“I definitely understand the temptation [to say]: ‘If only someone had a gun, this could have all been prevented’… The problem is: You are taking a basically improbable event, especially in comparison to the more prosaic things that are likely to happen with a gun in the school on a day-to-day basis. The accidents, the gun falling into the wrong hands…″ – Peter Bilderback, board member, Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence [via providencejournal.com]
Oh my oh my. There are soooo many accidents at RI (or any) schools. Oh wait…
Wasn’t there a negligent discharge at Utah Valley University as recently as Tuesday this week?
Utah has had Campus Carry since 1998. Tuesday marks the 2nd Negligent Discharge via CC in a school ever in our state. No one was hurt either time. A toilet was the victim of the first one.
How many innocent toilets have to die before we come to our senses?
There was a negligent discharge from Peter Bilderback’s mouth in the above article, that’s for sure . . .
I thought I read that the ND was near the University. Let me know if that is not the case.
So if it’s a basically improbable event why are people pushing to implement another federal assault weapon ban like the one that didn’t work last time?
Because an AR rifle ban (I refuse to use their made-up, political terms) costs nothing more than passing a bill. It’s basically free (in their eyes), so any upside whatsoever, like saving just one life in preventing an albeit improbable event, is a no brainer. One might even say, common sense.
Allowing campus carry, however, entails the risk, or let’s face it, the inevitability, of negligent discharges. Sure, in the totality of school-days (the sum product of schools and the days they’re open), NDs are rare. Still, they are not as rare as school spree shootings. Their thinking is that it’s foolish to address the extremely improbable event of a school spree shooting, by donning firearms which carry a less remote probability of negligent discharge.
Or put more succinctly, “because guns!”. They support anything that gets rid of guns because they believe guns are magical talismans of evil. Adding any additional logic to the argument is projection in most cases.
I like how decreasing liberty to ineffectively prevent the improbably is such a often driver and so important it must be (usually) done as fast as possible in the wee hours of the morning.
Yet, increasing liberty in the face of the improbable is simply a non-starter and anyone who suggest it be done is a child-hating monster that feeds on unicorn testicles.
Get out of your unicorn fantasy land, they aren’t real. As a liberty-loving child hater, I much prefer to just eat the children I find myself hating anyway. It’s called implementing a solution to the problem.
It’s certainly a modest proposal.
Was your response quick enough to be called swift?
“Anyone who hates children and animals can’t be all bad” – W.C Fields. But among his best: “Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water.”
Such a great point, why just last week my Kimber jumped out of my holster and lept into my daughter’s lap! It has always been partial to her and shoots a bit closer to the center of the target for her. Just think what a commotion that would have made if it had happened when I was visiting her at school. Oh wait, I’m not allowed to take it with me when I go there, at least until Deal signs the campus carry bill on his desk.
/Sarc to off
“I definitely understand the temptation [to say]: ‘If only someone had a gun, this could have all been prevented’… The problem is: You are taking a basically improbable event, especially in comparison to the more prosaic things that are likely to happen with a gun in the school on a day-to-day basis. The accidents, the gun falling into the wrong hands…″
Think of all of the fire alarms, fire extinguishers, and defibrillation kits that stand ready in schools. Think of all of the people who take CPR classes and never use the knowledge. How many cars will deteriorate and enter junkyards with airbags that have never deployed?
There are solutions to the “wrong hands” problem. Something as simple as a lock or safe comes to mind. The real root of Bilderback’s statement lies in hoplophobia. Looking for the violence free utopia, he cannot accept that ours is not a perfect world and deal with the here and now. Likely due to his own preferences, biases, and fears.
One good gun at Sandy Hook would have probably prevented most or all of the carnage.
Same goes for Columbine, which actually did have a Deputy Sheriff’s gun, but the LEO crawled away to organize backup instead of immediately confronting the gun bearers.
Smurffs don’t understand that all the miscreants allowed into the US by the last 3 presidents will be creating more and more carnage every day. Life in the US will become as cheap as it is in Mexico or Baghdad. Just a matter of time.
