Facebook posting by Reynolds High School science teacher Seth Needler:

Today I endured the nightmare I had feared for the past fourteen years, since I started teaching public school – a school shooting. I guess in some ways I’m lucky, or dodged a bullet, since I was never near the shooter, got home safely and didn’t even know the student who was shot and killed . . .

It was absolutely terrifying to sit in my classroom, on the floor, in the dark, with a group of 40 or so students crammed into the corner against the wall, silently reflecting that all four walls of the room are made of some kind of flexible bulletin-board material (great for hanging posters, but I’m sure any bullet that exists could go through easily), and thinking of my wife and child at home. The lockdown lasted for close to an hour, before we were evacuated by police in riot gear. All of us had to walk out with our hands up and get patted down, twice. All backpacks and bags were confiscated. I spent the rest of the day feeling alternately sad, worried, scared and confused, wanting to know what was really happening.

But, now that I’ve had time to process my thoughts and feelings, I want to be clear about what my reaction to today is going to be.

I don’t blame this on a mentally unhinged youth, although that might be what it was, or on lax security, or even on society’s general decline. This was a case, like all the other recent school shootings, of gun violence due to lax gun regulation, and the proliferation of military assault weapons in the hands of everyday citizens.

I’m sick and tired of hearing gun enthusiasts claim that any kind of gun regulation is an attack on the second amendment, or that the solution to gun violence is more guns. I completely fail to understand how one organization, which is the lobbying arm of one industry, can control every politician in Congress to the extent of preventing any action at all on gun control, even after polls show that 90% of Americans are in favor of it.

But every time another shooting happens, and undoubtedly this will be no exception, people (including me and my family and friends) sigh, groan, bemoan the incident, talk about how awful it is, criticize the NRA and its lopsided influence, and then do…nothing. The only constituency that responds with any energy to incidents of gun violence is gun enthusiasts, who declare that it just provides more proof of their hypothesis that schools need to be staffed with U.S. Marshalls and teachers need to be armed and carry loaded weapons. Rather than stricter gun regulation, we get weakening of the existing regulation, and states literally pushing each other out of the way to be the most liberal when it comes to who can carry weapons into how many different venues, including churches, schools and even bars. Everybody laughs about it on late night TV, and then goes back to their business.

In Australia there was one school shooting, in 2002. Immediately afterward, the conservative government enacted strict gun control. There hasn’t been another one since. In Israel, people outside the army who want to own a gun have to take a training, and if they pass, are allowed to buy a once-only, lifetime supply of 50 bullets. I don’t have other statistics to reel off, but I do know that nowhere else in the world, let alone a wealthy country, are there shootings committed with the frequency of the U.S.

Why can’t the U.S. have more gun control? Apparently we have some now, but it obviously isn’t enough when any individual who wants one and can get the cash together can buy any gun that exists.

Here’s my proposed gun regulation:

To buy a gun, you need 3 letters of recommendation: One from a family member, one from a friend, and one from a co-worker. If your family doesn’t trust you, you have no friends, and your co-workers don’t know you well enough to trust you, then you shouldn’t be able to own a gun.

I also think prospective gun owners should have to undergo a rigorous gun-safety training, submit to a background check, and meet an age limit, but I’m not an idealist. I think the above is something that every common sense person should be able to agree with. I’m not a lawyer or politician, so I’m sure my idea will be mocked for its naiveté, criticized for its lack of practicality when not even much weaker rules can get a hearing in Congress, and ignored in any case, since no one takes gun control seriously in America.

However, I intend tomorrow to begin contacting my representatives in government. I’m going to ask them to sign on to a pledge called the “No Gun Pledge.” Like the no tax pledge that all the conservatives sign on to, this pledge would say: “I will never vote for any legislation that relaxes or weakens gun regulations, or increases access to guns, or makes it easier to bring military assault-style weapons to market.”

Politicians who are already on record in favor of gun control would have nothing to lose by signing on to such a pledge. Although it might sound silly, it could be a rallying tool and perhaps inspire a little political courage.

I can’t sit around anymore and do nothing. I encourage anyone reading this to take action also. Politicians say all the time that they get far more calls from their pro-gun constituents than the other 90% of us. Nothing will change without a massive, concerted uprising from us, the people.

Not too many years ago, big tobacco was a political third rail, like the NRA is today. But they were brought down by a nationwide effort, endless lawsuits and ultimately the intervention of Congress, spurred by relentless public pressure. People can still smoke cigarettes. They are expensive, everybody knows they’re bad for you, and you can’t smoke wherever you want. Smokers have to stand outside when it’s cold and endure the glares of others when they stand too close to a public doorway or litter their butts on the ground. But no Constitutional rights have been infringed, and the tobacco companies still make huge profits.

Isn’t it time to put the NRA in its place? If not now, when?

