Posted 16 December 2012 - 07:31 PM
I do not want my children living in a police state. I will take them out of a school that cannot tell me they feel my child is safe- without bars and checkpoints, guns and metal detectors.
As for Sandy Hook, the principal there had just previously completed a study of her school which apparently included a a rigorous security check. She had her staff do many drills for lockdowns and response to campus threats.
The custodian of the school was running down the hallway screaming gunman on campus, while the office was getting shot up. It was the staff in the office that turned on the PA system so that the entire school was alerted to the terror. It was the principal herself who was the first person to directly confront the gunman to try to slow or stop his massacre. 3 brave souls who stood up and defended a school. countless others who shielded children with their own bodies.
But 20 children died anyway.
Im sorry but you cant blame this on the gun or the bullet or the capacity of the magazine (which is more liberal than California).
This horrific carnage was the entire fault of a man bent on killing. You can call it determination, you can call it mental illness, you can call personality disorder, you can call it maternal conflict disorder..... But the fact is, that man did something so reprehensible that it is not something that can be prepared for or anticipated.
I think a lot can be learned from this though. Like why doesn't the office and every classroom have a panic button? Those heavy doors with glass windows are meant to stop irate parents. Why wasnt it reinforced with wire? If you do fence in a school (like central california and southern ca schools, then you need to have primary, secondary and tertiary zones of access controlled by status for parent, student guest, contractor and staff. In addition, the classroom should lock. One of the teachers said the classroom they went into, would not lock because it was during normal school day. So the access point became a liability during a lockdown. Those children had been in a room they only go to once a week (music)...so that drill was apparently overlooked.
I could go on...like but the point is that only prevention will stop a gunman. He has already started his own role in this. As far as mental health... I completely agree that mental health in the US needs to be overhauled. I also agree that AFTER mental health has been overhauled, then there should be a way to classify persons who's right to bear arms can be temporarily suspended, or intermediate duration of suspensions, or even revocation due to mental defect.
And one more thing: those laws will never be useful as long as killers like the virginia tech or sand hook killers can walk into a gun shop and buy (because they seem sane) or get access to another persons firearms.
And finally, if a nut wants to kill a make a mass heap of bodies, there are ways to do so without guns. Poison, bombs, airplane jackings, or even combinations involving bombs or poisons with vehicles. These are the new mass killings you see in countries. Frankly, the US is sort of behind the times on that (gruesome irony), like Israel. So why isn't israel or france on the list of highest killings in the world using guns? Because they have moved on to bigger -flashier weapons that kill more initial people standing by.
Honestly if we did a better job of taking care of our people, maybe they wouldnt resort to killing.
