This week in a small community near Houston, yet another disaffected loser opened fire on helpless victims at the high school he attended, killing ten and wounding a like number. When he was confronted by armed school resource officers, he allegedly wounded one and then surrendered rather than be shot himself.

A very few days before in Dixon, Illinois, a 19- year-old former student entered the high school there with a semiautomatic 9mm carbine and opened fire.  He was immediately shot down by a School Resource Officer who was in the right place at the right time.  There were NO casualties except the would-be mass-murderer himself, and even he survived the gunshot wound righteously inflicted upon him by the SRO.

What do these two incidents have in common? For one thing, as soon as The Good Guys With Guns got there, the Bad Guys With Guns stopped doing the bad things they were doing.

What is markedly different? One had a terrible death toll, and the other did not.  In one case the Good Guy with the gun was closer than his counterparts in the other case, and able to get there sooner.

These two elements are directly and obviously related.

We join in the general acclaim for the heroic officers who literally “rode to the sound of the guns” and fulfilled their duty to protect the innocent from harm at the hands of evil-doers.  And we are all reminded that in any time and motion study, the key element is that motion takes time.

Emerging from the carnage at the Texas school was one student who said a shot was heard in his classroom, and his teacher went out the door and saw the black-trench-coated punk with the shotgun going into an adjacent classroom.  The teacher, helpless to do otherwise, ran back into his own classroom and put it in lockdown, where he and his students heard the continuing gunfire as other victims went down.

Suppose that teacher had been trained and armed, and instead of retreating helplessly to his own classroom had followed the gunman into the other classroom, fired a surgically placed shot, and stopped the carnage there?  How much tragic death and agony would that have forestalled?

64 COMMENTS

  1. It makes sense to have a tighter ring of security around a population that has proven to contain active killers among them. Metal detectors; Armed and trained teachers; Fewer entry and exit points and guard these kids like our money and celebrities. It makes so much sense that the ant-gun folks will never buy it.

    • @Bill Hoppe,

      Check out how former President BHO’s Secretary of Education wants to force draconian gun controls to be jammed down Americans’ throats: a nationwide continuing walkout of school kids, supported by parents, until the desired controls of firearms have been emplaced. Note that this gentleman is the managing partner of an organization with a mission to deter crimes committed with guns in Chicago. Given Chicago’s fitting nickname of ChIraq, I would suggest that this gentleman might want to keep his résumé updated.

      “Obama’s education secretary: Let’s boycott school until gun laws change”

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/obamas-education-secretary-lets-boycott-school-until-gun-laws-change/2018/05/19/5ce3ebb0-5bab-11e8-8836-a4a123c359ab_story.html

      • Curtis,

        Boycott schools? Here’s an even better idea. Close all public schools. Property tax payers will see their tax bills drop 60%, lives will be saved, and the Left will no longer have a monopoly on government-supported indoctrination centers.

        Is my idea too good to be true? Yes.

  2. The greater tragedy is that the agenda driven leftists want the innocent to remain disarmed and therefore vulnerable (ensuring more needless death of the same). At the heart of their argument is the belief that the only legitimate use of force is by the government and its’ agents. May we (lawfully armed citizens) remain resolute.

  3. The “Drive-By” media type are already milking this story to sell their anti-gun narrative. Here is an interesting twist:

    https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/2018/05/18/gun-used-texas-shooting-explosives/623202002/

    Apparently, these ignorant media types approve of this murderer’s choice of weapons. He used “Less Lethal” firearms like a shotgun and a 38 Revolver. Not one of those nasty, scary, assault-weapon Things. Thank heaven for that!

    Imagine how much worse it would have been if he had used a deadly AR with high capacity magazines instead of the “Joe Biden-Approved” shotgun.

    When I read the above story, I did not know whether to laugh or puke! Perhaps this reporter should interview the 10 dead people and ask them about the “Less Lethal” properties of a shotgun.

    It just goes to show you that these people are totally trapped within the left-wing worldview. All they can do is look externally, at the weapons used, to try to find solutions. It does not even occur to their minds to look to the murderer as the agent for this evil. All they can see is the evil guns.

    The false separation of firearms into “More Lethal” and “Less Lethal” categories directly parallels the actions of the old Alcohol Prohibitionists of a century ago. They also split alcohol products into More Lethal (Distilled Whiskeys) and Less Lethal (Wines and Beers) categories. However, in the end, it did not matter. They ultimately wanted to (and actually did for a while) ban them all.

