It is time to stop allowing the NRA to speak for America. The NRA speaks for itself and the gun merchants that desperately want to sell any gun and any bullet to anyone.
It’s time to stop hiding from reality and quash this ridiculous idea that a psychological screening method exists that will stop shootings in our schools by identifying disturbed individuals before they decide to vent their anger with an assault weapon. We need to remember that after recent gun tragedies those that actually knew the shooter say he was “friendly but quiet”, exhibiting little or no behavioral symptoms that would generate justification for intervention by mental health professionals before the fact.
We will never be able to identify every mentally disturbed individual before they commit a crime. But if we pass reasonable gun control, ban the sale of assault weapons and magazines of more than 10 rounds, and require stringent background checks for all gun sales and transfers, we can definitely make it harder for that disturbed individual to obtain a weapon and commit mass murder.
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But the truth is background checks and banning assault weapons is just the beginning in the struggle to make our schools safe from gun violence. We need to put more money into our schools to build safe havens for our children.
Beginning in 2003, the United States has spent about 8 billion dollars to train, equip, and pay the Iraqi police force. At the time, there were about 58,000 police in Iraq but since 2003 the number has grown to 412,000. In addition, the U.S. has spent $108 million dollars to build the Baghdad Police College and another $98 million to build a police training facility in Basra.
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While we were throwing money into Iraq the incidents of gun violence and death in our schools continued to mount:
· 1999-Columbine High School, Colorado….12 students and 1 teacher killed
· 2001-Santana High School, California….2 killed
· 2003-Red Lion High School, Pennsylvania….2 killed
· 2003-Rocori High School, Minnesota….2 killed
· 2005-Red Lake Senior High School, Minnesota….6 killed
· 2006-Nickle Mines Amish School, Pennsylvania….5 killed
· 2007-Virginia Tech Massacre….33 killed
· 2012-Chardon High School, Ohio….3 killed
· 2012-Sandy Hook Elementary, Connecticut…. 20 First Graders Killed along with 6 teachers, all killed with an assault weapon
As we gave 8 billion dollars to insure the safety of Iraq, we need to give that same amount and more to adequately protect our school children. We need to create a specialized school police force at the state level to be stationed at every one of the 99,000 schools in America. As we did in Iraq, we need to also establish state police academies to train and certify these specialized school law enforcement officers. Certified school police officers must be on site at all times, including any week-end and evening activities. These school officers could be supplemented by Retired Police Officers (RPO) to better cover the entire school campus and activities, as is already the case in some schools.
The idea proposed by the NRA to arm vigilantes to guard our schools is not a safe or practical idea. Neither is the NRA proposal to arm teachers, they are trained and certified educators, not police officers. In addition, arming teachers and placing deadly weapons in classrooms generates a weapon security concern we do not need. It seems the NRA will propose any absurd solution as long as it doesn’t involve reasonable gun control and background checks.
It is paramount that we commit our manpower and resources to insure that our children and their schools are safe. Never again should any 6 year old child perish by assault weapon in the very place where they should feel secure. If we as a nation and people can come up with 10’s of billions of dollars to maintain the security of Iraq, we can and should do the same thing for our own children because it’s the right thing to do.
