Armed teachers sign (courtesy huffingtonpost.com)

Congressman Thomas Massie has proposed repealing the controversial federal ban on guns within a thousand feet of a school. From cnsnews.com:

Massie said the solution to school shootings is putting more than one-armed guard at school or allowing teachers to be armed, adding that “98 percent of mass public shootings happen in a gun free zone.”

“And we’ve labeled all of our schools as gun free zones. We need to take those labels off, and put our kids in that two percent category of being safe, instead of being in that 98 percent vulnerable category,” he said.

Massie said his bill, the Safe Students Act (H.R. 34), has the support of Columbine survivor Evan Todd.

Congressman Massie (R-KY) is right about an important fact. School shootings increased after federal gun bans were passed.

The 1990 Gun Free School Zone Act (GFSZA) was a ban on guns within a thousand feet of school. It effectively banned the carry of guns in most cities and towns.

The 1996 GFSZA act included a minor change that exempted people with concealed carry permits. The 1994 Gun Free School act gave incentives for schools to ban guns inside the schools.

What caused the increase in mass murder in schools? There are two likely possibilities . . .

The gun bans make the schools inviting targets. Potential mass murderers know that they can kill more people without armed opposition. The number they kill is important, because they want fame.

The second factor is the copycat effect. Fame gives societal misfits a pseudo-immortality in celebrity. Celebrity is valued about all other things in our popular culture.

Potential mass murderers who are unhinged, poorly integrated into society, and considering suicide, see an option to leave the life they hate while achieving celebrity status.

The media loved the restrictions. The establishment media use school shootings to push for more gun bans, restrictions on gun ownership and use. The media  give coverage to school shootings all out of proportion to the number of people killed. The coverage gives future mass murderers incentive to kill large numbers of people and “break the record”.

Congressman Massie is working to bring to the debate a factor ignored by the elite media for decades.  School shootings shot up after the federal gun bans were passed, not before they took effect.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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27 COMMENTS

    • But a one-armed guard is better than no guard at all.

      …and you can tune a piano but you can’t tune a fish.

        • Teach a man to fish and he can feed himself for the rest of his life.

          Set a man on fire and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.

      • “…and you can tune a piano but you can’t tune a fish.”

        You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but if you can pick your friend’s nose, you have a *weird* friend… 😉

  2. Finally some commonsense legislation that will actually save lives by removing the big “killers welcome” sign from schools in the social consciousness.

  3. Schools are not Gun free Zones as has been proven on numerous occasions. They are in fact Helpless Victim Zones.

  4. -starting to sound like a broken record but here goes…
    If a law prevents or prohibits you from exercising a basic civil right, it is because a bigot wrote it.
    I don’t like playing the role of a victim – but at some point we need to acknowledge that we ARE a much maligned and oppressed demographic… and its way past time we start protesting like it.
    🤠

  5. Good start, but ultimately useless as most states mirror federal law.

    Progressives will be screaming “Muh States Rights” if the fed tries to bring them in line with the Constitution.

    It is too much to ask for our, and the numerous states government, to respect the law of the land.

    • California has copied the Federal statute. But then it went and banned CCW carriers from all campuses, subject to the approval of the school superintendent (CCWs can still carry within 1000′, just not ON campus.). But when 3 superintendents approved CCWs on campus, the Legislature passed a law, signed by Brown, that eliminated the superintendents’ discretion. So now the only arms on campuses are the SROs at (some or all I don’t know) high schools.

      The probability that California will repeal its ban is nil.

  6. Chief Master: But a half-brained “gun-free-zone-means-all-victiims-are-disarmed” advocate will fight tooth and nail to keep the criminal shooter(s) safe, instead of the students.

  7. Called my Rep Senators and Rep on this 10days ago. Their phonecritters had no idea what the Gun Free Schools BS even was. I bet they do by now.

  8. The next time you hear “More guns is no the answer!”

    Look ’em in the eye and say – “Your local police have been informed to *not* respond to a school shooting? After all, “More guns is no the answer!”

    We’ve tried “Gun-free zones”. They don’t work, kids are still being slaughtered.

    Time to try something *else*…

  9. The establishment media use school shootings to push for more gun bans, restrictions on gun ownership and use. The media give coverage to school shootings all out of proportion to the number of people killed. The coverage gives future mass murderers incentive to kill large numbers of people and “break the record”.
    I have been saying this about Liberals for years.

  10. Gun Free Zones are nothing short of State/Federal sponsored Killing Fields. They need to be repealed at the Federal level.

  11. Never gonna pass with the gun grabber in chief. Trump will do whatever it takes to get his approval ratings up, even if it means crapping on his base. Let’s just Hope Republicans can keep control into 2020 so we can primary the bozo out and get a real conservative in office.