    Our current crop of Firearm Prohibitionists are following the same time-worn pattern as their Alcohol-Banning ancestors. Ultimately, they will want to go to the same place: BAN THEM ALL.

    Those who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it!

    • And in the case of prohibition of firearms, the criminal element will do far worse than the bootleggers of the ’20s did.

    • > “Less Lethal” firearms like a shotgun and a 38 Revolver.

      Good enough for the FBI for half a century, and ordinary cops a lot longer than that.

  4. The Rx for this is obvious to 2nd Amendment Patriots.
    (more people trained to pack heat)
    What can we do to convince the Naive among us ?
    Furthermore, How do we convince others that the violence contained
    in media is corrosive to America ?

  5. Excellent comparison/analogy Mas. As a teacher that is not allowed to carry in my school, I have been very verbal in telling the administrators that while have an armed LE officer present at our school is better than nothing, it is not nearly enough. We have approximately 800 students and a fairly large building and it would take the officer at least one to two minutes to go from one part of the building to the other. That is a lot of time for a shooter to do a lot of damage. Which is what you pointed out in comparing the two incidents. I have also asked what would happen if the one officer present were shot….then what? And the officer in Santa Fe was. They were fortunate there was a second officer present very quickly.

  6. Even a beating with the “obvious stick” seems ineffective against liberal political appointees. Better outcomes are possible when better directions are planned, better decisions are made and better tactics are employed.

  7. Suppose that teacher had been trained and armed, ….had followed the gunman ….fired a surgically placed shot, and stopped the carnage there?

    BOOM!!! There it is, Mas, and you know it.

    Remember Mr. Aaron Feis, a coach and counselllor at the Florida school that got shot up in March? From things I’ve read, I gather he may have been a concealed carry person, and possibly well trained as well. BUT, Florida Leg had recently voted to keep schools defensless except for the few paid LE type “resource officrers”, just like the one now on a $100+/year pension who refused to go in and help. Time and motion equatioin duly noted, While the “Coward of Broward” laid low and wet hinself, Mr. Feis went toward the gunfire, despite his being unarmed. He placed his own body betwwen some of his students and the incoming rounds. He took their rounds. Supposing HE had been armed…. HE was close enough to take fire himself, no questin he COULD have taken some himself, and ended the massacre with his own weapon. But that right he was denied by Florida’s legislature and Broward County school district.

    Sometimes I wonder how long it will take for this TRUTH to penetrate the skulls of they who want us disarmed. As long as I think it will?

    Yes, quite a difference between these two shootings and Broward. I always tend to rememver the Clackamas (Oregon) Towne Centre Mall shooting. of a few years back…. no one sees that mentioned in the press any more. But that one is more signficant than either of these two school shootings, I think. Come to think of it, I cannot recall another mall shooting in the US since that one. I’ve often thought that despite its narrow dissemination, that shooting served to put dirtbags on notice that malls are not “safe” spaces suitable for conducting mass murder….. and I think the ONLY way school shootings will go the way of mall shootings is for a few more to be thwarted by a Good Skilled Guy with his own handgun.

    • You ask, “Sometimes I wonder how long it will take for this TRUTH to penetrate the skulls of they who want us disarmed.” The answer is that the truth will likely never penetrate. When one’s arguments are so far outside of logic and “common sense,” one cannot hope to be convinced to change one’s thinking. We can’t argue logic with an illogical person.

  8. That is it Mas. All the gun laws & restrictions in the world will not change realities.

    And I worry as these sick people will eventually learn to be more effective with the other multitude of tools that simply cannot be effectively restricted (gasoline, household chemicals & cleaning products, vehicles, cooking pots, pipes, matches, propane and so much more).

    All while ‘they’ pass gun ‘control’ & prohibition. And fail to deal with the real problems & issues: people and the myriad of issues leading to these incidents.

    There are many of up able & willing to help out with these things on many levels. But no, we are not qualified (rotflol) or just simply not welcome.

    I spent 10 years volunteering in a local elementary school. I wonder if they would have me now given the current anti gun environment. And what are the odds I would be welcome with my special skill set & tool(s). Really Sad. Seriously. Breaks my heart.

