Posted on 02/17/2018 8:33:57 AM PST by Liberty7732
by Rep. Julio Gonzalez, M.D., J.D.
The Chamber of the Florida House of Representatives is an austere place. Upon entering, you feel the weight of your constituents urging you to work for the betterment of all Floridians. Despite its loftiness, during session it is also a place bustling with activity.
But on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, all of that came to a halt as the announcement was made that a terrible mass shooting incident was taking place at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Miami, and a moment of silence was called in solidarity with those who were tragically affected by the day’s events. The work of the Florida House continued after that, but at a much more somber pace.
As we know, 17 people paid the ultimate price for this senseless act of violence while countless others were left with a huge void in their lives and in their hearts. And those of us in the Florida House were left with a renewed call to do something to address this tragic problem.
The question, of course, is what?
The easy but fruitless answer is to reach for gun control legislation. All sorts of ideas have been floated, ranging from a ban on assault weapons all the way to confiscation. The problem with these suggestions is that no matter how many of these laws are passed, the nefarious shooter will continue to obtain weapons and wreak havoc on the frail and unarmed. Although many are frustrated by the Congress’s inability to enact stricter gun control legislation, the ineffectiveness and futility of these measures is the very reason for the gridlock. Unquestionably, if gun control measures truly worked, their passage would be unstoppable.
So, absent these ineffective measures, what else can be done?
Well, there are actually some very promising solutions.
➜ For starters, school districts can enact programs designating individuals with familiarity in handling weapons (such as concealed weapon permit holders, military veterans, former law enforcement officers, etc.) to carry them in schools for the purposes of protecting students in case of an active shooter or hostage situation. These programs may include training requirements, background checks and psychological testing in order to qualify to carry in a school. These individuals ought to be carrying in a concealed manner so that no student or stranger would know the identity or number of such designated carriers.
➜ Many states prohibit the carrying of any weapons at all in all schools, public or private, thus rendering even the members of churches with schools on church grounds powerless to respond in the case of an active shooter incident. Those restrictions need be lifted, particularly during times when the church’s school is not in session, such as Sundays, the same time that services are being held.
➜ States ought to enact legislation requiring school districts to develop policies and response plans to active shooter situations, and drill them, so that all involved know how to respond.
➜ States should coordinate simulation programs, such as the one run by the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, where field enactments are created requiring coordinated responses by local SWAT, EMS teams, and assigned weapons carriers. This will allow for better coordination amongst the different players needing to work together and for the identification of challenges before they are encountered in live events.
Like in other areas, prevention is the best policy and overreliance on the federal system is a prescription for failure. Consequently, state law enforcement must be tasked with the job of identifying high-risk individuals and with investigating them before a mass casualty event takes place. It follows that state legislatures must pass laws and appropriations providing these agencies the tools they need to hunt down these would-be killers and get them the interventions they need.
So why haven’t these very reasonable and logical steps been enacted?
In my experience, the number one reason legislation in this arena meets so much resistance is because of the conflations and misguidance provided by its opponents. Without fail, whenever these measures are presented, opponents turn the debate into a discussion about the expansion of guns in schools or the intrusion on gun-free zones when, in fact, these measures represent no such expansions or intrusions. Additionally, fear mongering inevitably takes place as if the fear of the unknown were greater than the acknowledgment of the certainty of another deadly occurrence.
Clearly, our country’s problem with violent behavior and murderous conduct is much greater than the mere existence of guns, and we should never have a discussion about gun violence and school safety without noting the need to improve the moral ills afflicting us.
More importantly, we cannot allow the paralysis that grips us regarding gun control to keep us from enacting useful and lifesaving measures. Doing so not only represents a terrible negligence on our part, but it will also lead to more tragic and needless loss of life.
They can do this but.....
The criminal will go to a movie theater
grocery store, mall,a busline or just run over the kids when the bell rings.
WHAT WE HAVE IS MORAL DECAY IN THIS COUNTRY.
Fathers should get custody of the children after a divorce?
Schools should be proactive to summon a student to examine whether professional psychiatry is called for and even to call in law enforcement if a counselor determines a public danger. From my own experience I know school counselors would not want the responsibility, but they should welcome the opportunuity to be only the first step in getting armed violence out of the schools.
Sadly, the liberals and the media just don’t want to discuss that component of this, the moral decay in this country, which creates an environment where this can happen.
