The school shooting in Texas was awful, just absolutely horrific. These acts of evil are always gut-wrenching and exacerbated by overheated political rhetoric. The public demands Congress just do something. Republicans scream that Democrats want to take guns away. Democrats scream that Republicans are OK with kids dying. The GOP is closer to the truth. The media sides with the Democrats.
The reality is any measure needs 60 votes to get through the United States Senate. Democrats tend to go immediately for gun control. That will not pass the Senate. Gun control restrictions cannot get 60 votes. Democrats use that as a rallying cry to argue against the filibuster and an expanded Democrat Senate to scrap the filibuster.
Do Democrats want the issue, or do they want a solution? It almost seems that Democrats screaming about Republicans wanting kids to die is projection because Democrats rush in while bodies are still warm to vilify their opponents, attack them for offering thoughts and prayers, and then offer their own empty platitudes and empty solutions.
The bottom line is gun control will not pass the Senate. So, do Democrats want more dead kids or do they want to join Republicans in making some progress? There is no panacea here. Guns will not be confiscated because of the Second Amendment. Guns will not be banned for the same reason. Restrictions more often than not will not stop a school shooter even if this school shooter might have been stopped or deterred. The shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary School murdered his mother and used her guns.
In Uvalde, Texas, a school officer was armed, but there are lingering questions about how quickly he responded to the shooter. The Left is screaming that the good guy with the gun did not stop the bad guy with the gun, so we need to take all the guns. There are questions about timeliness of the response. There is no question gun confiscation will not enter American law.
Using one failure to suggest we should abandon efforts to provide officers at all schools seems foolish. That could get 60 votes in the Senate. Providing a well-trained public servant in schools would more likely than not serve as a deterrent. It might not stop all cases but could stop many. Why let perfect be the enemy of the good?
Republicans and Democrats may yet find some common ground on mental health reform. Overwhelmingly, these shooters suffer from mental health issues. The gun genie is out of the bottle and will not be contained. But well-armed retired veterans at schools would be better than waiting for the police to show up. It appears the shooter in Uvalde was in the school for most of an hour.
What about fortifying school doors? Provide one entry and ample exits. Control access to the building with security doors that can be opened only from the inside in case of emergency. Congress loves to spend on infrastructure. Democrats could get bipartisan support for school upgrades.
The voters clamor for Congress to do something. I suspect Congress will do very little and most of what I have suggested will not get done. Democrats need an issue to campaign on. They would prefer no solution so they can run on gun violence over getting a solution that forces them back to defending President Joe Biden’s economic record.
Reality will soon dawn on Democrats. Running against former President Donald Trump, Jan. 6, the Supreme Court or shootings will not save them from inflation, high gas prices, empty store shelves and high grocery bills. They might as well find common ground with Republicans and work to upgrade schools and their security before students return in the fall.
Expand school safety personnel, recruit retired veterans, expand school counselor programs and upgrade school building security. Those are doable. Gun control is not because of the filibuster. If the urge is to do something, these can pass. But I suspect the urge is stronger to use the issue to vilify Republicans. This is chiefly why Washington is broken. The incentives are to hold power, not to use that power to pass doable things.
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Per G.A. Custer, “Always ride to the sound of the guns and attack!
The events in Uvalde concluding with the briefings held on 5/26/ & 5/27 have once again made me hold my head in shame as a retired soldier/cop. I spent first 26 years of my life as a soldier charged with training/leading soldiers and cops in ground combat and specializing in counter-terrorism tactics (As an instructor in the Federal Civil Disobedience Orientation Program[SEADOC] spent many years teaching many senior level civilian police officers across this nation how to deal with special threats [shooters/bombers]); followed by a like number of years as a municipal police chief. Sadly, the briefings given on 5/26 and 5/27 by a senior officers from the Texas Department of Safety reinforced the reason I left government service rather than starting a one man war to negate as many self-serving/corrupt/incompetent/witless politicians and bureaucrats as one man could accomplish.
First, both of the briefings were an admission that the responders to the shooting were not trained in proper/effective tactics and demonstrated a level of absolute cowardliness. As George A. Custer stated many years ago; “Always ride to the sound of the guns and attack!” When officers aggressively close in on a shooter’s position while trying to minimize collateral damage, the shooter is usually kept occupied defending his/her/its position rather than killing hostages. In short, basic tactics include occupying the shooter by attempting to engage him/her/it in conversation while the action team/other officers close in and shoot to kill (action team members/attacking officers do not talk, they act) at the first opportunity. Remember; “Wounded animals are still dangerous, dead ones not so much!”