  9. Yo Mas: Let’s not forget our school systems don’t teach how to stand up for your beliefs and your rights any more. Not politically correct! Net result is a nation of Wimps, Wushes,Cowards, who would rather watch than help bring down the perp! One perp, ten pissed off students attacking him…Problem solved!
    No longer is run, hide escape workable. Now it is Run, Hide, then of no last resort…ATTACK…with anything you can throw, chairs blast him with a Fire Extinguisher, then beat his head in with it!
    Love to see President make this a mandatory Nationwide training requirement, or NO Funding! Lead On Sir, Officer Tom Kelly

  10. If that teacher had been trained and armed, we all know the almost certain outcome in Texas. Instead…

  11. Isn’t it amazing that the major media outlets aren’t saying much at all about the shooting in Santa Fe, TX? Perhaps, and this is my considered opinion, it is that he did not use an Ar-15, so their continual whining about so-called assault weapons was shown to be the garbage it is. cnn had the audacity to run a column about the shooter using less-lethal weapons, as if there are degrees of death and lethality. Sorry if this is slightly off topic, Mas. But almost all of us know what would have happened if that teacher had shot the little scumbag and stopped the threat. Sure, he’d be stopped, but the cnn and msn whiners would be whining about why couldn’t someone have talked with him, given him cookies and run a warm bath. Maybe a back rub?

    • A friend of mine in KY (son is a KSP Trooper) called it. He said that since the little freak didn’t use an AR, AK, etc the cnn and other media babies would pay it lip service at most. He’s right so far.

      • (Not so) amazingly, initial reports said the “shooter was armed with an AR-15 assault rifle.” The media was so quick to “be first with the story” that they assumed it would be an Ar-15 and reported it as such.
        You could almost hear the sigh of disappointment when it wasn’t.

    • I read that CNN garbage. “Less lethal…” If that writer was hit by one of the those rounds, I think their opinion on the lethality would change.

  12. Here are pertinent points extracted from the Washington Post article (click on link below) :

    – The Santa Fe (Texas) School Board approved in November 2017 a “plan” to allow some school staff members to carry guns; 170 other school districts in Texas have made similar “plans.”

    When the crazed Santa Fe student, whose social media profile displayed images related to Communist Russia and Nazi Germany and who was armed with a revolver and a shotgun, entered the school on Friday, May 18, 2018 and commenced firing at innocent victims:

    – “Santa Fe was still working on it.”

    – “People needed to be trained.”

    – “Details needed to be worked out.”

    – One such “detail” was (direct quote) “a requirement that school guns fire only frangible bullets, which break into small pieces and are unlikely to pass through victims, as a way to limit the danger to innocent students.” (???)

    Five and one half months or more elapsed between the Santa Fe (Texas) School Board’s approval in November 2017 of the concept of arming school staff employees and the recent murder spree that was carried out on Friday, May 18, 2018. Five and one half long months or more.

    My observation is:

    Too many institutions within our society are managed (not led) by administrators (not leaders) whose deeply seated, ingrained fear of legal liability and civil litigation causes them to toil incessantly to develop perfect plans instead of taking decisive, logical, immediate actions to right patently moral wrongs, e.g., to stop today’s and tomorrow’s monsters in their tracks.

    More than 170 school boards in the State of Texas deserve huge kudos for being willing to arm selected school staff members to protect school kids. Kudos also are due to the two brave LE School Resource Officers (SRO) who wounded the maniacal attacker and brought about his surrender. One of those heroic SROs was gravely injured during the brief exchange of gunfire that occurred. The sole tragic fault in Santa Fe was the School Board’s failure to arm, train and emplace pistol packing faculty and staff as soon as approval of the concept was given in November 2017.

    Arm. Train. Emplace. Get it done NOW!

    N.B. Note multiple Santa Fe (Texas) residents’ clear support for private gun ownership as expressed in the article.

    “Texas school had a shooting plan, armed officers and practice. And still 10 people died.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/santa-fe-school-had-a-shooting-plan-armed-officers-and-practice-and-still-10-people-died/2018/05/19/58b1b55e-5b8d-11e8-8b92-45fdd7aaef3c_story.html

    • The Santa Fe board of trustees did NOT NEARLY do everything they could to prevent tragedy. Who would say that teachers in general are not as capable as peace officers at being trained and properly equipped? Hurray for teachers and other staff who are now clandestinely furnishing themselves with arms at work when necessary in order to safeguard lives. May God preserve us from ineffective, cowardly politicians and snail-like bureaucrats.

    • Curtis,

      You are right. Administrators’ fears of litigation and their consideration of frangible bullets proves once again that “THE PERFECT IS THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD.” Our aim should be to halt the attack as soon as possible. We should not aim to have zero casualties, zero collateral damage, zero litigation and zero mistakes. If personnel can react quickly, maybe 3 innocents will get shot, not 20.

      Israeli schools need to be looked at as a model. Also, I thought homeschools were a good idea in the 1980s, and now they look even better.

