The entire "school safety" conversation is steeped in a demonstrably false narrative, one that ill-serves all of us including school kids, who are being badly misled:
The annual rate at which folks in school have been killed *and* injured by guns in the 5-1/4 years from Sandy Hook 'til a few days ago, *including Sandy Hook*, is about: 28 - students (K-12) 5 - staff. (I used Time magazine's recent detailed count to derive these rates, since gun control advocates' numbers, i.e., Everytown for Gun Safety's, have been been shown to be inaccurate. ihttp://time.com/5168272/how-many-school-shootings/ For a recent year in this period (2014), the number of 5-to-14-year-olds *killed* -- one can't fold in high-schoolers because the next age-group is 15-24) was as follows: 1,480 - transportation accidents; 597 - non-transport accidents; 428 - suicide; 279 - homicide (173 by firearms); 41 - drug induced; 54 - flu; 45 - pneumonia https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr65/nvsr65_04.pdf A school kid is more than 100 TIMES more likely to be killed in other ways -- think motor vehicle, bike and pedestrian accidents, think suicide and guns *not* in schools, think drugs and drowning and sports -- than in a school shooting. I am for a near-total ban on all semi-automatics, but we must start by telling the truth always.
What tends to dominate are emotional issues, even when reasonable considerations indicate that there cannot be any solutions which will resonate with peoples' feelings. That is why in an effective democratic system, compromises are necessary to accomplish workable solutions to significant problems. While the students' crusade from the Florida shootings have gained national attention and praise from a majority of the people who dearly want to end to all the gun violence, it is based upon an emotional appeal, "Make it stop."
How to make it stop is the question that must be determined and plans prepared to accomplish this task. There are demands by a lot to do better background checks but unless the background checks are made for all gun exchanges based upon a well designed and implemented and maintained system that will not likely be good enough. There are demands to forbid people from owning guns that look like military rifles because they have been used in massacres and they represent guns intended to kill people, even though they are used in a small fraction of the deaths from gun violence. Then there are those who think that soft targets can be hardened with security infrastructures and armed personnel in abundance, to stop bad guys with good guys. The prevalence of guns always increases the danger of gun violence and of innocent victims from gun fights. We need to calm down and to consider the problem with more objectivity. Guns will not be eradicated. We must regulate.
Let's see $50 million annually for schools, then another X million for churches, synagogues, etc, another X million for movie theaters, nightclubs and concert venues.
But wait, don't we already have a police force to keep all of us safe everywhere ? Why do we need extra millions to individually secure all these sites?
3
Lawmakers should provide our kids with no less safety than what they enjoy in the halls of Congress. A strictly-enforced gun-free zone with armed guards.
After all, when was the last time someone shot up Congress?
GUN CONTROL WORKS!
6
Dana Loesch's latest screed says everything you want to know about the NRA and their position. It isn't the law they're defending, nor "rights" nor the Constitution. As she made clear, they're humiliated by the sane majority, terrified of the modern world, and enraged at being marginalized by people whom they hate and fear for laughing at them and shaming them. Carrying weapons anywhere, any time is their leveler. She says as much on behalf of the NRA: You can laugh at us and mock our provincialism, but we're armed. Your arguments, reasoning, evidence and logic back us into an intellectual corner, but we have guns. Your contempt for us takes the form of jokes, sneers from Joe and Mika, insults by athletes and late-night comedians, but we have guns. And our contempt for you takes the form of bloody bodies. That's the message here. We have guns and you're running out of time.
2
100,000 more guns, what’s wrong with that, Death by teacher instead of death by cop, those look alike B.B. guns, cell phones coming out of pockets, easy choices?
2
THEME SONG FOR REPUBLICANS AND THE NRA - Sung to the tune of "Roll Out The Barrels."
Roll out the gun barrels,
We'll have a barrel of fun.
Roll out them barrels,
The fun has only begun.
There's more schools for shootings,
And all students' faces will bloom.
The school kids will be dancing,
When they hear the boom, boom, boom.
The NRA is elated,
'Cause justice sides with them.
But Nothing to worry about,
'Cause it's the crazies causing the may-hem.
The Republicans are certain,
There's no cause for alarms.
That could be fixed,
If only we all took up arms.
All U.S. school officials,
Should learn how to use a gun.
Imagine at a school dance,
It would be fun, fun, fun, fun.
There's no cause for worry,
Sending your kid to school.
And if you don't like it,
Then go ahead and raise a fool.
The roads that we'll travel,
Will have the occasional bump.
But always remember,
It's vital to kiss the Trump rump.
ALL TOGETHER NOW (and follow the bouncing grenade) : "Roll out the barrels . . ."
1
It is important to compile (if it does not already exist) lists of state and Federal representatives who are recipients of NRA campaign funding to know who exactly votes with the NRA.
On November 6, 2018 vote out representatives who have received (often substantial) campaign "donations" and replace them with people who advocate for sensible gun-control which means: a ban on assault weaponry (in any number and any form - AK47s, AR15s and any others ) which was created for military combat - not personal use. Banning "bump stocks" which can be attached to rifles to fire faster -killing more people quickly and banning high-capacity magazines which allows the shooter to kill or maim more people in less time -and are essentially "weapons of mass destruction" all of which runs contrary to the spirit and meaning of the Second Amendment.
The NRA is paid by US gun manufacturers to advocate individual purchases of multiple assault weapons and magazines as a stockpile in order to increase their bottom-line profits.
This accumulation/stockpiling of personal weaponry which the NRA touts as an inherent Second Amendment right of the individual is a distortion. The NRA position places money and profits over safety for everyone living in a civil society. It will take the American public's right to vote to move to sensible gun-control and away from the NRA's stockpiling "weapons of mass destruction" advocacy.
2
It was all too evident that nothing of substance would come out of this. Whenever Trump gets loud, demanding, name calling - everything explodes, gets shot down, blows up in our face. This republican congress will constantly back this evil, even when they get shot we heard from the victim himself he still supported gun rights. Who I would've liked to hear from instead of him were his kids, his wife, any of his loved ones.
2
Window dressing and barely a band aid. Congress, except when it comes to tax cuts that benefit the wealthy, is so inconsequential that it inspires contempt from the voters. And rightly so.
3
There was another school shooting yesterday, in Alabama this time. Apparently, a boy brought a gun to school, showed it off in a classroom near the end of the school day, and shot and killed a girl before shooting himself in the leg. It seems to have been an accident.
None of the "school safety" programs being discussed would have prevented this latest incident of deadly gun violence. No one raised the alarm until the damage was done. The necessary preventative action was to keep a teenager from having easy access to a gun and bringing it to school. Easy access to guns remains a theme in these stories because gun owners face few if any penalties for not locking up their guns and ammunition or allowing a teenager to access them when not under adult supervision.
Guns are built to be deadly dangerous. They are meant to kill. We should impose at least the level of fiscal and criminal responsibility on gun owners as we do owners of cars, which can become unintentionally deadly when used irresponsibly or by people who are too young or untrained to use them responsibly. We should require training, licensing, insurance, and a duty to lock up guns to prevent unauthorized people from taking possession of them. We should also tax guns and ammunition, the way we tax vehicles and motor fuel, to pay for additional infrastructure and oversight to minimize the dangers of guns in society.
1
Increase security instead of getting guns out of schools? Seems to me when the "bathtub" is full of "water" you don't get a bigger bathtub. You drain the water!
3
While I am generally favorable to gun reform and believe that it will result in a broad-based reduction of gun casualties, I believe an equal focus should be placed on improving both law enforcement procedures and provisions to cure mental disturbances. The shooting in Florida was the result of gun violence, but it was also the result of epic failures on the part of the FBI, the local police, and the medical community.
Furthermore, people with evil intentions will find other ways to take out their rage. For example, in 2011, Anders Breivik in Norway not only used a gun to murder 69 students, but he also built and detonated a fertilizer bomb that killed eight people in the center of Oslo.
1
Hearing the Stoneman Douglas voices is a good thing; seeing them making a difference is even better. But I can't help but wonder: Did you know that in the U.S. nearly a thousand people were shot and killed by police in 2017 (link below)? THAT violence is usually met with a shrug. So, the good guys are violent. The bad guys are violent. Violence causes everything. Violence solves everything. And we’re all collateral damage. I can’t keep my mind focused on it, it’s so terrible.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2017/
1
Sensible gun safety legislation includes laws about who has access to guns, including police officers. In most civilized countries, not all police carry guns. Not all of our police officers should be armed. That by itself would reduce gun deaths by police.
1
I think if the NRA charged each NRA member a fee for their membership, they could team up with the Federal and State governments and use those funds to purchase bullet-proof vests for each and every child attending school. Teachers and staff members would have to purchase their own protective gear, though, as the NRA's largesse only goes so far.
Yes, I'm kidding.
The problem is the guns, assault weapons, whatever name you want to call them. Guns kill people; assault weapons kill lots of people very quickly.
Perhaps if scientists transplanted stem cells into the backs of our Senators and other elected officials they might grow spines, and then they could stand up to the NRA and do the right thing.
2
The 2nd Amendment is a millstone around the neck of America. It prevents otherwise rational people from making rational decisions regarding guns. All one has to do is invoke this supposedly "sacred" right to bear arms to induce paralysis of the mind in our congressmen and our entire society.
But is it really necessary? Does it make us safer? Is it really going to protect you from the government, the one the NRA has brainwashed you not to trust? Do these people really think their guns grant them the option, indeed the right to rebel against a government installed by a majority of voters? If this is the intent of the 2nd Amendment, then it is by its very nature anti-democratic and unworthy of the Constitution of the United States.
Anyone who is honest with themselves will realize that as long as the 2nd Amendment exists, nothing will change in this country. Congressmen and Senators will continue to equivocate under pressure from the NRA and the nut jobs who think they need a semi-automatic to prove their masculinity. Mass shootings will continue to plague the country.
Just as an afterthought, if you think guns aren't the problem, then tell me when was the last time 17, 30, or so people were killed in a mass stabbing? Exactly.
