Another veteran writes against guns in schools ~ Oklahoma

I've been impressed by the number of veterans who have written newspaper letters to the editors about their opposition to teachers being armed as a way to deal with random acts of school gun violence. While I've been randomly cruising the nation's newspaper opinion pages, the arming of teachers is receiving negative feedback from veterans because they are acutely aware of the risks of having even more guns in schools. An echo.......

Letter written by Jerry L. Donathan, McAlester Oklahoma, published in Tulsa World.

There has been a lot of discussion on school safety since the last school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

This is a very sensitive topic in reference to whether to arm teachers. I have heard more against arming teachers, however, there are many for arming. I am against arming teachers, however, security and safety is very necessary in these current times and this must be given careful and progressive thought. 

Arming teachers carries numerous additional responsibilities to their current responsibility of teaching. I am a veteran of the Navy and Army. We were required to qualify yearly on our weapons along with numerous training exercises involving weapons and tactics.

Just to get a concealed-carry permit and yearly weapons training isn’t enough for weapons safety in schools. Monthly training should be required. The old saying "use it or loose it" has meaning. Granted, there are teachers who are very qualified weapons handlers and could follow defense tactics in certain incidents. 

But, these incidents come in unexpected, surprising manners. 

With extensive training on a regular basis, a person should respond correctly, however, there is no guarantee this will happen. 

With the daily presence of weapons in the presence of students, the risk of an accidental weapons discharge increases.
Lawmakers, communities and schools should not rush to arm teachers. Let us unite and develop a sound safe solution.

Clarion Calls from gun violence victims

Not One More ~ Simple but powerful words have become the rallying cry for Americans who refuse to accept the toll gun violence.

Sandy Hook Promise ~ Mission is to prevent gun-related deaths due to crime, suicide and accidental discharge so that no other parent experiences the senseless, horrific loss of their child. We will achieve this by educating and empowering parents, schools and communities on mental health & wellness programs that identify, intervene and help at-risk individuals and gun safety practices that ensure that firearms are kept safe and secure.

SHP Action Fund’s mission is to enact sensible gun violence prevention laws, policy and regulations at a state and federal level, in the areas of mental health & wellness and gun safety that result in the reduction of gun-related death and injury. We will achieve this by engaging, organizing and mobilizing our national base of Promise Makers and Leaders at a state and federal level.

Florida shooting: 'Enough is enough'

Busloads of students from the Florida high school in Broward County that saw a mass shooting on February 14, 2018, arrived in Florida's capital, Tallahassee, to lobby for tighter gun control measures.  It is the first planned rally for their new movement, NeverAgain.

This isn't about Democrats. This isn't about Republicans. This is about us demanding change, and this is about the fact that we have already won, it's just a matter of when," yelled a student standing atop a car, firing up the group before they hit the road.

(Shamefully perpetrating the evil of supporting guns rather than the lives of children.....),,,,,But just as the students started rolling north on their journey for justice, the stupid Republican lawmakers in Tallahassee voted down a measure to ban purchases of murderous assault rifles, like the one 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz used in his attack that killed 17 students and school staff members in Parkland.

With a 71-36 vote,  Republican Florida lawmakers defeated the assault-rifle bill that would have also banned the purchases of large-capacity magazines statewide.

Father James Martin, Jesuit editor of America Magazine:

"The well-funded resistance to the sensible regulation of handguns, the easy availability of semi-automatic weapons and the resistance to preventing people with mental health issues from obtaining them, is a clear participation in evil. This is a life issue."

"Gun control is about the defense of life. Those who consider themselves religious or pro-life must see that the desire to prevent gun-related deaths is part of the religious defense of the dignity of all life."

"We need less guns in America, not more" Broward County Sheriff Scott Isreal

Stop blaming gun violence on people who are mentally ill. 

An "echo" opinion, published in the Illinois State Journal Register.

Guns kill - they are the root cause of gun violence and the source of the massacres of innocent Americans.
When will Republicans do something? In my opinion, the 17 dead children and their adult coach/teachers in Parkland Florida, are the victims of irresponsible Republican leadership at the Executive and Congressional levels. Even the Supreme Court has made clear that the Second Amendment is not "absolute" ~ as per Eugene Robinson

In fact, Donald Trump signed a clandestine bill into law that allows the mentally ill to buy guns. Now, Republicans are blaming the mentally ill for the tragedy of gun violence and the sinful massacres of innocent school children.