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

196 COMMENTS

    • Tarrou, you and John in AK below need to apologize to the gun owning women who protect themselves.

      You both imply that weakness and gun control are feminine traits when in fact we’re trying to win over women to be more public in the support of guns.

      There’s also the taint of anti-gay bias in your words, making it sound like gays aren’t gun folks either.

      Maybe the problem is that they get shunted out of the debate by folks like you? At the least, you’re not helping.

      We can criticize the guys illogical, weakminded stance without having to paint any particular group as being like that.

      • No, of course I disagree. To be ‘female’ is NOT to be construed as being ‘effeminate.’ A strong woman is just that–someone who takes charge of her own life and her environment, who accepts reality and deals with it as an adult, who can reason and not fall prey to emotion-twisted thought. There are, unfortunately, many weak women, and there are also, unfortunately, many weak men who have the characteristics of weak women. This fellow is one of the latter.

        The ‘gay’ men that I know are just that: Men who are ‘gay.’ They have manly values, manly attributes, and are ‘male’ in every aspect save that they have a different use for their sexual plumbing. They are most certainly NOT ‘effeminate,’ and some, in fact (gasp!) own guns.

        The difference, here, is that THIS fellow has taken on the attitudes and behaviours of effeminacy, akin to a juvenile girl instead of an adult woman; HE is ‘effeminate’, in my eyes, in his weakness.

        I hope that this explains the difference.

    • seriously three letters,

      so what if you own your own business and have no co workers or employees, you choose not to socialize to the point of having someone close enough to recommend a firearm, and your only family is no longer living?

      That certainly should not mean that a person should not be able to own a firearm.

      As a person who had a gun drawn and stuck to my head when I was 16 because I walked down the wrong street somewhat late at night, I would say that your suggested protocol is simply ridiculous!

      • At least this character isn’t one of those “flaming” leftard gun control people, although I’ll bet he has an Obama/Biden sticker on the back of his Prius and supports Common Core.

        • Look again. This ‘thing’ is a poster child for the emasculated, geeky, glandular-disorder-suffering, tofu-eating, lactose-intolerant, gluten-free, Birkenstock-wearing, in-touch-with-their-feminine-side, raised by single mothers, Metrosexual, weakling half-‘men’ that are rapidly taking the world-place of real males who actually possess testosterone-generating glands and a mind and body to use the stuff.

          This fear-crippled halfling is an abomination; It cringes and cowers while real men deal with its problems, it expects and demands that its life will be all bunnies and rainbows and unicorns, and refuses to recognize the reality of the existence of Evil and the need for MEN, not half-women, to deal with it with violence.

          This ‘man’ is the character on every sitcom that is inadequate, effeminate, and a figure of scorn, a ‘friend’ to women but never a mate to one.

          Look again.

        • “As I was hiding in the corner of the darkened classroom, children arranged in a pyramid shape around me to provide maximum defense against bullets, I had plenty of time to think about what would be great to have right now. Something that would allow me to not be a victim, to pro actively defend those under my care. Then I discarded the rational idea that I could really use a gun right about now for defending these children and decided it was everyone else’s responsibility to protect these kids, not mine, by disarming all non-criminals. I mean, who am I to decide whether these kids or a murderer should live? Thats the governments job.”

        • Oh great John in all your beating around the bush [I wish you come out a just say whats on your mind]
          Now all I can see is a unicorn sh!tt!ng skittles all over the rainbow.

          btw i could not agree more with your sentiments.

        • As a libertarian, I try to avoid the left/right hate; but only a lefty would never consider the fact that not everyone has “coworkers”. Some of us have to own the means of production and some of those of us who own the means of production don’t have employees, either (perhaps because the government makes it a nightmare to have employees).

    • for a teacher, he sure has 0 facts in order, and needs to be issued some testicles. start looking at the unbiased information, you know, like a science teacher (pre-common core) would do, if rational/.

      • He’s what we would call in the Corps a “vaginized male”, or “man-gina” 😉

      • He said, “I’m not a lawyer or politician, so I’m sure my idea will be mocked for its naiveté, criticized for its lack of practicality when not even much weaker rules can get a hearing in Congress, and ignored in any case, since no one takes gun control seriously in America.”

        That sentence pretty much encapsulates my opinions of the author.

  4. Again, nothing he is proposing will do a damn bit of good. Even for spree killers, much less general crime.

    Lunacy.

    • It’s very simple: ask him what part of his proposal would have stopped the school shooting he almost but really wasn’t part of. Answer: none.

      • You speak truth, but the delusional coward in question doesn’t really want gun control. He wants someone to wave a magic wand and change human nature to be more to his liking. In the delusional coward’s defense, whole generations of Americans have been raised to think that they have no control over what happens to them.

    • Why yes…yes he is.

      Either that or just a perfect example of what 4 years of higher education(indoctrination) produces when you graduate in a non-business/science degree.