2
With about 110 millions of gun owners and about 300 millions of guns in the United States without any serious efforts to account for all the guns and who has them, nor making any committed effort to identify those who are likely to harm themselves or others with guns, the likelihood of continued gun violence of all kinds, and massacres in particular, is virtually certain.
With a reliable registry of guns, background checks on all recipients of guns, proof that all who use guns are qualified, understand legal and responsible use guns, and the ability to remove guns from the possession of anyone who is likely to pose a danger to themselves or others, a lot of the gun violence could be prevented.
The problem is the fear of too many gun owners of general confiscation of privately held arms using a registry on the one side, and fear of any guns in private hands which are perceived to be lethal on the other side. It leads to no gun regulations verses eventual elimination of nearly all private gun ownership. The one side is recalcitrant on the basis of liberty and the other on the basis of eliminating an existential threat. It keeps the issue in the realm of human emotional extremes and far from any reasonable addressing of the problem.
And how about fixing that loophole that a mack truck could drive through...if a gun dealer doesn't get a response on a background check in what is it?...3 hours? 3 days? Then the buyer gets the gun. How stupid is that?
And again, why isn't the no fly list a no buy list for guns?
1
All exchanges of firearms should require background checks. The list of people who should not have access to guns should be well managed. If you have people who are unable to fly because they have the same name as a real threatening person, that is an unreliable list. A useful list is reliable and current. That costs money and commitment, neither of which either side in the gun debate who are being heard want. The NRA side want the system to bare bones and hardly felt and the anti-gun people want no guns to have to worry about.
I recall a news report around the middle of last week where Pres. Trump was questioning legislators about methods of dealing with changes in access to firearms. The meeting appeared to be upbeat, multi-partisan, and positive. I was led to anticipate the government's departure from the approach of gun-lovers.
Well, the reports of the following day indicated the President had met with a couple of N.R.A. leaders. The President announced he was "good with the N.R.A."
And, of course, nothing is being done in Washington. Again.
So, to the Florida students and others who may have been waiting for the good news: "Better luck next time."
Nothing promoted by the Republican majority in Congress will come close to the needed and necessary controls to prevent the massacres that have become so common in this country.
Those Republicans are poster boys for hypocrisy, cowardice and sycophancy. We know, from years of experience, that they honor the NRA and the millions paid to their campaigns so much more than the safety of school children and other citizens.
The students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School could give lessons in courage and honor to those Republican cowards in Congress. However, I wonder, yet again, how many more children will be victims of these massacres before those frauds and grifters in Congress show any vestige of needed bravery. Cowards all.
9
The party of Lincoln, a man himself killed by a gun, hasn't been the party of Lincoln for decades. Perhaps a century. What a travesty and a shameless attack on decency to allow a lobby group for the ultra profitable gun industry to further destroy and forever sully the reputation of the party of Lincoln.
Will not one decent Republican stand up and shout at the top of their lungs that they will not accept this American carnage and stop taking that dirty NRA money? Just one of you? Just one?
13
No guns in schools!
The GOP has lost their minds. It will be reflected at the voting booth.
Despicable.
10
Can someone, anyone explain the rationale behind a private citizen's need to own an assault weapon in our country? Does the NRA have a statement that details the need for anyone to have access to an AR-15?
7
From the gun owners' and NRA's viewpoint -- not mine -- it's pretty simple. They don't have to prove the need, it's 2nd-Amendment-protected, until or unless said right is restricted by law.
As to the ideology behind wanting a semi-automatic rifle, it seems bound up mostly but not entirely in the protection from foreign or home-based tyranny intended by the Founders -- armies and presumably police controlled by tyrants routinely have such weapons, and in self-defense, which they believe was intended even without the 2nd Amendment.
As to your "need for access," that cat is out of the bag. I've seen an estimate that there are some three million AR-15s in the U.S. Access is currently largely unrestricted.
It is, frankly, up to you (and me) and like-minded folks who think semi-automatics can be banned without gutting the 2nd Amendment to change the legal landscape. Is it not?
3
Republicans, running our government, want products of gun industries to continue to have markets. Selling guns to frightened people is a recipe for death, and the Merchants of Death firmly control of our Republican government.
"Check your guns at the city line" said the timid (soon to be hero) sheriff in many westerns, and the black hats who did not, eventually died by the guns they would not give up. The bad guys had said, "You can take my guns by prying them from my cold dead hands!" And that is what happened. Those films are no longer made or shown.
Common sense says that if you let every person buy fireworks and matches, someone will blow their hands, eyes, face, etc. off. Maybe even kill themselves. Guns are just fireworks designed to kill. Guns for war are designed to kill people, and not much else.
During the 1776 revolution the colonists had hunting rifles used to kill animals. Sometimes for food, sometimes for defense. Sometimes they had to defend against other colonial powers and their outraged Native American allies. No "made for war" weapons were used except by the colonial powers.
The NRA sells "fear of government" as if our elected government is a dangerous enemy, and then sells expensive "weapons of war" to nut-jobs preparing to overthrow our government, or, killing the most innocent among us in the care of our government (at our schools). Do you expect "Red Dawn" to happen in a High School?
NRA's 2nd Amendment act is treason by "aiding and abetting".
8
Mike, Your knowledge of weapons used during colonial times is a bit lacking. Native Americans were constantly at war with each other and indeed had war weapons. Often, The colonists had superior weapons than England itself. The colonials hired colonial mercenaries with ships with cannons to interrupt British shipping. If one could manufacture a cannon or any weapon, they were free to do so. It is sad when people make the musket argument because it is generally a manufactured lie requiring on the ignorance of the person hearing the lie. The lie does not grant any credibility to the cause and actually is detrimental because lies tend to do that.
I sent a copy of this to Barbara Comstock, Rep of Northern VA. and my current representative. I asked for a reply and declared I will not support anyone (vote for) who supports the NRA agenda. Let us see what happens ...
2
Americans managed to elect a poster child of mental illness as president of the US. Given that, why would these same voters be able to distinguish which people are mentally capable of responsible gun ownership, with or without the protection of any background check?
9
This is exactly what it is: a diversion from real gun control. Yet another win for the NRA.
5
It’s the usual response from the left here– Some deranged person uses a gun and commits a crime or kills a bunch of people so we should blame all of the people who own guns and have never committed any crime and take away their rights. It’s like demanding that Ford cease selling vehicles after a drunk in a Ford kills someone. It’s the drunk, not the Ford! Maybe if the kid’s record hadn’t been “protected” by Broward County schools he would have come up flagged as a future troublemaker and not allowed to buy the gun he used. Then there was the local police and FBI failures to respond adequately to so many complaints. I am for reasonable regulation to prevent guns from falling into criminal hands, but hey, the agencies that are supposed to enforce these laws have to do their jobs or all is for naught. In this case they didn’t, they failed and as a result kids lost their lives. And of course nobody in government is ever held accountable for these failures. They’ll probably retire quickly and get their pensions. Sad.
1
Ok, so the latest mass murder in the news was at a school so the NRA and their cronies are all about school safety.
So what about concert safety, work safety, siting in your home safety, walking down the street safety, siting in a restaurant safety? All of these have been sites of multiple shootings.
What’s their answer? As I recall the concert in Nevada had security and if it was anything like any event I’ve been to in the last ten years, bag checks and metal detectors. Didn’t work, did it?
11
Lamar Alexander’s “bill would allow 100,000 public schools to use federal dollars for school counselors, alarm systems, security cameras and crisis intervention training.”... but the CDC is still prohibited from doing research on gun safety. Go figure.
This isn’t about schools. It’s about the proliferation of guns and the people who worship them.
8
There are around 100,000 schools in the US so the $50 million budget for the STOP School Violence Act amounts to $500 per school. Yippee! I feel safe already.
6
“...mass shootings at concerts, in movie theaters, on college campuses, in churches and at workplaces, as well as at public schools.” Rather than turning these places into security-laden fortresses, we need to approach this problem from an entirely different standpoint, one that has been repeatedly discussed for years: sharply reduce or eliminate access to military-style weapons and accessories! Our children should not have to grow up in a fearful security state.
7
Democratic politicians represent an interest group that is just as focused upon removing guns from life in America as the people who agree with the NRA are with having no control but the good guy with a gun position.
Republicans are afraid of the money that the NRA can apply when they run for office. But that money does not just spring from people who think that they need guns to remain free. A lot of it comes from gun makers who fear the repeal of the second amendment and national laws like those in the U.K. or even worse Japan. Given that about 110 millions of Americans own guns, the loss of legal private gun ownership would be ruinous.
That prevalence of gun ownership also means that the goals of the dominant gun control groups to impose restrictions that they think will make guns far less lethal to be uninformed and unrealistic.
I do think that given the way guns are regulated are so ineffective that the likelihood of more high numbers of gun violence is a certainty. We really need to treat guns like we do motor vehicles. Make sure that all are accounted and all users are qualified and responsible. To do that means introducing mutual trust between all of our responsible and considerate citizens, gun owners and those who don’t want to have guns. Make rational systems and leave the advocates for simplistic but unrealistic solution to rant.
Unfortunately, neither Democrat nor Republican office holders are free to pursue such a middle ground approach to gun control.
2
That's $500 per public K-12 school. Not enough to buy a decent AR-15. What kind of stupid proposal is this? Also in the face to anyone who cares about school safety.
4
One solution be, ONE TERM POLITICANS, that would minimize the effect of the NRA!
3
We have Tax Reform, Healthcare Reform, Government Reform, Immigration Reform, Clean Coal Reform, Welfare Reform ... but Gun 'Control?' Perhaps it is time for the NY Times to stop utilizing the semantics favored by the NRA for this issue.
6
How soon can we rid ourselves of these scoundrels and spineless cowards. But I cannot help but ask who supports these people in Congress and in the oval office? Are they all just bought and paid for by the NRA, or merely cowards? Is there large salary and health benefits more important to them than our society? We as Americans are now the laughing stock of the world. Guns, porn stars, tariffs against our allies, complicit cowardliness in the Republican party, and immoral acts for the rest....
8
In other words, Republicans care more about the gun manufacturers and their shadow organization known as the NRA, than the safety of the American people.
Please America, make them pay dearly on November 6.
