As the great aunt of 6 beautiful, extremely loving and exceptionally bright great nieces currently in elementary school and another great niece in college, I can’t say for absolute certainty that if any of them were shot and killed in a senseless school shooting by some nut case, that my initial emotional response and stemming from my inconsolable grief, that it wouldn’t cause me to abandon my pro 2nd A stance and call for something, anything to be done to prevent it from happening again. That I think is human nature. It’s all too easy to demonize these people until someone you know and love is a victim.
I couldn’t imagine if my family was impacted or if any of my loved ones died, that I would react with a sort of cold and detached indifference and defend a position that the 2nd A doesn’t come with any sort of rational restrictions.
On one hand I don’t want an erosion of 2nd A rights that keeps fire arms even AR 15’s out of the hands of responsible gun owners, and from what I can tell, they are more numerous than the irresponsible folks or the nut cases. And I have many responsible gun owners in my family and FWIW, none of them are hunters, all have guns for self and home and family defense and my nephew is a CC holder and often goes armed including to restaurants and movie theaters although you would never know it.
But obviously this kid was mentally unstable and IMO, something has to be done to, even if we can’t prevent such a person from going on a rampage using other means or from getting a gun illegally, he shouldn’t even have been allowed to legally purchase at 18 years old and with his history an AR15 and ammo when the very same law in Florida would have not have allowed him to legally purchase a pistol.
And as for arming teachers or aids or volunteers in schools, while I think that may be a great idea, it will come to an abrupt end the very first time some teacher or aid or volunteer who was perhaps not properly vetted or suddenly goes berserk, goes on a rampage and kills the very kids they were supposed to be protecting.
Flame away if you like but that’s just my opinion.
Not flaming. Emotion runs high in the days after an event like this, which is why I made the comment on this thread that this woman and others in similar straits are more in need of our prayers than ever.
As for legislation, as cooler heads prevail, it will be obvious that either there is no legislation which could have prevented this event, the security measures were inadequate, or that somewhere in the system that is supposed to prevent people with serious and violent issues from getting a firearm, the system failed to do so.
In the incident where Gabby Giffords was shot, along with a judge who was among the dead, the system failed, apparently subverted by a relative who didn't want Mr. Loughner to suffer the stigma of being branded a nutcase. In this instance, the firearm was obtained (I don't know how) in spite o the safeguards which are supposed to keep them out of the hands of those who are bent on murder.
When systems fail, more system is seldom a viable solution.
I do have a couple of questions, though. Apparently the shooter was no longer a student there. Why go back to school to wreak havoc? Were the issues related to happenings at that (or another ) school? Was the shooter an alumnus? If so, what happened there? If not, why that school when a shopping mall or grocery store would likely have been as much a target rich environment? Why shoot kids instead of the adults?
Not that I really have a desire to peek under that hood, but I think we need to know what is causing this sort of incident (aside from simply evil) and if there are contributing factors, like pharmacology.
If someone is determined to get their hands on weapons to kill people, they will, unless their hands are tied. Even failing to obtain the very best will not stop them from improvising, to the point of making their own firearms, even (Earle Stanley Gardner, the author of the Perry Mason stories had a collection of some 50+ homemade weapons, some quite sophisticated, and most prototype weapons were made in someone's shop first). But even then other possibilities aside from firearms exist and could be equally devastating. Firearms are only one class of arms, and some relatively simple weapons could be used against relatively helpless people with devastating effect.
Frankly, the problem isn't the tool used, it is the mind, for whatever reason so demented as to wish to exact, (even temporarily) some such sort of vengeance against a bunch of kids. Those minds may develop in some form of isolation, but not in a vacuum. Something pushed them over that edge, that line between someone filled with resentments and anger to mass murderer, and it wasn't an inanimate object.
Having hashtag fests and cookies and pop soires about bullying is all nice, but it won't stop the innate cruelty kids practice against each other, and in some cases, that done by adults as well. In a culture where all too often there is no genuine regard for the feelings or pain of others, nor the ordinary desire to not inflict such pain, it is little wonder that some of the people produced turn out to be monsters.
