It has been 15 days since a crazed gunman who had many red flags prior to his act of horrendous violence walked into what was supposed to be the safety of Marjory Stoneman High School and took out 17 valuable lives and injured many more thus traumatizing another community yet again. The community of Parkland was rocked and shaken but they will come together and stand strong. In the aftermath of this tragedy I had a chance to reflect and think of solutions to the lessen the chance of another mass shooting occurring. My ties to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are that I was a substitute teacher their in the early 90's and I always had a good experience when I substitute at the school never thinking that one day that this school would fall victim to a mass shooting. I also knew some of the students and teacher that were killed through activities like Relay For Life and Youth Sports. I was sitting down to write this article thinking of ways we can curb gun violence and then BOOM an alert on the phone of an active shooter at Central Michigan University with 2 dead and the shooter at large. I took a deep breath and shed a few tears as another senseless killing occurred. I then scrolled through the news feed on my phone and saw other gun incidents and thought what do we have to do to stop the madness. Well here are my thoughts.
1. Making Guns illegal will not stop the sale of them. Look at drugs like marijuana that is illegal but people still get marijuana show us that the laws are only as good as the people to enforce them. It is a complicated issue as I am sure that there are many law abiding citizens who own guns and will never commit a crime with their weapon, Then there is the argument if it is not a gun it might be a knife or a truck filled with fertilizer (Remember Tomothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City). Our obsession with high powered rifles and high caliber handguns coupled with the loss of our moral compass has created this madness known as mass shootings. Now the question is what are we going to do to come together and stop the madness.
2. Arming Teachers is not the solution. If people break into schools and steal computers what do you think is going to happen if they know guns are there. How about this a fight break out in the classroom the teacher goes to break it up in the course of the fracas the teacher's gun is taken and used to shoot other students. Come on people there must ne a better way.
3. The solution is getting back to the basic understanding that though we may have the right to bear arms we must also temper that with a modicum of common sense. No one needs a high caliber weapon to hunt for food and that is the only reason you should be hunting. Now there is the argument that people need a high caliber weapon to protect there home. If we get back t the basics of people respecting each other's property we woulld have a need for any type of guns to be in the home or in a business. I read a good guy with a gun will stop a bad guy with a gun. many times this is true but more likely it is way to sell more guns.
4. Stopping politicians from taking NRA Money is not the answer. I say take The NRA Money and then use it for gun safety programs, mental health programs, to hire more security at soft targets like gun free school zones, to harden the soft targets by putting in bullet proof glass and doors and better security systems. You can then use The NRA Money for breakfast and lunch programs at school, after school programs, more school resource officers and other programs that will enhance the quality of life in the community. Imagine walking into the senior center and seeing that this pool funded by Politician A with money from The NRA.
We need to make laws that are enforceable while at the same time paying attention to warning signs and empowering our law enforcement officials to remove weapons that are in the possession of those who are deemed to pose a threat to themselves and others. This includes Knives, Chinese Stars, Grenades, and anything else that logically can be seen as a potential weapon.
It is important to remember Hurt People! Hurt People! so we must recognize when some one may be experiencing mental anguish and come together to do something about it.We have an opportunity to step up and do something that will take us from the darkness to the light by coming together and protecting all our citizens from the madness of mass shootings.