      Everybody could have stopped reading at the I don’t blame this on a mentally unhinged youth.

      That right there is progressive/leftist ideology at its core. The complete and total lack of personal responsibility.

        • My writing and/or your reading was unclear…..

          non-business/science = non-business and non-science

          The point is that business/science majors are too jammed up in taking fact based courses and are able to avoid being swamped with mandatory leftist indoctrination classes (although they still get some)

      • I have three non-business/science degrees from state universities and I am pro-gun rights. I’m pretty liberal too, and I’m a public school teacher, but that doesn’t make me anti-gun. Labeling and stereotyping don’t help the gun-rights cause.

        • Let me guess….. you’re “offended” that my generalization (which you try to denigrate by calling a stereotype – BTW typical leftist tactic) goes against your individual case? A minority of exceptions to my generalization does not prove that it is wrong. Daily life is governed by generalizations not the exceptions. Are you making the supposition that there isn’t a mountain of evidence and facts that demonstrates as a group that teachers and the university systems tilt way, way, Left?

        • BTW, my rant was against Progressive/Leftists not liberals.

          If you think Leftist=Liberal then your professors consider your leftist indoctrination a job completed.

    • “Is he high?” = quote of the day.

      Just think, this “teacher” is arguing purely from emotion and not logic and also ignores the fact that guns are lawfully used defensively much more often than by criminals. I wonder if he ever sat down and considered why the gun-free zone law that was supposed to keep him safe didn’t work. As a science teacher I would expect his view to be based on facts and not his ignorant opinions. What a fool…..

  7. Hate to double post, it’s just bugging me.

    So he felt helpless so his proposal is to make everyone as helpless as him. Again, he should be mocked for being naive.

    “I felt like a victim! Why doesn’t everyone else become a victim to!”

    I know that isn’t what he thinks he is saying, but that is what his proposals would do.

    • No, he knows this is what he is saying, and it’s what he means. He’s afraid to take responsibility for his own life, and does not like the way other people being responsible makes him feel about himself.

      So rather than become an adult and take responsibility for his own life, he wants to force everyone else to be a child.

    • No worries about a second post. If you have something of additional value to write, rock it out. I think you’re right, too, that what this is really about with this individual is that he’s neither comfortable nor capable of taking primary responsibility for the safety and security of his family. So he seeks to neuter everyone else, as well, and leave dependence upon the state as the only resort.

      He reminds me of guys in high school who couldn’t show up for their part time jobs on time or couldn’t do the work as instructed. So they want to quit and try to get you to quit, too; blaming the boss, or the company, or the system, or whatever other than himself. Or the guy in college who’s not doing well in school because he doesn’t pay attention, doesn’t prepare, and doesn’t apply himself. So he tries to get you to blow off that project, term paper, or studying for midterms so you two can go shoot pool. Or the guy who keeps getting dumped by girlfriends or turned down for dates, so he tries to get you to break up with your girl, too, because “they’re not worth it”, in favor of always sitting around drinking.

      This guy is the personification of misery not only loving company, but requiring it as a scapegoat for their own fears, failures and moral forfeitures.

  10. People like this severely underestimate us people of the gun. We are more organized, dedicated and cohesive than they could ever be. Every time they push we push back 10 times harder.

    We will win, they will lose. Like always (except in California, New York or other anti-gun states).

  11. Oh this guy is totally out of touch.

    Doesn’t he know that the only way to achieve real change is to launch a hashtag offensive!

  12. I hope he realizes none of his proposed measures would have kept that kid from shooting at his school that day. Who am I kidding, of course he doesnt.

    • Of course not. The vast majority of the people screaming for more gun-control are ignorant and uninformed. They have no idea about gun laws nor the salient details of any of these killings. With the exception of two or three, everyone of these high-profile killers got their guns through an FFL and passed a background check to get it. While I can’t say for certain about all, but many of them were mentally deranged and should have been adjudicated mentally defective and prohibited from possessing firearms. And the responsibility for that falls on their family and friends.

      • “adjudicated mentally defective and prohibited from possessing firearms.”

        Why do you think this would make any more difference than the other nonsense being proposed by the gun grabbers? You can “prohibit” all you like, but you can’t begin to prevent anyone from obtaining a weapon if they want one. Remember that weapons are easy to get… by the worst criminals imaginable… in maximum security prison.

        It’s crazy to think that if the “mentally ill” (and who determins that anyway?) are deprived of guns, the problem goes away. Talk about unicorn farts.

  13. “It was absolutely terrifying to sit in my classroom, on the floor, in the dark, with a group of 40 or so students crammed into the corner against the wall”
    Well maybe it wouldn’t be so terrifying if you were behind a table barricade with a handgun aimed at the door. Oh, no, of course not. The fear of the gun flying out of my holster and killing people overrides the fear of getting shot to death by an active shooter!