6
This is little more than the legislative equivalent of "thoughts and prayers"... and about as meaningful.
6
Politicians taking NRA money is not dirty money it is blood money. Our children are being killed, their kids go to fancy private schools. They cannot relate to our day to day torment. This is not new about people with elitists mindset. They cannot connect with the masses if they do not use our facilities but send their kids abroad during a crisis. Republicans are clearly concerned with their own lives not ours. They no longer represent their constituents who voted for them in the South and Midwest. It is like the NRA gave them an option they cannot refuse, wonder what that was? Arming teachers is the wrong message to our children stating only a gun can resolve this issue. Nothing will change about guns but unfortunately we know what is next another horrible event. We have no leaders just puppets and their masters will not give up their weapons that make them millionaires and billionaires.
4
Maybe generations of students were right all along--school is really a prison.
3
We are asking the wrong questions! Schools can certainly assist in creating safer environments but why are we expecting them to figure out how to keep our children safe? Supposedly, we live in a civil society. Isn’t that our responsibility? Mass shootings have also occurred in movie theaters, churches, clubs and concerts so should we also expect them to step up and solve what is really our problem. I can’t help but wonder the results if all the money we are proposing to spend on “hardening” our schools was instead spent on educating our children.
6
Stop and think of all the substitutes Republicrooks offer in lieu of the more valuable things in our lives, like separation of church and state, public education, voters rights and security, equal rights for all citizens, a sense of safety when we walk into our churches and schools. Republicrooks don't offer anything of real value, and so we should get rid of as many of them as we possibly can. Republicrooks make me feel completely unsafe in my own country.
10
The GOP's political cowardice is beyond measure. The NRA has created a strawman for the GOP to hide behind- it is the Second Amendment, which the GOP insists,despite a court ruling by the Supreme Court to the contrary, allows any and all weaponry to be purchased in unlimited amounts. Consequently, the GOP can participate in the political kabuki theater of protecting gun possession over the rights of citizens to life,liberty ( from semiautomatic weapons) and the pursuit of happiness ( in knowing our children will not be killed at school,or that we can attend a place of worship and return home without being slaughtered ). Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are as much to blame for the mass murders in Las Vegas,Orlando, and parkland, as are the actual shooters.
6
So, arming teachers takes care of shoot shootings. Do we arm pastors to take care of church shootings? How about country & Western musicians for outdoor concerts? Or county officials? or politicians?
Gun violence is everywhere. Focusing on schools doesn't fix the problem.
6
The late judge Scalia commented that the (2nd) Amendment does not apply to arms that cannot be hand-carried. Since it depends on the individual, it sounds like a 20mm sniper rifle would qualify as legal for sale in the U.S. If so, this is insane. Yes, school security should be beefed up along with tightened background checks, but banning military style weapons and limiting magazine capacity need to be included in the package if there is any hope of reducing (nothing will eliminate) the annual carnage.
There are going to be a lot of people who are going to look at how their representatives and senators voted on this issue when they decide on their vote in the midterm election.
5
Of course - just throw money at the problem That's what we've been doing to our educational system for decades - and why we still rank 38th out of the the top 71 countries.
Incidentally - the 37 countries that rank above us in education are also countries that have strict gun regulation laws. But what do they know.
3
$50M per year. To be clear, that’s probably less than $1,000 per school. What training and safety improvements is that supposed to fund?
1
No different than when the Democrats had control of the Senate and didn't pass anything after Sandy Hook. Democrats were more concerned about increased rights of concealed carry that all other legislation was voted down. Democrats also voted against against the assault weapons ban.
Plenty of blame for all to go around.
2
"No different than when the Democrats had control of the Senate and didn't pass anything after Sandy Hook.".......Sandy Hook was 2012, and Democrats did not have control of the Senate
4
John - the Dems introduced the proposed assault weapons ban bill. The bill died in both houses because it contained a "one feature" - instead of the more specific "two feature" assault weapons definition. In other words - if any gun had, for instance, a thumb hole (a single feature) it was banned. The bill would have likely passed - and the couple of dozen Dems who voted against would have been for it - had it stuck with the previously agreed upon"two feature" (say, a thumbhole plus, say, a collapsable stock) definition.
So $50 million for bullet proof doors and windows, metal detectors, weapons and training for teachers, cameras, alarms and more SROs. How about some money for books, pencils and teachers? They'll probably cut funding for those so they don't add to the deficit.
Sorry, my cynicism is showing.
2
It's time to stop pussyfooting around. It's time for meaningful, national gun control.
EVERY gun in OUR United States of America must be REGISTERED on a national database, state LICENSED and fully INSURED for liability.
Just like cars.
Politicians in OUR U.S. Senate and House must find the courage (balls in the case of men) to pass one meaningful bill that will change things. Time's Up for trying to work with gun-rights organizations, weapons manufacturers like the Koch brothers and their lobbyists and people who have brain-washed to believe that WE want their guns.
Attention gun owners: WE THE PEOPLE do not want your guns. WE want your guns to stop killing us and our loved ones. Don't you?
5
Back in the day, when the U.S. was dropping napalm bombs on schools and hospitals in North Vietnam, those of us protesting in the streets had a chant:
Hey, Hey, LBJ,
How many kids did you kill today?
That was then. Now, we should modify it to:
Hey, Hey, NRA,
How many kids did you kill today?
10
Whatever happened to the common good? Our right as American citizens to safe schools, neighborhoods, and cities CANNOT be trumped by gun-toting citizens who misconstrue the Second Amendment!
It does not have to be this way. It is time for all Americans of good will to demand that our elected representatives put the USA before the NRA.
EXPECT US, November 2018...
8
Cowards, terrified by the threat of negative ads funded by the NRA for their next re-election run. Simple solution: these so-called servants of the people do not deserve to be re-elected. Even the teens in Florida figured that out on Day 2 — after all of the perfunctory "thoughts and prayers" were offered. Ban new assault weapon sales now.
10
Our politicians’ anemic and cowardly attempt to address school safety— WITHOUT meaningful gun control legislation— is patently absurd, not to mention shameful.
Of course, Congress already knows that, and are playing the American citizens for fools who will forget about their cowardice when the mid-terms roll around.
We won’t forget!
EXPECT US! NOVEMBER 2018...
Gun control now!
12
Don't forget to vote for basic public safety on November 6 2018.
...and against the National Terrori$t A$$ociation and their murderou$ Gun$ Over People handmaiden$.
The Republican Party deserves to drop dead on November 6.
26
Republican are just compliant prostitutes for the NRA, which, it increasingly appears likely, funneled laundered Russian money to their campaigns (including Ryan and McConnell) in 2016. I think the word we are looking for here is: Treason.
The blood is on their hands and we will remember come November.
NO REPUBLICANS in 2018! NONE! NOT ONE!
8
Useless, craven cowards. Republican elected officials and NRA executives fully support mass-murder of school children, as well as murder of the rest of the population in large and small doses. The reality is that stark and that black and white.
5
We are told it takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun. That logic is a deception right out of hell. Take say a hundred guy's all with guns, there is no way to tell the good from the bad until someone is laying on the ground in a pool of blood because everyone has guns. Now make guns illegal, problem solved, the bad guy's stick out like a sore thumb, they are the ones with the guns.
9
The growth in support for the NRA by a large number of Americans has to be analyzed and understood. The perceived necessity of ownership of a semi-automatic rifle is propagated, in part, by Fox News. In West Virginia, the repeated broadcasts of 'Terrorist Reports' had created the sense that having a powerful and deadly weapon is essential for every man, woman and child because the 'terrorists' have them. Progress can only be made if legal measures are found to limit the effects of Fox News.
5
Good point! One can study the erosion of democracy in America— the inability to compromise, the intense partisanship/gridlock in DC, the lack of civility both in Congress and in our communities, the name-calling and ad hominem attacks against people with a different point of view, the rise of fake/ false/unsubstantiated news with its attendant conspiracy theories, the fomenting of hysteria, the emphasis on talking rather than listening, and the uptick of distrust in the American government and its democratic institutions (a mistrust that began with Reagan, but increased significantly with Fox News), to name a few negative features of life in 2018— and POINT directly to the beginning of FOX NEWS broadcasts in the mid-1990’s as a huge factor.
Obviously, Fox News was one huge crucial factor— among lesser factors— that helped contribute to this current sad state of affairs....
3
School need to be places devoted to thinking and learning. The students' work is enhanced by teachers who focus on subject matter and good teaching practice. Arming school personnel, making schools look like high-security prisons, and having students worried about who is carrying a gun, wrecks the learning environment. Republican office-holders refuse to understand this and refuse to ban assault weapons (which cause wounds so huge and damaging that doctors often cannot save the victim). As a result, the rest of us, led by the advocacy of the students and family members of Marjorie Stone Douglas, must take action with our votes.
3
I am so tired of these half-measures by the NRA controled GOP. Come on boys let's get with it. If you're really serious about protecting our children, then let's make sure all of our school buses are armor-plated to the point of where they can withstand rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. We must provide enough money so that each school has enough armed personnel to provide covering fire for our children as they run from the buses to the safety of the school. Additionally, we all want the best body armor money can buy for our little ones. Every school should be surrounded by a wall that can withstand artillery bombardment and that is topped with concertina wire with strategically-located machine gun nests with interlocking fields of fire. So let's get cracking boys if you're real GOP gun men let's do this thing whole hog, and not just halfway.
2
I’ve got a better idea, jerks. My idea doesn’t cost a darn cent but it can cost you your job – let’s ban assault weapons which have been used in mass shootings in the past few years! All automatic weapons, the most used assault weapons, and raise the age at which men can buy high-powered rifles to 21.
Also, complete background checks. This will cost only what the buyer and seller should pay.
Republican Congressional plan is asinine! After they have put us trillions of dollars into debt now by giving the richest 1% gigantic tax breaks and gifts – after they have taken healthcare away from most middle Americans and poor, now they want us to spend more money to “reinforce“ schools in attempt to stop kids or adults handling high-powered weapons from killing more students! Your idea stinks. Just ban these weapons!