  13. Police almost always arrive late often due to no fault of their own, so armed teachers are the way to go.

    The police need to learn what is going on, whereas well-armed teachers already on the scene may already be prepared to take quick action.

  14. Exactly, Mas. Unless a school has a larger number of SROs than usual, training and arming teachers, and probably other staff, has become a necessity. Staff who do not wish to train and carry definitely should not have to. Notice that a substitute teacher was among the fallen at Santa Fe High. Subs (sometimes called “guest teachers”) should be included in the security plan on a par with other staff. The security program does need to be centrally controlled and coordinated, but the actual execution of it needs to be effectively decentralized through the staff at the grass-roots level.

  15. I work in a school and I carry a gun in my “real” life. I’m not allowed to arm myself while I’m at work. I can’t be the only one that would be ready and willing if allowed.

  16. The mad irony of the lefts focus is lost upon them. Weapons of every sort have always been available to humans. The willingness to use them against the innocent is largely driven by the sensationalism created by mainstream media. The mentally unstable and disaffected in society see this as a light in their twisted tunnel. We’ve a pathogen being released on humanity in the guise of the heartless, soulless mainstream media and the weakest among us are those falling victim to it.

  17. NEW LAW FOR MASS MURDERERS

    These mass murderers need to be charged with a “New definition of a crime” Call it “MURDER TO THE MAXIMUM DEGREE” or something similar to distinguish it from Murder in the first, second degree or manslaughter. There is something especially heinous about going into an area where any kind of defensive weapon is denied and start killing defenseless people. It should carry different penalties such as NEVER PUBLISH HIS NAME. If convicted by a unanimous jury, all his public history should be collected and destroyed as if he never existed. Within 24 hours of conviction a 7 man squad of riflemen armed with rifles with 20 round magazines. to expend all 140 rounds into him so that there is NO Possible survival, such execution should be open to the public and televised by all networks for maximum exposure to the public to make maximum deterrent to young and old alike. SHOW HIM THE MERCY THAT HE SHOWED TO HIS VICTIMS.
    In other words PENALIZE the killer, NOT the guns or law abiding citizens with ineffective new gun control laws.

    • Bill T,

      I agree. It burns me up that the Parkland, FL shooter will be able to appeal his conviction, breathe clean air, eat food, sleep on a bed in a very safe prison, get medical care, not work, not pay bills and not be afraid of vigilantes. If Florida law allows it, he may be allowed to marry, and father offspring. It may be 20 years before he is put to sleep by lethal injection. Some dingbat females may write to him and propose marriage. AND EVERY THING HE GETS WILL BE PROVIDED BY US, THE SUCKER TAXPAYERS.

  18. School shootings have become a way for marginalized kids to express their angst, anguish, hurt feelings, etc., a way to get the attention they think they have been denied. School shooters become famous/infamous, and their motives, intentions, mental state become fodder for hours of learned commentary that is actually speculation. The news media should scale back the focus on the shooters, and break the copy-cat effect.

  19. This problem (which is not increasing according to Dr John Lott) is not a gun problem as the anti’s say. It also is not a SRO or armed teacher solution which is required.

    What we have in America of 2018 is a “crazy people problem”. Over the last 50 years or so we have diligently released and let remain in society, millions of crazy people. As the IT saying goes, that was not a bug, it was a feature. More pyschotropic drugs prescribed. More crazies released into society or NOT institutionalized. Today almost no one is locked up if crazy. Period.

    When babies are made, coming out of the mommy, some are broken. Due to circumstance and the vagaries of life some young and mature adults become broken. That is just life.

    By letting these crazies roam society freely we are just asking for trouble. But we continue to do so. Back in the 1980s NYC Mayor Guilani and his Police Commissioners popularized the BROKEN WINDOW THEORY. In NYC they treated EVERY petty street crime as the precursor to worse things. Guess what? They drove crime in NYC from one of the most dangerous urban areas to one of the safest in the nation today.

    Mental illness is the same thing. Yes I said it. Treat every poor broken soul with dignity, BUT LOCK THEM THE F**K UP. Right from the first time folks become aware of their problem. And please don’t refer to their nuttiness as an “alternate lifestyle”. THEY ARE CRAZY. AND THEY MUST…REPEAT…MUST…BE SEPARATED FROM THE REST OF SOCIETY.

    The liberal whiny bleeding heart class is directly responsible for this idiotic policy that got us into this mess. I hold folks like Geraldo Rivera directly responsible. He and others are the ones with blood on their hands.

