Both sides of the gun debate are fixed and set in concrete.
One side believes gun registration, licensing, and restricting AR-15 sales will work to stop school shootings.
The other side believes arming teachers, fortifying schools, and developing closer communications between cops and schools will work.
I agree with both, but neither can ever work alone.
One demands much time and the surrender of personal control, and the other is too simplistic and reprehensible.
The same things have been debated for so long all the heat disappeared. We have resigned ourselves nothing can be done to actually protect our children, but it’s still politically valuable.
But combined, I think they could work. Not well, but enough to possibly slow the slaughter and start a change in people’s thoughts.
There’s only one person in these incidents who comes prepared and possesses intent and deliberation. The shooter.
He comes after he has planned in secret. He wants to kill, so his targets will be random and opportunistic. He usually has some knowledge of the school’s layout and knows some intended targets.
He may know the school’s police officers. If not the man, it will be the uniform. He has already anticipated their actions, and has planned to overcome them.
But those officers probably won’t remember him, and if they do, they won’t remember his fury, as its been kept very close and private. The officers may remember the shooter as a strange isolated kid, but not furious or hostile.
The shooter will seek to cause chaos. That’s when the the most targets will present themselves, and when he will feel most in charge. He relishes the thought of being feared.
No one else in the school can possibly be prepared for this guy. They’re almost always the last kid they would suspect to be capable of the act.
Even the best trained cop won’t ever know what will happen once the incident begins. Despite all their notoriety, school shootings are extremely rare and scattered events very few school districts will ever experience.
The odds are so long that even the best prepared school will always be shocked and stunned the events are actually happening in their school.
But the fear of them has produced some practical defenses. Possibly; no one knows yet how good these devices actually are, but they are profitable to make, and there are wealthy districts that are willing to try anything, no matter what it costs.
Drop screens made of iron mesh in hallway ceilings can trap and isolate a shooter in a hallway section where he cannot attack the kids and can’t get out. Bang, bang! Trapped like a mad dog. Surrender the gun or die in place.
The Russians have used fast-acting anesthetic gas to stop rioters inside buildings. The gas is more dangerous to everyone, but it is very effective. And far more peaceful than the gates. The shooter just goes to sleep and dies if the authorities don’t medicate and wake him up. (Along with anyone else who may get a strong shot of the gas accidentally.
Installing defensive entryways and exits works too. Locks on strong classroom doors works, as does a well designed alarm system.
So school fortification is certainly possible as a good defense, and can be designed to be practical.
But any fortification can be overcome by chaos and determination. So by itself, fortification isn’t the best protection, and should never be the only protection.
No one knows their kids better than the teachers. Most teachers are women these days, and in general, women tend to fear guns a bit more than men.
But those female teachers are often brave and protective. I think that a good, experienced cop who’s a qualified trainer could be able to teach a lady volunteer how to shoot a pistol safely and effectively.
And the teacher, man or woman, who’s cautious and not eager, but is still willing to learn the gun skill is probably going to be the best gun handler and shooter.
Any gun is the last resort against another gun. When anything can change in a split-second, the person with the coolest head most often prevails when they’re armed.
If the school provided such a teacher safe gun storage, I believe willing teachers would be a good last-ditch defense against a shooter. The guns would have to be school property, though, and only the school should have the authority to hold and distribute them, and the ammunition.
The teacher should be allowed to familiarize her classroom to the presence of the gun. That would provide the kids with a little reassurance they will be protected by an adult they know who’s on their side and knows what to do if the gun ever has to come out of its safe.
Whatever happens once the shooter’s inside will happen fast. The shooter will be charged with adrenalin, and he wants to kill as many kids as possible, even when the child wasn’t his intended victim.
Everyone else will suffer instant shock and confusion. Regular practice by the adults will help them recover a bit quicker, especially in schools that already have existing protection plans in place.
The kids won’t do anything but panic. Even if they have been well drilled, they’ll only react with panic and bad choices.
So fortification should help, as will arming the teachers. The right teachers- the ones who are hesitant but willing to learn how to shoot a pistol only in defense of the children.
I would never trust a teacher who carries concealed every day. They’re the least likely to make the right choices when the chips are down.
But these measures aren’t enough by themselves. They are too simplistic, and people are too unpredictable. The adults in the school will always need professional support from trained police.
I think a hotline should be created that links every school in a district to it’s proper police force that alerts the police an event has begun, with nothing more needed than the push of a button for the cops to know where the event is happening and when it began.
