Another awful school shooting. It’s sickening. It’s frightening. It is also PREVENTABLE! How? By disarming responsible gun owners? Of course, to those who live either in a protected bubble, or in a mental la la land where evil can be washed away by yet another law.
In the hours since the Parkland, Florida school shooting much of the focus has been on the gun, an AR-15 model, which looks, and indeed is, dangerous in the wrong hands and in the wrong place. But so would have been a pump shotgun, handgun, butcher knife or machete.
The best solution I have heard so far came from an Israeli security specialist. He was commenting about a series of horrific terrorist school shootings in Israel which occurred in the 1970’s, and what the Israeli law enforcement personnel did to stop them. They used specially trained and equipped guards at schools to detect the behaviors which virtually always precede such events.
The simple act of requiring an individual to open their jacket or backpack would expose the weapon which was being brought into the school. These incidents don’t start with an individual shooting their way in to commence the carnage. They walk in, concealing their weapons first.
They know the school, by law in virtually every state, is a “gun free zone”. If you don’t stop them at the entrance they will be free to do what they wish until law enforcement arrives, and that takes time, even in the best of circumstances. Right now, schools and other “gun free zones” are relying on running away and hiding techniques to protect the people there. Although that does save some lives, still more are lost because this strategy is all DEFENSIVE.
Having armed and specially trained individuals at the school entrance doesn’t turn a school into a prison. It turns it into a secure place for the students, plain and simple. Once again the Israelis, who have coped since that countries founding with living surrounded by people who wish them dead, have figured out how to deal with the threats. We should learn from them.
The gun control people will once again scream for firearm confiscation. The only way that scenario will work is if we turn this nation into a Soviet style police state. Do we really want to go there?
One last thought. Hollywood demands gun control while making billions on movies and television shows which glorify the illegal, violent use of firearms. When will they practice what they preach? But then they just discovered that sexual predators are in their midst, didn’t they?