It’s not tougher gun control, stupid.
No matter how much tougher we make our gun laws, we’ll never prevent future tragedies like last week’s murder of those innocents in Newtown, Conn.
We won’t stop future Newtowns if we outlaw every military-style assault weapon in America.
We won’t stop future Auroras if we outlaw semi-automatic pistols or rifles, or mandate that no magazine clip can ever hold more than 10 rounds.
We won’t stop future Virginia Techs if we make it tougher to buy a gun legally or if we shut down all gun shows on the continent for the rest of time.
Let’s get real. America has an estimated 300 million guns. We could make owning a gun a capital crime today; and by tomorrow, 100 million guns would be hidden in our closets and buried in our backyards.
Good people, bad people, and crazy people would still have access to tens of millions of guns and the ammunition they need. All the strict laws Mayor Bloomberg or Sen. Feinstein can dream up won’t change that.
Some of the strictest gun laws in the country don’t stop the gang-bangers of Chicago from slaughtering each other by the hundreds each year over drug turf.
Connecticut already had tough gun laws. So did Norway, where last year an evil extremist used guns and bombs to randomly kill 77 people — mostly teenagers.
To politicians, banning all semi-automatic weapons or large magazines in guns sounds like a good solution to stop mass murders, but it isn’t.
Those laws might keep the death toll in the single digits, but they won’t stop another killing spree like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary from occurring in the first place.
I want to prevent mass murders from happening in schools, not merely reduce their number of victims. I’m not willing to accept six dead first-graders instead of 20. I’m not willing to accept a single dead teacher or principal or schoolchild.
And the only way to bring the death toll down to zero in our schools is to put trained armed guards in every one of them.
Not a retired policeman or a fat guy in a cheap uniform who sits in a chair all day. A real guard with a real loaded gun that he or she knows how to use and is authorized to shoot.
It could be a local police officer or a private security guard. And taxpayers would be willing to pay the price for knowing their kids were being protected by more than security cameras and locked doors.
Security is never foolproof. When my father was shot in 1981, he was the most protected person in America, surrounded by heavily armed and trained bodyguards.
The disturbed man who tried to kill him didn’t use an assault rifle or a semi-automatic to carry out his plan. Before he was wrestled to the ground, he got off six shots in 1.7 seconds — with a revolver.
I’ll never forget what Mike Luty, the head of the Secret Service detail who was with me the day my father was shot, said to me when I asked, “How can you allow this to happen?” Luty said, “We train 24/7, but we can’t stop the crazies.”
We can’t stop every crazy in America who is intent on committing mass murder, either, but we can try. We need to fix our mental health system so it’s better able to identify potential killers before they kill, and we need to find ways parents can provide help to their kids over 18 without needing a court order.
But no matter what we do, evil people, crazy people, and troubled suicidal young white males will always have access to guns; and they’ll plan their lethal attacks in secret and carry them out.
More gun control and gun-free zones won’t stop them, but guns will. Putting armed guards — with loaded weapons — in our schools is the only sure way we can keep our future mass murderers from hurting any more of our innocent children.
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I have lived in a third world country, where British law was in place, thus no personal firearm ownership freedom, and they had one of the highest crime rates in the world. Gun control is only about power over the people by preventing self protection from the government!
We must not become desensitized to the Newtown slayings — and our duty to defend each other — by watching the constant news coverage. Many of those trying to use Newtown as a pretext to turn the US into their genocidal gun-free zone are the same ones who promote the social instability and immorality that predictably inspire most of the murders. Those misfits deserve punishment, not our guns.
http;//elect.ErrnestHuberForCongress.com/
A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used in order to inflict damage, harm or death to enemies or other living beings, structures, or systems. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, and warfare. In a broader context, weapons may be construed to include anything used to gain a strategic, material or mental advantage over an adversary. Any instrument/object when used to cause bodily harm is an assault weapon. Water, sound, electricity can be also used as a weapon to assault.
There were weapons, murders and killings long before there were guns.
A person could take 3 guns that hold only six rounds each and take out up to 18 people. How does banning assault weapon stop people from killing? It DOESN”T!!! All it does is cause a person to come up with another plan.
Do people really think that banning what will be determined as assault weapons would have stopped the killers from accomplishing their task or obtaining a gun on the black market? Banning assault weapons will make the price go up on the black market.
When they advertise a drug on TV they have to mention the side effects. There are some we are warned in rare cases can cause a person to have suicidal thoughts. How do we know these people who get suicidal thoughts decide to take a bunch of people with them. Look how many killed themselves after their killing spree. So we blame the gun not the medication. Why not ban drugs that alter a person thought patterns. I think every US citizen should have a gun and law enforcement classes to teach people how to use them.
If the every teacher at the school had a gun and knew how to use there would have been less people killed, because someone could have taken him out.
If assault weapons were were banned it would not have stopped him. Maybe slowed him down. A person does not need an assault weapon to commit mass murder!
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2012/07/aurora_shooting_how_did_people_commit_mass_murder_before_automatic_weapons_.html
http://www.neontommy.com/news/2012/07/doing-math-guns
To say banning assault weapons will stop mass murders or stopping a person from killing is ridiculous!!!
So the guy walks in with a ninja’s sword and starts hacking kids heads off or learns how to make a chlorine gas bomb and tosses it in the window.The nutjob will find a way! A guy in china slashed and killed 28 kids in a school with a knife. So yes,if someone is determined to do evil they will do evil with whatever method they can get their hands on.That is the reality of it.
I agree with the author on everything except one; Teachers, administration and staff should be educated and trained in weaponry. They or a good majority of them should be armed and at the ready. A notice should be posted on all doors of a school building that the employees are armed. Guns are inanimate objects that MUST be operated by humans. This guy didn’t want to die BEFORE he went on his rampage, but (probably) figured quickly he screwed up and shot himself as his punishment. Prescription drugs are pushed on us for profit, for control, for pacification, no matter the side effects. Violent video games and movies are another factor in teaching our youth what is acceptable in our society. If you want to blame someone, blame Big Pharma and their greed for money and movie/game makers for publicizing their own sick and demented ideals. This particular gov’t embraces Big Pharma & Hollywood and the power they have over the people of this country. Blame the parents for ignoring their children who end up in gangs, steal, kill and maim others. In the 50′s and 60′s parents knew where their children were, interacted with them, knew their friends and provided boundaries with consequences that were enforced. If you ask today’s parent who their child hangs out with, 75% of them couldn’t answer the question or wouldn’t care. The problem lies in a selfish society who produces offspring they really didn’t want because it cramps their style or holds them back in their career. 15 years ago, my children were minorities in their school because they still lived with the two parents who produced them. We made them behave, be polite and tell the truth. They hated us then, but today they call one or both of us every day just to see how we are or to ask a question. Maybe society ought to go back to the family living in the same house, having supper together and talking. But, technology has everyone glued to a screen, too busy to talk and no parental guidance. Banning guns is not the answer, here. These shooters were reaching out for attention, and they got it.
Actually there are many teachers across the country that have carry permits already. So if they want let them take an advanced training course and carry their gun in school. The cost would be nothing. And the kids would be protected. I guess if the nut would have used a hammer to kill of the kids. We could ban all hammers. The carpenters would really love that.