Buzz wrote:Didn't you tell me you have a shotgun in your home for self protection slick? Don't you want the same protection for kids in school?
I have two shotguns for duck hunting(and geese, too, which are larger, tastier and easier to hit). I don't need a weapon for home protection.....sorry, Buzz. In fact, from where I'm typing this, there are no guns in the house(Delaware). Shotguns are in VA, shells kept completely separate, both locked up until I head out to the blind.
You can still do all the things you want to do. ban guns, background checks, keep better track of mental cases etc etc. The problem is what happens when one still slips through, and does a another killing in schools?
sadly, that might happen, but the cost of that versus the cost of fucking up the entire educational system(further) is a cost I can live with. NO GUNS need be in a school setting, ever.
I don't see what any of this has to do with education for the kids? The teachers are still well educated, and are giving the kids the same amount of time teaching them.
try talking to a teacher.....they will tell you how difficult the job is to do right, and likely would tell you that adding security skills and distractions to their workload would be counterproductive.
Just exactly what do you want slick in your perfect world?? If you had complete control of the problem we have now. What would you do to fix it?
first off, I'm a realist, Buzz. I am aware that shit is going to happen....unpleasant shit. Addressing this problem is VERY complex. What would I do if in charge and had limitless money to spend on it? Here goes(roughly in order of importance):
1.COMPLETELY overhaul the mental health care system in this country. I mean fucking everything, from number of beds available for longterm care, to numbers of psychiatric professionals, to insurance coverage mandates....the whole ball of wax. We have, since Reagan, basically dumped the mentally ill onto our streets and waited until they harmed themselves or others to act. It is an ongoing drain on our society, the costs of which outweigh the cost of fixing the problem, IMHO.
2.COMPLETELY overhaul the way gun sales are both conducted and especially monitored. Gun sales advocates(NRA) have forced mandatory changes in the system that makes background checks ineffective and incomplete, record keeping sketchy, enforcement of straw sales and sales to incompetent persons lacking and actually encourages people toward violent remedies.
3.Rewrite the laws around gun violence and gun crimes in such a way as to punish those who refuse to secure and oversee the weapons they own. Too often, the story around some tragedy is that some kid or crazy person grabs a gun or guns that were essentially lying around poorly monitored. The gun owners have to take better responsibility and to do so, sadly, entails very stiff criminal penalties when they demonstrably fail to do so.
will this protect our nation from every incident of gun violence? Hardly. Will it keep kids from ever being harmed by a gun? Unlikely again. What my ideas will accomplish is the means to make such random acts of anger, stupidity or craziness FAR less likely. Do I think the country will even form the political will to spend the money and time to do the above things? Sadly, no.