the computer, too) and spend more time with your kids. How about no cell phones before middle school age as well?
2.) Restrict violent video games to adults, 18 yrs. and up.
3.) Get your kids out of the house. Go do something with them; you know: Together for God’s sake!
4.) How’s about we change the way we deal with mental health and substance abuse issues? Sometimes, you have to get help for people whether they want it or not.
5.) Crime. We need to stop coddling criminals. Here in Hawaii, for example, the “Justice System” is not much more than a sad joke. It’s more like catch and release in fishing. If a multiple, or serious offender does do time, it’s often so ridiculously short, the perp is back on the street, again, ready to ruin someone’s life before his last crime can even get posted on the books. If someone has been convicted of three violent crimes, or 19 felonies of any type (I kid you not there is such a case going on right now, here) it seems pretty clear to me that this person is a menace to society; unlikely to reform and benefit from parole; and therefore, needs to do the full time. Period.
5.) And, finally, we need to stop and take a look at ourselves and our country. What kind of message are we sending to our young folks when we fail to punish serious and repeat career criminals, allow corrupt and dishonest politicians to continue taking advantage of us, make excuses for the bad behavior of our friends and neigbors…even ourselves. And what does it say about a nation of people that has sanctioned the legal killing of the unborn? How do you get any more violent than that? The last time I checked, by the way, the weapon of choice in those mass murders was not and is not a gun.
It seems to me that before we decide to take away the law abiding citizen’s right to defend himself or herself with a firearm, we should take a look at ourselves and see what we might or might not be doing to help remove the need to defend ourselves from these threats in the first place.
Excellent…………………
100% well said. Start putting some responsibility on drug companies and doctors that prescribe psychos like this drugs, rather than address the problem.
Don’t stop, you’re on a roll.
And 6.): ban the sale of ‘assault style’ weapons. If you can’t hit your target in one shot, you have no business holding a gun.
Download, or for this group, load up your VHS or betamax with that old copy of ‘Rambo’, and play out your fantasies that way.
Idiot
While mass shootings have gotten more ‘common’ since the 60s the populations has also gone up since the 60s making the rate per capita about the same. But the number of people killed per event per capita has gone up over that same time. So they are more common as a whole number and have gotten ‘deadlier’ over time. The media picks the scariest numbers they can. These lead to the media presentation being what it is.
Blue Dog,
So, if we ban AR-15’s for legal ownership, will that eliminate the mental health problem that seems to be the primary reason for the mass shootings that have happened over the last couple decades?
With all respect, you’re an idiot. The TOOL that is used is irrelevant. The atrocity is perpetuated by the screwed up individual. If we were still in the stone age, would we ban rocks?
You’re an anti-2nd Amendment troll here on the boards. Go back to Mayor Bloomberg’s reception and have another cocktail.
Blue Dog, what a load of clickbait. An AR-15 is not a “weapon of war”, nor is it an “assault rifle”. It’s a semi-auto rifle like any number of others, but it just happens to look like a military weapon. Militarys use full-auto rifles, aka “machine guns” – and I think you know that. Or you’re very uninformed.
Personally, I’m equally horrified by the death of anyone, adult or child, whether they are killed by a bolt action rifle, a knife, a vehicle bomb, or by being stabbed in the neck with pencil. Or even just driving a vehicle into a crowd. You (probably unintentionally) say a mass murder is more difficult to pull off with a pressure cooker, but pressure cooker’s make very effective IEDs, and they can take down whole crowds of people in a split second. Clearly you do not know of what you speak.
If there were armed teachers or parents on a campus an active shooter could be stopped. But we have, as a society, created vast areas where our most vulnerable society members are virtually unprotected. And we’ve hung out signs on the buildings saying: “if you come here to do harm there won’t be anyone to stop you.” Shame on us. Until we accept that bad actors will always exist, and we take the steps to stop them quickly, this situation will continue.
Don’t blame the claw hammer or the table saw. Every tool can be used for good or ill.