    • This was exactly what I thought. Instead of being helpless, why not do something so in the future you wont be helpless? But, no, better to complain about it, be the victim and let someone else do the hard work. And since that isn’t good enough, then sure, demote everyone else to helpless status as well so your self esteem isn’t damaged due to a chosen life path of victimhood. Great plan, teacher.

      • “But, no, better to complain about it, be the victim and let someone else do the hard work.”

        And therein lies the problem. If Mr. Needler chooses to do nothing, that is his problem. I refuse to let Mr. Needler make his problem my problem.

  14. As it stands now, you have to have the following people ‘sign off’ on you buying a gun retail:

    The FFL
    The FBI (NICS)
    Local/State Law enforcement (depending on your State)

    Why should a person have to bother a family member, phone a friend, and coerce a co-worker in addition to running the gauntlet above?

    • The whole point is to increase the amount of hassle and ass-pain it takes to buy a gun, thus discouraging people from doing it.

      It’s clearly not an idea he has thought through: who do you submit these letters to? Who vets them to be sure that you’re not just forging them? Does a letter from a dirtbag barfly count the same as one from a saintly church deacon? What about retired people or the self-employed who have no “co-workers”? I can punch another hundred holes in this stupid scheme, but you get the idea. The letters prove nothing; he just wants to increase the level of difficulty for “legal” gun purchases, ignoring the singular fact that all anti-gun people ignore when they propose new laws: criminals will always be able to get weapons.

  17. I thought this shooting was with a stolen handgun, or was it a shotgun? Weapons of war? Probably the worst catch phrase ever.

  18. And just think, if there was a Constitutional protection on our fundamental right to keep and smoke cigarettes, this guy’s idiotic tobacco analogy would actually mean something.

    • The thing is, we actually DO have that right.

      One of the most common misconceptions about the Constitution and the especially the Bill of Rights is that it “enumerates rights.” This is a nice sentiment, and while it can be argued that it does that implicitly, what it actually does is it spells out what the Government may *not* do.

      We the People do not have 27 different rights as bestowed upon us by our Creator. Rather, ALL rights are ours and the Constitution was drafted not as a means of telling us what our rights are, but rather as a means of protecting them against our Government.

      The argument that “there is no Constitutional right to own/drive a car” has long been used as a rebuttal to the “we should treat guns like cars” argument, and it is patently false whether you’re talking about cars or cigarettes or anything else. We have the Natural Right to own and operate cars or keep and smoke cigarettes, because we are sovereign beings whose rights are not up for discussion by our Government.

      Because “all men were created equal,” nobody has the right or the authority to tell anyone else what drugs they may or may not ingest, what food or soda they may or may not drink, what religion they may or may not observe, what firearm they may or may not own, what car they may or may not drive, or anything else, unless someone GIVES them that power.

      And THAT is our biggest threat as a nation. Too many people are willing to hand over their rights and the ability to make choices and decisions on their own to the Government.

      • Wait, didn’t I just f*cking bring up how the constitution doesn’t grant us rights, but instead protects the God-given ones we have?

        *checks earlier post*

        Yes. Yes, I did.

        • Ease up there chief, my point was simply that we do in fact have a “fundamental right to keep and smoke cigarettes.”

          Long winded explanation, sure. But I get that way sometimes.

  19. Yet another example of why sending your kids to public school is borderline child abuse.

    • Between the active shooters roaming the halls and the child molesters conducting the classes, it’s almost easy to forget that even on the best of days the public school system, it serves primarily as a public daycare system for parents, a jobs program for poorly performing college grads, and an indoctrination center for future Democrat-supporting, government-supported dependents of the State.

  20. Nothing he said even touched on how his ridiculous gun control will stop criminals from getting guns and using them illegally. The fact is, the more armed good guys, the more likely we will be to save your butts when these criminals are out there. Once we take all the criminals out, you wont have any more shootings like this.

  22. By my reading of his dream wish….it would not have slowed or hindered the shooter in this case correct?
    Typical leftist crying out to “do something” so they can make themselves feel good.

  24. “In Australia there was one school shooting, in 2002. Immediately afterward, the conservative government enacted strict gun control. There hasn’t been another one since”

    It was 1996 and it wash’t a school shooting, and crime has gone up ever since. Here in the US we have a small thing called the Bill of Rights. Australia did not have such a thing, in fact Australia went as far as making all gun owners felons no trial, no due process they had to surrender all banned gun they owned (Yes the Australian tax payers paid marked value for them) or face 14 years in prison ; Mr. Needler just what do you think would happen if the US government were to do such a thing here?

  25. “It was absolutely terrifying to sit in my classroom, on the floor, in the dark, with a group of 40 or so students crammed into the corner against the wall, …” — Reynolds High School Science teacher Seth Needler

    I’ll bet … so why in world were you just sitting in there with your students? Get . out . of . the . school! Evacuate yourselves away from the gunfire. Why is this so hard for people to grasp and do?!?!?!?

