An inescapable reality is that there will be another school shooting. At some point a deranged individual will enter a school and murder a number of children and adults. The media will sensationalize the event and make the killer famous. The killer’s image will be broadcast around the world for weeks.
The left will shriek and blame the NRA and law-abiding American gun owners. Democrat politicians and anti-gun extremist groups will use the tragedy to promote more useless gun laws that will have no impact on crime. The laws will only harm law-abiding gun owners and make all Americans less safe. Republican politicians will talk about thoughts and prayers but do absolutely nothing.
Why? Why do more innocents need to die? Why do more families need to be destroyed? Why does society need to witness yet another unspeakable horror?
American society has been deteriorating for decades. Our education system has been intentionally degraded and now just barely serves children. The family and traditional values are under constant attack. Concerned parents who question local school boards are called domestic terrorists. Religion is ridiculed and forced from many aspects of our culture. Our role models, particularly for young people, glorify the absolute worst human behavior. We have a woefully inadequate mental health system hampered by misguided, ill-conceived laws that prevent those most in need from getting help. All this and much more contribute to the creation of the monsters who commit these horrific acts. Our supply of monsters is unlikely to run out anytime soon.
It’s painfully obvious that preventing these incidents is not possible. If the murders can’t be prevented then what can be done? What can be done is we can reduce the number of shootings and reduce the number of casualties inflicted. Both can be accomplished by allowing people to defend themselves.
Historically schools in California had the ability to protect their students and staff by allowing select individuals to be armed on campus but no more. In 2017 Governor Brown signed AB424 which removed the ability of school districts to authorize specific individuals to be armed on campus.
Allowing specific individuals to be armed on campus is the most cost effective, reasonable way to address a threat that has an extremely low probability of occurrence at any given school but an extremely high impact if it does occur.
In 2018 I was asked to write an Op-ed for the San Diego Union Tribune defending the concept of arming teachers. In that piece I examined various ways we might defend students and staff and the most obvious choice was to allow armed staff to protect themselves and the kids.
We’re not talking about Mrs. Doubtfire gunning up. We’re talking about allowing staff who are already gun owners and possibly concealed carriers to volunteer for additional training to carry on campus. This is not a viable solution for all schools but districts that choose this option, working with parents and local law enforcement, should be allowed to do so.
What keeps us from accepting the obvious choice is the emotionally charged environment surrounding the subject. In California we have an inordinate number of emotionally fragile, badly misinformed people, when it comes to firearms, who just won’t tolerate a rational discussion on the best approach to protect schools. Unfortunately, those people aren’t limited to California, we just seem to have more than other places.
Democrat politicians pander to these people. Anti-gun extremist groups take advantage of the irrational fear of firearms these people have. Republican politicians do nothing. The result is that we will continue to see the needless loss of innocent lives when we have a perfectly viable solution to reduce the number of casualties. We’re just unwilling to implement that solution.
Gun owners are partly to blame for the current situation. Our silence over the past fifty years allowed the extremists to demonize guns and gun owners. Our silence allowed the election of politicians who passed unconstitutional gun laws. Our silence allowed firearms education to be removed from schools. Our silence allowed the creation of gun-free zones around the country which have become magnets for mass murderers. We can be silent no longer.
The US Supreme Court recently ruled that the right of citizens to carry a firearm in public for self-protection is protected by the Second Amendment. New York promptly passed a law declaring almost all public areas “sensitive” and off limits to firearms. California followed suit with AB918 which was narrowly defeated but will be reintroduced in January when it will almost certainly pass. We can be silent no longer.
We have elections coming in November. Politicians who refuse to follow the law, who continue to deny citizens the right to protect themselves while implementing policies that are causing huge spikes in violent crime endangering all Americans need to be voted out of office. This needs to happen no matter the political party. If we don’t begin to elect men and women who care about the country, we will pass a point beyond which the problem will be unfixable. We can be silent no longer.
©2022 Joseph T Drammissi
This article and more of Joe’s work covering the Second Amendment and other topics can be found on Substack at https://getagrip.substack.com
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