By Patrick J. Gibbs
In the aftermath of the massacre of 19 children and two adults at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas many of the usual suspects will be pushing for more gun control laws. None of the proposed laws will reflect any lessons learned from what went wrong and which cost so many innocent lives.
Even before all the details of the barbaric attack become public, enough is known to ruin the reputation of the Uvalde Police Department for failing to respond quickly and refusing to immediately mount a counterattack on the 18-year-old murderer (who deservedly shall remain unnamed). Those issues and the cultural and/or psychological pathology behind such mass murder are topics for another occasion. Today I wish to address the vulnerability created for schools and churches by the misguided policy of “gun-free zones.”
The problem and its solution are demonstrated in the experience of two small churches in Texas. In November 2017 in Sutherland Springs, Texas, the First Baptist Church was attacked by a gunman who killed 26 with an AR-15 rifle he illegally purchased. As a felon convicted of domestic violence while in the U.S. Air Force, he was prohibited from purchasing a firearm. He did so anyway because the Air Force failed to submit the court-martial conviction to the FBI’s database that is checked before a firearms purchase. His killing spree was ended by Stephen Willeford, armed with his AR-15, who shot him after he left the church. Willeford was called to the church by his daughter and arrived just in time to catch the murderer fleeing the scene in his car. He gave chase in another volunteer’s pickup truck and when they eventually cornered him the killer committed suicide.
Just over two years later, a man wearing a fake beard, a wig, and a long coat walked into church services at the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas. Members of the church’s volunteer security team spotted his suspicious behavior as he sat down in a pew. As an usher approached him, he pulled out a shotgun and shot the usher. He then shot one of the security team who was drawing his pistol. The head of security, Jack Wilson, then fired a single shot from about 10 yards hitting the gunman in the head. He dropped dead. We know the entire incident took four seconds because video of the church service was being live-streamed. If you watch the video, you can see three other church members draw their pistols and rush to cover the gunman in case he was only wounded.
The casualty count in White Settlement, Texas was two killed and no wounded. (Never count the perpetrator as a casualty.) Since there were only two fatalities, that incident did not qualify as a mass shooting. It would have been such but for the life-saving action of Jack Wilson, a former firearms instructor. There were 242 people in the church that day.
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The church in Sutherland Springs was by design or by accident a gun-free zone that Sunday. The church in White Settlement was not. The difference in casualty count was 24. That many people would have had a better chance of surviving if there had been a “good guy with a gun” ready to stop the attacker.
Turning to mass shootings in schools the first thing to understand is that, contrary to the hysteria in the mass media, they are rare. There have been 13 incidents since 1966 (over 55 years). Those crimes claimed 146 lives. That is one-fifth the number of homicides in Chicago in 2021.
The horror of mass murders is what drives a public policy that does little to prevent them. The most popular measures are two-fold. (1) Declare schools to be gun-free zones; and (2) Place police officers in the schools and call them School Resource Officers. The first is illogical because why would someone who is planning to commit murder be inclined to obey the law banning guns in schools? The second is impractical for several reasons. The police officer is wearing a “shoot me first” uniform. The attacker and not the defender has the element of surprise. Next, the SRO when on duty is only one person attempting to cover a large school. In Uvalde, the killer came through a back door and there was no SRO in the building. In Broward County, Florida in 2018 the SRO stayed safely outside the building during the mass school shooting there, thus earning the title, “the coward of Broward.”
The practical solution to school security may require the passage of only one law in most states. It would be based on the “Second Amendment Preservation Act” passed by the Missouri legislature in 2014. It allows teachers and school administrators to carry concealed guns after receiving 112 hours of training with an 18-hour annual refresher course. To date, 24 school districts have participated and 52 people have completed the training. School districts can and do still retain SROs on their staff.
Soft targets are a mass shooters dream come true.
It is past time to harden the schools. If we can waste 40 billion dollars on a boo do that is Ukraine, we can fortify the schools to protect the inhabitants
One entrance all the other doors exit only no door handles for entry, hire a veteran for a custodian and give him a locked closet for arms its simple something liberals just cant wrap their itty bitty brain damaged minds around
Oh on the good news side
Alongside Africa other countries refusing the ‘reforms’ were Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Malaysia and Brazil, who said it would exit WHO altogether, rather than be subject to the new Treaty.
Sounds like the one world order pushed by fake pandemics is dead on arrival.
https://www.onenation.org.au/who-forced-into-humiliating-backdown
I’m sure there are some older schools that might not have them, but every exterior door I see in every school are of the type that lock from the outside but have a push bar to open from the inside. Leaving a door propped open was the key at Uvalde. It is absolutely unlikely that massacre could have happened without that detail. He had already opened fire on employees at a nearby funeral home; police were already on the way. Locked doors would have kept him out or delayed his entry until plenty of support had arrived. A gunfight outside would have been totally different from 19 guys trying to figure out how to breach the door (intended to keep people OUT and the occupants secure).
A locked classroom door would have kept him out as effectively as it did the police.
You want to have a weapons locker on campus? Getting into that room would be the only thing that some kids would think about on a daily basis.
They make some pretty good gun safes, from combination to fingerprint identification.
Some dont look like safes at all it would be difficult to locate.
You just want everyone disarmed no other possible solution is allowed in your closed mind.
“You just want everyone disarmed no other possible solution is allowed in your closed mind.”
You don’t want to have to think beyond the first thing you type in response to this issue. You’ve mentioned three things, and, based on the fact that I actually work in a school, have pointed out some problems with your ideas. Nobody is keeping you from having further thoughts aimed at solving those problems and making your ideas better.
