Posted on 08/19/2018 3:50:59 PM PDT by jazusamo
Children are heading back to school with the debate over gun safety still raging six months after the Parkland massacre — and no issue is more heated than whether gun-free zones make students safer or more endangered.
Led by President Trump, gun rights backers are increasingly on the offensive, pushing to roll back the general policy consensus, enshrined in federal law, that guns and schools generally don’t mix.
A study by John R. Lott Jr., a gun crimes researcher, said close to 98 percent of mass shootings happen in gun-free zones, suggesting that they do little to stop, and may even invite, rampages.
Having access to guns limited to security officers doesn’t help much, he said.
“Even if they’re not in uniform but their job is to guard — and everybody knows their job is to guard — they are a target,” Mr. Lott said. “If you’re going to have an attack, they’re going to be the first guys taken out.”
But gun control advocates say ending gun-free zones would turn schools into the Wild West, with people who lack training or permits carrying weapons into classrooms, complicating matters for already overstretched and on-edge authorities.
Plus, they say, Mr. Lott’s data points just get it wrong, stretching definitions to shoehorn the numbers into a pro-gun narrative.
“Everytown believes that only law enforcement and other security officers should be armed in K-12 high schools,” said Adam Sege, spokesman for Everytown for Gun Safety.
Mr. Lott, who runs the Crime Prevention Research Center, has long been at the forefront of gun research, with pioneering work on the spread of concealed-carry permits and the resulting changes in crime rates.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Gun free zones are where most of the mass shootings occur. Well over 90 percent.
And in states with lower than average rates of gun ownership as well.
“Gun free zones” tend to be soft targets, if they’re not visibly protected by armed guards.
Any predator, animal or human, will go after easier prey.
Combine that with the propaganda that comes when a terrorist organization murders children, or unarmed concert goers.
Mark
How can they possibly evaluate this fairly? There are multitudes more places where guns are allowed (or not banned in any case) than there are “gun free” zones.
Mark
Circa 1966. I was in high school and I and friends would often hunt after school was out. We had shotguns in our pickups. The cops knew this, and the principal knew this. They knew this because you could see the shotgun in the gun rack. These weapons were never used in an illegal fashion. My weapon was a single barrel 20 gauge from Sears and Roebuck. That weapon has taken much rabbit and birds.
Sadly times have changed for the worse.
1964, when I started High School I joined the California Cadet Corps (sponsored by the USMC), we had our own indoor range for small bore rifle (22) and were bused about 10 blocks for our large bore rifle (30-06 1903 Springfield) practice.
Bearing in mind, this was California, my how times have changed.
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