I want to start by apologizing for bring up political issues in the recent school shooting in CT thread. It was disrespectful on my part and I truly did not mean to offend anyone if I did.
Stepping away from the emotions of this tragic event in CT, along with the many tragic gun related violence events that have been taking place in the United States. I think the subject of gun control, more over POTUS’s comments today regarding putting politics aside and making real change (i.e. new gun control legislation to come), that a level headed discussion on the topic is warranted.
I personally against any and all gun control measures for several reasons, but the primary reason is the United States Constitution. We are a free people, free to defend ourselves and our property and I view gun control measures as limiting the lawful citizen from being able to be free in protection of themselves and property. We obviously have some crazy people in the world, and nobody wants these crazy people carrying guns and killing innocent people. However, the issue really breaks down to either having someone else protect you and your property or taking on the responsibility for providing that protection for yourself.
I think it is pretty clear that historically gun control has not stopped unlawful use of guns to commit violent acts. However, it has also shown that it limits the lawful gun owner from being able to protect his/her self and I think that is enough reason alone to take an out of the box view on how to curve the violence in the United States.
Using this recent shooting as an example, 26 people (20 of whom were children) lost their lives due to one crazy person armed with several guns. A good amount of people believe this to be the guns fault, that a crazy person armed with a gun caused this incident. They are correct that it was a crazy person armed with a gun caused the event, but I think the real question to be asked here is why did it take so long for him to be stopped, how could a crazy person armed with guns make it into a school, in a state know for strict gun control and murder 26 people?
My outside of the box view is that the teachers and school officials did not have the proper means to stop this crazy person. That a false since of security exists in most of our community’s that the POLICE will be there to stop these individuals and that removing guns from the schools, making restrictions on gun ownership and possession makes everyone safer. I believe this to be incredibly false. The only person who can truly protect you, is in fact you. It becomes very hard in the school setting, we obviously can’t allow young children to carry guns and take on the responsibility of self protection. But we can force schools, teachers, security, etc to provide a better blanket of security for our children. I believe that comes from arming our teachers, having more armed security/police in these schools and requiring these schools to provide better protection from outside and internal threats. Will it stop all school shootings? No. Nothing, to include new gun control legislation will stop school shootings from happening. However, we can learn to deal with this threat better, to minimize the effects of these types of attacks and more over, reduce the amount of life lost.
The primary point is that we have implemented many programs to respond to active shooters within schools, training for the school staff, local LE and the students. But clearly these steps have not worked and something better need to be implemented. I believe that comes in training and arming teachers and other school officials, having more (a lot more) trained and well armed security/LE personnel at these schools and changing our response from a lock down, wait for the cops, to a take action and stop the attack model of protection.
Stepping away from the emotions of this tragic event in CT, along with the many tragic gun related violence events that have been taking place in the United States. I think the subject of gun control, more over POTUS’s comments today regarding putting politics aside and making real change (i.e. new gun control legislation to come), that a level headed discussion on the topic is warranted.
I personally against any and all gun control measures for several reasons, but the primary reason is the United States Constitution. We are a free people, free to defend ourselves and our property and I view gun control measures as limiting the lawful citizen from being able to be free in protection of themselves and property. We obviously have some crazy people in the world, and nobody wants these crazy people carrying guns and killing innocent people. However, the issue really breaks down to either having someone else protect you and your property or taking on the responsibility for providing that protection for yourself.
I think it is pretty clear that historically gun control has not stopped unlawful use of guns to commit violent acts. However, it has also shown that it limits the lawful gun owner from being able to protect his/her self and I think that is enough reason alone to take an out of the box view on how to curve the violence in the United States.
Using this recent shooting as an example, 26 people (20 of whom were children) lost their lives due to one crazy person armed with several guns. A good amount of people believe this to be the guns fault, that a crazy person armed with a gun caused this incident. They are correct that it was a crazy person armed with a gun caused the event, but I think the real question to be asked here is why did it take so long for him to be stopped, how could a crazy person armed with guns make it into a school, in a state know for strict gun control and murder 26 people?
My outside of the box view is that the teachers and school officials did not have the proper means to stop this crazy person. That a false since of security exists in most of our community’s that the POLICE will be there to stop these individuals and that removing guns from the schools, making restrictions on gun ownership and possession makes everyone safer. I believe this to be incredibly false. The only person who can truly protect you, is in fact you. It becomes very hard in the school setting, we obviously can’t allow young children to carry guns and take on the responsibility of self protection. But we can force schools, teachers, security, etc to provide a better blanket of security for our children. I believe that comes from arming our teachers, having more armed security/police in these schools and requiring these schools to provide better protection from outside and internal threats. Will it stop all school shootings? No. Nothing, to include new gun control legislation will stop school shootings from happening. However, we can learn to deal with this threat better, to minimize the effects of these types of attacks and more over, reduce the amount of life lost.
The primary point is that we have implemented many programs to respond to active shooters within schools, training for the school staff, local LE and the students. But clearly these steps have not worked and something better need to be implemented. I believe that comes in training and arming teachers and other school officials, having more (a lot more) trained and well armed security/LE personnel at these schools and changing our response from a lock down, wait for the cops, to a take action and stop the attack model of protection.
)