One good civil commitment order would have prevented Sandy Hook even better.
Due process? I’m all for it. Send a process server to the whacko’s house and get his rear in court. Allow him plenty of time to prepare his defense. When he’s found to be a danger to himself or others, lock him up and treat him until he’s ready to resume his place in society.
He was bat crap crazy and obviously so, just like many (but not all) of these spree shooters are. Can’t be trusted with a gun, so can’t be trusted without a guardian? Exactly. Lock ’em up and guard them.
Hindsight is 20/20? True, but even Mr. Magoo on a foggy day could see some of these worst ones are nuts. The longer we wait to address that, the closer we get to the Big One, after which none of us will be able to keep our guns.
The large majorty of homicide by the insane are not even with guns.
When I was in Australia two years ago a woman killed eight kids with a knife. on a per capita basis that is like a spree killing of 12o kids here.
When I was living in California a nut my town a guy killed his three roommates — all military age males — with a knife. Imagine how the left would go nuts if you suggested that at least people co-habiting with someone or working with them, have a right to know if he/she has been adjudicated as nuts.
Look at the Aurora shooter. He, like virtually all the spree shooters was intelligent and compulsive (vs simply impulsive). Without access to firearms they would make bombs and kill as many. The issue is them being nuts, not the rights of the rest of us
If they are likely to happen on a day-to-day basis, why have they not become a problem in jurisdictions that allow guns in schools?
Schools should be designed with sally port entrances and metal detectors to screen folks before they get into the building. It’s the premises owner who should recognize risks and provide solutions. Adding extra sets of doors and electronic screening is not particularly expensive. Making guns illegal in schools will do nothing to stop thugs and coconuts.
We need changes to the building codes, not changes to the gun laws.
The shooting at Newtown had such a system. The shooter had to breech the obstacle. If only one person in that office has had a firearm they could have put the assailant down as he was entering through the hole he created. The Army refers to it as the fatal funnel.
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/01/robert-farago/uncle-sam-spends-75m-ignore-good-guy-gun-school-shooting-defense/
Any combat engineer will tell you that no obstacle is a barrier unless it’s guarded. At best, it’s a delaying tactic.
The gunman shot through ordinary entry glass, a secure entry with bars and steel plate would have stopped him from actually entering the building. However, even with a secured entry or after confiscating every firearm on the planet, there’s nothing to stop a coconut from driving a tanker truck of gasoline or propane into the building. Where there’s a will, there’s always a way.
All that does is shift the hot zone to the unsecured areas. So now a killer will strike outside the building, when the kids are assembled at bus arrival or departure, or outside during recess or P.E.
Col. Dave Grossman writes and speaks about this. 93% of public schools now have secure access only.
The next target, is school buses Grossman says, now is the time to arm bus drivers or put armed volunteers on buses.
training and screening must accompany equipping.
Grossman also writes on the Beslam school siege 2004 as a jihadist template for what the jihadist wants to do in America.
he has a book on the topic and many of his other booth are on the USMC Commandants required reading list for officers.
I like Jesse Ventura’s idea of retired cops or military operators, covertly carrying in the school. In Israel the teachers sling rifles. I don’t like this world sometimes, but a head in the sand…This fella means well, and for sure the kind of fella you’d want on a school board. I hope he’s right for his circumstances, and nothing ever happens.
When people stop trying to pin “gun violence” on people like me just because some one-in-a-billion rando went snap-crackle-pop like his breakfast cereal told him to or some criminal does what criminals always do, I’ll quit advocating for the right (the necessity) of all law-abiding citizens to protect themselves and the children in their care by carrying firearms.
But I don’t think either one of those things are going to happen.
I was there when he spoke before the RI House Judiciary Committee last Tuesday. He speaks at this annual event every year. He has strange movements when he speaks. It’s painful to watch him and listen to him too. I have heard the story about his son being traumatized by a teacher talking about guns many times.
This thing with people posing with a handwritten sign has got to stop. It’s so GD lame and pathetic.
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