Second, stop blaming guns/ammo for killing people. Guns do not kill, people do! However, as a soldier/cop/Texan who has hunted game and/or men all over Texas, all three Americas, the Near/Middle/Far East, and Europe, I personally challenge any individual to demonstrate why one would use .223 or 5.56 super sonic ammo loaded in 10/20/30 round magazines, and fired from any semi-automatic type gun to hunt game. For the sake of the ladies and/or the wimps among you, I will just say as one who has personally shot men and seen many men hit by 5.56 super sonic ammo, that you do not want to shoot game with the same. The tissue and bone destruction is beyond most civilian’s imagination.
In closing, I wish I had the authority to deal with any person who illegally or legally sells/provides any weapon to individuals without carefully checking their mental/criminal history. Farther more, I wish I had the authority to deal with those politicians and bureaucrats who stand in the way of providing/enforcing laws that keep guns (of any type) out of the hands of unqualified persons, and laws that provide for swift and proper punishment for those who violate the same.
Have a nice day,
Soldier/Cop/Grunt, Retired
What in hell were the local cops doing, chasing him around with a butterfly net ????
And the door at the school that was propped open by a Teacher,probably taking a smoke break, hope she was the 1st to go…
“Empty solutions”, “cant pass in the Senate”… Really? Of course it can’t pass in the Senate. Senate Rules, currently configured, requires a supper-majority. That may be the new-normal for the GOP, but it also explains a country in peril. Or is it a tyranny of a minority. I suggest Mr Brigham, that you get your head out of your GOP posterior.
Yes, the cat’s out of the bag. It’s too late. 400 million guns out in the wild ensures we will continue to see tragedies. There is nothing for it except to remake society to handle extreme violence at any time. The mind is a fragile thing and breaks often. If there’s a gun handy, expect lead to fly. And guns are very handy. Too late for us all and our children and grandchildren.
The reject of God and His WORD is why this evil is upon us, and it will not cease… The Bible warns in the last days that evil will grow exponentially both in frequency and intensity just has it has done for these last three or four years now…
This evil will continue grow worse and worse until one day very soon there will be no United States… Our destruction will allow the NWO agenda to advance with the one-world government, and the one-world religion.
The WORD of God will prevail, just as it has in all of man’s history.
the Democrats loooooooove events like this, twisted motherfuckers that they are
I think the main reason we have mass shootings is that we don’t institutionalize people like we used to.
And Even THAT was the liberal demonRAT outcry back in the sixties and Seventies,…. no more Assylums, no more Prisons,…. and never a thought about where to put the incompetent or the Incorrigable
My idea is to go with your idea, and then add that all school allow volunteer school staff members to carry a weapon! Post this fact on all those new safety doors and see if people are quite so quick to want to go in and shoot people! My guess is that this will help deter most! Probably not all, until a few die before they have the opportunity to shoot anyone!
What the Demon-crats are trying to do is create so much chaos and violence that the sheeple cry out a demand for a total crackdown to stop it. This would give Bolshevik Biden’s handlers the excuse they need to declare Martial Law, suspend the Constitution, and install a totalitarian government. Dissenters would be treated as terrorists, and the sheeple would be encouraged to snitch on their own family members.
Good article! Wish all media would post this but alas they don’t want any common sense solutions.
Looks like you want DeSantis to run in 2024. I’d love him for President or Vice President.
I see you have good ways to handle this problem.Expand school safety personnel, recruit retired veterans, expand school counselor programs and upgrade school building security. Those are doable. Gun control is not because of the filibuster. If the urge is to do something, these can pass. But I suspect the urge is stronger to use the issue to vilify Republicans. This is chiefly why Washington is broken. The incentives are to hold power, not to use that power to pass doable things. GO FOR IT.
Republicans have the right ideas, Protect the children in school with guards. Guns are needed. They will never be able to confiscate our guns,
I don’t care if your Democrat or Republican our founding fathers said it perfectly.” Thou shall not infringe.”
There was NO school officer, armed or not, which was tragic. There should be armed school officers on campus in every school.
Thoughtful and well written.
Democrats cry that Republicans want Kids to Die at the same time that Democrats back the Murder of over 80 Million Kids while still in the Womb!
had there been trained armed teachers at hand they could have gotten this scum bag earlier than waiting for an hour!
Save the school kids from those evil guns,,,, but abortion is OK? Sorry,,, but it doesn’t add up.
I submit its NOT about saving kids, but rather to strip Americans of gun rights.
A better Idea than Gun confiscation might be that we Allocate the money to harden Security And the entryways To Level Four Standards, Encourage and Even Sponsor Armed Teachers, and Guess what we even have the Uncommitted monies in the rainy day fund,…. that could cover every penny of it at current cost appraisals, and NOT even make a substantial dent in the fund or raise taxes,…. lets just do THAT and finish the wall and get back to life ! NO MORE DICKERING AND POLITICKING,< JUST DO IT