Gun Free School Zones....

[archerychamp]

First of all, my condolences and thoughts go out to the families of those in Connecticut today. It's a terrible, terrible loss and is extremely sad.

But the thing that is really pissing me off, again, and I have to vent about, is how well gun free school zones are working.

For goodness sakes, let teachers & principals with PTCs carry concealed at school.

Did this school have a safety officer on staff? Lot of good they did stopping this guy at the door.

Maybe the lunatic didn't see the sign that banned guns on school property. That's it. They should put up more signs.

[Heffay]

This is not the time or place to be bringing this up.

[CraigJS]

Will there ever be a "good" time... NO. But do we have a choice?

[JJ]

This is not the time or place to be bringing this up.

So are you off telling the other side that now is not the time to call for further gun control?

[goett047]

This is not the time or place to be bringing this up.

So are you off telling the other side that now is not the time to call for further gun control?

No they don't troll as e easily

[Heffay]

This is not the time or place to be bringing this up.

So are you off telling the other side that now is not the time to call for further gun control?

Yup.

It's time to have empathy for the victims of the tragedy. It's not time to make political hay.

[archerychamp]

Believe me, I have empathy for them. I'm really sad about this. This one probably has me down more than any other senseless shooting. I can't imagine the pain the parents and families are going through.

But for me, besides having sincere empathy for the victims, the grieving process also includes anger and thus I felt the need to vent some frustration. I wish we could put common sense measures in place to stop these insane murderers.

[mmhoium]

This is not the time or place to be bringing this up.

Patently disagree. Many news sources in the last couple hours have already brought it up on the antigun side - much of which has been exaggerated and inaccurate claims about firearms. Now is the time, because many are already talking about it, to respond with truth, to correct those inaccuracies. A lie left unchallenged becomes the truth. As terrible as it is, the antigun side is already using this to fuel their fire to restrict gun ownership - now is NOT the time to sit back. Lets instead talk about gun free zones and Connecticut's restrictive gun laws and how they are empirical proof that gun restriction to the law abiding doesn't curb violence. Thats what makes sense to me, and thats the stance I will be taking.

-M

[Heffay]

This is not the time or place to be bringing this up.

Patently disagree. Many news sources in the last couple hours have already brought it up on the antigun side - much of which has been exaggerated and inaccurate claims about firearms. Now is the time, because many are already talking about it, to respond with truth, to correct those inaccuracies. A lie left unchallenged becomes the truth. As terrible as it is, the antigun side is already using this to fuel their fire to restrict gun ownership - now is NOT the time to sit back. Lets instead talk about gun free zones and Connecticut's restrictive gun laws and how they are empirical proof that gun restriction to the law abiding doesn't curb violence. Thats what makes sense to me, and thats the stance I will be taking.

-M

No. This is the time to sit back and show empathy, and not get dragged into an emotional fight that you CANNOT win. The time to discuss what to do is after everyone has settled down from the emotional blast and starts discussing calmly about what to do. THAT is when we discuss the gun control aspect.

[Humphrey Bogart]

This is not the time or place to be bringing this up.

Wankerator keep on Wanking.

[sansooshooter]

THE Government should be talking about hardening school against easy access so lunatics cant kill innocent children. Our current security is to lock down a school and wait for enough police to arrive.
Then a methodical sweep. The people inside the school can only hope and pray that the shooter passes them by. They are completely unprotected.
We need to control access to the schools and have some teachers trained in firearms and tactical shooting.

Unfortunately that wont happen . Instead we will lose more of our rights to defend ourselves and other innocent people. I have 2 kids in school right now and I know the security for schools is non existent. All you have to do is sign in and you get a little green sticker and you can walk the school at will.

I have signed in many times as Adolf Hitler . Mao or Stalin. Also have signed in as Ringo Star/ Jimi Hendrix/ Peter Frampton. And of course as Milhouse Nixon.
Never once has anybody looked at the name I signed in as.

Now is the time to fight the anti"s or we will be turning in lots of our gun related stuff. Anybody who doesn't see the freight train of new big gun control coming is blind or a fool!!!

[XDM45]

This is sad, but what's even sadder is that it will happen again and again and again. I feel sorry for the families and everyone involved, just as I do every time this happens....but what does that change? I feel bad, but the victims are still dead. Eventually we'll all forget about this event and it will be replaced with the next mass shooting in a school, mall, stadium, elsewhere. We'll all feed bad for the people that died and their famillies, and it will repeat again. Different places, different faces, same situation with a different event.

The problem lies within certain people who are not only capable, but willing to do these things. As a society of individuals, we cannot prevent something like this happening, short of eliminating the human race (which would be unrealistic overkill), so all we can do is attempt to minimize and mitigate the risk to innocent lives in future events or else the same will repeatedly occur as previously mentioned.