  26. Good for you, getting all that “doing something” out of your system via Facebook. Now, go back to wringing your hands.
    Its been said before, but the problem with this kind of approach really boils down to results. In it’s most ideal form, all that gun control can ever hope to accomplish is less victims. Whereas arming and preparing to defend yourself is going to create more survivors.

  29. “I don’t blame this on a mentally unhinged youth, although that might be what it was, or on lax security, or even on society’s general decline.” — Reynolds High School Science teacher Seth Needler

    No Mr. Needler. That is exactly what is wrong. No one is personally responsible for their actions. Ask any good child psychologist what happens when you raise children in such an environment. The outcome is not pretty.

  31. This man is a lunatic. “a lifetime supply of 50 bullets” ? 3 letters of recommendation?

      • In my lifetime, I have probably put 50 cartridges through the washing machine with loose pocket change.

  32. Response to teacher: you sir are a jack ass. We’re you attacked by a legal gun owner who gives money to a reputable organization so they can stay educated (NRA,GOA), did the attacker legally purchase their firearm and under go the already mandatory background check (unless it was a rifle in which case only the paperwork would have been filed)? Than it won’t make a difference. Criminals don’t follow the rules. Jackass.

  33. It would be easy to dismiss Seth Needlers comment as the words of a crackpot.

    Yet, we cannot afford to dismiss this man’s comment as the words of a madman.

    Why? Because he’s an educator with a stated class size of forty students.

    That’s forty people who will grow up to make their own voting decisions. That’s forty different people, every year, who are exposed to his anti gun perspective.

    If there’s just one teacher like him at one school in every state in America, we have a time bomb waiting to explode in the years to come. I shudder to think of how badly things will reverse if we don’t get our collective arses in gear regarding this culture war were fighting. Without a drastic change in strategy, the generation of people indoctrinated by teachers like Needler and who remember being locked down for hours and missing their families/friends because of a firearm will all to quickly vote us and our guns into a cell.

    Think about it-if the only thing you know about guns is from the TV and that one time you spent an hour scared shitless, huddled in Math 101 before you found out it was a false alarm, you will be unlikely to vote “no” when the Man/ Lady In The Suit starts talk of legislative gun control.

    Forget AWBs and national reciprocity.We have hearts and minds to win, and precious little time to do it in.

    • That’s why more gun owners need to be involved in their community, whether it’s coaching a sport, volunteering at a local school, or yes, work in education.

      Forget high school. Want to really help kids learn how to think rationally about guns / violence and other social issues? Start in elementary school.

      • I agree that education is a key, but being a public school teacher comes with serious constraints. For example, at my daughter’s public HS, her history teacher (Iraq vet, decent American) was ordered to take down pictures of Reagan from his classroom, and has been monitored to make sure he doesn’t make any comments that reflect “political bias.” Meanwhile, another teacher, in teaching how to make a powerpoint presentation, assigned the topic of creating a presentation on why FDR was one of the greatest presidents ever and the principle goes around freely preaching leftist dogma.

        If you want to be a teacher, by all means do what you can. But what we really need is to push for school vouchers and choice. This industrial revolution model of factory-like mass production, one-size fits all education is completely outmoded. On-line individualized learning simply works better to help most kids reach their full potential. The current model is only preserved to protect teachers’ unions from competition, and the teachers in exchange kick tax dollars (a healthy cut of union dues) back to the DNC and go along with whatever indoctrination program is wanted. Breaking up this criminal organization would not only help us start out-completing other developed nations again, it would also help us remove a major obstacle on the road to restoration of rule of constitutional law.

        • Well, even if he had to take his pictures of Reagan, I’m sure the history teacher is still there, present, to be a voice of reason among any anti-gun types in his staff. Oh, and I was the kinda of kid who if assigned to write about why FDR was the “greatest president ever” would do an entire project on the Japanese American Internment and how FDR’s administration did nothing to stop that massive violation of the Constitutional rights of American citizens.

          School vouchers are a nice idea, but they aren’t a silver bullet. Too many greedy, for-profit companies will be looking to make an easy buck by setting up schools that collect the voucher money and turn out uneducated students. Better local and community direction in schools is more feasible, IMO.

    • I’m going to guess this clown has 4 to 6 classes a day with 30 to 40 kids in each one and he probably gets a new group every semester. So he can put his crap out to 2 to 3 hundred kids a year minimum. That just sucks.

  34. Congratulations, Seth Needler. You’re everything we’ve come to expect of a pencil-necked social parasite draining the intelligence from young minds in the American “education” system.

  35. I don’t know where he gets his statistics. Israel has strictly gun laws so they are subjected to bombings. If someone is intent on creating mayhem they will find a way. The Boston Marathon bombers used preassure cookers.

