Home
Let me preface my remarks by saying the NRA was an important part of my early life. My father was an avid sportsman and hunter and belonged to two gun clubs where as a family we would target shoot each weekend. I became quite proficient and when I was in scouting I competed in NRA sponsored competition and went through their training and guidance. They helped me understand gun safety and they were very supportive of the same.
Somewhere from then to today, the lobbyist role and the dollar and cents have caused this organization to stray from its simple and straightforward support for sportsmen and hunters into a shill for manufacturing and special interests who profit on guns. That element was always present, but the stench of the same was too overpowering for me this morning to even feign anything than utter contempt for the NRA.
First, I agree that the OPTION should be given to every school in America to allow one of the EXISTING staff to be trained in school security and a locked and stored weapon should be available in every school in America. I do not want armed police officers in schools, and I do not want armed teachers. I do believe the threat of an armed response by a trained person in a school environment does provide deterrence. However, we are bankrupt because our answer for the last 30 years is to add more armed police, and to what policy end? Are we more secure? Is every boy scout, church, soccer game, and preschool going to have an armed on duty policeman? Insanity
Second, I found the timing and political content of the NRA response repulsive. Simply repulsive. A citizen of Britain has 30 times less chance of being involved in a gun crime than an American. In Japan even less. Yet, those countries helped develop violent video games, and their children watch the same.....and there is not the carnage. In Australia in the 1990s after repeated mass killings with assault weapons.....they simply banned them all.....no exceptions, and nobody got to keep them....period. 15 years and basically there has not been a mass killing. Of course the eloquent NRA CEO blamed the media for creating copycat killers.....like the media should not have broadcast the news.....like we should censor the 1st amendment right of citizens to hear the news, so that this perverted interpretation of the 2nd amendment can bring more profits to gun manufactures and 1 million dollar a day sales can be pocketed. You bet the NRA is going to stand up and say.....the only way to stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun....... I think another saying might work today.....the only way to stop a bad person with a gun is for good people to improve gun safety and make it more difficult for bad people to do bad things....without taking folks guns.
There is sane middle ground. The far left is attacking having trained and qualified staff in schools who can go to the gun locker and retrieve a gun. As much as the current NRA sickens me, this is sound policy. It is not sound policy spending more taxpayer dollars to create an armed state where the NRA profits and America goes bankrupt. A stipend and increased pay for those school personnel who want to take the training would work. My wife would get extra pay for bus duty. This was where a teacher after school would stand and watch the children until all students had left the school. She would spend an extra half hour after the school day and she was compensated. We could easily have safety duty, and pay teachers during their training in the summer, and then give them a stipend on their designated days. Those on call or duty would rotate among volunteer teachers who wanted to take the courses and become qualified. Not every school would need to have a qualified safety person, rather the deterrence works by the knowledge that there may be multiple trained individuals in every school in America who have access to weapons and can respond.
So before we just condemn the idea of an armed response in schools......let us simply add it to the conversation, and I say that totally disgusted with what the NRA has become.
Somewhere from then to today, the lobbyist role and the dollar and cents have caused this organization to stray from its simple and straightforward support for sportsmen and hunters into a shill for manufacturing and special interests who profit on guns. That element was always present, but the stench of the same was too overpowering for me this morning to even feign anything than utter contempt for the NRA.
First, I agree that the OPTION should be given to every school in America to allow one of the EXISTING staff to be trained in school security and a locked and stored weapon should be available in every school in America. I do not want armed police officers in schools, and I do not want armed teachers. I do believe the threat of an armed response by a trained person in a school environment does provide deterrence. However, we are bankrupt because our answer for the last 30 years is to add more armed police, and to what policy end? Are we more secure? Is every boy scout, church, soccer game, and preschool going to have an armed on duty policeman? Insanity
Second, I found the timing and political content of the NRA response repulsive. Simply repulsive. A citizen of Britain has 30 times less chance of being involved in a gun crime than an American. In Japan even less. Yet, those countries helped develop violent video games, and their children watch the same.....and there is not the carnage. In Australia in the 1990s after repeated mass killings with assault weapons.....they simply banned them all.....no exceptions, and nobody got to keep them....period. 15 years and basically there has not been a mass killing. Of course the eloquent NRA CEO blamed the media for creating copycat killers.....like the media should not have broadcast the news.....like we should censor the 1st amendment right of citizens to hear the news, so that this perverted interpretation of the 2nd amendment can bring more profits to gun manufactures and 1 million dollar a day sales can be pocketed. You bet the NRA is going to stand up and say.....the only way to stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun....... I think another saying might work today.....the only way to stop a bad person with a gun is for good people to improve gun safety and make it more difficult for bad people to do bad things....without taking folks guns.
There is sane middle ground. The far left is attacking having trained and qualified staff in schools who can go to the gun locker and retrieve a gun. As much as the current NRA sickens me, this is sound policy. It is not sound policy spending more taxpayer dollars to create an armed state where the NRA profits and America goes bankrupt. A stipend and increased pay for those school personnel who want to take the training would work. My wife would get extra pay for bus duty. This was where a teacher after school would stand and watch the children until all students had left the school. She would spend an extra half hour after the school day and she was compensated. We could easily have safety duty, and pay teachers during their training in the summer, and then give them a stipend on their designated days. Those on call or duty would rotate among volunteer teachers who wanted to take the courses and become qualified. Not every school would need to have a qualified safety person, rather the deterrence works by the knowledge that there may be multiple trained individuals in every school in America who have access to weapons and can respond.
So before we just condemn the idea of an armed response in schools......let us simply add it to the conversation, and I say that totally disgusted with what the NRA has become.