But the problem is guns. Here is Eugene Robinson's opinion from the Illinois State Journal Register opinion:

Eugene Robinson opinion: 

The issue is not mental health. It’s guns.

Don’t tell me the issue is mental health. Save the nonsense about “good guys” with weapons somehow being the answer. The truth is this: There would have been no tragic shooting Wednesday in Parkland, Florida, if a troubled young man had not gotten his hands on a military-style assault rifle and as much ammunition as he wanted.

Many people knew that  the suspect Nikolas Cruz was troubled, violent and liable to explode. 

Yet nothing kept him from acquiring the gun he allegedly used to kill 17 students and faculty members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in yet another senseless slaughter of the kind that still shocks but no longer surprises.

President Trump addressed the nation, saying we must “answer hate with love” and vowing to “tackle the difficult issue of mental health.” But he made no mention of gun control — meaning he might as well have said nothing at all.

According to news reports in The Washington Post and other outlets, Cruz, 19, had been repeatedly suspended and then expelled from the high school for disciplinary problems. He had sought and received treatment at a mental health clinic, but stopped attending. He showed signs of depression. His posts on social media were so unsettling that they scared acquaintances away. His father died several years ago and his mother, with whom he was close, passed away around Thanksgiving. The leader of a white nationalist group claimed that Cruz was a member.

And he had a fetish for guns.

To say there were warning signs about Cruz is a gross understatement. There were flashing red lights and blaring sirens.

“I think everyone in this school had it in the back of their mind that if anyone was supposed to do it, it was most likely going to be him,” a former classmate told the Post — “do it” meaning the kind of homicidal rampage we saw Wednesday. A math teacher at the school told the Miami Herald that Cruz had threatened students before being expelled, and that “he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him.”

It was obvious that a tragedy might be coming. Yet, as a society, we refused to take the steps that could have prevented it.

How many alienated and disturbed young men are out there, rattling around peaceful suburbs like Parkland? Many thousands, surely. Some will get the help they need; some won’t. Most will never act on their violent urges; but, sadly, some will.

It is impossible to imagine a mental health system with the scope, authority and resources necessary to prevent every Parkland or Newtown or Columbine. In Cruz’s case, in fact, the existing system worked: He got professional help. School administrators knew he could pose a threat. 

According to news reports, a tipster even tried to alert the FBI that Cruz wanted to be “a professional school shooter.”

Yet in February 2017, Cruz was able to legally purchase an AR-15-style assault rifle from a local gun shop. With no criminal record or anything else in his past that would raise an official red flag, he sailed through a background check.

Apologists for the National Rifle Association will cynically use this circumstance to argue against a common-sense measure that four out of five Americans support: universal background checks for gun purchases. That wouldn’t have stopped the Parkland massacre, they will claim — diverting attention from the fact that universal checks could have prevented some mass shootings in the past and would surely prevent some in the future.

At the heart of the matter, though, lies the gun- (MaineWriter ~ and access to too many guns, especially assault weapons and the ammunition needed to kill people).

There are disturbed individuals like Cruz in countries around the world, but only the United States suffers mass shootings so regularly that they have almost become routine. Why? Because you can’t shoot up a school or a night club or a country music concert the way it was done in Parkland, Orlando and Las Vegas if you don’t have access to weapons of war that were designed for the battlefield.

The Supreme Court has made clear that the Second Amendment, while guaranteeing the right to keep and bear arms, is not absolute. The Bill of Rights was written in the era of muskets and dueling pistols. We don’t allow private citizens to own surface-to-air missiles capable of downing an airliner, so why do we let them own assault rifles designed not to shoot targets or game but to kill human beings in large numbers?

This is madness. Look at those grieving parents in Parkland. Know that because of the NRA, others surely will soon join their ranks.

Contact Eugene Robinson: eugenerobinson@washpost.com.

Broward County, Florida Sheriff Scott Isreal said it all in a press conference and TV interview - "America needs less guns, not more guns".