    For a quick 10 minute read of the history of this situation here are two articles worth reading.

    https://mentalillnesspolicy.org/media/eft/deinstitutionalization-deadly-moynihan-torrey.html

  20. Another possibility is to place non-lethal loaded shotguns at frequent intervals in the same way we mount fire extinguishers. Training of all school personnel would be needed.

    • I’m told there’s a school district in TX that has Glocks in lockboxes, although I don’t know if they are keyed or combo. Opening the box drops alarms at the school office, the school district office, and local LE (sheriff, I think). Weapon is secured from students. Teachers who want access get trained and get the code. Seems simple and effective.

      • If so, I’d favor the key over the combo, since the latter is just begging to be forgotten in a crisis. I’d also ensure that all authorized persons have a key discreetly concealed on their persons. Always.

  21. In many of these incidents the shooter was already on the radar of school officials, the police, neighbors or psychiatric services yet no intervention was initiated. I’ve yet to hear or read about concerned parents taking steps to get involved before things happened. I believe that our youth are going to become the primary criminal element in our society and it may be too late to stop it. I offer the following for your perusal.
    “Our youth now love luxury, they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders, and love to chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.” — Socrates (399 B.C.)
    “If a society is to preserve stability and a degree of continuity, it must know how to keep its adolescents from imposing their tastes, attitudes, values and fantasies on everyday life.” Eric Hoffer

    • This is something I can agree with, families have to be involved with their children. But, if a person is going to commit murder, that’s what’s going to happen.

  22. I am the Security Person at our Church and the congregation is aware of that. Many times I “rehearse” different scenarios that could happen if an armed intruder (or multiple intruders) came into our small Church. You want to be prepared, but still, You won’t KNOW how to deal with the situation UNTIL IT ACTUALLY HAPPENS ! My primary concern is the imminent safety of the congregation….secondly, will it play out to be a Shoot, or, hold-your-fire, while the perp makes an escape,…or it could turn into a hostage and barricade type of situation ?….since our town is about 40% Hispanic, it also helps to know some Phrases in Spanish….Mas, Your two books “Gun Digest Book of Concealed Carry” and “Combat Shooting” have been VERY helpful !…Hope an incident never happens in our Town, but I still “Train” for it, just the same.

    • When we move across state in the Fall I intend to do exactly the same thing, and since the church my wife and I have in mind (a) is planning to create just such a team, and (b) prides itself on being LGBT friendly, you can be sure that I will be diligent about it.

  23. Everybody should check out FASTERSaveslives.org. A free three day course for volunteer teachers to carry gun in school concealed. They also teach first aid in the course. This is a relatively inexpensive way to supplement your RSO’s and the students don’t know who they are so the perp cannot plan around them like they can an RSO.

    In multiple shootings the shooter pulls the fire alarms to get students into the hallways. Hardware changes to the alarm system and student procedure and training and needed to prevent such a reflexive evacuation. In other words schools need to be hardened in this and other ways to keep student safer.

    Finally I wish more attention be directed to the real problem here and that is the changes in society that are causing people who are constantly stressed out to lash out in this way. One article said the suicide rate among 15-17 yr olds is up well over 100%. That is the problem not the guns. Take the guns and they will find another way.

      • Rick,

        I think if numbers go up by 100%, then that just means the numbers doubled. So if there were 25 suicides one year, and the following year suicides went up by 100%, then that means there were 50 suicides that second year.

  24. If we took away the 8-900 billion we give saudia Arabia every year we could find 5-6 SROs in every school and have money left over.

  25. Mas,

    Contrast the starkly different local reactions to the attacks on high schools in Parkland FL and Santa Fe TX.

    Also, contrast the different responses of Governor Scott (FL) and Governor Abbott in TX to the respective attacks on schools in their states.

    Fast forward one decade to 2028. Will Texas eventually become the preferred state of residence for Americans who value the right of private gun ownership?

    NY Times: Anti-Gun Backlash From School Shooting? Probably Not in Texas.

    https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/20/us/texas-school-shooting-guns.html

  26. We have a culture problem, not a gun problem, but the left hasn’t the honesty to admit it. Irresponsible/immature folks on social media, coupled with our current shrill media and Hollywood glamorizing violence.

    • Amen. In today’s world we call people intolerant if they don’t agree with the “everything goes” mentality. Any belief or behavior is looked upon as okay. We are so concerned with not offending anyone that we let society’s rejects go about their lives unhindered by the morals and values that most of us share. When one of these people finally snaps and goes on a shooting spree, the only solution that Liberals can come up with is to take away guns from the people who didn’t DO anything wrong. They punish the very people who would probably be the ones to put their own lives in jeopardy to protect the innocent. God forbid if they actually address the real problems.

