Common Sense About Preventing School Shootings – Sacrificing Children on the Altar of Gun Control

In the wake of the Uvalde tragedy, we present a fresh look at what can be done to prevent school shootings. Sadly, the political reaction following school shootings has become a kabuki: progressives, captive to their gun control dogma, clamor for anti-gun legislation. That always is a non-starter. No meaningful changes are enacted, and schools are just as vulnerable as prior to the latest tragedy. That must change.

We begin with some perspective. Most gun deaths (55%) are suicides. Mass shootings constitute less than 1% of gun deaths. There have been 13 mass school shootings in the in the past 56 years, 1 every 4-5 years. Even though school shootings are rare, they generate great horror due to the nature of the victims. That, along with saturation media coverage, gives the impression they are more frequent than they actually are.

Solutions That Will Not Work

Gun control is a liberal shibboleth not shared by a sizable majority of Americans. That makes it impossible to pass stricter gun laws. Even if meaningful laws could be passed, they likely would be unconstitutional. Moreover, if they became law, they would be largely ineffective. By demanding gun control, liberals make the perfect the enemy of the good. They must put gun issues aside and do what is possible to save lives now.

Red flag laws won’t work. There were warnings aplenty prior to many school shootings, particularly Parkland and Uvalde. Red flags included summonses for police, foreboding social media postings, school suspensions, anti-social behavior, cruelty to animals and firearm purchases. Simply put, government can’t be trusted to enforce red flag laws; they would muck it up as they do everything else. Also, red flag laws take away a constitutional right from someone who has not been charged with any crime.

Solutions That Will Work

Universal school choice gives families control of where to school their children; they can choose schools with strong safety protocols, including the presence of firearms in the hands of trained school personnel. Competition will soon force other schools to follow suit. Perhaps some schools will advertise themselves as gun-free zones to accommodate children from progressive families. That would present an interesting dilemma for liberals. Would they risk their own children for their anti-gun religion?

Cultural pathologies and personal pathologies are inextricably linked

Harden schools to strictly control entry. A perimeter fence combined with only one point of ingress (with double doors such that a person could enter only one door at a time) could be effective both as a deterrent and for stopping shooters. The cost would be minimal, and it could be completed in weeks. It could be funded with leftover dollars from all the largess doled out to states for pandemic assistance.

Abolish gun-free zones as part of a well-considered plan. Guns in the hands of trained school personnel create serious complications for wannabee shooters. They complicate the calculus of a shooter looking for a soft target. Guns would be a powerful deterrent and a gigantic speed bump. They also provide an immediate response as opposed to waiting 10-15 minutes for police. Finally, it would minimize any casualties.

Other remedies include: (1) improve the culture; when the spectrum of acceptable behavior degrades, those at the margins go off the rails. Our highly toxic political culture of personal destruction, mainly as practiced by progressives, has removed the guardrails from our civilization. There is an inextricable link between cultural pathologies and personal pathologies. (2) reduce the copycat effect by dialing down saturation media coverage; and (3) institutionalize the violently mentally ill.

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Whenever there is a school shooting, America undergoes a national catharsis, but in the end nothing ever changes. Inevitably, we get derailed by progressive anti-gun paranoia. Regardless of one’s position on guns, let’s agree to separate the gun debate from school shootings. Liberals are making their idea of perfect the enemy of an immediate good. They literally are sacrificing America’s school children on the altar of gun control.

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Next week’s post about the spending crisis is one for the ages.

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More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us

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