In order to provide a possible solution, the one I recommend is the solution lies within certain people are not only capable, but able to defend their own lives and the lives of others. Normally, this is the police, but as we all know, they cannot respond fast enough to a situation when what's needed as a first-responder on-site in the moment it's happening. That first response from someone needs to come from within the event, not outside of it. I do not propose that subjugate the authority of the police and their duties, but rather that we find both a legal and a real-world solution to facilitate the stopping of the threat.

There's many facets to this from not only the legal point of view, but also the real-world view as well. As I write this, tons of questions and scenarios fill my mind and I realize that it is impossible for me to write an all-inclusive, air tight solution that will please everyone and not spark a debate. You and I most certainly can conceptualize all sort of different scenarios in our minds with regard to the legal, moral, ethical, physical, mental, spiritual, and many other aspects involved of an event, let alone a mass shooting event. So to keep it simple, I bring up the old faithful mantra that we need to become a well-trained and well-armed society.

Will this result in no more mass shootings or deaths? No. I doubt that if a carrier was in the theater in Colorado that they would have been able to stop the shooter with his tear gas and body armor setup. Possible? Sure. Probable? Not likely.
If someone was carrying at Accent Signage, yes, I do believe that the chances would have been much, much better for the survival of innocent people there and that less lives would have been lost. Can I say that for sure? No.

If someone comes into your house, you are hopefully well trained and armed, using first the power of your mind to think, and if need be, the force of your body and weapon to defend your own life if justified in doing so if escape or de-escalation is not an option. I don't think anyone here would ONLY call 911, if someone broke into their home, but yet that is really our ONLY option in places where guns are not allowed either by law or by the business, organization, or individual(s) there. In our home situation, we'd grab our gun and call 911, so why can't we do that everywhere? I'm not saying that once you grab your gun that you must use it, no, quite the contrary, it is a last resort..... but as the old adage goes, I'd rather have a gun and not need it, than need it and not have it.

Clearly, the people in this school needed a gun to defend themselves with since there are so many dead and they could not all escape, nor could they could not defend themselves.

Again, my sympathies to the dead, the families and all involved, but we really do need to become a well-trained and armed society. The madness is not in this shooting, because that is merely a symptom of the disease; the madness is that we fail to learn from these events and do not make the changes to mitigate risk by preparing for the next one.

[3Spaniels]

Anybody who doesn't see the freight train of new big gun control coming is blind or a fool!!!

[elroy]

This is not the time or place to be bringing this up.

Patently disagree. Many news sources in the last couple hours have already brought it up on the antigun side - much of which has been exaggerated and inaccurate claims about firearms. Now is the time, because many are already talking about it, to respond with truth, to correct those inaccuracies. A lie left unchallenged becomes the truth. As terrible as it is, the antigun side is already using this to fuel their fire to restrict gun ownership - now is NOT the time to sit back. Lets instead talk about gun free zones and Connecticut's restrictive gun laws and how they are empirical proof that gun restriction to the law abiding doesn't curb violence. Thats what makes sense to me, and thats the stance I will be taking.

-M

+1

I have as much sympathy or empathy for the victims than anyone, but there is no better time to defend than when you are attacked and our rights are already being attacked.

[mrp]

THE Government should be talking about hardening school against easy access so lunatics cant kill innocent children. Our current security is to lock down a school and wait for enough police to arrive.
Then a methodical sweep. The people inside the school can only hope and pray that the shooter passes them by. They are completely unprotected.
We need to control access to the schools and have some teachers trained in firearms and tactical shooting.

While this is a tragedy for the school, the town, and other people directly impacted by this event, it is an isolated incident which hardly justifies a call for the government to step in to harden schools. There were 50 million school-aged kids in the United States that were not affected by this event today and they will almost certainly never be affected by any similar event in the future. So, yes, do what's easy and cheap and effective, but the last thing we need is more TSA-style security theater.

Unfortunately that wont happen . Instead we will lose more of our rights to defend ourselves and other innocent people. I have 2 kids in school right now and I know the security for schools is non existent. All you have to do is sign in and you get a little green sticker and you can walk the school at will.

I have signed in many times as Adolf Hitler . Mao or Stalin. Also have signed in as Ringo Star/ Jimi Hendrix/ Peter Frampton. And of course as Milhouse Nixon.
Never once has anybody looked at the name I signed in as.

And if they had looked, and you were armed and intent on killing a bunch of people in the school, would you turn around and leave when asked about your name? Setting up any sort of REAL security would be costly, and almost certainly not justified. But even if it were, that's something I'd rather see left to the individual school districts to address rather than have the Feds get involved.

You sign in? I have a "Visitor" button that I just keep with me. I'll sign in when I'm there to volunteer since they like to track volunteer hours, but that's about it.