  27. While I didn’t read everyone’s comments I’ll add this: the Pittsburgh (PA) school system limit’s students to one entrance where there is a Pittsburgh school district police monitored walk-through type metal detector. While there’ve been shootings outside the schools, there’ve been none that I’m aware of inside the schools. There’ve been fights but those fights have been limited to fisticuff type disputes. I’m not saying Pittsburgh is perfect but facts being what they are, I believe PPS may be on to something. However, PPS doesn’t have armed personnel on scene in the event an armed person tries to force, shoot their way past the walk-through’s. Deterrence is just that, a discouragement to unwanted behavior but it’s not a guarantee. I’d feel much better if Pittsburgh would couple limited access and the walk-through detectors with armed security backed by armed teachers. Just sayin.

    • From the article, it sounds like the police performance was excellent. No doubt, they did save many lives. They performed their duty with courage. I wish the wounded officer a speedy recovery.

      However, many lives were lost anyway. The response time was 4 minutes? It makes good the old proverb that “When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.”

      Armed and trained teachers might have responded in seconds, not minutes. Waiting for an armed police response will always put us “behind the curve”.

      • Teachers are also the ones most able to prevent casualties by getting information from students on the scene and acting immediately. I started working in public schools in 1978. I experienced one student taking his former girlfriend hostage at gunpoint in 1982. No casualties, though, because the system in place worked perfectly. The news report remained predictably local. People need to accept that teachers are perfectly capable of managing force appropriately, possibly while being secretly and securely armed.

  28. Off topic comment Mas, but what is your opinion on the “no-knock” raids that SWAT teams conduct to find drugs in people’s homes? I recently read an article on how a man is facing 13.5 years in prison for aggravated assault on a SWAT officer when he armed himself against what he thought was a home invader and shot the officer.

  29. The editor-at-large of Esquire magazine finally writes down the left’s aim of taking all firearms from the hands of law-abiding firearms oeners:
    Esquire Editor Wants to “Take All of Your Guns Out of Your Hands…Right Now”
    “Hey there, NRA: Listen, I know the moments after a gunman opens fire in a school are hectic for you. You have to get your talking points together, you have to mentally prepare to debate a traumatized yet sensible child, you have to look at yourself in the mirror and practice saying that more guns would have made the situation less deadly. It’s a busy time! And since we are always either in the moments after or the moments before a mass shooting, you’re pretty much always busy, I have noticed! Anyway, I just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that I now actually do want to take your guns. All of your guns. Right now….I want to end this thing once and for all, so that all of you who have prioritized the sale of guns over the lives of children have to sit quietly and think about what you’ve done. God help me, I want to take all of your guns out of your hands, by myself, right now.”
    — Esquire magazine Editor-at-Large Dave Holmes in May 18 article “Okay, Now I Actually Do Want To Take Your Guns.”

    • The left-wing, prohibition mindset always goes to this place. This guy, Dave Holmes, talks like his attitude is a change. That he (and his other leftist comrades) all started from a “reasonable place” and that it is the resistance of the NRA and gun-owners that have “driven them” to the prohibition stand of trying to “take them all”. That is pure, unadulterated “Bovine Waste Product” (to be polite).

      It has always been about banning all guns. That is a core left-wing principle. Whenever the left fixates upon some external environmental object-class (whether it be alcohol or firearms) and identifies them as a negative influence that prevents them from achieving their Utopian society, then they NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER, settle for anything less than an effective ban on the manufacture, ownership and use of the identified object-class.

      It became all about banning guns on the first days that the leftists formed their first gun control group and launched their first campaign for action. They had hoped to get to their goal, of a complete ban, by incrementalism. By slowly piling restriction, after restriction, after restriction into the law. Eventually, gun-ownership would suffer the “Death of a Thousand Cuts” and bleed out and die.

      However, most gun-owners have finally “wised up” to this strategy and realized that each new restriction must be fought “tooth and nail”. This has “stalled out” the leftist strategy of the incremental destruction of gun-ownership and has greatly frustrated left-wing true-believers such as this Dave Holmes fanatic.

      Many on the left (but not all) have become so frustrated, at the failure of incrementalism, that they are now dropping all pretense. They are coming right out and admitting the truth. It has always been about banning firearms. It has always been about Prohibition. All the talk about “Commonsense Measures” was a lie to hide their true agenda.

      Davy-boy’s article also displays the total arrogance of the Left. So, he is going to come to my house and take my guns? Boy, that certainly has me quaking in my boots!