6
It is intuitive that banning guns will make it less likely that we have random mass murderers using gun to kill scores of people. However, it will also make it easier for criminal to prey on people and a tyrannical regime to oppress it. There is no evidence that banning guns leads to fewer murders, injustice or homicide anywhere in the world. It only leads to fewer gun deaths (but I don't think that is a goal worth pursuing).
1
There is ample evidence that banning guns leads to fewer murders, less injustice, lowered homicide rates as well as fewer gun deaths -- and lowering the number of gun deaths is a worthy goal if you care about people.
1
The NRA, the U.S. Congress, and state legislatures have essentially formed a Joint Venture promoting the means for murdering us while claiming they are protecting us by allowing us to shoot each other.
3
"Hardening" schools is a transparently futile measure, as those proposing it surely know. Mental health proposals may have general benefit but not for this purpose; it is clearly not possible to predict in advance who will suddenly decompensate and become a mass murderer.
What will work is apparent: every gun should be registered, and every gun owner licensed and required to demonstrate proficiency and safety. Just like driving a car, as has been pointed out a thousand times. Combat weapons should be banned. Our nation could then join essentially every other first world country and become a safe place to go to school, church, or a concert.
How long will we have to listen to such obscene nonsense from the NRA and the Republican Party? Meanwhile their hands drip with the blood of thousands of innocents, and unless the rest of us take charge, thousands more to come.
30
Plus gun owners should be required to have liability insurance to cover any damage their weapons cause. Just like car owners!
10
If you look up “corruption”, it says “See US government”.
6
Six out of ten of the largest mass shootings have been with assault rifles. No more needs to be said. Ban them.
24
That’s not true.
• The shooter in the second deadliest mass shooting (Pulse Nightclub) switched to a handgun because his semiautomatic rifle jammed.
• The shooter in the third deadliest mass shooting (Virginia Tech) used handguns.
• The shooter in the fifth deadliest shooting (Luby’s Cafeteria) used a handgun.
• The shooter in the sixth deadliest shooting (San San Ysidro McDonald's) used a semi-automatic pistol, a 9mm carbine, and a 12 gauge pump-action shotgun.
• The shooter in the seventh eight deadliest shooting (Texas Tower) used hunting rifles.
• The shooter in the ninth deadliest shootings (Edmond Post Office) used handguns.
• The shooter in the tenth deadliest mass shooting (Fort Hood) used handguns.
A recent USA Today study shows semiautomatic rifles are used in 8.6% of mass shootings.
5
Yep, to really go after the problem, we should ban the sale and possession of semi-automatic weapons. That would include handguns.
3
"A recent USA Today study shows semiautomatic rifles are used in 8.6% of mass shootings.".....So what do you have against reducing mass shootings by 8.6%? There is no civilian purpose for having an assault rifle other than to use it as a thrill toy. So tell us, what is more important, reducing mass slaughter by 8.6% or letting civilians purchase a thrill toy?
2
Making schools protected fortresses will not stop mass shootings in movie theaters, concerts, night clubs, or all other public gathering spaces. Does the GOP envision a solution where our freedom of movement is to scurry from one protected area to another?
6
The electorate must demand real and significant gun law reform and must insist that any person running for political office on any level must stand first and foremost upon that platform. The media has a role to play in keeping the public focused on that goal and in moving public opinion toward that direction. The electorate must not be distracted by the machinations of the powerful influences who feel otherwise.
7
The GOP is on a leash held by the NRA. Whenever their attention wanders away from their master, a swift jerk brings them back to heel. We must vote these dogs out of office.
7
The Republicans also offer thoughts and prayers, which will surely help your third grader cowering in a closet as a gunman roams the halls of her school with an assault weapon.
8
Did those arrested include McConnell?
4
Because semantics matter, how about calling this issue "gun law reform" rather than "gun control". The latter is an NRA developed phrase designed to frighten gun lovers to action. The media's use of the phrase "gun control" only serves to incite the true believers in their fraudulent interpretation of the 2nd Amendment.
19
Republicans continue to nuzzle the NRA at the expense of all Americans.
5
Unfortunately, this appears to be the country we have become, one that addresses symptoms and not causes; we prescribe anti-depressants if someone is depressed instead of addressing the causes of the depression. Now, we try to make the schools safer with armed guards instead of addressing the gun violence that no other country suffers. This goes beyond the NRA. As a nation we want to have everything easy; applying band-aids is always easy.
3
If you can't name the problem, you can't solve the problem.
Since the NRA and their allies in congress and state houses forbid us to name it, we are embarked on ever more convoluted efforts that will not solve the problem. One can only hope that the outrage generated by the Parkland shootings will mount with each repeated mass shooting until it is great enough to force our representatives an honest naming of the problem: unregulated guns. Then, perhaps, we can find ways of regulating fire arms that both respect the 2nd amendment and prevent further mass shootings.
The GOP is becoming more aware: they’ve arrived at the realization that: Guns don’t kill people, bullets do. So logically we move to bullet-proof doors. Maybe bullet-proof vests? For everyone, or just the concealed carry personnel?
Another step forward: metal detectors. To detect bullets, and maybe detect guns? And if a gun is detected, then what? Ask if there is a permit?
So the new slogan might be: Guns don’t kill people, permitless people with bullets do? Maybe we’re inching toward background checks - - -
2
Maybe we're inching toward BULLET-PROOF full body clothing for
EVERYONE.
2
Say what you like about those wrong-headed Republicans...but at least their words and deeds are consistent with their vision for America - getting back to the good old days. Republicans won’t be satisfied until school children are provided government subsidized bullet proof vests as the address for school shootings. Further still, after they make “open carry” on school campuses legal in an effort to give all school kids and employees a chance in the next gun related incident, they’d probably offer “quick draw” classes for kids who are bullied - in case being called out at lunch by the so called “fastest gun” in 4th grade. Let there be no mistake - the GOP/NRA desire a return us to the old West...if not further back than that.
3
With all of his customary arrogance Trump last week proclaimed, “You went through a lot of Presidents and you didn't get it [gun control] done. You have a different President."
Yes, Mr. President, you’re different. You’re the first who, in less than 24 horus, gave up trying.
5
The GOP offers the illusion of action, but the ongoing senseless gun deaths will expose the game.
Pity the next victims, which might include me or you.
2
In other words, encourage more people to carry guns, throw a pittance in the general direction of steel doors, divert a lot more from actual teaching to pay for more nothing, maybe pass regulations requiring NICS to do what it was spozed to do in the first place, and wait for things to blow over.
Somebody needs to put up one of those giant, "It Has Been _____Days Since Our Last Mass Murder! Way To Go!" signs across from the White House.
2
This is all for show to appear like they are doing something and to hopefully stem the rising engagement of young people in this country, fighting for sanity in our gun laws.
Turning our schools into fortresses will not solve the problem, because then how do they plan to protect my kids and family at concerts, at the mall, in church, or the many other places these shootings are happening?
They seriously think we should take resources away from our already underfunded schools and teachers to try and create some type of police state in our schools, and taking away the public's freedoms to live free from being gunned down, in order to appease a small group of extremist Americans who want to own military style weapons or who refuse to follow basic regulations like we have for cars when they are buying handguns or hunting rifles.
If you want to own guns then it's on you to take the necessary steps to make that ownership safe for those around you and your community, it is not on your community to have to lock down all public spaces to try and be safe from your choices.
7
all the words
of compassion
and no one in
power does anything.
Outrageous.
A congressman gets
shot playing baseball
and even he cannot
find a voice against
this madness.
7
Again, our lawmakers fail our children. Making schools into prisons, won't serve our children. Period.
And what about the short-term and long-term emotional impact that increased security will have on students, who are already fearful? Children at every age level already perform drills in case of a shooter or lock down situation Is anyone considering the effect that is having on our children's health and well-being? Their sense of security? Trust?
How about the message this is sending to children about their value in our society? It's telling them that gun ownership, and the money the NRA uses to wield its power...is more important than they are. It's a national disgrace.
Not to mention that many of the shootings in the last few years have happened in locations other than schools.
The continued lack of courage and conviction by our so-called "leaders" is beyond the pale. And the price we all will pay will be very high...the lives of our children, the lives of our fellow citizens.
We "grown-ups" must not allow this. Write, email, or call all of your representatives: local, state, and federal. And get out on the street on March 24th.
6
Congress is a joke.
5
Pathetic. Republicans put forth reactionary window dressing bills to improve school safety.
They fear the NRA, they want to distract us from the real issue, access to guns is too easy and we refuse to commit the resources to help troubled individuals.
Republicans are willing to make schools into fortresses, arm teachers, militarize schools and society. Accept that the violence is a normal part of an armed society.
This will only serve to normalize school shootings.
3
The NRA opposes gun control because they appeal to gun owners who fear having their rights to keep and to bear arms being so restricted as to make legitimate gun ownership so limited that only a few people would be able to do so. Naturally gun manufacturers would find that to be a business disaster. Anti-gun control advocates consider any right to keep and bear arms an existential threat to everyone and want it restricted so that only a few people would be able to do so. So the extremes agree about the core of the difficulty preventing reasonable gun control and that there is no common ground.
The problem is reducing gun violence. The middle ground is not background checks that can be circumvented not banning guns which are already owned in millions of homes and used safely for half a century because they are representative of guns used to kill people. These are not effective solutions. Effective solutions allow identifying those who pose a likely risk to others if they have access to firearms and to keep them from having guns.
That can be achieved if mutual trust is established, whereby private gun ownership is not considered an existential threat and proper registration and licensing to assure those who bear arms can be trusted and do not pose any existential threats.
1
As many - even most - of us predicted the day the massacre took place, nothing substantive will change because of it. Steny Hoyer has it exactly right: Republicans will try to make the public think that they are doing something while trying to make the NRA think they're doing nothing. So now billions will go into - what? Consultants' fees, unproductive jobs for grief counsellors and security experts; construction of windowless schools with bulletproof metal doors; maybe windowless buses too: why not? Metal detectors at school doors, strip searches, background checks on every employee (and eventually every student) will become normal. Defection from public schools altogether will increase. Meanwhile, concert-goers, theater-goers, sports' fans, nightclub patrons, and anyone else tempted to join a crowd will be fair game. All for the sake of feckless and hypocritical politicians (with their bodyguards provided at taxpayer expense), and the looming power of the gun industry and its payees..
