Well, another school shooting has once again brought out the “ban-guns-now” crowd to scream that we must give up our firearms in order to save even one child. But are firearms really the problem, or are they merely a tool of something far more sinister and evil? How can we stop this madness?
The more immediate answer, or fix if you will, to mass shootings in schools is really quite simple and inexpensive. Arm all school personnel who are willing to be armed, train them in defensive and offensive tactics, and keep them up to date with this training. Engage retired folks in the area who are willing and physically able to volunteer a few hours a day, on assigned days, to be armed and in and around the schools as first responders to an attack. All of these people, school personnel and the retired volunteers, must pass a more extensive background check first and attend seminars/courses in the use of deadly force in confined spaces/areas. Finally, advertise the fact that schools in participating counties will be adopting this program for the protection of the student population and school employees.
As for the retired volunteer people, I would bet it would not be all that difficult to find folks willing to do this a couple of times a day for a few hours at a time. I know I would be up for this and I'm pretty good with a handgun, plus I still have rather quick reactions and can move very quickly for my age. Still the “no guns in schools for any reason” crowd fights this genuine common sense approach because it means using firearms to repel evil. Their argument is that there are too many guns in the hands of the public and that they are so much easier to get in modern America and that is the reason for these mass shootings. But is this really true? No, it is not true. Let’s take a look at how things were, say, 70 years ago.
In the years of my youth, the later 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s (I was born in January 1946), guns were quite common and very easy to buy. You could find them in drug stores, gas stations, hardware stores, and department stores. No 4473 form to fill out, or its state equivalent, no background check was required; basically as easy as buying a pack of chewing gum. In the decade of 1940 there was one school shooting. In the twenty years of the 1950’s and the 1960’s there were zero school shootings and in the 1970’s, there was one. So why the increase in these horrific crimes? One might think that there would have been a rash of these killings in the 1950’s since firearms were so easy to obtain back then and very prevalent in American homes, but that is not the case.
In the 1940’s and 1950’s, social controls were more natural. Kids didn’t dare misbehave in school because corporal punishment was common in the form of spanking and being shamed (standing in a corner with one’s face against a wall). But something happened, discipline and punishment were weakened until they were removed entirely, leaving kids to do as they saw fit without fear of retribution. Even parents were chastised and shamed if they raised a hand, or a belt, to their kids. Without the fear of punishment, kids believed they could do as they pretty much pleased.
Then came 1962 and the Engel v Vitale case against prayer in school, which was deemed to violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which it most certainly does not. There is nothing, as in nothing, in any part of our three founding documents that could remotely be taken to ban prayer in school or public places such as firehouses, etc. I have a standing offer of $100 to anyone who can show me different. The text of the establishment clause is, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”. And congress never has made such a law.
Once natural controls were diminished to the point of virtually disappearing, artificial controls moved in to fill the void. Enter gun control laws and gun free zone laws and punishment for school kids who shaped their hands like guns and made a shooting sound as they played in school yards. Even chewing a Pop Tart into the rough shape of a gun was paramount to suspension. Craziness had replaced common sense once again.
So we listen to politicians crying for so-called “assault weapons bans” and bans on “high capacity magazines”. When I hear these radical chants I know I am listening to not only someone who knows next to nothing about firearms but worse, a fool who doesn’t have a clue of the danger laying in wait should our most basic and fundamental right be picked apart, piece by piece until it ceases to exist.
Essentially, we as a nation have lost our national character, our national soul. That which has kept us together as a people, the glue of our society, has been cast aside and replaced by a “do anything you want” belief without fear of being punished for our actions. The age-old concept of being held responsible for what we do has gone by the wayside in favor of claims of victimhood aided by the Balkanization of our population. Many Americans no longer like to call themselves an American citizen but rather a citizen of the world. What does one expect to happen when these people are so willing to give up that which so many have given up all of their tomorrows that we might have today? We have lost our national soul and it is going to take a lot of effort to get it back.