      Perhaps someone should point out to Davy-boy that there are over 300 million guns in the U.S.A and about 80% of them are owned by Moderates and Conservatives. Certainly, the Leftist-Liberals are (by definition) not big gun-owners. Unlike alcohol, guns can shoot Back! Is Davy-boy so truly out-of-touch with reality that he believes that all of us gun-owners will just meekly hand over our firearms because a bunch of leftist loons want us to do so? That we will do it to help them try to create their left-wing Utopia?

      Davy-boy, you can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hand.

  30. Here is some insight from a teacher about changes she has seen over the years which may contribute to the problem of school shootings:

    Amie Diprima Brown
    Rome, GA

    With all of the talk about guns in schools, why it’s happening, and how to solve the issue let me offer a little different perspective. I’ve been teaching since 2003. This marks my 15th year in the classroom. Everybody always talks about how schools have changed, and it’s true, they have. Yes, there’s the “crazy new math” and “bring your own device” changes. However, there are some other changes that I think the general population is not aware of.

    Every year for 15 years I have sent home the same assignment on the first day of school. I send a letter home asking parents to tell me about their child in a million words or less. I go on to explain that I want to learn the child’s hopes, dreams, fears, challenges, etc and jokingly ask parents to limit it to less than a million words since we all know we could talk forever about our children. I go on to say I’m not grading these, not looking at handwriting or grammar and don’t care if they send them back with their child, email them, drop them off at the office, etc. These letters have been so beneficial to me as a teacher and getting to know my students on a personal level. I have learned about eating disorders, seizures, jealousy issues between twins, depression, adoption, abuse…just to name a few things. These letters give me a huge head start on getting to truly know my students. I often pull them out when a child has a sudden change in behavior or issue that comes up. Just this week I had 2 students lose their mother unexpectedly. Brother and sister, I taught one last year and one this year. As I have done before, i immediately went to my folders to pull the letters that mom sent for her children. It’s a beautiful gift that I feel I can give students to get a glimpse into how much a parent loved and adored them. As I was putting the folders back in the file cabinet I noticed something. I know that the percentage of parents that complete this assignment each year has gotten lower and lower, but looking at the size of the folders shocked me. That first year I had 98% of the parents send back some type of letter on their child. This year… 22%. That’s a lot of opportunities lost for me to get to know students. Sadly, more parents have access to an electronic device that makes this task even easier and less time consuming.

    On another note, this year’s average for homework turned in is riding at 67%. I’m talking a twice monthly 5 sentence summary of what the student is reading in their own time. I remind students daily, I send text messages through Remind, it’s on my website. The only other thing I could do is do it for them. Parents continue to let their child rack up zero after zero. But then again, that average used to be around 98% as well. It was rare for more than 1-2 students to not have their homework 15 years ago. Now, it’s just frustrating.

    With all of our other responsibilities in our profession, how are we supposed to get to know students so that we can identify the ones with the mentality and disposition to become a school shooter if parents are checking out of the academic process? How are we supposed to educate children when their parents don’t require, expect and demand their child complete their homework?

    Don’t wait until your child is the school shooter to let us know your child is struggling mentally. Don’t wait until your child is ineligible for sports or the day before report cards to check grades and question the teacher on why your child is failing.

    Be a parent. Be involved in your child’s life so that you can help them through the issues with friends, the possible suicidal thoughts, and problems academically. I promise you, if parents spent more time with their children and got involved in their lives, we would see drastic improvements in our schools and our society.

    As parents, our job is to grow the most amazing humans possible. Its the most important job in the world. The education and emotional stability a parent provides is priceless.

  31. I guess what we have learned from all of this is that gun-free zones are not really gun free zones there only defense free zones. They have become Killing Fields of the worst kind. As has been said the only thing that stops a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun and our teachers are certainly good guys all they need is the gun. When are we going to wake you up and smell the coffee.

  32. @TN_MAN

    See the three paragraphs extracted from the article below to view with clarity how leftist progressives immediately send in tactical agitprop teams, called “Team Enough” youth groups, after each murder spree carried out on an academic campus.

    1. “Gun-control groups cautiously looked to Santa Fe in the wake of the shooting. (Marcel) McClinton and Matt Post, an 18-year-old from Montgomery County, Md., arrived hours after the shooting. They came to the community with offers of support, including conversation, meals and therapy dogs. How he got there almost always was left unsaid: Brady sent him as part of its Team Enough youth group, which focuses on engaging young people.
‘I wasn’t there to peddle politics,’Post said. ‘I really didn’t bring up gun control, like, at all, unless they brought it up.’