5
Gun owners should be required to pay the cost of gun control measures. This could be accomplished through license fees.
11
I’ve long had this same thought. Why should everyone shoulder the financial burden of this “freedom”?? If gun owners were assessed the full cost I think there would be a lot less guns.
4
The NRA should pay the medical costs of survivors of gunshot and the
funeral costs of the dead.
3
Gun owners should be required to have liability insurance coverage.
1
Clip your Glock coupon from any box of Fruit Loops. Arm the children. Wayne Lapierre's next assault on sanity?
6
I would propose that the gun control lobby take a page from the NRA by providing a grade for schools whose personal pack heat. Then let parents decide what they want.
1
Farmers have to undergo training and be certified in order to purchase pesticides, but Congress won't institute a serious system of background checks for a demented student to buy an assault rifle.
9
What good are more laws if our FBI won't enforce them? https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/school-shootings-florida-fbi/2018/03/0...
1
No doubt this will shock you and Newsmax, but the Feds aren't actually allowed to come take your guns.
3
Blah, blah, blah NRA. Blah, blah, blah NRA. How would anybody know if we don't institute serious background checks and ban assault rifles?
This Congress will never do anything about guns so long as the NRA is their piggy bank. This is no longer about the second amendment its about the safety of our children. There is support for enhanced background checks, an increase in the age someone can buy an assault weapon, prohibiting people with mental issues and on the no fly list from buying guns. There is probably a majority of votes to ban assault type weapons but the Republican leadership lacks the moral courage to bring any bills to the floor for a vote. I applaud business for what they have done so far but its not enough. Now is the time to listen to our children and vote the bums out. They work for us not the NRA and if they won’t listen then they don’t deserve our votes.
15
The NRA is a terrorist organization. It abets other terrorist groups that can easily procure their weapons..
8
Barricade the schools, barricade the churches, barricade the malls, barricade the theaters, barricade the night clubs, barricade the parades - seems the GOP and their NRA handlers have turned root-cause analysis on it's head. Most galling is they believe it and they believe the American people are stupid. 243 days...
10
These fools will do anything to avoid doing the right thing.
9
How do these Republican "measures" protect our kids from snipers or mass shooters when they are walking home from school or going to church or athletic events or the shopping mall or concerts or movie theaters?
6
Will these school safety measures be funded by a commensurate tax on firearms? In other words, will non-ammosexuals be forced to fund the irresponsible gun lust of a minority of us who refuse to acknowledge that these weapons of war are a problem?
10
Gun Control OR Dead Children. CHOOSE.
November: WE the People shall Choose. Bigly.
10
How nice, arresting children who are protesting because they feel they are likely to get shot.
Meanwhile, conspiracy theorist load up on guns and ammunition, and use social media to attack and threaten children, and their parents, who have already been victims of school shootings, church shootings...
And, Congress does, well, nothing, as usual. Band aids over a few windows in a nation awash in guns, guns pretty much anyone can purchase and use without regulation or rule, is pretty much, well, nothing.
Next shiney object.... next distraction... on and on and on.
This is way beyond SAD.
14
Heartless, shameful traitors.
8
Bullies! People who wave guns in our faces and refuse to engage in a process to protect ourselves from their guns are BULLIES. VOTE OUT THE NRA.
3
It's the guns, stupid.
10
With gun control at a "dead end" there will never be school safety.
6
"Responsible gun owner," a uniquely American oxymoron.
7
How stupid is this administration and the congress? There is already gun laws in place that prevent you from buying a machine gun without a federal license.
So putting a few more styles of firearms out of the reach of the average person is not going to end the 2nd amendment or the NRA.
This administration and congress has shown that they don't put the safety of our nation first and foremost.
Time for a new one!
1
Boiled down to its essence, consistent with prior issues, on gun control Congressional Republicans offer nothing of any value. Spin, posturing, talking points - childish nonsense devoid of common sense. Disgraceful.
7
Thanks for the sympathy, Mr. Trump, and for the wreath, Ms. DeVos, but involving teachers or librarians in an arms race with gunslingers only protects (?) schools, which is the favorite target because children are so defenseless. But now they may turn to hospitals, malls, nursing homes, outdoor concerts or maybe go back to attacking municipal or federal buildings: "The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States on April 19, 1995. Perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the bombing killed 168 people,[1] injured more than 680 others, and destroyed one-third of the building..." [Wikipedia]
2
Ninety per cent in the polls, pols. Ninety percent want these war weapons off our streets, out of homes.
#bluetsunami
4
The toothless NRA and politicians who trade lobbying cash for our lives and safety must be boycotted.
States that support/obey the NRA must be avoided,vote with your cash and VOTE!
1
The proliferation of mass murders in the United States stems from one source: a bottomless gun pool. Americans own half the guns in the World. There is a gun for every man, woman, child. Most Americans do not own guns. So that leads to the obvious conclusion: some are amassing arsenals. For what use does a citizen need, and demand, via the Second Amendment, the right to own an assault weapon? Just because? Well, that's a pathetically childish answer.
And if it were given by child, it would be immediately dismissed for the nonsense it is and ignored. In any other civilized country, such a response would elicit from authorities instant rejection.
Until the overwhelming majority of Americans demand their right to live with less guns in this country, make it a one-issue litmus test, and, pun intended, stick to their guns, only then will we see legislators shaking in their boots and do something about a certain segment of America's obsession and fascination of guns. Let men who love their guns find some other phallic symbol to worship.
DD
Manhattan
4
This one issue will turn Congress double-blue this November...
While government should be focused on making our economy grow - and making the opportunity-of-prosperity more available - we mud-wrestle endlessly on these incendiary social issues...
Many in Congress actually believe we're too stupid to notice...
For own purposes, going to look at things, district-by-district...
But - spitballing...
Senate will be 53-47...Dem/Ind vs GOP
House will be 224-211...
Schumer will be way smart enough to recognize that Trump will be the most Dem-friendly president in decades...
Pelosi, on the other hand...
But - Dems do need to get an impeachment out of their system, early 2019...
See - the reason Trump prevailed wasn't that his narrative was especially strong...
It was that the narrative of every one of his opponents was completely fake...
Fake narrative can carry the day - or even a decade or ten...
We're a country built on narrative - some of us see us as embodiment of the "Even-newer Testament"...
The most fake narrative ever foisted - on us, by us, and for us - was the one against interracial marriage...
Only fifty years ago, that that narrative was "settled sociology"...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia
The irony - denial of the same sort of state-level reciprocity that gunners seek was the basis for the criminal charges...
So...For 2018 - and 2020...
#BanFakeNarrative
Can't ban all fake narrative...In our "blood"...But - one by one...
I've had it with this do-nothing Congress. Cowards all.
1
50 Million dollars /100,000 public schools = $500/ school.
Republicans are counting on their base’s lack of critical thinking and basic math skills to slip another one over them.... so typical!!
2
The president, GOP, former presidents and congress as a whole had and still has plenty of opportunity to impose significant gun control in this country. Full blame for the gun crisis in this country does not belong to the NRA; they are only part of the problem. The root of the problem is the government; the elected officials sworn to serve the people and refusing to adhere to the will of the people. These officials are more concerned about their self-preservation and $$$$; forget about you and me and the millions of Americans demanding gun control legislation. Government is not blind to gun violence in this country; their inaction on gun control has contributed to all of these massacres and deaths. It’s a shame and also freighting when you have the government joining forces with the NRA in demonizing everyone and everything else but the very guns they help put on the streets.
Infants, children, teenagers, police officers, fathers, mothers, grandparents, young and old adults are all victims of guns violence in America, no one is immune. The best these officials can do regarding gun control is come up with excuses; now is not the time to talk about it; the shooter is mentally unstable or demonizing the shooter but never ever the weapons used to kill.
Significant gun control legislation will never happen in this country unless those that support the NRA are voted out of office. The movement started by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is a great beginning.
Sorry, but you are wrong. It's the NRA.
All of this will be for little.
As long as the guns and ammo are readily available, the problem and killing will continue.
This isn't the 18th century and people aren't arming themselves with muskets.
1
Trump reportedly said the best way to decrease "mass shootings" at schools is to change the definition of mass shootings so that it includes 20 fatalities or more. Well, that's what I 'heard'.
1
One can always count on the Republicans to do nothing when it comes to rationality and the common good, and to do something when it comes to appearances and looking out for the rights and privileges of the few. What a loathsome political party.
1
This is unacceptable We need a strict litany of gun control measures including a ban on semiautomatic weapons. Congress must act on this now. #NeverAgain
1
sounds like the equivalence of abstinence "education" - waste money avoiding more effective measures. so GOP...
Let's stop referring to Republican states as red states. Let's start referring to them as yellow states, which is more consistent with their backbones.
1
If every school was fortified and guarded by SWAT teams, the "Target zones" will shift to other places where people gather. Churches have been popular zones, nightclubs, open air Country and Western music sites, marathons, sports stadiums, malls, movie theaters...
The best way to stop "a bad guy with a gun..." is to make the "gun" and its ammunition unavailable.
The only "well regulated militia" in the United States Constitution is now called the "National Guard."
4
This country must deal with it's obsession with violence and guns. Watch any Hollywood action movie nowadays; and I will rest my case. We must begin immediately to implement a campaign to cut down on the number of guns available to the general public. I am a gun owner in a rural location, but I believe in banning all semiautomatic weapons, licensing all gun owners (after stringent training is completed), and registering all guns. We then need to implement buyback programs. The above will be MUCH cheaper than "hardening" every school in America. However, the first step in bringing the country back to sanity is to hand the GOP a defeat so big that it will be forced to reformulate itself into an honest political party. Get out the vote!
4
The security industry smells money and the GOP smells another thing to waste public money on from groups who will return the favor with campaign cash. Just like "homeland security", the "war on drugs" and "three strikes", watch your wallet.
Women who want abortions are being forced to look at ultrasounds of the fetus they are carrying as part of their “pre-surgical” process.
