A young fellow by the name of David Hogg has grabbed center
stage after the vile act of evil that left 14 students and 3 teachers dead in
Florida in February of this year. His primary
target is the NRA . . . an organization who has never had an NRA member as the
primary shooter in a mass shooting (other than to stop it), never had a member
involved in a school shooting, whose 125,000 instructors annually train 1
MILLION Americans in the safe use of their firearms.
Perhaps a few words from the “Student Warrior
Unleashed”. A word of caution, this
video is NOT safe to play at work or in school, it is NOT “child safe”. The language is profane in the extreme. This . . . this is the spokesman for this new
movement to Stop the Violence and March for our lives.
David
Hogg . . . voice of the movement
His parents must be so proud. His school must be so proud. Honestly, I think the young fellow has simply
lost his cookies and could use some professional help. It might be residual PTSD, or even
showmanship. Who knows. A certain lack of education – or understanding
of his education in history shows as well.
Sorry David, you do not live in a Democracy. Perhaps a bit more time on the books and less
in front of the camera would help.
So where are these young folks headed? Let’s talk a bit about the initial premise of
the walkout – #StopTheViolence. What,
exactly, does that mean? Should we stop
killing each other as a society? Who can
argue against that? There are probably tens
of thousands of laws on the books – one going all the way back to 1,300 BC that
says something like “Thou Shalt Not Kill!”
I am in full agreement, as is virtually everyone else, with the
exception of that person who is intent on killing . . .
and evil seldom listens to any voice but its own.
Perhaps we should attempt to put our student’s mind at ease
and clarify that individuals shouldn’t kill students while in school and,
perhaps we should emphasize that by making schools “Gun Free Zones”. Of course, I’m being facetious because the
majority of school zones are already “Gun Free Zones” as was the school in Florida. The result?
The only person with a gun, on school property in this type of shooting
is that person who is intent on killing . . . and evil seldom listens to any
voice but its own.
Perhaps we can simply lay blame for the killings at
someone’s doorstep – say the NRA?
Honestly, here I need to raise my voice in objection because, as the
saying goes, “I Am The NRA”. In fact I
am a NRA Trainer for Pistols, Rifles, Shotguns, Personal Protection in the
Home, Personal Protection Outside of the Home, Range Safety Officers and as a
NRA Training Counselor I can also train new NRA Instructors. I know for a fact that safe handling of a
firearms is my primary concern. The
defense of the student, their family and those in their charge is my next
primary mission. To say that good
training and the teaching of safe gun handling is the cause of an evil use of a
firearm is vile in and of itself.
Who could have affected the outcome of the Florida School
shooting? Honestly, there were many
people. Let’s start with the Health and
Human Services department that were well aware that the shooter was mentally
unstable and violent. They, in
conjunction with the BCSO were involved with over 18 individual visits to the
shooter’s home. They could have
intervened – and in fact had made the decision to intervene to have him
committed against his will. They did
nothing.
The FBI could have done something. On at least two separate occasions they were
notified that the shooter had made direct threats against the school. They did nothing.
Perhaps a law that allows law enforcement to take guns from
mentally ill people that appear to be a danger to themselves and others? Florida already has such a law on the books,
yet the shooter was never reported by either HHS or the BCSO. In fact, nationwide the reporting of violent
felons and mentally ill patients to the
FBI NICS is dismal. If the person is NOT
IN THE SYSTEM, they cannot be identified.
How about comprehensive background checks? Closing the “gun show loophole”? The only problem? You can’t buy a gun without a background
check. Go to a gunstore to buy a gun –
they will run a background check. Go to
a gun show and buy a gun – they will run a background check. Order a gun online from a dealer – they will
ship it to your local gun dealer (NOT YOU) and – they will run a background
check. Are there some exceptions –
yes. Sell a gun to a friend within state
lines – the individual state will regulate whether you need to do that through
a gun dealer or whether you can simply complete the sale yourself. But . . . and this is a big butt . . . for
background checks to be effective, the states must turn in the data. Those with severe mental health issues must
have their data entered. No data, no
chance of stopping the shooter. In the
Florida case, if the shooter had been committed, if that information had been
entered, if those charged with protecting their community had done their job –
those 17 would be alive today. Period.
How about getting violent students out of the school? The Obama Administration let it be known that
if too many students of a certain color were removed from schools, their
funding could be lost. It should come as
no surprise that in the Florida school the rate of students being reported for
violence and removed suddenly dropped.
Guns are always options of last resort. And that includes use of deadly force by
police officers and School Resource Officers.
But, should that day arrive – wouldn’t it be nice if the SRO acted to
engage the shooter rather than exiting the building, establishing a perimeter
and then holding other responding officers outside the building for 27
minutes?
Bottom line, all the people the students expected to
protect them, failed them. The school
administration, the SRO, the BCSO, HHS and the FBI failed to act on solid
information. Students and teachers
died. And the solution is to look to
these same people to protect them going forward? Really??