We see this on other issues too. This whole “black lives matter” thing, or issues regarding the black community — there is reluctance to talk about how 70+% of black children are born out of wedlock, and grow up with no father in the home. We aren’t allowed to discuss how upbringing of children in bad circumstances impairs them. We aren’t allowed to say anything at all, or else be lampooned as Dan Quayle was years ago. Have any mainstream politicians mentioned this at all since Dan Quayle was lambasted on this issue?
On another ghetto issue, we hear how ghetto schools are allegedly underfunded, when we actually spend more per capita on ghetto schools in some places than the national average.
But when it comes to the ghetto schools, we aren’t allowed to talk about how certain kids run wild in school, don’t take education seriously, how their parents don’t take education seriously, or how they come from a culture in which doing well in school is derided as “acting white”. Instead, we get lectured by black activists that we aren’t devoting enough “resources” to their schools.
And so on the gun issue, we will be told that we need more gun control laws, but aren’t allowed to talk about other important issues surrounding why this kid and others go off the deep end.
The talk shows and the media are busy blaming guns and politicking the incident shifting the blame when they should be furthering the need for student security.
Particularly since there have been examples occurring of such episodes worldwide.
One who comes to mind is John Howell of am890 WLS Chicago. Which prompted the inspiration for the following observations who got it so wrong left me screaming at my radio .
In this facilities case, their security system should be brought to public discussion particularly because this school has a so called “gun free zone”. It does have an officer who may be armed assigned to patrol the multi acre site in a golf cart, but bans guns from the rest of its internal security . Plus examine records reporting how student vs student, and student vs teacher altercations, vandalism, and thefts, which are bound to occur were being dealt with.
Because in an educational unit this size it’s pretty clear their security system failed . In a secure system Cruz would have never gotten inside.
the cheapest and most effective method of decreasing school shootings is to LET THEM CARRY! there are employees who already have their permits and will gladly take advantage of this permission.
think of it. uniformed security guards merely become the first targets. with this plan, the shooter doesn’t know who can actively opposed their deadly agenda.
wise school districts will incentivize campus carry by a small per diem, and reserving time at the local range for practice. a lot less expensive than hiring armed guards
a lot of nra instructors are now gearing up to support school employees in their desire for real safety. schools can help by encouraging participation, and allowing use of facilities, and perhaps a subsidy.
and signage to the effect that we protect our children.
but the key is getting over that stupid mental hump and just LET THEM CARRY!!!
5-15% of staff be armed, 5-10%, randomly, with firearms, the remainder with tasers. ( No foul if a teacher tases a student.)
Schools not be designated a gun free zone, but, students are not allowed to have a gun at school.
Schools be notified if a student has access to a firearms at home and school/parents be notified if a student is a problem.
“... In a secure system Cruz would have never gotten inside....”
In a secure system, he’d have already been in the NICS system and denied the purchase AND held at the store for the attempt.
But he was never PUT in the system, because everyone passed the buck. All the alphabet agencies fell down on this one, as well as the school that expelled him. People KNEW he was a violent time bomb, and did nothing. He posted a threat on YouTube, and it was ignored.
People should be losing jobs over this, but it’s much, much easier to just blame the gun.
And of course the Democrats currently putting on their blood dance are eternally grateful for the distraction it’s causing from the Nunes memo and their subversion being exposed. So expect the histrionics and righteous indignation to increase exponentially.
Train and arm a few teachers, a vice principle, etc, put retired LEOs or even state National Guard (in plain clothes) at each entry point.
School shooting problems solved.
Otherwise, it’s all Kabuki theater bullsh*t.
Then another kid posted a pseudo-threat as a joke a couple days later, and he got railroaded off to juvenile detention, with a mob screaming for his head — and those of his family.
Way to go....
There seems to be a strong connection between psych drugs like Ritalin and juvenile violence.
Yeah, that right there is some STELLAR job by our public servants, lemme tellya... Golly... we can rest easy now because they’re really really really on the ball, whattateam!!!!
Way to go, indeed...
That should be just about everybody ... "Access to a firearm" does not at all mean "likely to commit crimes with a firearm".
How many guns do you own (or did you lose in the TBA)?
Armed teachers.
That's a "US Carbine, M1" a literal "weapon of war" slung on her back.
If it prevents even ONE school shooting, it is WELL WORTH deporting ALL the DACA “kids”!!
They don't need to know about private property
I should have modified “student” with “problem student.”
I think it is better than banning black guns.
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