Perhaps legislators should be forced to look at pictures from funeral homes of shot up kids that the funeral homes need to prepare for the funerals. Or victims in the ICU’s or ER’s. (although HIPPA laws would realistically not allow)
But maybe that almighty NRA money would overpower what they see.
7
“This time, the gun rights crowd messed with the wrong community, the wrong kids and the wrong dad...”
This is the problem, and why it will (still) be so difficult to create a solution.
The "gun crowd" didn't mess with anyone.
A single nutjob, who had been identified and denounced to authorities several times, "messed with" people.
The "gun crowd" are millions and millions of regular, everyday, decent, law-abiding Americans, mostly from places a few miles away from the coasts and cities, who value their Second Amendment rights and keep and use their guns safely, and who will oppose attempts to enact registration (and its offspring, confiscation) or to place other unreasonable restrictions on their ownership and use of guns.
I know that this is difficult for folks from the "left-bubble" to understand, but it is real, and you will not win by attacking your fellow well-meaning citizens.
2
Why would 'decent, law-abiding Americans' resist registration or reasonable restrictions on their ownership and use of guns? A tautology within, my reasonable, wheel-meaning friend.
4
Those who choose unrestricted access to assault weapons over the lives of innocents are far from decent.
5
"Those who choose unrestricted access to assault weapons over the lives of innocents are far from decent."
Those sorts of comments set you up for failure, or for a civil war (which I would count as a failure), so even though they may feel good to type, they won't have the desired effect.
You certainly didn't just convince me that access to any type of firearm should be further restricted.
Read about what a bullet from an AR-15 does to bone and tissue. There is no place whatsoever for a gun like that in civilian hands and I can't imagine any self-respecting hunter who would use one to kill an animal.
4
Remember in November which office seekers stand with dead kids and their parents, and which ones stand with the gun lobby. Should be an easy choice for sane voters.
1
The reality is that the Republicans in Congress and in legislatures accross the country do not want this horror of mass murder to be solved. Because if it is they will not get NAR support. Well, I also hope they do not get voter support in the upcoming elections, both Republican and Democrat voters. Because no matter what your party affiliation, if you are a parent you do not want to put your children's lives at risk.
A 15 year-old boy named Anthony in the Parkland school put his life at risk to save his fellow students against the gunman. He was badly wounded and is in the hospital.
Anthony was shot several times by this Assault weapon, but none of the students in the room were injured thanks to Anthony's valor.
This is a simple problem to solve. Not complex, no matter what the politicians say. Ban all assault weapons, multi-magazines, bump stocks, raise the age to purchase to 21,, universal background checks even at gun shows.
Stop worrying about whether or not you get re-elected. Show at least some courage to prevent mass shootings of our children and other citizens.
If Anthony can throw himself in front of a door to take the bullets meant for all the students in the class room, to prevent the shooter from gaining access to the room and save the lives of the students in that room, the least the politicians can do is protect these people with their votes. They do not even have to throw their bodies in front of an assault weapon and take a bullet for anyone. PLEASE
2
According to a recent USA Today/Gannett study, semiautomatic rifles—including assault rifles—are used in 8.6 percent of mass shootings, but banning all semiautomatic rifles wouldn’t reduce mass shootings by 8.6 percent. Killers denied semiautomatic rifles would use handguns, bolt-action rifles or shotguns, the firearms used in more than 90 percent of mass shootings. The killer in the worst mass school shooting used handguns to kill 32 students at Virginia Tech.
The AR-15 is popular because it is light, compact, has no recoil and has a handle that makes it easy to carry, but what makes it lethal is the high-velocity ammunition it fires, usually 223 Remington or 5.56 NATO cartridges. It would make more sense to reduce bullet velocities.
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/GDContent/mass-killings/index.html#weapons
1
Sad that some casually and nauseatingly repeat that no gun law would prevent EVERY death. But I stand firm that saving one innocent life is more than justification for diminishing unfettered access to weapons of war.
4
I would really like to hear from the Guns Over People party their answer to Fred Guttenberg's question about how the NRA (regarding his quoting of a video made with Dana Loesch naming people whose time, she says, 'is up') is not a terrorist organization. If Ms. Loesch's exact words were uttered by, say, a Muslim cleric in a video with that same egg-timer running on screen, would the USA not raise its threat level? What do you have to say Rubio? Ryan? Grassley? Cruz? Hatch? Manchin (not really a Dem!)? McConnell (oh, we know--do nothing, delay, bring nothing to the floor except what will benefit the 1%)? All of you?
3
There are more than 300 millions firearms in the United States and implementing a "assault rifle" ban will do NOTHING to prevent another wacko trying to murder innocent children. What will work is stronger school security procedures, including arming trained personnel in the schools. You must also admit that the government failed at all three levels: federal, state and local. Clearly the system is broken.
Yet liberals prefer to demonize anyone with a logical solution, while doing nothing that will stop this madness. Emotional rants and insulting the other side will only help the next wacko. Is that what you want?
1
Wrong. The previous ban diminished mass shootings. And fortifying schools does nothing to protect those in churches, nightclubs, and concerts in Vegas. Gun control has worked everywhere it has been tried - see Australia, the U.S. Capitol, and wherever Trump gives a speech.
5
“Richest” country in the world. A thimbleful of current put-of-control military spending (over 50% of your tax dollar, folks) would vastly improve public education as it exists today. From teachers pay, to crumbling school buildings, books and supplies as well as changing student/teacher ratios and creating special programs for kids in need. We are subsidizing gun manufacturers instead of creating intelligent citizens who know their civic responsibilities, get involved and vote. No wonder conservatives are actively preventing it!
3
Military spending accounts for 16 percent of the federal budget. The 50 percent figure you cite is the percent military spending makes up of “discretionary spending.” The difference between discretionary spending and mandatory spending is that discretionary spending is based on annual appropriations while “mandatory spending” for entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is based on funding formulas.
When Asked why, I ask this.
Can you look in the mirror each morning knowing your decisions kill children...yes KILL children. It's a gut wrencher, up close. We need not just political help but help from corporations whose decisions to buy, ship and sell guns are killing children, the medical industry defining mental competence and furthermore...the majority of Americans who buy products from these, the very same corporations that fund the guns that kill the children in America, we the people need to shut down the money pipeline until they hear the 320 Million of us who want our children protected, who want corporations to stop the killing of children. Of all the organisations that should support safe gun usage in America, the NRA should lead this way.
No guns sold to anyone under age 27. A mandatory signed statement from a doctor needed to purchase a gun. A training course is mandatory and if the purchasing person fails...no gun.
It's all talk so far and twenty years of talk is enough.
2
Just a few days ago trump was burned at the stake by progressives even though his suggestion to improve the very foundation of modern progressive gun control was put forth. Remember? After Newtown I provided free security to a local school attended by my children. About a week after the kids were buried all semblance of security concerns evaporated. Teachers went back to leaving emergency exits open because it conveniently saved a few steps. People were once again allowed to wander all over the campus without checking in and being allowed entrance and were not given temporary IDs so that security could identify who was supposed to be there and who was not. Parents complained because they now had to walk a few extra steps instead of being allowed to drive all over campus. Administrators continued to allow convict work labor to wander the campus because it was free labor. I discovered guns being brought on campus and the response from administrators was that it was an accident, or my favorite response "they are good people and would not commit a crime". I tried to point out that bringing a gun in campus was itself a crime. Thus, our lazy society that cannot walk a few extra steps, follow rules, be courteous, and respect each other was an equal if not greater threat. And let us not mention the cussing I received because I had a badge and a gun and a tiny bit of authority which i used to protect their kids.
2
I was a republican, never again. I will be voting against the NRA as my only issue in these mid- term elections. It’s that bad.
4
If Mr. Trump wants to do something about school safety that doesn't involve gun control he can take the money he would have used to build his silly wall on the southern border and use it to put a Federal marshal in every school in the U.S. This marshall would be armed with high-powered assault weapons that can take down any would-be assassins that try to enter a school. No need to arm teachers, who have enough of a job educating their students. Just follow the lead of Israel where there are no school shootings because they have professional law enforcers protecting all students, not teachers, or delusional Trumps who would "rush in even without a gun."
This is disgraceful, but hardly a surprise. Paul Ryan and the GOP caucus are own-and-operated by the NRA. Every one a coward. They have the audacity to name this charade legislation the STOP School Violence Act. There is no `school violence'. What we have is madmen entering schools with military-style weapons and slaughtering children. We're all suppose to believe the bloodshed is the school's fault, not the idiocy in which this country treats guns. Soon we'll have legislation called the MOP Act, which will allocate funds to remove the bloodshed from classrooms across the country. After all, it's a bleeding problem, not a gun problem.
2
Americans love guns. We are a nation with all manner of rugged individualist myths, movies and video games glorifying violence with the ultimate equalizer, the gun.
The gun is the ultimate expression of individualism, I decide if you live or die, I get to put myself ahead of everyone else because I have the firepower of the ultimate equalizer. The gun issue will not be adequately addressed until we begin to find a balance between our myths of rugged individualism and the common good. We are a nation divided North to South, East to West, and rural to urban. We cannot think of ourselves as one nation and only think individually of how we need to protect ourselves from all of those undeserving "others".
Our individualistic obsession with our gun rights is much more important than the lives of innocent children. We cannot see beyond ourselves.
Mass shooting and school shooting is a tiny fraction of death in gun addiction in America. GOP is deliberately diverting the attention to school safety.
In 2014, out of 33,594 gun related death, only 14 died in such mass shootings. Most deaths were by suicide using a gun- 21,386. Then 11,008 homicide (killing other people with a gun), other- 1200. The people who carry gun are the worst victims of gun violence. Guns hardly save people.
Wasting public money to recruit more armed guards, arming teachers (and then, probably proposing arming students too) would do more harm than help. It's particularly dreadful idea as public schools in most states are suffering severe funding crisis as Govt is increasing undermining public education in an effort to cut tax and to promote religious private schools among other reasons.