There is another culprit of course. And the final target of this new movement – GUNS. Yes, those black, evil chunks of polymer and
steel that somehow magically come alive and seek out people to kill. If only we could eliminate guns – ASSAULT
WEAPONS specifically – all would be well.
Of course, you have not been able to purchase a true “Assault Weapon” –
meaning a fully automatic firearm, since 1934.
But let’s just ignore that and stick with just taking them because then
we will be safe and the killing will stop.
Mother Jones recently released a comprehensive account of all mass shootings
from 1982 to 2018. There have been 98 of
them. There have been 819 deaths. The use of either an AR (ArmaLite Rifle) or
AK (Kalashnikov Rifle) occurred only 15 times. Let me say that one more time – ARs or AKs
were only used is 15 of the 98 mass shootings since 1982 or only 15% of the
time. So, the obvious solution is to ban
ARs and AKs.
Let’s broaden our view and look at the FBI data for 2016. There were 15,070 murders in the US. Of those 374 were committed by rifles – all
types included. This amounts to 2%. So, the obvious
solution is to ban ARs and AKs. Twice as
many deaths were committed with hands and feet, should we start chopping them
off? Five times as many deaths were
caused by knives, shall we ban all knives?
(Don’t laugh, this is happening in the UK).
While the anti-civil rights crowd dance on
the graves of those 17 who lost their lives in the Florida school shooting,
make no mistake – their “final solution” is to deny me and all law-abiding
citizens of our 2nd Amendment Right to keep and bear arms. The blood of the children and teachers
simply acting as grease for their wheels.
Perhaps a brief look at history to see how
that’s worked out when severe gun control legislation was enacted (year given
that the law was passed).
Germany, 1938, All non-citizens were prohibited from owning
and possessing firearms. Jews were not
citizens.
Soviet Union, 1929. Stalin is estimated to have killed 20 million
of his own citizens
Communist China, 1935 and 1957, estimates are
that Mao killed between 40 and 80 million of his own citizens.
Cambodia, 1956, Pol
Pot killed 2 million of his own citizens
This, this right here is the purpose of the 2nd
Amendment. It gives the citizens of the
state the ability to defend themselves against a state out of control. Do we have examples of our state killing its
own citizens because of guns?
Wounded Knee, December 29, 1890. The government killed between 150 and 300
Lakota people, most were women and children when they wouldn’t turn over their
guns.
Waco, Texas February
– April 1993, Branch Davidians, After a
siege the building complex was raided by the ATF because of suspect weapons
stock piling. 81 people were burned to
death.
As recently as 2014 there was an armed standoff between the
BLM and the Bundy family in a dispute over grazing rights that had been granted
for over 20 years. The standoff
eventually resulted in the killing of a rancher, Robert Finicum and a resulting
$5 Million-dollar wrongful death suit.
All charges against the family were dropped this year.
So where does this leave us? I believe it leaves us with a number of
uncomfortable truths.
Violence will never “stop”.
It is a part of human nature.
Wishing it to be gone does not banish it or violence would have
disappeared long ago.
Evil exists. And I
mean real, honest to God, gut wrenching evil.
Try
this link and realize this is in your country, not some 3rd world
backwater.
The person you see in the mirror every morning is your
“first responder”. If you are living
every day knowing that all you need to do is call 911 and you are saved –
please, wake up before it’s too late.
Get some first aid training, take some defensive fighting classes,
become responsible for yourself rather than trusting your safety to someone
else. I noticed that many states are
enacting rules saying you can not buy a gun – any gun - until age 21.
Think of the young woman with a stalker and a piece of paper that she
expects to protect her from violence.
What could possibly go wrong.
Harden schools. The
NRA released their NRA
School Shield Program early in 2013 after Sandyhook. Make sure your school follows the tenants
contained in it. Make sure they have an
armed SRO on duty every day. Allow those
teachers that follow state and local laws to acquire their individual carry
permit to carry on school property if they so choose. The more trained folks in a school that are
armed, the higher the possibility to stop a school shooter.
Finally, one of our founders had a simple warning for us:
Benjamin Franklin once said:
"Those who would give up essential
Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor
Safety."
I believe it is a thought we should all take to heart.
Some
reference links:
March
for our lives – “Fingers” and signs
Mass
Shootings 1982 – 2018 (819 killed)
Article
on local students during the walkout
Kellogg-Briand Pact was an agreement to outlaw
war signed on August 27, 1928
Benjamin Franklin once said: "Those who would give
up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve
neither Liberty nor Safety."
This is the best article that I've read since this whole ordeal began.
ReplyDeleteThank you for expressing what many of us are thinking.
Even more interesting, apparently Hogg wasn't even AT the school at the time. He stated he grabbed his camera and rode to the school...
ReplyDelete