Put the gun down Jeff. Now.
Posted on 03/29/2005 4:56:19 AM PST by brbethke
Only a gun could have stopped Jeff Weise
MARK YOST, St. Paul Pioneer Press
Posted on Tue, Mar. 29, 2005
In the week since teenage gunman Jeff Weise walked into Red Lake Senior High School and killed five students, a teacher and a security guard before killing himself, the usual voices from the usual precincts have been asking: What can we do to keep this from happening next time? How about arming security guards, as well as a handful of administrators and teachers who volunteer to be properly trained?
I can hear the gasps echoing from Mac-Groveland to Crocus Hill. But if we think any legislation is going to stop the next Jeff Weise, we're fooling ourselves. Indeed, the idea that with the right legislation and an unlimited pot of money we can take the risk out of any of life's endeavors is simply wrong.
There's no arguing that Weise had a tragic life. And the search for possible explanations and missed clues runs the gamut. Was it the music he listened to, the movies he watched, the video games he played, the Web sites he visited or the medication he took (the most plausible)?
As for possible remedies, typical were those posited on these pages by Dan Gartrell, a former Head Start teacher at Red Lake. According to him, Weise would have been just fine if teachers "had time to greet students in the morning, easing them through conflicts since the previous day that may be getting them down." He went on to suggest that we need full-time mental health professionals in our schools, from preschool through college.
What's ironic is that Gartrell's advice came just two weeks after another professor — Robin Magee of Hamline University — took St. Paul police to task for carrying Tasers in schools. She argued that police need no more than "a stern command" to control unruly schoolchildren. Red Lake Senior High School security guard Derrick Brun tried that. His funeral was Monday.
Others have pointed to the "common sense" measures President Bill Clinton pushed in the wake of the Columbine shootings, namely more gun control, funding for school safety and limits on the video game industry. I'd point out that the federal Gun-Free Schools Zone legislation first passed in 1990 and that didn't stop the Columbine or Rocori shootings, among others.
The question we should be asking is: Why have school shooters been so successful at murdering our children? The simple answer is that often times no one else in school has a gun. This literally makes our kids sitting ducks.
Shotguns would be the perfect weapon. Unlike handguns, they require little or no skill. Just point and shoot. Looking at the Red Lake chronology, it's clear that a shotgun could have stopped Weise early on and saved a lot of lives.
While security guard Brun was confronting Weise at the school door, another guard, LeeAnn Grant, was alerting students. Imagine if she'd been able to lay in wait for Weise, just inside the door. It all could have stopped right there.
Same for English teacher Neva Rogers. She locked herself inside a classroom and looked on in what must have been sheer terror as Weise broke the glass, unlocked the door, walked in and shot her three times. If she'd had a shotgun and been properly trained, she could have shot him at the door and saved those five students.
"We need to have a candid assessment about what more we can do to try to prevent these things from happening," Clinton said in the wake of the Columbine shootings. I agree, but more gun control legislation or more funding for early childhood education is not the answer. Volumes of legislation and far-reaching social programs have done nothing to stop the other deadly rampages, including the one in Red Lake. What makes us think one more law, one more program, or one more dollar will make any difference?
Indeed, it's an exercise in futility to try to make sense out of the senseless. Things happen and often times we don't know why. Instead of crafting a bevy of new legislation — on top of the laws that already exist — our time would be better spent preparing for the next time a school security guard or teacher is confronted by an insane student.
As distasteful as the idea may be to some, we need to be honest and admit that only one thing would have stopped Weise: a security guard, administrator or teacher, properly trained, and armed with a gun.
bump
Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile.
Holy $#!#!! That is the harshest, most honest thing I've ever heard on the MSM editorial pages.
You can bet that won't make it to the NYT. But this is one hell of an acorn for them to run across, Puppage, ya gotta admit that. Ever seen one of them acorns like this? Not me. Maybe it's a good sign of the change a-comin'.
Minnesota bump
No, you're right. I was also amazed at the piece & wish there were more people with the guts to speak the truth. Having said that, I just don't think it'll happen.
"Robin Magee of Hamline University — took St. Paul police to task for carrying Tasers in schools. She argued that police need no more than "a stern command" to control unruly schoolchildren. Red Lake Senior High School security guard Derrick Brun tried that. His funeral was Monday."
This says it all. Unfortunately, the enormous population of leftist morons in the metro area are going to write about a million smoking-hot letters of rage to the editor of the PP for somebody daring to quote one of theirs in such an inflammatory way and distort her clear intent to help draw such conclusions - blah, blah, blah.
Well, good for the PP for printing at least one piece that makes sound sense this year - that may be the best evidence we have of changing times amongst our leftist friends.
Someone needs to remind Ms. Magee that the only thing that stopped Luke Woodham's shooting rampage of Pearl High School back on 10/1/97 was the assistant principal who ran to his car, retrieved his own pistol, and confronted the punk who promptly surrendered.
Former bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson once said the one sound that immediately gets everybody's attention is that of a pump-action 12 gauge shotgun chambering a round. IMO, that is the "stern command" that school security guards need nowadays...
Apparently, monkeys are flying out of my butt.
As a middle school nurse many kids are out of control and I blame the parents...here in Indiana these out of control kids are protected by "504"...a massive amount of people get together @ tax payers expense to determine that his child should get a 504 and then he can get away with any type of behavior without getting kicked out of school...we have one child that kicks, hits and threatens but nothing is done because of his "504" and the parents may bring in lawyers....I say call the cops and file police reports...I know I would not hesitate to do this
And his grandfather (who he killed) was a cop! So, taking the guns away from law-abiding citizens wouldn't have stopped this criminal from getting guns. Remember, the leftists/socialists haven't said anything yet about disarming cops.....that will be next!
Then he took his grandfather's kevlar vest, duty belt, service pistol, and shotgun, and drove his grandfather's squad car to the school, where he continued his killing spree.
By the way, the kid was heavily medicated on Prozac and they'd just upped his dosage about two weeks before.
And in another parallel to Columbine he listens to heavy metal music and dressed Goth.
Mark,
Thanks for the insightful article. I was pinged to its presence on the Free Republic forum. I'm sure you are going to get lots of flaming email. Mine just says "Well done!"
A gun, or the kids he told he was going to do it coming forward.
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