Today marks another very sad day. A deranged man, entered an elementary school and murdered staff members, and 18 kindergarten kids. As horrible event as one could imagine. Deep sadness across the country, and even more so with those families who lost children. No matter our views on various subjects, this is a common sadness, and God Bless those families.
No political argument can change what happened. Yet, the first knee-jerk reaction for many, is to blame the guns, and push for more gun control.
For some, that is a reaction for the lack of knowing "why", and "how" such a thing could happen, and desperately wanting to stop the madness.
For others, it is another call for gun controls that they always call for.They just don't want guns in the hands of anyone, believing that would keep guns out of the hands of the bad people.
While the investigation continues into the school shooting, and what possible motivation drove such a person to do that, the arguments are under way for and against gun control. And I'll dive in as well.
First, we must understand, that we DO HAVE gun control. We have loads of gun laws. And, for the law abiding 70+ million legal gun owners (who killed NO ONE!), they work. For the criminals, well ... they're "criminals", and they don't care. Not one Gun Free Zone sign has stopped anyone, and I expect that school had signs posted. If anything, it's a false security.
I just read about the school board in the Newtown area, where a board member said she did not feel safe at the meetings, and asked that the board meetings be transferred to a school building so as to ensure no firearms would be present. The schools are posted for No Firearms Allowed.
Secondly, there are over 300 million firearms in the USA alone. So in the US, that genie is already out of the bottle. Add to that, another 500 million in foreign citizens hands, and the numbers are staggering. And, military around the world, pro-freedom and dictatorial nations, and there is such a number, that the black market is staggering already.
Third, and I've written before on this, SEMI-AUTOMATIC rifles, of a military style, are legal and plentiful. So many so, the the one-of-three guns used in Newtown, is just ONE of over 80 million such rifles! Fact is, if Patrick Henry could have had a choice, as a citizen ready to defend his country, wouldn't he have had an "assault weapon"?
Forth, such assailants, most ALWAYS choose easy, defenseless, targets. Gun Free Zone signs pretty much assure no citizen will be armed. In the case of this school, the murderer knew the school, and knew there was no School Resource Officer, so NO ONE would be armed. Sitting ducks. These kinds of people, will not take on the police, because they know they will likely die before they can get their deed done. And THAT, is the crux of the problem I see in today's "gun culture" (like it or not, we're there). He KNEW, that he would most likely NOT face anyone with a gun to stop him!
Fifth, we will be hoping to learn about any mental issues that person may have had. I can not imagine anyone who would do such a horrible crime, and NOT be mentally ill. But from what I have known, working a short time in a jail, about 40-60% of those in jail, have mental health issues that have gone untreated or unaddressed. We had people with serious problems, short of total lock-down, who were always in trouble, because they stayed off their meds. We are NOT taking care of those people, and how many are walking around, like walking time-bombs?
We need to discuss how to better address the mental health issues, and better mental health facilities for such people that have exhibited violent behavior. Our jails are NT equipped to handle many of them, and there are MANY!
Lastly, it is simply wrong in a free society, to restrict the "rights" of the many, just to punish the very few. We have the laws, we need to better enforce those, and we need to a better job of reporting suspicious behavior. But then, law enforcement has to have a place to evaluate them and hold them.
For my views on "assault weapons", check out my prior blog entry,
http://american1st.blogspot.com/2012/01/the-2nd-amendment-and-you-updated.html