Our police forces need a practical response plan that can be used specifically for the school that’s involved. And like a swat team, I believe a senior officer should be in charge of the plan’s implementation only. A single leader, who meets no interference from all other cops on duty. Every police car and officer who’s charged with being a member of team response needs a single set of clear channels that connect to one coordinator.
The school’s regular patrol officers all need to be an integral part of that team. Each member of the team must be drilled and practiced, and must be given some specific responsibilities that are their first response duty.
There are no one-size-fits-all solutions to school shootings. My proposal could be impossible for many cities to achieve.
So ultimately, the best way to deter school shooters is to make it much harder for them to obtain a gun.
Especially an AR-15 rifle. It’s the only gun in the public sale arsenal that was specifically designed to kill humans. It was designed for combat, and for combat disposability. No pistol. or other civilian weaponry can match its lethality and destructive accuracy.
The Ar-15 can now be sold as parts, and come 80% assembled. Legally.
There are only 2 or 3 critical parts that can’t be included in a do-it-yourself kit, but they are very easy to obtain separately, as new or used parts, and assembling an AR-15 can now be assembled by a first-timer with only a few basic household tools and a small set of instructions.
And have a fully functional gun that has no identification or registration numbers, available direct to the owner, with no traces as to its ownership or the manufacturer.
This has to stop. The arms industry and the gun fanciers have used the 2nd Amendment far too broadly and their interpretation has endangered every one of us, even themselves.
The AR-15 in all it’s many variants is now the most popular weapon offered to the large American gun community, and is the most profitable gun to make for the industry.
But it can be regulated. A few states have already done it. One big part of its popularity is the gun’s anonymity. Once every part made for it is stamped with tracable numbers or elements, it’s popularity is bound to fade.
And once all used gun sales and secondary sales require licensure, guns will be harder to purchase, take more time to get and will be a riskier purchase for those with criminal intent.
All gun sales will slow when the same amount of regulations that apply to a driver’s license are applied to gun ownership.
I think that a joint effort to regulate gun ownership that includes both sides of this issue as fairly and completely as possible is achievable in Congress when both sides are allowed to bend toward the middle with their best points remaining intact.
Like Obamacare, the first effort can be far from perfect, but any effort is going to be better than what the gun issue is now. I’m pretty sure that once there’s some proof the flawed plan stopped a massacre, the public will be more prone to favor the results than to condemn them. Opinions will change when all the children emerge un-shot.
As a big single piece, everything that presently fuels our everlasting debate could remain essentially intact.
All it needs is some proper staging in implementation to create a little room for both sides to move around in.
A first step never has to be the best step to work. Congress knows it can change and change again any law they make so the law can meet shifting demands.
After over 20 years of very good service to both parties, the status quo on the gun issue is a powerful political force that has no room for any movement at all in it.
So any change is bound to be very hot, and very hard to get started. But a start can be achieved when both our parties stop bickering among themselves about which demand is superior to all the others. Both parties need equal recognition the other party’s demands are just as legitimate as the ones they oppose.
Since we now have many Congress people who were personally threatened by the mob recently, once the voters agree on just a bit of a compromise, I’m sure enough of our politicians will summon their courage and will follow up on gun control measures.
Call me a traitor to the cause if you want. I’m a native Idahoan and I’ve carried a gun whenever I pleased all my life. I know many more gun nuts than folks who’ve never touched one.
I know that most gun nuts like to brag about their weaponry, but they really don’t want to kill anyone with one. Few these days are hunters. The hunters who are the real deal never choose to carry anything but guns designed to kill critters, not people.
Our children must lose their fear of sudden death when attending school. That fear can destroy their lives as much as a bullet can. We have to give an entire generation of our children something that can ease their paranoia. And we must find a way to assuage their parent’s fears as well.
So stop the cheap name-calling and give up the easy gratification it brings. Stop sniping at each other, especially with your fellows.
Accept the fact that a totally ignorant, un-informed, racist, rednecked Trump lover can still have perfectly legitimate thoughts about ways to control the millions of guns we have everywhere, even when they won’t accept any reasonable argument that is not theirs.
Allow any person some dignity and respect, and they will take it. And once taken, they’ll be more likely to give some back too. I know it’s damned hard to do, but it must be done.
We can all remain proud Democrats. Militantly as you please. Just keep the greatest good and the greatest consequences of failure very clear in your mind and use your pride to the best purpose you can envision.