Fifteen years after Columbine: What we still need to do to protect our kids. That’s the headline crowning John Mathews’ opinion piece at foxnews.com. To ex-cop marks the tragic anniversary by offering a three-step plan for dealing with school shooters. 1) better planning by school administrators 2) more realistic active shooter drills and 3) better training for staff and students. As tipster JY pointed out, “‘shoot them’ is mysteriously not on the list.” Yes, and the excellent recommendations in the NRA’s National School Shield report – prepared after the Newtown massacre – have been . . .
studiously ignored by the public school industrial complex. The NRA’s abandoned the project as well; the last post on the School Shield Facebook page is dated April 2, 2013. The page only garnered 1400 likes.
Post-Newtown, some states (e.g. South Dakota and Texas) have made moves to ensure that a good guy (or gal) with a gun is on hand to protect children in school. But thousands of schools are still unarmed, with easily defeated perimeter defenses (a.k.a., security theater).
Bottom line: our attention span is short, our proverbial guard is down and our children will pay the price. At the very least we need to repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act as soon as possible – and hope that it is soon enough.
What have we learned? That Democrats/Liberals are frothing at the mouth hate filled Fascists bent total firearm (and any other weapon they can get in the process) confiscation and don’t mind starting a war that kills millions to do it. And its simple. Security in schools.
Fascists care more about the system and their agenda than they do about children or anything else. Ideology trumps all. They are always State before Individual. They use tragedies such as massacres to push their disarmament agenda. Dead kids in a perverse way just “works” for them I guess. If anything gets in the way of their ideology, they ignore it and double down. They aren’t interested in solutions. They are only interested in ideology.
Precisely. Couldn’t say it better myself. Like dragging the family members and survivors up in front of a camera on Capitol Hill and saying, “Shame on you America!”.
Maybe I’m wrong, but if I’m reading through the froth correctly, you seem to be saying that Republicans are a better choice, and that’s who you vote for.
Republicans want to control every aspect of your life except how many guns you have. They all suck in different ways and to pretend otherwise is dangerously delusional.
If the Republicans would stop trying to make everyone’s moral and social choices for them like some (supposedly) Christian Taliban, then I might listen to them about economics and the role of government in society. Until then they can fu*k off right along side the Democrats and their gun control bullshit. Fu*k ’em all.
“…you seem to be saying that Republicans are a better choice, and that’s who you vote for.”
I do not presume from this that you are an intentional Troll, only someone who has for some reason swallowed the Kool-Aid of the left-wing demonization of Republicans as fascists.
The vast majority of conservatives, who must by default support the Republicans as the only viable right wing candidates, have little or no interest in controlling anybody else’s life or moral choices. What has happened is that the Progressives have focused on that minority of fanatically religious conservatives who display unfortunate fascistic fervor in trying to force their religion and morals on everybody else and magnified them as though they represent the entire political philosophy, just as they try to demonize Republicans and conservatives as racists and woman haters and corporate polluters without any conscience. ALL of these stereotypes are false and are promoted by the Left to accomplish a purely political agenda of demonizing their enemy so they do not have to confront them in open and honest debate, which the Progressives would lose.
Conservatives are all about limited, Constitutional government, less taxes, and more personal liberty. The presence of RINOs and right wing fanatics who disregard that to push their own agenda is an anomaly.
The very DEFINITION of Fascism is a political ideology that is so convinced of its moral superiority that it is justified in forcing everyone, by whatever means necessary, to adhere to their agenda. Historically you will find that this is almost always a left-leaning, autocratic, dictatorial construct that once in power totally dominates both political and personal lives. And builds concentration and extermination camps as the only effective means of dealing with dissent.
Swarf, please, do some research for yourself and get a clue.
Read “Liberal Fascism” by Jonah Goldberg. Especially for left-leaning individuals it is a concise and factual eye-opener.