It takes a couple of seconds to replace t,he magazine in a semi-auto firearm. You think that would make a difference when there is no armed opponent around for the shooter to worry about? How long does it take cops to arrive and begin their sweep – 15 minutes, 30?
You think someone planning mass murder wouldn’t have plenty of magazines with him?
Limiting magazine capacity would do absolutely nothing.
Really, takes you a couple seconds. Takes me less than one.
So, is there an upper limit to the number of dots on that map attributable to AR-15s and other, so-called “modern sporting rifles” that is acceptable? Is there a number that is unacceptable? Eventually we have to agree to do something about these assault rifles. Mass murders are much harder to pull off with knives, clubs or pressure cookers, but as the old saying goes, a man can indeed slit 400 throats in a single night, but only if he runs. Severely restricting access to hi-cap magazines (oh, I am sorry, I meant clips.) would make these mass murders at least more difficult to pull off. The most recent mass-murderer had an AR-15 that had been legally purchased with a background check – I have not heard definitely if he was the purchaser that passed the 4473 or if it was someone else that he would have otherwise legally obtained this firearm from. The fact that this individual obtained a weapon of war legally suggests that the current system is broken and in need of reform.
That is Dumb, to try and Blame this on a ar. Ar are not killing people. all banning would do is restrict it for those who do follow the law which is a lot more then those who don’t. And if you are going to ban As well ar u better van cars too. Cause people are killing with those As well . U can’t punish all for the mistakes of the few idiots in world.
That is Dumb, to try and Blame this on a ar. Ar are not killing people. all banning would do is restrict it for those who do follow the law which is a lot more then those who don’t. And if you are going to ban As well ar u better van cars too. Cause people are killing with those As well . U can’t punish all for the mistakes of the few idiots in world.
The shooter could have brought a suit case full of magazines but if he’d have been unable to get inside the school it wouldn’t have mattered. Why does the question of school building security never come up? Folks like you are quick to blame guns but 17 people might be alive today if the doors had simply been locked.
[Eventually we have to agree to do something about these assault rifles. ]
[Severely restricting access to hi-cap magazines (oh, I am sorry, I meant clips.) ]
[The fact that this individual obtained a weapon of war]
Before you present yourself as knowledgeable regarding firearms, particularly the AR-15, you might do well to learn a few facts.
1. The AR-15 is not an “assault rifle”
2. The AR-15 does, indeed, use a “magazine”, not a “clip”
3. The AR-15 is not a “weapon of war”
I would respectfully suggest that your current system of firearm information is broken and in need of reform.
I totally agree with you, however I looked up assault rifle and webster dictionary has it listed as
Definition of assault rifle
: any of various intermediate-range, magazine-fed military rifles (such as the AK-47) that can be set for automatic or semiautomatic fire; also : a rifle that resembles a military assault rifle but is designed to allow only semiautomatic fire
Obviously whoever decided the description of an assault rifle knew nothing about them as guns assault no one, it is not the gun but the person pulling the trigger.
A very good link to the definition of the so called assault rifle. http://www.assaultweapon.info/
Blue Dog… You seem to be unequivocally misinformed. Or perhaps you are just one of those moronic trolls. You make/made no sense… mind you, the last mass murder happen to take place with a “Truck” were you crying back then… were you calling for bans of trucks… did you picket the automobile companies… If not, then get the hell off this site “Jerkoff”.
As a gun enthusiast, father, and just general man of integrity, I don’t necessarily disagree with your premise of what your saying Blue Dog, but I just don’t see how you can blame a certain firearm for atrocities like this. I don’t know if this is the new norm, but we need to wake up and take some action. Make our schools safe again. I do agree the system is broken when mentally incapable people are able to legally purchase firearms and then use them against the public. This is twice in the past several months we have heard a story like this. Look up how Switzerland handles their gun laws. I was listening to some interesting info yesterday about this subject. They encourage gun ownership, and are a highly armed population, though much smaller than the US, but they do not have these types of shootings at all. They do thorough background checks on all citizens, psychological checks, whole nine yards on new firearm owners. Is this the answer? Or, do we have so many gun here in our country at this point that it won’t matter? I think we need to do multiple things to keep our kids safe. There is no one single answer, but I honestly do not believe that outlawing a certain type of magazine, or rifle is going to do that.