  36. So we have a science teacher who fails critical thinking, and has done zero in the form of analysis of what he wants to do. Sounds like many teachers I have dealt with in the past. The best teachers I have had challenged students to think for themselves gather information on their positions abd have a way to back your opinions.

    If this guy did an analysis of facts he would see his proposal will have no effect on anything he wants to prevent. Plus he does not understand freedom or natural rights. Also, #oogaboogaNRA is a tired cliche. He does not understand all of the different functions that the NRA has like firearms training and safety training. Again he exposes a lot of ignorance in his post.

  38. Sounds like Mr. Needler needs to go back to school and learn that objects don’t cause violence, it’s the hands that hold them.

  39. No there subject to to bombing because the British evicted the last tenets and didn’t kill the previous tenents like we did

  40. While his screed is full of fail, it is noteworthy that the “NRA=gun industry lobby” is becoming more and more common.

    • That’s an advantage the leftists have. When the talking points come out from central command, most of the drones can be counted on to parrot those points faithfully.

  41. This guy is living proof that education doesn’t necessarily make one smarter. In fact, in many cases, it has the opposite effect.

    • I’m certain his education made him “smarter”. It’s just that he started out so low that stupid was all he could hope for.

  42. This guy obviously has no idea what he’s talking about. Blaming the object not the murderer, citing the oft touted and always wrong 90% claim, calling the NRA the lobbying arm for the firearms industry, appeal from an emotional basis, every idiot trope the Prozi’s use is evident in this jackass ‘ s statement.

  43. at so he doesn’t blame the shooter? Who stole the locked , legally owned guns from his parents…sure glad my grandkids don’t have to deal with twinks like him. +1home schooling .

  44. Why is everyone needling the Needler? How can you be so rude to a poor little pseudo-victim throwing a hissy fit to get some attention. Really, he just wants to get hysterical. A year ago, he might have gotten a ride on Air Force One or the Bill Paying Billionaire might have paid to fly him somewhere, anywhere. Today? He will be lucky to receive a Certificate of Merit from a certain progressive Oregon state senator.

  45. I LOVE this game! Switch the noun and see what happens:

    “…To cast a ballot, you need 3 letters of recommendation: One from a family member, one from a friend, and one from a co-worker. If your family doesn’t trust you, you have no friends, and your co-workers don’t know you well enough to trust you, then you shouldn’t be able to vote.”

    No?

    How about this one then….

    “…To have a trial by jury, you need 3 letters of recommendation: One from a family member, one from a friend, and one from a co-worker. If your family doesn’t trust you, you have no friends, and your co-workers don’t know you well enough to trust you, then you shouldn’t be able to defend yourself in a court of law.”

    Your turn… see to what other things you can apply this mans ‘logic.’

    • To be able to drive a car…

      To be allowed to use the phone…

      To be able to get married…

    • To be allowed to Live…..

      To be allowed to be Free….

      To be allowed to peruse Happiness….

  46. This the the face of the opposition. Bloombergs, Feinsteins, and Watts lead them, but people like Needler give them their power. Needler is who really scares me, without him the leaders wither, but he is utterly deluded, and utterly unreachable.

    What else can be said about a man who would suffer the indignity of cowering in a dark corner waiting to be shot, and yet after surviving propose more rules of the type that made him defenseless in the first place.

    Or, more sadly still, perhaps he clamors for more rules which may more thoroughly cover his utter cowardice. Nothing to protect the ego of the coward like claiming the rules kept him from being brave.

    Whatever the reasons, he is our opposition. How to appeal to such a man?

    • “Utterly deluded and utterly unreachable” is a perfect characterization of this teacher and every gun prohibitionist that I know. They wear their ignorance and bigotry on their sleeve as if it’s a badge of courage. And they vote. Now that’s scary.

  47. Gun control is never about protecting children, gun control is about protecting tyrants.

  48. Thought process like this teacher’s are what ‘s wrong with the education system! If you disagree with the law of this land (OUR CONSTITUTION) YOU are FREE to move your happy ass wherever you’d like! If you’d like my gun you are welcome to it when I am done with it, but you may have to wrestle a relative for it and above all else, BE CAREFUL!, the barrel will be EXTREMELY HOT!

  49. So it is better to hide and wait for the good guys with a gun to show up and save you vs. Being the good guy with a gun and saving yourself? Are we so willing to place our other freedoms on the line by giving up the one thing that guarantees them? I, personally, am not willing to take the chance! There are too many groups out there that would love to take away our freedoms (speach, religion, etc) and so many Americans have died to insure our freedoms that I can not imagine giving up even one!

  50. Emotions, emotions, emotions — it is all irrational thought process a person who has been trained over the years to lay down and die. And these are the brave soles that are teaching our kids. They piss in their pants from their shadow and these are the role models we are constantly told children should look up to?