You have a 1 trick pony that we know wont happen. You suggest nothing.
Had the school followed the drill those children and teachers would be alive.
Lock outside entries lock classroom doors.
At the very least learn from the mistakes made.
“Lock outside entries lock classroom doors.”
Of course. But you wanted to take it a step further and install doorbell cameras paid for with a bake sale.
If the state and federal government were serious about protecting kids, they’d spend the money and do it.
It’s not in anyone’s corporate/lobbyist paid agenda….except it helps get votes, of course.
Dead elementary school kids are the best thing that can happen for the Democrat Party. They virtually celebrate when it happens.
A security camera can be trained on the entrance and a doorbell to the office. it isnt expensive, security cameras are not going to be broken in a short time. Schools raise money all the time, candy bars, pizzas for school trips why not for security upgrades. You dont have to lock classrooms unless there is a lock down.
It assholes like you that get kids killed. just give up and shut down rational thinking.
Corporations give to causes, small businesses give to causes you fuckers are lazy and too stupid to even try.
If memory serves, your “problems” were all dispelled. As with the doorbell camera, perhaps some discipline might have to be implemented. Or, (now prepare yourself for a blockbuster idea) put the camera high and out of reach.
How does using every excuse possible to avoid doing something positive for school protection help?
Maniacs and crazy people are not stopped by stupid signs with stupid writing on them Gun Free School Zones are a useless it just lives some Pinheads that feeling their have done something good when they hav’nt
How’s the pillow business coming, genius Hogg?
Hogg needs a swift kick in the backside realy realy hard or better yet a good helping of Humilation and humble pie it should fit his Overinflated Ego
He has had his 15 minutes of lame fame just a tinkling cymbal now.
If enough teachers took on this responsibility, they wouldn’t have to draw their weapons. Attacks on schools would be a thing of the past, like Democrat integrity. The only problem I can see is that there are so many far left liberal “teachers” in the districts where this is needed the most that the program would be ineffective. As we’ve clearly seen, the left would rather see innocent people shot than admit the error of their agenda. The totalitarian-minded left needs a disarmed citizenry and they need these tragedies to gain that.
Hopefully, the office administrators would be allowed to participate as well. And the custodians.
A deep and sick mental depravity exists in the mind of some today. The left diminishes the value of human life while promoting victimhood and righteous violence. It is sickening that schools and churches have to be hardened this way, but that is a fact of life. Failure to address this FIRST and IMMEDIATELY is criminal.
“Attacks on schools would be a thing of the past”
Well, as you keep telling me, a guy who really wants to kill somebody will get it done, right? If what you and others here say is true, then they’ll just turn to making bombs, just as you suggested in another thread.
You know the gang-related killings you’re always talking about? Somehow, the fact that
both sides are armed doesn’t seem to slow that down very much.
False.
Deranged cowards are killing kids because they know the target area is soft, and the victims can’t fight back.
Comparing it to gangs is…well….just f*cking stupid.
There is no logical argument for the idea that by taking some guns away, such as the AR-15, gun violence will suddenly go away for ever, like the magical and perfect US-subsidized and defended utopias like the UK and Australia.
This is a fight between weak men and responsible men.
The government is not your friend, and needs to be kept in check, perpetually.
No, that’s not what I said. What I said and meant was that if they want to kill people, they will find another way if guns are denied them. I never said once someone decided to kill, it was inevitable.
How do you know? If only one gang was armed, how many of the other gang would they kill? What would stop them? Certainly not law enforcement, which has been villainized and defunded.
He has a chinese handler it is to be expected from him.
Add to the history lesson: Beslin, Russia’s school massacre.
In three days (while police figured out what to do) Muslim extremist gunmen killed 333 people at the school.
Good guys with guns are a big part of the answers that work.
Another lesson from Beslin: Central power in Russia was consolidated.
Regional leaders were now assigned by Putin instead of elected by the people.
Moral as seen by Leftists: Never let a crisis go to waste.
Moral as seen by American’s who care about the children: Arm some trusted people in the schools, and identify sicko students so they can be helped.
Joe Biden Demands New Gun Control Measures, Assault Weapon Ban, Magazine Capacity Limits, Red Flag Laws, Gun Mfr Liability and More
With barely more than a third of the country supporting the installed occupant of the White House, Joe Biden took to the podium tonight to demand a litany of new gun restrictions. Biden called for the banning of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines through reinstating the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, noting that if that can’t happen, the government should raise the legal age to purchase such weapons from 18 to 21.
Biden also called on congress to construct new federal background checks, which sounded a lot like a federal registration of gun ownership. Also, he is demanding “red flag” laws that will allow schools, counsellors, doctors and others to flag an individual as a threat to themselves or others, thereby removing their right to gun ownership. Biden also said he want’s congress to ban large capacity magazines limiting all firearms to five bullets. WATCH:
UNHINGED Democrat threatens to upend entire system to ban guns
UNHINGED Democrat threatens to upend entire system to ban guns (rumble.com)
Facts don’t care about your virtue-ridden feelings Mr. Representative. Help me understand why the cities with the highest rates of gun violence, one of which is in your state, also have the most restrictive gun laws- just to start. I’ll wait…
That’s all Democrats do is blather. They’ll use the Uvalde tragedy as an excuse to push more pointless (aside from disarming citizens) gun control and use that to eliminate the filibuster and pack the Supreme Court. None of them ever suggests following the Constitutional method to change or eliminate the 2nd Amendment, if they feel that is such a problem. They are incapable of following laws.