The Observation Deck

Most likely Nancy was killed to obtain the weapons.... blaming Nancy is just not logical unless the weapons were not secured...

Stephen Eisel wrote:Most likely Nancy was killed to obtain the weapons.... blaming Nancy is just not logical unless the weapons were not secured...

I'm not following your timeline, Stephen. Every report I have heard/seen/read indicates that Adam used one of Nancy's gun to shoot her. So ... he killed her to obtained a weapon to kill her??

Being still deeply troubled by this tragedy, I've spent a bit of time lately studying these things. Yes, in an initial confrontation, an aggressor has the advantage of surprise and shock. Trained responders however, are equipped to respond, which is why they are called trained responders.

As was pointed out here, having a defense gun (or guns) in a school building certainly involves an additional risk and controversy. At the same time, and just as with the field of medicine, there is always a risk/benefit equation to be weighed out.

I was quite surprised to learn that there are supposedly a number of schools in Texas that already allow staff members (who have undergone concealed carry and defense training courses) to have their guns on their persons while they are administrating or teaching. While certainly controversial, a hostile person entering that kind of environment would have far less opportunity to wreak mayhem. The training is intense and very police-like and is only offered to those who want it. Information as to who in those buildings are armed is kept confidential, and is known only to the authorities

Put bluntly, potential threats could then be neutralized immediately from multiple sources unknown to the aggressor.

I'm not prepared to personally advocate for that sort of thing. At the same time, in an imperfect world, we frankly need to have the ability to stop school threats as soon as possible. As was pointed out, laws are only adhered to by law-abiding citizens. In the most recent tragedy, many laws were brazenly broken. The United Kingdom (in this case-Scotland) has much stricter gun laws than we do, as does Norway, but those laws did not deter gunners from killing many defenseless children in two separate and terrible occasions.

We need to weigh every idea's pluses and minuses as to how defenseless children MUST be defended in our country. However we may feel about guns, they are, at the last- inanimate tools to be used only as well, or as terribly as humanity dictates. If they can be used to kill, so too, can they be used to prevent killing.

There was 19th century saying, supposedly from a gun advertisement, that comes to mind here:

"Be not afraid of any man, no matter what his size. When danger threatens, call on me, and I will equalize."

(Incidentally, at one time, there were indeed multiple guns regularly kept in the Lakewood schools, and in many other districts as well. These were used for supervised target practice in the gymnasiums, in the days of WWII and after)

There are so many sides to this terrible tragedy, but when analyzed component by component, hopefully there will emerge common sense solutions.

"Think first, then act; lest foolish be thy deed" Pythagoras

Danielle Masters wrote:The odds of dying in a school shooting are something like 1 in a million. The odds of dying in a car accident in a given year are about 1 in 6,500. I think we are doing our children a disservice by giving in to fear mongering. Gun violence is down, the assault weapons ban was in effect during Columbine, criminals break laws, we have to stop living in constant fear, and we need to stop giving up our rights. My family refuses to live in fear, I have been straightforward with my children, I refuse to raise them in fear.

Danielle

I agree with the heart of this message, and talking with NRA members, "gun nuts" and friends
that own and use weapons it would seem the solution is very easy.

1) Federals laws that...

1) Impose life changing sentences for owning or possession of an unregistered
semi-automatic weapon of any kind. Much like the automatic/machine gun laws now on
the books. This is a logically progression, and seems to make NRA people feel better.

2) Like an automobile, EVERY GUN is registered and carries the same liability that owning
a car carries. A person uses a gun in a crime, then you can bring the owner in. This is the
only way I can think of making law-abiding gun owners working harder to keep their
weapons out of the hands of those that should not be using them.

3) Stop the decreasing of funding for mental illness, and make sure the money now being
trickled into mental health goes to programs not pharmaceutical companies.

Allowing weapons to increase especially semi-automatic weapons while drastically cutting
funding is nothing more than a recipe for disaster. And this is exactly the path the right
has taken us down. I would also throw in, allowing guns freely int he hands of???? While
cutting social programs is insane, and only helps to feed the corporate prison system.

The solution is easy. It is the same solution for machine guns, and that has proven to
work. After all the "Right" is to formed armed state militia, not to allow individuals to be
their own armed militia. And, no article of the Constitution is absolute. This we know.

.

I keep reading and hearing that gun violence is down but have found no facts to support that. I do find articles like this when I Google "gun violence down united states":

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/1 ... 18704.html

Also, down compared to what? Certainly not other industrial nations.

Matthew Lee wrote:I keep reading and hearing that gun violence is down but have found no facts to support that. I do find articles like this when I Google "gun violence down united states":

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/1 ... 18704.html

Also, down compared to what? Certainly not other industrial nations.

Matthew, I have searched the FBI website with no luck on finding statistics specific to gun violence. It appears that most violent crimes were on the decline in 2011. But, with all of the gang violence nationwide (Chicago almost 500 murders in 2012), I cannot imagine that gun violence is on the decrease.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/ma ... ime_052311