Dog you are right our system is broken. Once again we see that Democrats are unstable and have been the shooter in these atrocities. Therefore do we ban Democrats from owning firearms? That would be a start.
Why do you have to make this political. I’m a democrat that thinks that Trump is the absolute worst thing to have ever happened to this country, but having said that, let’s end the divisiveness. The issue isn’t political as much as it is a matter of understanding. Someone above said that schools should have locks on all the doors. I agree with this. School shootings have been foiled or severely limited just by locking the offending person out. I don’t know if I can agree with not limiting magazine size however. Mag changes are fast, but do take time. The reload time can be used to stop the carnage. In this day and age, pilots are armed, so why shouldn’t teaching staff be armed also. But as in all gun ownership, and usage, it’s all about responsibility and knowledge. The system is broken. We’ve seen where a veteran with a mental health problem was able to purchase a gun because the information wasn’t in the database. The answer isn’t singular. It’s going to take a combination of efforts to limit this type of violence. Let’s stop throwing stones across the aisle, and think about some real answers to problems like these.
Blue dog shyte, you are part of the problem. The likes of you have helped to expand Government to rule every aspect of our daily lives through rules & regs. I am in a large urban area, where fire arms deter crime. Cute with the “weapons of war” thing though. But We Can Not stroll to local FFL and pick up a M4 or whatever the USMC is using, and that is a shame because it would level the playing field. You can keep all your 3 letter agencies that you believe keep you safe, just stay out of big cities bad areas and you will be fine, moron.
Bluedog, banning one particular rifle configuration is not going to stop these kinds of attacks!
Banning guns will do NOTHING, he could have just as easily pulled the fire alarm like he did, waited for everyone to exit the building and then mowed down four times as many people with a car. frikin Democrats just want control and brainwash their liberal minions that they can create a utopia where nothing bad will ever happen again. You can’t fix everything just like you can’t foresee who’s going to go crazy and do bad things,
…..Cruz took a Uber to Parkland, indicating that in Fla. it’s easier to get an AR than a car.
blue dog, you are as clueless as the rest of the sheep in this country and no amount of truth will pull the wool off your libtard hazed over eyes. there is no such thing as an “assault rifle”, that rhetoric furthers the hysteria about guns and has run its course. intelligent people don’t spread lies that feed unwanted hysteria. if you think that further restrictions on gun sales, or totally eliminating qualified USA citizens from legally obtaining guns is going to stop “mass murders” you are entering insanity rather that stupidity. go live your ostrich life and keep dismissing the truth, that’s your call. the rest of us guard dogs will have your back whether or not we like defending idiots such as your self.
I bet you drank a lot of Kool-Aid and ate a shize ton of paint chips too…it’s the only explanation for your “rant”.
Good point bonehead. Our goal should be to carefully select the type of tool that a bad person uses to exercise their weak knees response to what they presceive as how they have been mistreated. Too bad that brave guy that took out the church shooter hadn’t been restricted to a less then 4” blade Bad people will always do bad things and good people will always do good things, as evidenced by the coach who put himself between his students and the shooter. Too bad he didn’t have something with a high capacity magazine to make the lesson more permanent to that punk.
What old saying, are you, like Lester, making shit up. Silly girl.
Oh yeah, I guess you didn’t hear about the man in China that killed 22 people in a matter of minutes with a machete. Guess he was running, Dumbass.
People like you don’t question the source when the lies support your cause. The shooter in TX legally purchased a firearm because the Air Force royally screwed up. Not because there was a lack of laws.
And, the laws that you people say don’t work or are not enough are ineffective because, you people, will not allow the HIPPA laws to be amended to allow dangerous mental adjudication to be released to the government.
That way y’all can speak freely to your shrink about the fantasies you have about pre pubescent little boys with no danger of prosecution.