    This guy has fear and is looking for something to pacify his emotions and the NRA is the big bad boogey man. It is teachers like this that cause so many parents to home school.

    if he projects fear than the student will be afraid and if children are only taught to fear they will not be able to deal with the SHTF situations of real life.

    After storm Irene and Sandy I saw people loose their minds because they had no power for a week or two, the Wimpification of America is real and this guy scares me about the future of the nation.

  51. “To buy a gun, you need 3 letters of recommendation: One from a family member, one from a friend, and one from a co-worker. If your family doesn’t trust you, you have no friends, and your co-workers don’t know you well enough to trust you, then you shouldn’t be able to own a gun.

    Great. Just because I am out of work and have no family or friends this guy thinks I shouldn’t be able to buy a gun.

    • Not to mention, what business of their is it if I choose to own a gun? If they disagree on ideological grounds or just pissed at you, they shouldn’t have the right to restrict your liberty based on their belief system.

      I can just see a law-abiding freedom-loving school teacher getting permission from their employer to buy a firearm. Yeah, that’ll happen. Become a school teacher and see your rights fly out the window, because why would a teacher want to have a gun in their home?

      My wife’s best friend is a Buddhist and doesn’t support gun ownership – so if she wanted a pistol for CC she wouldn’t be able to get one. My mother didn’t want me to own guns because she’s afraid her grandkids (my children) might get hurt. When I bought guns, she told me to hide them from the kids and never ever ever talk about them so that they don’t get curious about them.

      She’s forgetting the fact that I grew up shooting rifles at Boy Scout camp and shooting rifles and shotguns with my father and brother. I did not take her advice on this issue and I’m already working on the 4 rules with my 5-year old. As a result, I think there’s *less* curiosity because when she wants to see the guns and talk about them, I am there to help and answer questions and teach and make guns a normal fixture in our household. Her approach would be to hide and demonize the guns so that if she ever came across one she wouldn’t know what to do. That;s how kids shoot themselves. I believe a combination of education and security prevents accidents.

      My point is that we can ask our friends, family, and coworkers for advice and share parts of our lives with them — but they should never be in the position of making/breaking the decision of how we conduct anything in our personal lives.

  52. Australia recently looted 360 MILLION dollars from private bank accounts. What are they gonna do about it? They ain’t got guns.

  53. We need to be nice to this fellow and reach out to him in kindness. He is frightened, and rightly so. And, he does not know the subject, and hasn’t thought it through. He’s just reacting. Guys like us ought to be able to help him out.

  54. Dear Mr. Needler,

    it is a very scary thing to be in the vicinity of a violent shooting. I understand your upset. But please explain to me what gun control laws you propose would stop another such shooting?

    Background checks? The shooter was only 15 years old and not old enough to purchase a firearm. He broke that law and got a gun anyway.

    Gun registration? Again, The shooter was only 15 years old and not old enough to purchase a firearm. He broke that law too and got a gun anyway.

    Require guns to be locked up? They were. He broke into the safe and stole them. He committed that crime and got a gun anyway.

    Make it illegal for a non registered gun owner to carry a gun in public? He broke that law and carried it anyway.

    Make it illegal to bring loaded guns into a school? He broke that law and brought them into a school anyway.

    How about make it illegal to point a loaded firearm at innocent people who do not pose a threat and fire at them. He broke that law and shot them anyway.

    Again I ask, what new laws do you propose that will stop the next emotionally unstable person who is determined to do harm to others from obtaining weapons to carry out their obsession?

    • It is arguments like this that we need to keep bringing up. Using the “criminals don’t follow laws” talking point doesn’t work on the gun-control crowd. Pointing out that their proposed legislation is completely ineffective at preventing the event they are rallying around is the only way I’ve seen to get through.

  55. Mr Needler gives away his motivation at the end sentence:
    “Isn’t it time to put the NRA in its place?”

    I just wonder how much money he got from Bloomberg.

  56. “I don’t blame this on a mentally unhinged youth”

    I can see his problem right there. He is unable to comprehend things easily grasped by people with 2 or more brain cells.

  57. Obviously Mr. Needler does not enjoy gun activities himself. Perhaps if someone in OR were to take him out shooting, he might enjoy it.
    Why not just put energy towards passing Federal minimum prison terms for those who are caught using a gun in the commission of ANY felony offense? Maybe 10 years for the first, 20 for the second, etc? This alone would probably remove the majority of city gun crimes. Hell, I would have no problem paying $10 on each gun purchase or on ammo, as an excise tax to fund ferderal minimum sentences.

    • Beware of unintended consequences. . .