    • Do tell? What firearms legislation has Pres Trump signed? Sent to the house/senate?

      If you’ve been involved in politics for 5min, do more listening and learn how the process works.

  13. This is never going to pass and Trump wouldn’t sign it if it did. He doesn’t have the stones to stand up to the press. Oh sure, he’ll taunt them with names in the middle of the night, spewed over Twitter, but when it comes to kids in tears, every day, on every channel, he caves. He’s never going to sign a bill that everyone would howl “makes it legal for school shooters to bring their military style weapons of war on campus.” Never.

    Geez, it’s March 2018. Who the hell was still talking about bump stocks? Yet, here comes bumbling Trump with his illegal executive order and ATF regulations to ban what he has no authority to ban.

    He doesn’t have the mental horsepower to make the arguments. People think he panders to his supporters because simple, stock slogans is all they understand. It’s actually the other way around. Simple slogans are all that he can understand.

  14. So when will anyone in the media world be held responsible for the copy cat shootings? Or would that be going against the ‘freedom of speech’? Isn’t that called the 1st amendment? The media holds the 1st amendment so dear, but is trying it’s best to trample on the 2nd.

  15. MSM is motivated to promote conflict which increases viewership. Trump does the same thing.

    I’ve reached the point where I’m ready to promote the licensing, registration and background checks for anyone considering authoring anything online or in print. Time to infringe fairly.

  16. I’m not sure what Congressman Thomas Massie is even talking about, which is typical of elected officials now.

    The original law, known as the “Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990”, which made it a federal offense “for any individual knowingly to possess a firearm at a place that the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone.” That law, found at 18 U. S. C. § 922(q)(1)(A) (1988 ed., Supp. V), was declared un-constitutional by The United States Court of Appeals for The Fifth Circuit in United States of America v. Alfonso Lopez, Jr. F.3d 1342 (1993). The United States Supreme Court agreed with the 5th Circuit and affirmed its finding that “Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990” was un-constitutional, in the words if Chief Justice Rehnquist: because “the Act neither regulates a commercial activity nor contains a requirement that the possession be connected in any way to interstate commerce. We hold that the Act exceeds the authority of Congress “[t]o regulate Commerce . . . among the several States . . . .” U. S. Const., Art. I, § 8, cl. 3. United States V. Lopez, 14 U.S. 549, 551 (1995).

    The current version (the 1996 Amendment) of this Act, 18 U.S.C. 922(q)(2)(B)(ii) DOES NOT PROHIBIT A SCHOOL EMPLOYEE OR ANY INDIVIDUAL FROM CARRYING OR POSSESSING A FIREARM IF THEY HAVE A PERMIT/LICENSE TO DO SO. The Act reads as follows:
    (q)(2)
    (A) It shall be unlawful for any individual knowingly to possess a firearm that has moved in or that otherwise affects interstate or foreign commerce at a place that the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone.
    (B) Subparagraph (A) does not apply to the possession of a firearm—
    (i) on private property not part of school grounds;
    (ii) if the individual possessing the firearm is licensed to do so by the State in which the school zone is located or a political subdivision of the State, and the law of the State or political subdivision requires that, before an individual obtains such a license, the law enforcement authorities of the State or political subdivision verify that the individual is qualified under law to receive the license;
    (iii) that is—
    (I) not loaded; and
    (II) in a locked container, or a locked firearms rack that is on a motor vehicle;
    (iv) by an individual for use in a program approved by a school in the school zone;
    (v) by an individual in accordance with a contract entered into between a school in the school zone and the individual or an employer of the individual;
    (vi) by a law enforcement officer acting in his or her official capacity; or
    (vii) that is unloaded and is possessed by an individual while traversing school premises for the purpose of gaining access to public or private lands open to hunting, if the entry on school premises is authorized by school authorities.

    Note 922(q)(B)(ii) states that it is not a violation of the Act if the person carrying a firearm, has a license to carry, provided that the political subdivision verifies that the individual is qualified under the state of local law to receive the license. (total B.S. language which is an attempt to make people believe that the carrying of all guns are still prohibited within a “school zone.” Obviously this leaves the question of ‘Constitutional Carry’ an open question and attempts to prohibit the lawful carrying of a firearm in a “school zone” in states which have never even had a scheme to issue licenses or permits in order to carry concealed or open, such as Vermont.

    • Regardless whether it’s tyrannical Federal legislation, or tyrannical State legislation, most every school in America today is a “Gun Free Zone”. If we desire to protect children from mass shootings in government schools, we must end “Gun Free Zones” at government schools. This is the paramount issue we must all come to understand. Thankfully, Massie seems to understand this fact, and thank God he is standing up to the tyranny which has been allowing mass public shootings to increase.

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