2
Yes ! Let’s have the TSA run our nations school security. What a great idea. Heck for 100 dollars extra, you can get a pre-screening pass. Good for three years. Background checks extra you see. Our kids will feel so so much safer and relaxed in a militaristic learning environment
1
The notion that the developed nation with the highest rate of gun ownership—by far—and—by far—the highest rate of gun violence needs to introduce even MORE guns into even MORE situations in order to ensure the public safety appeals ONLY to people who are entirely divorced from reality. Namely, all Republicans.
Congress is heading in a positive direction at last. Usually in response to a gun massacre of any degree , if there is any response it will be to further loosen regulation.... 'a gun in every house' or' chicken in every pot sort of thing'.If this continues by the time my great grandchildren reach my age there is a small chance things will be different.
The Republicans are playing whac-a-mole, only this time all the moles have AR-15s...
2
The Congress (def): The place where measures to protect our citizens and schools against gun violence go to die.
1
'Of, by and for' the NRA.
Shameless republican toadies, including their leadership, refuse to be sane on gun rights versus our safety.
It is true that the Second Amendment seems to favor the right for citizens to keep arms. The Constitution also enshrined the 3/5ths compromise-- counting black citizens as 60% of a white one. The second mistake has been corrected, the first one has yet to be.
Few ordinary citizens need a gun. No citizen needs an AR15 or other assault weapon. The idea that we have a constitutional amendment on this subject has been a grievous pox upon us. That this mistake has still not been rectified is a clear demonstration of the absolute corruption of our leadership.
Those who wish to own guns should demonstrate the capacity to do so responsibly and safely. This includes limits on the types of weapons and ammunition that can be produced, financial responsibility laws (similar to auto insurance) and intense background checks.
Only fools would knowingly put powerful weapons into the hands of the mentally ill and those that would seek to harm us.
I'm looking at you NRA. I am looking at you, Republicans.
1
That $50 billion better be paid for by a tax on gun sales.
2
Because this issue is now reaching critical mass, Congress has decided on a short term "rope-a-dope" strategy: Make a few minor changes, leaving the availability of guns overall and assault rifles/high capacity magazines out of the equation, and then wait until the next gun massacre so they can claim, "see, even with the new laws gun control doesn't work". What a bunch of immoral cowards. Profiles in indecency.
1
As long as you continue to condone the sale of assault rifles to the public, there will be some demented crazies among us who decide they should use the weapon for the only purpose it is intended.
3
Amazing that they can find $50 million to spend on bulletproof glass for classrooms, but they never seem to be able to find that money for art and music programs, textbooks, or improving teacher's salaries. Some schools I have worked at in California also didn't have money for paper (1 box for 150 students does not get you very far) or janitors (I had to bring in my own vacuum and clean the classroom myself.)
I suppose these politicians have never heard the old adage "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. " So we'll waste millions on their "cure" while people continue to die at the hands of others who have access to weapons of war because of "rights" they were given long before these weapons even existed.
32
No guns, no gun violence. It’s the solution that removes all the bother and costs of tolerating private gun ownership. If all those hundreds of millions who own guns would just get rid of them, guns would no longer be a problem.
2
$50 Million dollars may sound like a lot, but not when it’s spread out over all the schools in the US.
4
Good observation. If there are around 100,000 schools (adding some for nurservy/kindergarten) in the US that's around $500 a school.
The GOP must really have a low opinion of the intelligence of the voting populate...
2
Republicans are overlooking the safety of entire communities. As important as school safety is, guns still kill people in churches, nightclubs, theaters and concerts. The GOP wants to prevent another school massacre which is commendable but all it takes is for one person or a copycat with a gun to wreak mayhem on a town or subdivision.
The danger is firearms, Republican party. Guns kill people and training and workshops don’t prevent a loner from stockpiling weapons at home, then spraying school children, college students, police officers or postal employees with gunfire from assault weapons.
The Republican party wants guns out there in the streets. There's no other way to say it.
19
The republicans, profiles in cynicism, continue to follow the path laid out for them by Wayne LaPierre and the NRA.
The cost for these "experiments" which are doomed to failure since they do not address the core issue of assault weapons, will be borne by taxpayers.
If assault weapons were to be banned the only people who would be financially impacted would be the manufacturers, the NRA and, of course, republican politicians who accept funding from the NRA.
Americans watch with mounting alarm and disgust the rising death toll from assault weapons, and the suffering caused by the inaction and outright obstruction of republican politicians in efforts to enact common sense gun control measures.
Gun owners will be angry, they will see any efforts to regulate guns as big government overreach, an infringement of their second amendment rights.
Their right to hunt with assault weapons.
Their right to shoot targets with assault weapons.
Their right to defend their property with assault weapon.
“It occurred to me that if I could invent a machine - a gun - which could by its rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty as a hundred, that it would, to a large extent supersede the necessity of large armies, and consequently, exposure to battle and disease [would] be greatly diminished.”
― Richard Jordan Gatling
1
we are already AWASH in guns, including an uncountable number of assault weapons and other military style gear. the cows have left the barn and it's too late to shut the doors.
what we need now is a tax on the consumable part of the equation, the part that does the damage: ammunition.
eventually, all the bullets out there will be used up and there's no need to make the more easy to get.
2
How about lifting the ban on Govt. spending on research into the causes and solutions to gun violence?
10
Guess they don't want the public to know what the results would be.
3
Great idea, congressional Republicans. But don't limit this to school safety. You leave to many of us vulnerable. Please include movie theater safety, church safety, grocery store safety, shopping mall safety, outdoor concert safety, college campus safety and conference room safety. You've done a great job of keeping yourselves safe by forbidding guns in the Capitol. So extend to us what you have provided to yourselves.
7
The Clintons get armed security.
Lots of office buildings have armed security.
Celebrities hire armed security.
When they give up their armed security, maybe the rest of us will consider it.
Until then, I have a right to protect myself by carrying a gun if I want to.
1
"I have a right to protect myself by carrying a gun if I want to."...I agree, but what right do you have to an assault rifle?
7
No one wants you to give up your handgun away! when will gun owners stop drinking that Kool Aid message promoted by the NRA?
4
No one is disputing your right to protect yourself. However, you don't need an assault rifle to protect yourself from a street burglar or car hijacker. You would find it far more effective to defend you home with a shotgun than with an assault rifle — and far less dangerous to your neighbors. However, you're better off with no guns in the home, because they are mostly used to kill family members, not intruders.
So, what kind of gun do you want to carry? Do you want to strap on an assault rifle when you go grocery shopping or stop by the library, or eat dinner out? How about when you use the toilet in a public place? Would you set the rifle down? Somebody could grab it, you know.
If you truly want to defend yourself, why not have your gun registered, like a car, and get a license to carry it — after passing a series of tests and paying a fee that will be used to support gun safety education?
1
Protest in Congress is a good start. What the kids should do is protest in waves. As one group gets cleared out, have another form and follow in their footsteps. Overwhelm the system with peaceful protests!
2
The empirical evidence (a mounting body count of dead children) is finally starting to overwhelm the GOP/NRA's bogus theory that loose gun laws do not make our nation (and in particular our schools) less safe.
So, how are the Republicans in power responding to this epidemic of death that is exposing the flaws in their approach to gun control? By doubling down on a corollary to their bogus theories: the cause of school shootings is an insufficient number of "good guys with guns" on school campuses.
How to rebut this? With Republicans in power, we have only one option: put more guns in schools, and wait for more empirical evidence to slowly trickle in, as it inevitably will: more kids will die, more debates will ensue, and so on and so on. How many more kids will have to die before the GOP concedes that more guns make us less safe?
3
There's only one solution to this uniquely American gun problem, and that is to vote every single legislator with a high NRA grade out of office.
I suspect that would also root out many other ills in our government. We need at least some semblance of logical, rational thought from our congressmen and senators.
5
And the gun legislation shell game continues. This NRA crowd are curious but expectable ‘shape shifters.’ “School security” measures sound a lot like “right to work” laws. They don’t address the true need for the protection of the intended recipients. Less guns means less gun fire. And, even having an armed deputy on the premises doesn’t guarantee effective service (Imagine if that guy was serving in Iraq under fire in an ambush?). Arming teachers merely increases the probability of death by “friendly fire” on campus. These “laws” merely gin up business in the security sector. Maybe armed robots in schools are the answer! The NRA knows the spotlight is on them so they can’t just do nothing. Besides, why don’t they interview kids being gunned down on urban streets as well? Are those lives less valuable? The Second Amendment has morphed to symbolize the ‘right to kill’ not the basis for “well regulated state militias.” We are instead endorsing unregulated vigilantes and murderers. Hopefully, we’re approaching a “Showdown at the OK Corral” at the midterms. Effective gun legislation must be the litmus test for sensible, humane voters. Anything less is “Barbarism on Main St.”
3
The vast majority of Americans including responsible gun owners are in favor of gun safety laws, and I know no one who is clamoring to take away deer rifles and handguns so don't allow the NRA to promote the phrase "gun control." We don't call the rules of the road "driving control." They are viewed as being there for the purpose of safe driving. One must know the law in order to be licensed. We can't drive cars that can't pass a smog check, but we can own assault weapons that can slaughter people in nothing flat. What does that say to the world about our country?
19
"The Republican-controlled House plans to vote next week on the STOP School Violence Act, a bill that would authorize $50 million annually ... including training teachers and students in how to prevent violence.
Surely the way to prevent violence against teachers and students from people with guns is to control guns.
4
It’s a sad truth that while more gun control legislation is likely to save some lives in general, it’s not likely to stop the school spree-shooter contagion that has exploded in our sick society. With this is mind, along with my 5 year old son and 2 year old daughter, I support any efforts to make schools more safe and secure. And I’m a liberal Democrat, for what it’s worth.
2
Say the NRA gets its way and states vote to arm school staff, who pays for the training, the guns and the wicked insurance rates? Towns, states and the feds already balk at funding and, in fact woefully underfund, education.
2
It seems that social media has played a part in most of the school shootings. Semi-automatic guns have been around since WWII but the school shootings started with Columbine in the 1990s. What changed in society? It seems that teenagers today can't deal with simple everyday frustrations and enjoy posting threats or even posting their crimes on Facebook.
