I would like to talk about something that makes ME sick. Sick and numb. Today a third student has died as a result of that fatal shooting at Chardon High School outside of Cleveland. Every day there is violence in schools. Earlier in the week, an 11 year old girl died in California as a result of fighting with another girl, over a boy. There are probably others student deaths that weren’t sensational enough to make the news. Are our schools becoming killing fields?
What can be done to stop this type of senseless violence? The 11 year old girl was a participant. We can assume willing. However, the 4 students who were shot yesterday were simply sitting in the cafeteria eating breakfast. How did the shooter get access to the cafeteria? He wasn’t even a student in that school any more. He went to alternative school. We can only assume that he walked right in with the rest of the students at 7:30 am.
Is there a way to make our schools safer? From all accounts this school, like Columbine a decade ago, wasn’t in a heavy crime area. It was just an ordinary school, like our kids go to. It wasn’t inner city.
We tend to think of school shootings like Virginia Tech. That horrific event got our attention mainly because of number of victims. We had a near miss here in Prince William County a couple of years ago on the Woodbridge Campus of Norther Virginia Community College. Other than number of dead, Tech, Columbine, and Chardon all have a great deal in common. One or more armed gunmen enter a school or campus building and start spraying bullets randomly or at intended victims. The victims are always sitting ducks.
Obviously we can’t turn our schools into prisons with an armed guard on each hall. We can’t arm students. We can’t set up check points and metal detectors very effectively. We obviously haven’t been too successful at blocking outsiders from building access.
Then there is the attacker from within. Some of the very violent kids are going to school right along side of everyone else. They are ticking time bombs waiting to explode. There is very little school systems can do to purge themselves of the nut cases. Privacy rules, due process and special education laws prevent schools from putting these kids out of school unless there is a paper trail that can prove they are a danger. In other words, we wait until something happens.
So what do we do? Do we simply sit there, keep our fingers crossed, and hope and pray that the next student, parent, teacher, or anyone else bitten by the crazy bug who goes wildly insane choses a different school than the one our kids go to? Crazy, insane, nut case not politically correct? Tough crap. Let’s for once just call it out like it is. There really are no words to pretty up what happened at Chardon yesterday. That student body, the staff and the parents will never be the same. 4 people and their families have been forever altered. We, as Americans, need to start having some honest conversation about making our schools safer. Right now we are getting darn close to having killing fields with mandatory attendance until age 18.
Until we get guns under some modicum of control, nothing will change–ever.
@George, please elaborate. My husband said the same thing. I dared to suggest that nuts and bad guys will always get guns if they want them. Are you saying it is too easy?
I am very disappointed to see that we will probably become a hand gun mecca once again.
I hate to say this but better that these kids use handguns (in a gun free zone mind you) than figure out explosives can do much more damage……….
But I guess we can regulate castor beans and fertilizer, right?
marin, this issue is really so much bigger than second amendment rights. That kid was too young to buy a gun. If he bought his .22 pistol, then someone’s head will be on the chopping block. My guess it that it belonged to a friend or family member and should have had a trigger lock on it.
Most parents, grandparents, friends never think that their loved one is capable of such a thing and they don’t take precautions.
I have 3 different sets of friends who have 1 2A spouse. In all cases they had trained their kids about the importance of gun safety, told never to go in daddy’s gun safe, cabinet etc. In all 3 cases one of the kids played with a gun and shot a hole in something. Fortunately it wasn’t a friend or sibling. Kids will be kids. Saying not to do something is almost like a dare I guess.
I tend to preach trigger locks and locking gun cabinets. It is much easier to control.
“Guns don’t kill” is a tired, over-used cliche and it ignores the fact that guns are tools whose purpose is to fire a projectile that has the capacity to inflict grave inury and death.
Asd for keeping guns away from nut cases who are adults, I simply don’t know. We could start by not fighting every single gun law. We all know why the 13 guns a year rule was legislated. Virginia was the gun running capital of the east. It looks like we go back to that. The people of New York will send their thanks. NOT
MH,
You missed the point entirely.
Even if you banned all guns…took em away from everyone including police and military kids would just find another way of killing one another. And creating an improvised explosive device is not too hard and any kid with a basic understanding of chemistry could do it.
So, assuming the fantasy of being able to regulate all firearms away you are STILL left with the same issue – kids killing kids – and because you’ve removed one instrumentality I’ve proposed another that can do MUCH more devistating effect. Yes it’s sad that 5 people were injured/killed but imagine an IED that can take out a small building…….
I’m not looking at this as a 2A issue – because it’s not. It’s people killing people (kids killing kids).
BTW, NY is a gun free zone. No gun crimes occur because guns are regulated and laws protect people. Har har.
@marin, I didn’t miss the point. I chose not to comment on the explosives.
I never said gun control laws would have prevented these deaths. Speculating, since I don’t know where TJ Lane got his gun, I mentioned trigger locks and locking gun cabinets might have prevented the tragedy. Its pretty hard to for some nut case kid to grab a gun out of a locked gun cabinet. Actually, I believe I was advocating personal responsibility on the part of adults who are gun owners.
How is that missing the point? Adults taking responsibility for gun security in their own homes is hardly a 2A violation. No govt. involved.
I sure hope you have a way to secure your arsenol. My son asked for a gun safe for his birthday before the divine Miss Howler was born.
Break into home. Get firearm with trigger lock. Goto youtube and find video on how to defeat trigger lock. Have operational firearm in 20-30 minutes.
Or, disassemble the firearm and then remove trigger lock. Reassemble.
You can ignore explosives all you want but the ostrich in the sand technique won’t fix anything.
This is not a gun issue. It’s a people issue. It’s a society issue.