This is a repost. The original was done by Doug Hagin:
How to stop school shootings?
Doug Hagin
Doug Hagin
March 22, 2005
The recent tragic school shooting in Red Lake, Minnesota has brought back some horrific memories from earlier times. Names of small towns like Columbine, Pearl, and Jonesboro are all etched in our minds because of the evil acts committed there and the lives of innocent children, which were lost in those school shootings.
Now we are faced with coping with another senseless and barbaric act, and with more innocent lives lost at the hands of an evil and twisted teen-age monster. Yes, monster is the only proper way to describe the individual who committed this heinous act.
Anyone who wants to feel empathy for this evil person or the evil acts he committed can just spare me their rhetoric. Spare me the well intended but useless calls to understand why he shot and killed those students and teachers. Spare me the babbling about the need for us to recognize why this person killed his grandfather, stole his guns, car, and bulletproof vest and then went on a killing spree.
Sane, rational, caring human beings are frankly not able to understand such barbarism. We do not grasp such depraved behavior because people with normally functioning minds cannot possibly grasp such deeds. We can all talk ourselves until our ears fall off about the need to understand serial killers and mass murderers and it will get us nowhere. Trying to understand such barbarity makes as much sense as putting a screen door in a sub-marine.
Spare me as well these claims that our teachers should somehow possess some psychic abilities, which allow then to be able to see into the future and predict which troubled kids are capable of such murderous acts. Are we supposed to jerk every student who acts a little off out of class and force psychological screenings upon them? Sure, it would be nice if we could see the future and stop these acts, but in the real world, that is just a fantasy.
Likewise, we will do ourselves no good by attempting to place the blame for this massacre anywhere accept on the killer who carried it out. Yet predictably, the same people have already started giving the same lame answers when asked what happened in Red lake, Minnesota.
The same folks who somehow think video games are to blame are all too ready to take some of the responsibility off the shoulders of the killer and place it on violent video games instead. Yes, it is true there are some very violent and graphic games out there. Should parents think twice or more before buying them or allowing their kids to? Absolutely! However, when one considers that hundreds of thousands of people play these games regularly and never so much as harm a fly, the illogic of blaming school shootings on them falls on its face.
The same can be said of the folks eager to blame television or movies for this act. Maybe it eases our pain to think maybe violent broadcasts can twist a normal human mind to the point that it snaps, causing the person to go on a shooting spree. It might ease someone's mind but it will do nothing to stop future mass murders will it? After all murder predates TV or video games doesn't it.
Spare me most of all the moronic ranting and raving of the gun grabbers who always seem a little pleased when such tragedies happen and afford then an opportunity to blame guns and gun owners. Of all those who seek to deflect blame from the killer the gun control zealots are, by far, the most disturbing.
They spout the same tired lies about how the easy accessibility of guns is to blame, or America's love of guns and violence is at fault. No, no, and no again! The killer is at fault alone here. After all, he killed his grandfather and then took his guns. If you are willing to commit murder to get hold of a gun what law would stop you?
The facts are crystal clear on guns and violent crime. These acts are never committed where they know people are armed do they? In those, States that allow citizens to carry concealed weapons violent crime decreases doesn't it? Several of the school shootings in recent years have been stopped by law-abiding citizens with concealed carry permits haven't they? There would have been more dead students if it were not for those law-abiding Americans and their firearms!
Yet the gun grabbers are still trying their level best to rescind concealed carry laws. They are still fabricating stats about how many children die by gunfire. They are still doing everything they can to disarm innocent people, thereby actually giving aid to criminals. Rest assured there was one thing this killer in Red Lake knew. He knew he would not face an armed teacher or principal while he slaughtered innocents. In addition, he had useless gun control laws and Liberals to thank for the fact his victims were helpless.
More gun control laws will not only not prevent future mass murders they will, in fact, only assure more of them will happen. Evil doers delight when no one is willing to face up to them, and gun grabbers certainly are not willing for anyone to stand up to evil doers. They seemingly prefer dead unarmed victims to citizens capable of defending themselves.
So how do we prevent future school shootings? Well we could use common sense in place of knee-jerk reactions. First, allow teachers to carry guns if they have a concealed carry permits. Secondly, allow any parents to carry and patrol the halls as well. No one will have anything to fear from this, except anyone who would have evil intentions that is.
Next we stop teaching our kids that they have no right to protect themselves or others. Evil thrives where no one stands against it, and too many schools teach that self-defense is somehow wrong. This only abets those with evil intentions. Defending ourselves is our right and duty, to teach anything else is delusional and wrong.
Sure, these might seem extreme steps to take. However, consider this question. Has evil ever been stopped by cowering before it or appeasing it?
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Doug Hagin was born in Tampa, Florida, and now resides in Dallas, Texas. He is 38, single, loves outdoors, and dreams of having a political column nationally syndicated. Doug has been writing political columns for 7 years, and now his column runs regularly in American Daily, Republican News Daily, the Starr Journal, the Intellectual Conservative, Hour Eleven, the Reality Check, Opinion Editorials, the Ellis County Press, and the Daley News Post along with others.