I was going to respond but that was a vey excellent rebuttal. I think too many people have the “screw them all” attitude because they buy into precisely what you described. They read and see what the overtly controlled Liberal media reports on, ONLY the negative fringe of the Republican party. There are indeed many very good, responsible, open minded, competent Republican leaders. Rand Paul, being my favorite. But on CNN and whatnot anyone Republican is painted as an evil Spanish Inquisitor Christian. Where as democrats are portrayed as demigods. Its not the reality that matters people, it is the perception of reality. And the reality is, the Republican party really isn’t that bad, they’ve just been painted ugly by a very effective liberal media campaign. Now the GOP definitely needs some improvement, but this is politics. Its dirty, and no one steps into that game clean.
You may step into the game clean, but you will likely step in something unpleasant before you step out again.
Hate to say it, but what needs to happen is a defensive gun use by school personnel in SD or TX against a threat in the school followed by a more diplomatically worded “Told ya so!” And no, a DGU doesn’t mean I want anyone shot… WE understand that is not necessary for a gun to be used defensively. Almost every mass shooting ends when? With the presence of a credible (armed) resistance to the shooter.
We’ve already had a DGU at a school (Arapahoe HS in Colorado last December). An armed school resource officer was on-duty and confronted the shooter; the bad guy committed suicide. One student was murdered, but many more casualties were averted.
It doesn’t matter, since the media ignores what does not fit their narrative. Some folks pointed out at the time that yes, a good guy with a gun stopped a bad guy with a gun.
The anti-gun folks don’t care. They choose to be willfully ignorant. They ignore evidence that doesn’t fit their preconceived notions. If it contradicts their dogma, they act as if it does not exist.
Strange beyond belief. I heard about Newtown, over and over and over for WEEKS. But I never heard about that. How do you suppose that could happen?
The Ministry of Truth forbade the Peoples Unbiased Media to speak of it. For the children…
I agree but the fact remains that in all likelihood those schools that authorize certain faculty members to have a weapon will not be targeted by anyone. The shooters and stabbers want unprotected victims so their damage can be unhindered.
I suspect that for maximum effect office personnel (not within arm’s reach) should open carry. But they’d have to agree, since one possible outcome would have them targeted first.
And the teacher’s union would have a stroke from rage and loathing. Because – safety…
It’s going to take more than one. It’s going to take several, in rapid succession, to the point where it CAN’T be ignored any longer by the media.
mSome learned. The 18year old with a shotgun who murdered a girl in his high school was confronted immediately by security. 15 years ago more kids would have been killed. Where I live(south Cook County,Illinois) all schools have ARMED guards. The lefttards may never learn. Oh yeah I learned a Hi-Point 9mm rifle is an ASSAULT RIFLE LOL
I attended Lindbloom Technical High School in Chicago for my freshman year (1965). Due to the political tensions of the time, the neighborhood the school was situated in, and the student body being approximately 70% black (there were no African-Americans at that time), there were TWO Chicago police officers on duty, complete with their police-issue revolvers, at all times.
And yet when a fight broke out between two tables in the lunchroom and expanded into a general melee that sent everyone who was not fighting (about half of us, maybe 100 people) scrambling for the exits, those policemen were discovered out on 63rd street organizing the escaping students, not inside dealing with the fight.
I’m not sure exactly what two cops could have done to quell a race-related gang fight, but had any of those students been armed it would have been very ugly, instead of bruises and hurt feelings.
Perhaps we should also give some consideration to tossing out the one (or at most two) deranged and inept shooter(s) scenario as the only thing our schoolchildren have to be concerned about.
We learned that the media lies. The bullies were Harris and Klebold. We learned that the DOJ is reluctant to take a hard stand on straw purchases. We learned that went good people with guns stand by and don’t nothing, evil will triumph. We learned that background checks don’t make a difference. We learned that magazine limits prevent nothing. We learned that gun grabbers will start the exploitation before the bodies are cold.
That’s pretty darn good!
Klebold and Harris actually were bullied. Bullies don’t set out to kill entire student bodies; they seek out those weaker than themselves.
