Category Archives: School Shootings

40 Shootings is Unconscionable.

06 Sunday Nov 2022

Posted by in School Shootings

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            As I write this the United States has had forty school shootings. From kindergarten to my graduate degree I never heard or thought about a school shooting. I grew up in Southern Illinois where most families probably had a rifle or shotgun in the house for hunting. I was probably seven or eight when Dad let me shoot his 12-gauge double-barrel shotgun which knocked my 40 pound body at least six feet back. Much later I became proficient with a 22 revolver, a 22 rifle, a 410 gauge and 20 gauge shotgun. I could probably come closer to hitting a target by throwing my brother’s WWII Mauser than shooting at it..

            When I was a junior in high school one project in Speech II was to do a demonstration. I chose to disassemble and reassemble my brother’s Mauser blindfolded. The teacher and the principle said it was okay only as long as it wasn’t loaded, kept in the office before and after the class. I bet there isn’t an American school that would allow that to happen today.

            The few gangs in big cities didn’t have many revolvers or automatics when I was in school. They fought with switchblades (I traded for one in the fourth grade.), clubs and zip guns. Zip guns were homemade single shot devices which didn’t always fire.

            So what has changed? The National Rifle Association went from teaching gun safety and looking out for bad weapons to promoting the purchase of pistols. Assault style weapons and video games teach kids to kill with impunity. Too many parents have not done their job in rearing their children to respect others. The most obvious reason is the declining control of ownership in many states and the Supreme Court rulings.

Fortifying, Not Arming

18 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in NRA, School Shootings

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The President, some members of Congress, and the National Rifle Association are pushing the insane idea of arming teachers. Only on the filmy surface does that make any sense. Civilian Rambos are for movies.

Putting guns in schools is a dumb idea. Giving them to a veteran sounds like a good idea until you realize that very few veterans have ever been in a combat situation much less fired a handgun in one. In combat situations civilians get killed. Do we want someone to shoot students by mistake?

A great example occurred a few years when two of New York’s very highly trained elite officers were guarding a Manhattan building. They saw a man with a gun about forty feet away. They fired seventeen times, hit him twice, and thirteen other people near him and across the street. Paper targets and situations aren’t the same as picking out a possible shooter when students and staff are running back and forth.

The answer is to “fortify” the school with strong doors and double sets of doors where possible. This would mean nobody gets in without permission or is held within the two sets of doors until police arrive. This idea alone will deter potential bad people from entering the school. Nothing would stop an incident from occurring outside the school.

The NRA is always for more guns because that is more money in their pockets. I have yet to meet a teacher or professor that I would want armed in a school.