    2. Post noted that because the Santa Fe shooting involved two commonly owned weapons — a shotgun and a pistol — there wasn’t the same gun-related outrage this time. In Parkland and so many other mass shootings, gun-control advocates immediately went on the offensive against the semiautomatic assault-style rifles attackers used; that tactic wouldn’t work here.


    3. ‘So I think the circumstances are different, and out of those different circumstances come different policy demands,’ Post said.”

    “Different policy demands” is such a revealing, telling phrase! Leftist progressives who are are reported to be peddling only “conversation, meals and therapy dogs” to grieving students in the wake of murder sprees carried out on school campuses actually “celebrate diversity” by damning and hating equally handguns, rifles and shotguns and Americans who own and use these three types of firearms responsibly and safely. The “different policy demands” of leftist progressives have one clear, common denominator: banning private gun ownership is most definitely the end goal.

    “After another mass shooting, Parkland activists sought momentum. In Texas, the response has been different.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/after-another-mass-shooting-parkland-activists-sought-momentum-in-texas-the-response-has-been-different/2018/05/25/bd09a3a4-5df4-11e8-8c93-8cf33c21da8d_story.html

    • As I’v noted before, leftist ideology springs from the false concept that humans are “Blank Slates”. That each human is shaped ENTIRELY by the events in his or her life. That each human is “formless clay” that is shaped entirely by his or her environment.

      Building upon this false concept, leftists leap to the conclusion that society can be manipulated by implementing environmental controls. They believe that, if one identifies all of the negative environmental factors at work in shaping humans and then implements policies to mitigate their harmful effects, then it is (theoretically) possible to build a perfect, Utopian society. That is the “Blue-Sky Dream” of every leftist.

      That is why leftists love BIG GOVERNMENT so much. It is why they hunger for government control and power. Why they went crazy when Donald Trump won the Presidency and they also lost control of Congress. Big Government is CENTRAL to the leftist plan to re-shape the world. Only an ALL POWERFUL central government can re-shape the world into the leftist Utopia. In the leftist ideology, government must be made as big and as powerful as possible and, furthermore, the leftists must be the ones running it. Only then, will they have the power to create Utopia.

      Therefore, leftists do not EVER share power. They have a compulsive need for total control. They are the original CONTROL FREAKS.

      The American constitutional system is deliberately set up to dilute power. To prevent it from being concentrate into any the hands of a single political party. That is why, despite whatever they may say, leftists do not and will never truly support the American constitutional system. It is an impediment to the creation of their Utopia. That is why all true leftists, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, see the Constitution as flawed and “Out-of-Date”.

      Another impediment is the private ownership of firearms. Such ownership dilutes and threatens the Leftists concentration of power. Furthermore, with their environmental view of the world, Leftists also see firearms as one of the negative influences that need to be mitigated. Can you wonder at their zeal for firearms prohibition? That they do everything in their power from passing laws to arranging boycotts to brainwashing and organizing children to press for prohibition and public disarmament. Don’t you understand? They are trying to SAVE HUMANITY! They are trying to create the UTOPIA that will free mankind from the DARKNESS of poverty, racism, sexism and gun violence. Nothing must stop them from completion of their HOLY MISSION! Nothing less then the future of mankind depends upon THEM. Such is their ego.

      The ironic and sad thing is that science has clearly shown that human behavior is based upon a complex mix of inherited and environmental factors. The pure, Blank-Slate view of the world (espoused by the Left) has been shown to be wrong. That means that Leftist ideology is (scientifically) wrong. Indeed, where ever leftist ideology has been tried (such as the various communist efforts) it has always proved to be a failure. Yet, the true leftists remain true believers.

      Left-wing ideology is a corrosive, destructive, dangerous thing but, sadly, a certain segment of each human population is drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

  33. @Ira Cutting

    Read about the phenomenon of “Columbiners”, a post-April 1999 metastisizing cancer upon our society that is described as an “ideology” in the NY Times’ article below.

    Pertinent extract:

    “Investigators say school shootings have become the American equivalent of suicide bombings — not just a tactic, but an ideology. Young men, many of them depressed, alienated or mentally disturbed, are drawn to the Columbine subculture because they see it as a way to lash out at the world and to get the attention of a society that they believe bullies, ignores or misunderstands them.”

    Be sure to read all readers’ comments after you have reviewed the text of the article itself.

    NY Times: For ‘Columbiners,’ School Shootings Have a Deadly Allure

    https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/us/school-shootings-columbine.html

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