You should read some more. You should read what other students have said. No one cared about Harris and Klebold. The media story and the school’s story was that these kids were taunted, and it’s false. They weren’t. The lies were effective.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-13-columbine-myths_N.htm
I’m a teacher in Dallas at a school with 3,000 students in 7 different buildings across our campus. We have 1…. Yes 1 armed police officer on our entire campus. I go to school everyday hoping there isn’t an active shooter situation, because my school is IN NO WAY equipped to deal with it. I have a chl and my hands are effectively tied by rules that prevent me from protecting my life and those of my kids.
Well, if that doesn’t say it all…
Just a little math. For 7 buildings you would want 7 officers. The fully burdened cost is about $220,000/year per officer so say about $1,540,000/year. How much would every home and business in the district need to pay in taxes to fund the 7 officers?
Not every school district will be able to fund this.
Post Newtown shooting those kids in the school are using space in Monroe- they have 1 or 2 fulltime officers at the school with a road block at the entrance. How much do you think that costs? A lot, so much so that even the people who wanted this are complaining about the cost and the town has ask sugar daddy Malloy to help with funding.
The issue is people have to be willing to pay or allow teachers to be armed and seems many want neither. IMHO, move some money away from the TSA and DHS and we could probably pay for the necessary officers or security but as long as emotions trump logic, we will never have a solution.
Try this math; a $100/month pay bump for CHL holders who carry at least part time. $1200/yr each, 100 for $120,000/yr, what’s that, 13 in each building? Essentially 100% of whom really CARE about their students, not likely to run away like the guard at Columbine did, or hide behind his police car like the first responding officer. And actually, letting the current officer go would mean that the district spends less than it is spending NOW!
Isn’t that math more sensible?
BTW, I don’t believe that ALL the funding for TSA and DHS would pay for enough officers in every school in the country.
Mac d,
Then break the rules and carry concealed. And if the day comes that everyone finds out that you stopped a massacre because you had a gun that you werent supposed to have on the premises, perhaps the rules that constrain you will change.
While true, the deterrent factor is lost. Open carry, see how that deterrent works!
I believe it’s also the 21st anniversary of Waco.
Is Janet Reno still in prison?
Being someone who never attended a public school I can say that the facilities I attended either had back then or now have an armed security guard/police officer. Has this proven to be easy to thwart in experiments? Yes, but I am curious if that has been enough in terms of armed security. I’m sure I’m wrong since I have heard that Columbine has an armed police officer on the perimeter. Please feel free to correct me.
Columbine had an armed guard on the premises at the time. I would guess he heard every murderous shot clearly for, I think it was, 30 minutes. He was uninjured. What does that tell you?
Do you happen to have a reliable source for that? Usually when the anti’s try the claim that columbine had an armed officer and it didn’t help, the reply tends to be he was not in that day. Either way it does not prove hat armed personnel are pointless like the antis try to make, I am just interested in the truth.
All I know about the guard is that he was not among the injured, though I seem to recall a claim that he couldn’t shoot them when he saw them because they were too far away. I believe it was Gunsite who took their next class and let them try, PRIOR to training, and every one could make the shot. If you told me he was off that day I’d accept that other than asking “WHY!” The first cop on scene, OTOH, I read a summary of at the time, stating that when he heard the shooting (children dying, IOW) he moved from behind the back of his patrol car to behind the front, so the engine block would protect him while he listened to murder and did NOTHING.
IMO, there are 3 reasons why a person becomes a cop. 1) He needs a job, and that’s what’s available. He is not about to risk his life, the pay isn’t that good. 2) Because he’s a bully and a thug, wishes to have power over normal people (would never THINK of approaching anyone who might be dangerous to him). And 3) because he wants to help people in bad situations escape those situations. We need a way to winnow out #1 and #2, but I don’t know what it is.
The solution to prevent another Columbine is simple: We need to pass another assault weapons ban like we had in 1999.Oh wait…
#sarc
If a school is “zero tolerance” it means zero justice; if it doesn’t allow your child to fight a bully, it denies the most basic right of self-defense; if it is a GFZ, it is a homicidal maniacs empowerment zone. (and they will be brainwashed in the current Liberal/progressive delusion and P/C mind control)
A public school under those circumstances is a cess pool of injustice, violation of basic human rights and encouraging a place of mass murder and death.
