Posted on 04/13/2013 9:49:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The mother of a victim of last year's Sandy Hook shootings has replaced Barack Obama to deliver the weekly US presidential radio address.
Francine Wheeler, whose six-year-old son Ben was killed, used the nationally-broadcast statement to call for tighter gun controls.
Asking a citizen to deliver the weekly address is a highly unusual move.
It comes as President Obama attempts to ratchet up pressure on the US Congress, which is due to debate new gun laws.
In an often emotional statement, Ms Wheeler recalled waiting for her son to return home following the shootings, and said the "tidal wave of anguish" resulting from that day had yet to recede.
She said new gun laws were needed to prevent more deaths.
"We have to convince the Senate to come together and pass commonsense gun responsibility reforms that will make our communities safer and prevent more tragedies like the one we never thought would happen to us," she said.
Ms Wheeler's son Ben was killed along with 19 other children and six staff when 20-year-old Adam Lanza opened fire at his elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
The address was broadcast on radio and released as a video online.
This week senators are due to debate new laws that will extend background checks to gun sales made at gun shows and over the internet.
The measures are the result of a bipartisan deal struck between Republican and Democrat senators last week.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
I think that if a teacher can’t be trusted with a gun, they can not be trusted with children.
I also don’t think the majority of teachers need to be armed in school… It’s OK if it is a majority, but if you have 10% or a critical mass of 5-6 armed teachers and staff, that should generally do. Just as long as it’s not just one or two.
It would depend on the size of the school, as in number of teachers and actual physical area, in my opinion. Also, cooperation and communication with law enforcement who would be clearing the building would be a necessity- the potential for friendly fire incidents is enormous. Some procedures about firearms use would be critical to avoidance of those. Also, there would have to be a great deal of discussion about which arms to use- FMJ rifle rounds would be a poor choice as most schools are built of concrete blocks and the range in most cases relatively short. Simply saying “Arm the teachers” is one thing, and doing it is a bit more involved. It is still the most logical and fiscally responsible step, though.
Sure. There can be nuts and bolts involved in setting up program up. Allowing and encouraging some teachers and staff to have firearms at the school would be an improvement on what we do now. Setting up a an actual plan would be a further improvement from that.
As for local law enforcement clearing the building, some consideration certainly needs to be taken – however by the time the police show up, it’s pretty likely that the situation would either be in stalemate or resolved.
And another comment: I agree that some situational training, especially including local law enforcement, probably should be a prerequisite; maybe some reasonable periodic subsidized range qualification. That is, however, a pretty low hurdle in implementing such a thing. Maybe include reading “in the gravest extreme”. It’s not rocket science.
The hill to die on involves our kids...in a perverse way that crazy “news lady” was right about our kids being our “collective responsibility”....but not in the way she means it!
The minute they try to legalize sex with children or water down laws or the media tries to normalize pedophilia, the it’s past time that arms should have been taken up!
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