Whether people want to admit it or not, so many of the knee-jerk responses to active shooter situations, like "tightening" gun laws simply won't work. Raise the age to buy a gun they say! Several recent school shooters were teenagers who already were too young to buy a gun, they just stole them instead. Strengthen background checks they say! The Las Vegas shooter was the poster boy for someone who would easily pass a background check. Ban assault style weapons they say! The Santa Fe school shooter used a pump action shotgun (definitely not an assault weapon). Ban bump stocks they say! Never mind that bump stocks were used in exactly one mass shooting in the history of this country. Ban the mentally ill from buying guns they say! Never mind that there is no mechanism for determining who is mentally ill unless they check a box on a 4473 form.
Some common sense ways to deal with this issue:
- Stop making schools gun free zones. If no one is armed, it makes the perfect target for an active shooter (I'm not saying to arm reluctant teachers but if a teacher has a CCW and wants to carry a weapon and is aware of the penalties for losing control of their weapon and has taken additional tactical training, why not let them carry?). Ditto for military and other well trained folks who feel the need to stand guard at their kid's schools...
- If they are going to insist that no one can have a gun at a school, those schools should be as secure as a court house along with metal detectors, bag searches, and armed guards. Again, disarming people and leaving them no protection at all makes them a very soft target.
- We need a comprehensive mental healthcare system reboot. Currently the entire state of Nevada has less than 1000 mental health beds. You can find that many crazy people in one block in Las Vegas. And while I am only slightly jesting, trying to find an inpatient mental healthcare facility to take someone as well as having a very limited processes to commit someone with clear mental health issues to said facilities means there are a LOT of dangerous people on the streets, filling up our hospitals, and filling the jails and prisons as well. The majority of active shooters had both current and past mental health issues that went untreated.
- And I'll throw a few other things that are sure to enrage the left, the right, and probably centerists...character education is clearly lacking these days. Watch any old TV show--from the Andy Griffith Show to Our Gang to the Brandy Bunch and each show focused on developing good character/doing the right thing; that doesn't happen in today's TV shows where people try to be as outrageous as possible to gain more notoriety/likes/fame. Religion seems to be a thing of the past (yes it could be considered an "opiate of the masses" but it did control people's behavior to some degree and kept them from randomly killing each other); again, this is one community institution thing that taught people right from wrong. Parents need to actually parent and not spend 90% of their time on their phone/slap a tablet in their kid's hand as soon as they can hold the device/back up their kid no matter how outrageous their special snowflake is acting. And finally people need to stop backing down from things that are common sense yet unpopular according to social media...I couldn't believe it when Starbucks, instead of enforcing a policy requiring everyone, no matter their color, to purchase something before getting the bathroom code, crumpled under social media pressure and decided that no one had to purchase anything at their stores if they want to use the restroom/hang out all day/use their electricity/etc.
I'll hop off my soapbox now.
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