In the end, placing your child in a public school under those circumstances is placing them naked into a lions den; and the zoo keepers are as much a danger to your child as are the lions.
I’d say that most Americans have learned nothing. If they’d learned something then there would be an clearly armed presence in every school.
The problem is this kind of thing costs $$.
In my experience, many people might agree with things or even applaud ideas but instantly recant if asked to pay for it.
If you want to see where the “gun free zone” insanity will go, type in “Beslan school hostage crisis” in your search engine. That kind of mass hostage taking and murder by Islamic terrorists is eventually going to happen here, and the reaction of the “progressives” will be as follows:
“We can’t judge all Muslims by the actions of a few. This is a result of lax gun control. We need to round up nasty assault guns from all of the non-Muslim gun owners, because they are evil/NRA/gun lobby/right-wing/yaddayadda…”
If that happened the Lefties will have no problem in saying…
“We can’t judge all Muslims by the actions of a few. ….but we will judge all gun owners by the few”
And the MFM will back them up all the way. The last 6 years has demonstrated that when your message agrees with the MFM you can tell lie after lie and there will be no consequences for you.
My top 3 groups for a deserved visit to the the pock marked wall are lawyers, politicians, and then finally the MFM.
I think we are still establishing a proverbial perimeter, 15 years later. Most people still don’t know the actual facts of Columbine.
Or care for more than a day. Gerbils.
What to say about Columbine… well… to give you a snap shot of how I feel about it I shall describe my feelings on the subject as a smoldering ember of super charged hate deep in my soul. And even 15 years past it still hasn’t gone out. This ember that will NEVER go out… if I am lucky.
Now the reason for that being that I was actually a senior in high school when Columbine went down. And in the process of a day I went from this shy person on the honor roll to public freaking enemy number one in my community. All because someone started a RUMOR about me. So over the course of about two weeks I got put through absolute HELL try to clear my own name. Including the threat of a lawsuit when the school board tried to expel me even after it became apparent that this rumor was just that.
With that story in mind it’s probably no surprise when I tell you that I think that this nation hasn’t learned a damn thing from Columbine. Beyond that I’ll even say that this nation has actually a far FAR worse place for children in the wake of the incident. Anyone with eyes to see and a mind to think already knows that these incidents are so exceedingly rare as to not even being worth mentioning. In stead we now have zero tolerance polices. Policies so blindly adhered to as to be something you would see out of a bad dystrophy sci-fi flick. Never a child actually bringing a knife or gun to school… we have children being thrown for pointing their fingers at on and other. Hell… a kid got ARRESTED for wearing a NRA T-shirt!
There’s a bit of a meme out there that we’ve probably all see. A fake news report saying ‘Gun shaped cloud seen over school: all students suspended for 5 days’. We all get kind of a laugh out of it. But honestly… it’s nothing to laugh at. Because it’s an sign of a malignity cancer that has infected out society.
Testimony from someone who has been there – thank you. I think the best advice I could give someone going through today’s public school system, especially high school, is “hunker down, tough it out, and remember you will escape eventually.” Four years of the crap you describe, unfortunately, will seem like forever.
Well… I don’t know if I’d say to just ‘hunker down’. After all just letting ‘them’ just run you over is not way to live either. But there is definitely something to be said about situational awareness.
Yea that does sound kind of sucky. My experiences of the events following Columbine are kind of the opposite. I was in sixth grade at the time, shy and a bit socially inept. I was pretty much bullied by almost everyone else in my classes. When Columbine happened it turned out to be the high point of that school year for me because for the next 3 weeks every one left me alone. Many of the students were afraid that because they had all been bulling by I was going to go and shoot up the school. A couple of students came out and straight up asked me if I was planning on shooting up the school. It was actually kind of funny to me because A) kids that had been bullying be were now suddenly afraid of me. B) the notion of shooting up the school was such a completely foreign idea in my way of thinking that the idea I would even think about doing such a thing was ridiculous in my mind. and C) Even if I had been crazy and entertained such thoughts why would they think I would tell them.