"What changed in society?"....Society permitted the public purchase of assault rifles. Which is in essence Society saying; yes, there is a good and justifiable need for members of the public to indiscriminately kill lots of people very quickly. And so some crazies said; oh, I have in my demented head a justifiable need to kill lots of people, and Society has condoned and provided me with weapon to do that. Duh.
3
I hope the Republicans in Congress pass the STOP School Violence Act and the Fix NICS Act. Let's take whatever we can get.
But that shouldn't stop Democrats from pushing for real common sense gun control:
-ban all semi-automatic weapons
-universal background checks, with a reasonable waiting period (not less than 30 days)
-demonstrate proficiency with a firearm before you purchase it (a license, like we need to operate a motor vehicle)
-register the weapon (so if it falls into the hands of a criminal it can be traced)
-provide funding for research by the NIH into the gun epidemic
Over 34,000 people die by guns each year in America. We have to fix the problem. Again, take whatever we can get, then work for more.
4
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE. It will take the 2018 election to turn the House and Senate around before real gun legislation can be enacted.
3
I did the math - there were about 99,000 public schools in the USA in 2014 - not counting colleges. 50 Million dollars? That's about $500 per school. Is it enough?
8
In Oklahoma they are facing teacher shortage and some schools have shortened the school week from 5 to 4 days. In West Virginia 700 teachers position are unfilled, and the state approved a bipartisan tax cuts of $425 million. In 25 states control by Republican they cut the per-pupil school spending. But the Republicans are able to find $50 millions annually "for safety improvements".
5
So how will that "... Republican-controlled House ... STOP School Violence Act, a bill that would authorize $50 million annually for safety improvements" be paid for? Is there a tax guns and bullets? Or do my federal taxes now have to pay for the NRA inspired arms race that will be taking place in schools across the country?
6
Eliminate guns, and invest the $50 million in actual education initiatives - why not in arts & crafts?!
4
The republicans, profiles in cynicism, continue to follow the path laid out for them by Wayne LaPierre and the NRA.
The cost for these "experiments" which are doomed to failure since they do not address the core issue of assault weapons, will be borne by taxpayers.
If assault weapons were to be banned the only people who would be financially impacted would be the manufacturers, the NRA and, of course, republican politicians who accept funding from the NRA.
Americans watch with mounting alarm and disgust the rising death toll from assault weapons, and the suffering caused by the inaction and outright obstruction by republican politicians in efforts to enact common sense gun control measures.
Gun owners will be angry, they will see any efforts to regulate guns as big government overreach, an infringement of their second amendment rights.
Their right to hunt with assault weapons.
Their right to shoot targets with assault weapons.
Their right to defend their property with assault weapon.
“It occurred to me that if I could invent a machine - a gun - which could by its rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty as a hundred, that it would, to a large extent supersede the necessity of large armies, and consequently, exposure to battle and disease [would] be greatly diminished.” ― Richard Jordan Gatling
2
The mass slaughter at Las Vegas, Orlando, and San Bernardino, did not occur at schools. Further, we know, and the Republicans in Congress know, with tragic certainty that another crazy or another terrorist will buy an assault rifle and that there will be another mass slaughter. Once again they have failed to address a problem that they absolutely know exists. There is no nice way to dress it up. There can be no excuse. They are political cowards. They have blood on their hands.
17
Republicans in Congress, and specifically the leaders McConnell, Ryan, are cowards.
68
Let the conservatives and rump remnants of the mighty GOP drag their feet on this one, and see them voted out forever in the fall elections. It's been a long time coming, I hope their fall will be a spectacle worthy of teaching future generations the folly of allowing black money to dominate the political process.
43
I am a former high school Principal, who after Columbine, was asked by my Board of Education to research safety measures at our school. After extensive reading and phone conversations with law enforcement officials and several consultants who served as security officials in the Middle East, what I concluded is in the words of one consultant, "you can't protect your schools from intruders, If someone wants to get into your school with a gun, they will." The only strategy left to us in schools are lockdown procedures and secure doors on classrooms---which we did. The only sure way to make schools safer is focusing on gun regulation---it is that simple.
116
Glad you’re not my child’s principal. I’d have to have him move to another school. Because it sounds like you’ve given up after deciding that making your doors more secure and practicing lock down drills is all you can do. Sad. Aren’t educators (and school leaders) supposed to espouse continuous learning and improvement? How can you do that if you’ve already stopped caring and learning about enhanced school security?
According to security experts your child would be safer in my school then in a school filled with armed teachers and guards. As to continuous learning and improvement, my goal was to improve upon the teaching of math, science, history, etc. not devoting time and monies to improving the gun handling skills of my teachers. Should add, that what keeps all principals up at night is the continual worry about keeping the students in your charge safe, knowing that no campus can be made 100% secure.
2
As usual, with the GOP in its back pocket, the NRA will block any sort of meaningful gun control reform! It has been this was in the past and always will be. Even a group of Congressmen getting shot at didn't even have any effect!
37
Steve Scalise was nearly killed by a weapon firing the same ammunition. He's still pushing guns out to the rest of us.
2
It has been this was in the past and always will be.
NO! Don't give up! Here's my list of the four impossibilities:
It's impossible for the American Colonies to become independent of Britain.
It's impossible to end slavery in America.
It's impossible for women to win the right to vote.
It's impossible to reverse America's gun crisis.
Join Everytown Make America Safe Again.
Unbelievable...pass the buck to teachers and children to protect themselves from the mentally ill and the NRA. Meanwhile, less money for instruction and teacher salaries.
117
Edited White House copy for Republican leaders:
Don't worry about [cross out "the NRA", add] Donald, [cross out "they're", add] he’s on our side," "Half of you are so afraid of [cross out "the NRA", add] Trump. There's nothing to be afraid of. ... And you know what, if [cross out "they're", add] he’s not with you, we have to fight [cross out "them", add] him every once in a while, that's OK. Sometimes we're going to have to be very tough and we're going to have to fight [cross out "'em", add] him and all those children and families."
You are welcome,
The NRA
2
Another Republican scam. Schools are already desperately under funded. Teacher in many states poorly paid, and the facilities are in poor shape. There was the idea in the news that librarians would be armed. Many districts have gotten rid of their librarians! Do we really want there to be a shoot out in the hall ways? The cops in Parkland where afraid to charge the shooter because they know they had no chance, he would see them before they saw him. Guns need to be controlled and monitored, military weapons need to be in the military and gov't needs to do its job is providing services to folks who are in a bad state (mental illness, ect).
50
Who wants a job that puts one in the line of fire of American gun madness?
1
Encouraging to see that DeVos can't put her phony act over on these students.
The GOP is pushing its usual fallback position: don't limit the availability of weapons; just beef up security instead. But we all saw how effective the "good guys with guns" were in Florida. Democrats, it's now or never to show some backbone and leadership.
76
The Trump GOP is completely owned by the Gun lobby and isn’t the least concerned about the epidemic of mass killings. The only way to get reasonable safeguards in place is vote them all out of office.
62
These kids are right.
Steny Hoyer is right.
"School safety" is a way to have them change the subject.
We have to avoid letting them do so.
Support "Everytown", march somewhere on March 24, and
don't stop marching until they ban assault rifles and magazines.
57
So, were are the Democrats? Where are their common sense gun bills? This is not a problem of the doors to our kids' classrooms being bullet-proof. This is a problem of bullets. We need our Democratic representatives to offer an opposing voice to this debate that provides real solutions to the problem: GUNS.
21
"So, were are the Democrats."....You can't bring a bill to the floor of the House for a vote without the approval of Paul Ryan.
6
"Common sense" bills won't solve the gun problem in America. Only serious universal gun control measures can work. Democrats have called for the ban on all assault type military weapons. Obama tried to expand the federal data base used for background checks to include information the government has on mental illness. But Trump repealed this order. Many things can be done to curb the violence:
1/Universal federal background checks that include information on mental health and violent behavior required on 100% of all sales.
2/Only allow gun sales by federally licensed dealers. No more internet, private or gun show sales.
3/ Lengthen waiting period for checks (as Democrats wanted) to 5 days. And if for any reason it takes longer the dealer has to wait until it is complete.
4/ License gun owners. Require yearly renewals with additional background checks required.
5/ Make illegal military type weapons.
6/ Make illegal large sized bullet magazines. Limit the size to 5.
7/ Move up the minimum age for buying a gun to 21.
8/ Make gun owners legally responsible for the discharge of their guns.
9/ Require gun owners to keep their guns locked up in a federally mandated vandal proof case to prevent others from gaining access.
10/ Allocate federal monies to research the creation of smart guns.
11/ Maintain states rights to bar owners of guns from states with carry laws from bringing them into states that don't allow it.
12/Tax owning individual guns to reduce the number in circulation.
5
The dems should make their bill public. We can then
N put pressure on Ryan.
Las Vegas.
Orlando.
Texas church.
San Bernadino.
Clackamas Town Center, Or.
Sandy Hook.
Dallas Police Shootings.
Those are just a fraction of the examples of Assault Rifle shootings in the US and only one example of a school in that list of horrors. And most were done by men over the age of 21.
Stop taking the NRA's dirty money Republicans and some Democrats. Stop!
92
You left out the presence of "Resource Officers" at most if not all school shootings. Oh, and the kicker - NO CHANGE IN THE OUTCOME.
1
In this conversation, assuming you are interested in addressing those who are not likeminded, it is important to state exactly what fraction of the number of mass or multiple shootings on your short list were carried out with semi-automatic rifles or semi-automatic weapons.
I suspect that your list represents the majority of such shootings, depending upon the definition and the time frame.
By the way, I am for a near-total ban on semi-automatic weapons.
1
The pot will continue to boil until the flame is extinguished.
15
The NRA, Trump and the GOP's new slogan: "Make America Bleed Again!" (MABA) Because the next time the bullets fly - and they will - they will be responsible for the dead and dying because they did nothing.
32
Until the GOP comes to their senses, and until they acknowledge true measures towards a safer society must include measures to curb the spread of these tools that do nothing more than putting bullets in people and things, we will continue to live in a world of mass shootings. There is and remains blood on the GOP’s hand - they ENABLE mass shootings.
27