You can have your opinions about Trump, but this was an amazing conversation, I learned a lot (not from him).
One of the comments that stood out was one of the victim’s brother said we need to have and open conversation and bring everything to the table and all ideas even the controversial ones, because that is how we will come up with solutions.
I would have to agree, our First Amendment may be the solution to fixing our Second Amendment to the Constitution.
You will have to FF to about 25 minutes;
There is a lot of talk about mental health in the wake of the most recent tragedy in Parkland, Florida. No doubt mental health is a part of the equation that begs for an answer, but for anyone to allow this debate over such tragedies to be limited to a discussion of our mental health policies in this country is only fooling themselves and allowing themselves to be a fool for the nation’s gun lobby.
We must address not only the emotions which make such tragedies a reality, but also the capability or capabilities which allow for these realities to happen as well. One can always argue a mental health angle to any type of criminal activity, but when the means is greatly enhanced by a tangible item that is not properly regulated, then our emotional appeal is merely a struggle to answer a problem absent of any true scholarly understanding or appreciation of it.
For instance, if an uncontrolled intersection is dangerous causing much mayhem to the general public, we can stand around and talk about why people speed, tell people not to speed, and hand out warning tickets, or we can learn to control that intersection with stop signs, stop lights, and a greater police presence. Those who only offer mental health as the issue to the growing gun tragedies in this country are like the neighbors who petition for a greater public awareness program on the dangers of speeding in their neighborhood, but offer no call for a greater police presence or the common sense of a stop sign or traffic light at a dangerous local neighborhood intersection.
And it is also time that our political leaders not only quit hiding behind this “mental health” affirmative defense, when it comes to seeking a solution to the growing gun violence in our society today, but also begin to offer some real solutions like more thorough background checks, applying all gun laws to gun shows, banning the purchase of assault rifles, and finally forcing the gun industry in this country to live in the real world by subjecting it to product liability lawsuit potential like most mature and respectable industries have to deal with as corporate citizens in this nation.
Just how much longer does this tragic nonsense have to go on, I ask? Did the “Greatest Generation” really defeat the Axis Powers so that their children and grandchildren could live in a 19th century Dodge City in the 21st century? I don’t think so, but we are. And what will history say of our generation(s) if we allow these tragedies to continue?
Because only when we go beyond the emotions of this debate and become scholarly in our attempts to solve this problem, will the answers be real and the tragedies no longer….
I watched the “presidential” forum. It seemed way too nurtured by what trump wanted to hear. Concealed arming teachers? That is a bad idea. What do we do when the bad guy with a gun moves his act to hospitals? Arm the good guy doctors and nurses with semi autos? All of this is to spread fear and sell even more guns.
As I watched this I wondered, where are the high school kids from that school who have the real message? Well, they were in Tallahassee getting a lesson on how the gun lobby really works. They were also on CNN last night. Want to see a real townhall on Gunz’n Phear? Watch this video?
https://youtu.be/ZaLh74eXTDo
and fear, fear is bigger than Elvis Aaron Presley…..
The NRA has influence. However, legal age for gun purchase should be at least 21. Adults who buy guns for youth must be just as liable for shootings. Clips should be 10 rounds max. No guns for teachers. Video monitoring of halls and entrances. More later but this could happen now.
Questions:
Why is it you embrace plain clothed Air Marshalls in your airplane, but not in our schools?
Why is it you except armed resource officers in your schools but not allow trained and armed teachers to protect?
STOP listening to party politics and use common sense. Like I have typed before, we cannot law our way out of this problem as the lawless are the killers.
Here’s a thought. If you threaten anyone with gun violence on any public platform, you automatically lose your right to posses weapons until you are evaluated and cleared by a mental professional.
By “clips†I assume you mean magazines. Clips for guns are stripper clips that usually only hold 5 to 10 rounds. Once again an uneducated person in firearms trying to make a point about firearms. I bet you think “silencers†make guns silent and the AR in AR15 is an abbreviation for Assault Rifle..PS it is ArmaLite Rifle named after the company that developed the AR platform in the 50’s. Ask Chicago how well strict gun control is working in their city……….
What about movie theaters, concerts, nightclubs, airports, malls, and churches all the other places people congregate that have been met with assault weapon gun violence?
Will we have to have “volunteers” with arms patrolling those places too?
Will every place in America have to become a “gun” zone?
We cannot fix this problem with more guns.
LJL – Because Armed Air Martials are federal agents who go thorough thousands of hours of training and retraining, extensive psychological checks and background checks. Armed Resource officers are generally police officers with again thousands of hours of training and retraining, and extensive psychological checks and background checks.
Unless those teachers have that level of training, retraining, and screening, then no, I don’t want them armed.
There were trained, armed, fully vetted resource officers in the school in Florida – they did exactly nothing.
I can think of 2 former military and 3 active reservist that teach and certainly could be a armed school martial.
You are way over stating the qualifications of the resource officers and the RO’s I have talked to agree we need more armed and trained people in our schools.
As to your last statement, there was 1 officer at that school and thats a pretty low statement to make about the people who keep us safe. I wonder how well you are at your job?