Columbine actually laid the basis as to why I am such a strong supporter of the Second Amendment today. I think it was about four weeks after Columbine that wild rumors started flying about someone was supposedly going to shoot up the school at 10:00 on a certain day. As the time got closer to 10 that day a bunch of kids were scarred and having their parents come pick them up. One of the kids that sat next to me was talking about how it was definitely going to happen and that we were all going to be killed. I tried to use logic to convince him that nothing was going to happen by pointing out that it would make absolutely no sense for someone that was planning on such action to announce their plan in advanced especially down to the exact time. It did not work, but I started thinking if such an event were to happen what would I do? I quickly realized the obvious, attack! From a logical stand point it was the best answer. If you were lucky you stop the killers, saving many lives. Even if you failed and were killed, Your actions very well may slow them down saving a few lives making it a good trade. Even a worst case scenario were all you do is take a bullet that would have been meant for someone else it is still an even trade in the number of lives lost. I decided it was far better die fighting to stop such a person than die trying to hide or run. I then went on thinking on what the best things I could use in the classroom as a weapon and what the best plan of attack would be.
It’s been 15 years, I am a little older (and at least I believe a little wiser than I was at 11), but the core is still the same, I still believe it is better to die fighting than hiding or running. Firearms give you the best chance to give you the best possible outcome.
We’ve learned that Michael Moore sure can make a sh1tty movie.
Yeah that’s RIGHT. Moore makes MOVIES, not documentaries. Documentaries have facts.
Been a while but I seem to remember ‘Bowling’ having almost 10 major factual errors. Not to mention more than a few staged scenes.
We learned no law on the books, nor proposed could have prevented it.
We have plenty of new laws which would make it illegal. But then, wasn’t it illegal at the time? To STOP it would have taken (we need to keep repeating this) “a good guy with a gun.”
I think we’ve learned that media publicity of mass shootings will guarantee a certain type of nut will keep committing them.
We apparently haven’t learned to quit bringing it up all the goddamn time.
We’ve learned goths are scary and will kill you in your sleep.
Aaaaaaaand that’s about it.
/sarc
The police have radically changed active shooter response, they grew and learned a -ton-! The public is still mesmerized by emotion and the education system is still held by the mindset of an entrenched beuracracy that uses emotion like a lever imo
Have they really? All I’ve seen is they set up a perimeter and wait for the killer to get bored and off himself, after which they point machine guns and terrorize the innocent. Which recent shooting incident was stopped by responding police confronting the shooter? I don’t seem to recall one. Not Tucson, not CO, not Newtown, and on and on. Maybe what they’ve learned is to stay out of the way.
Remember, back in the day when Charles Whitman holed up in the UT Tower in Austin, TX and started shooting people below? Two beat cops, one on foot patrol armed with a revolver, and one in a patrol car who brought the shotgun, took it on themselves to climb the damn tower and shoot the prick. No SWAT, no perimeter, no command post, no communication, just a very clear JOB to do! If it happened today, he’d be killing people for a week.
AH! Answer my own question, I THINK it was police who shot Hasan at Ft Hood. Might have been post security.
What we have learned is that Ambien, and other similar drugs, can reliably create mass murderers. What we have not learned is to hold doctors who prescribe these drugs accountable for the damage they cause.
I have learned that the gun bullies have made it just as safe for a crazy person to shoot up a school as it was 15 years ago.
Its always the gun never the shooter. The Columbine mass murderers were not the blame, the scary black guns were. Now if they had only used bombs we could blame them much like the Boston bombers. Bomb goes off blame the bomber, gun goes off blame the gun.
Good point!
We learned, or at least should have, that dropping or children off at progressive indoctrination camp every morning of their most formative years instead of caring for them; is not only child abuse, but can be deadly as well.
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