Why is it that whenever we dig into the details of a mass shooting we wind up finding nothing but screw ups?
Police, schools, mental health officials, parents – they’ve all messed up in ways to make mass shootings possible or deadlier.
At the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, we learned that police responded within minutes but then stood around for almost an hour in the hallway while the shooter was barricaded in a classroom and still killing children.
We learned that there was no armed security guard stationed at the Robb school that day and that a door to the outside – which the shooter used to enter the building – did not lock automatically as it should have.
We also learned that the 18-year-old killer, as is so often the case, was known by his family, the authorities and his schoolmates to be a mentally unstable and scary gun nut, yet no one “red-flagged” him as a potential threat to himself or others.
And how many times have we heard stories about how the parents of future mass murderers continued to let them have access to guns even after it had become obvious to them that their children were dangerously disturbed?
What we’ve seen over and over again in these mass shootings is that everyone’s waiting for someone else to do the right things, but then no one does the right things.
It’s not that hard to protect a school from being invaded by a mass murderer – if we have the will.
Just as we do at airports, rock concerts and Super Bowls, we can use high fences, gates and automatically locking doors (that work).
We can also hire full-time security guards who are well armed, well trained and not afraid to shoot anyone dead who shows up at a school and tries to kill people.
A school guard without a gun is just a spectator at a slaughter — or another victim.
But Democrats and the liberal media are so mindlessly in favor of stricter and stricter gun control that they’ll never understand that the best way to prevent a tragedy like the one in Uvalde is more guns – guns in the right hands.
Following the massacre in Texas, the anti-gun nuts again instantly proved how little they know about “the weapons of war” they desperately want to take away from us law-abiding citizens.
I don’t think three Democrats in Congress could define what an assault weapon actually is, much less explain the difference between a semi-automatic AR-15, a high-powered deer rifle and an Uzi.
And this week we heard President Biden babbling on about the difference in stopping power between a 9mm handgun – the most commonly produced pistol in the U.S. – and a .22 pistol.
Biden said he wants to ban high-caliber 9mm handguns like Glocks, which are used by most police forces and the security guards who protect him 24/7, because he thinks no one needs a gun for protection that is so powerful it “can blow the lung out of a body.”
Just to let him know, it was a .22 that almost killed my dad.
Many assassins use a .22 because when the smaller bullet enters your body it bounces off your bones like a ping pong ball and causes greater internal damage.
No one expects Biden to know what he’s talking about when he talks about guns, and the dishonest major media are too much on the gun-control team to discuss other sensible, doable ways of preventing future school shootings.
Putting well-armed security guards in our schools is extremely important, obviously, but it is parents who are the first line of defense.
If you realize your kid is out of control and truly dangerous, take their guns away. Give them to a neighbor. Lock them in a safe.
And please don’t wait for the government, the school principal or anyone else to red flag your child as a threat to themselves or others.
Do the right thing. Throw the red flag yourself.
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Copyright 2022 Michael Reagan, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
Michael Reagan, the son of President Ronald Reagan, is an author, speaker and president of the Reagan Legacy Foundation. Send comments to [email protected] and follow @reaganworld on Twitter.
This is the best and most direct response that I’ve read to the emotional rantings of the Liberal Left Democrats who seem to go out of their way to constantly share their ignorance and to scare the many citizens also ignorant about firearms. Thank you Mr. Reagan and we too miss your dad.
To me, the reason so many don’t, is they are too SCARED to say anything.. JUST LIKE we get news reports of 30+ FOLKS STANDING around, watching a woman getting raped, or where folks stand around, watching someone get MUGGED< but the masses do nothing…
THERE ARE DAYS I honestly think, TILL WE START charging those folks, as being accessories FOR THEIR ABJECT laziness and apathy, nothing will change.
Have you noticed how little has been said about the family of the Uvalde shooter? I have seen one story about the criminal history of his family and very few comments either from them or about them. His mother tried to get people to feel sorry for him. There have been lots of comments from his peers saying he was insane and relating bad actions.
Why didn’t any of these people turn him in or if they did why wasn’t anything done? Why don’t these people, especially his family and teachers bear any responsibility for not turning him in?
Why doesn’t law enforcement bear any responsibility when they don’t enforce the gun laws and red flag laws they already have? Why aren’t prosecutors prosecuted themselves for not putting law breakers away?
I wasn’t for red flag laws and I still see an opportunity for law enforcement and prosecutors to use them against political enemies but if they were used to charge the parents who fail their responsibility to turn in their lawbreaking family members they could be a useful tool. If grandma was scared of that Uvalde kid she should have turned him in and the parents who dumped him on the grandparents should go to prison IMO.
Because like always “SOMEONE else is to blame”….
Do not belong nor plan on joining but my question would be, how many of these shooters belonged to NRA, Besides changing to a waitind period, age change annd background check, it would be very beneficial if “mandatory” safety training would be included with the purchase of any weapon. YES, even those who claim owning and using a weapon before learning to change their own diapers would show they are willing to listen and maybe learn something. Private sell of a weapon shoul require the seller/buyer report this just like you do when you privately sell a car, boat, home, etc. If nothing to hide should be no problem.
SHOULD we also require safety tests, before someone registers to vote? INTELLIGENCE tests before someone goes to the ballot box?
WHY CRIMP DOWN ON one right, but not others?
“No one expects Biden to know what he’s talking about”
Why is it that Democrats always blame an inanimate object the gun and NOT the shooter
inanimate object: a thing that is not alive, such as a gun, a rock, a chair, a book, etc.
and can do Nothing on its own.
When Cane killed Able with a rock. God did not blame the rock or try to condemn rocks.
God blamed Cane for his own actions and punished Cane, not the rock.