      The Federal laws covering firearm-related crimes already include mandatory and enhanced sentencing; The problem with what you suggest is that, given the trend in certain states such as MA, NJ, and NY, people who were law-abiding one day may very well become automatic felons at midnight of the next, and the firearm that they once possessed legally now becomes the instrument that makes them an automatic felon. If we encourage this trend, and make pretty much everything a felony with a minimum and possibly-Draconian sentence, we may well become its victims. The complete abrogation of any rights that we have, in a ‘representative democracy,’ can be accomplished by well-meaning people who, through the combination of a majority vote and willing accomplices in the legislature and courts, get their way of viewing life and ‘right’ enacted into law.

      Were you aware that nearly everything that you can do in violation of Federal law, things that you may very well do every day without knowing it, are felonies?

      Don’t give the beast any more power.

      • Remember, Obomber has a pen, a phone, and the ability to influence the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

  58. How about three letters of recommendation for anyone who wants to become a teacher? Or would that upset the pedophiles?

    • I wish you hadn’t said that; I am shocked, SHOCKED to find you so judgemental. Not everyone that looks like a flaming, disgusting, pencil-necked, perm’d-haired, child-molesting pervert IS a flaming, disgusting, pencil-necked, perm’d-haired, child-molesting pervert. Looks can be deceiving. For shame, For SHAME!

  59. And here I thought science was about studying empirical data and forming logical conclusions based on that data. Not emotional regurgitation of political propaganda.

    You, sir, get an F.

    • I thought science was about studying empirical data and forming logical conclusions

      Not correct, at least when it comes to “settled science,” like man-made global warming. The data are irrelevant and conclusions need not be logical.

  61. This is the effect of not associating with adults on an ongoing basis. He did not express one original thought in his entire screed. He has shown himself to be the poster boy for “Prey.”

  62. I think we could all spout statistics like this guy. Statistically 82% of all statistics are made up on the spot. I could say lots of unverifiable things, like he does about Israel, etc.
    Bottom line: his rant is based on emotions and no decision based on emotion has ever been the right, or a good, one.
    Mr. Teacher, you need to come back to reality. I’ve had family members killed in drunk driving accidents (not their fault) but we don’t ban alcohol or vehicles. We have laws against drinking and driving don’t we? Talk about crumbling to a small group that controls the government! Try banning alcohol, oh yeah we tried that and our society cratered to prohibition BECAUSE PEOPLE WERE/ARE GOING TO DRINK (AND DRIVE) REGARDLESS OF THE LAW. We try to restrict the people and make things safer but we don’t stop the behavior. We hardly even do anything to the person that made the decision to drink and drive.
    Mr. Teacher, destructive behavior is intrinsic in our society. We have perpetuated it for decades through the “philosophy of entitlement”.
    You say you’re an educator. Instead of whining and trying to pass laws and restrictions that will do no good whatsoever why don’t you teach kids responsibility and consequences for their actions. Teach behavior and leadership skills that they don’t have. To produce successful adults a teachers gives encouragement, builds on strengths and develops skills. We have continued to so miss the mark on this that we are now seeing the effects of our self-destructive behavior being acted out by our kids.

  63. “I don’t blame this on a mentally unhinged youth…..”

    You effing irresponsible moron, the kid is mentally unhinged – de facto by definition from his actions.

    Your lack of analytical reasoning skills make you unfit to teach let alone comment on gun control.

    That kid is precisely why I want to be armed and every other citizen has that same right under a constitutional republic whether they choose to exercise it or not.

  65. Well just move to Australia or Israel. I am sick of little bitches that don’t mind it when young solders are in harm’s way with guns. This is the exact type of person that stayed home and protested while exempt from the draft. I was fortunate to miss their homecoming in 1970 at Tacoma Washington. We were told how lucky we were arriving late at night because the war protesters threw bags of feces at us during the day.
    Look at the individual above. That is the type that did those things. In his case they should remove the urinals of the walls.

    • We were told how lucky we were arriving late at night because the war protesters threw bags of feces at us during the day.

      They would have done so at night, too, but by then the bastards were too stoned.

  66. Science Fail: teacher ignores the principles of keen observation and rigorous testing of hypotheses in favor of regurgitating all the “easy fixes” promised by ignorant politicians and MSM.

    No, it’s not easy to come to grips with the notion that life offers no guarantees that you will never endure a gut-wrenching kill-or-be-killed decision. This quote stood out to me:

    I guess in some ways I’m lucky, or dodged a bullet, since I was never near the shooter, got home safely and didn’t even know the student who was shot and killed . . .

    Well, you’re “lucky” that you didn’t pay with your life or witness the kids under your charge injured or killed. You’re unlucky that you seem to have excused yourself from reconciling your disdain for violence with your options had you been staring down the barrel of a gun that day. Think of the children, and not those metaphorical ones, but the flesh and blood ones under your care in your classroom. Would watching them die be better than tainting yourself by using a weapon in their defense?

    Every once in a while life gives you a spree-killer. Make spree-killer-ade. Class dismissed.

  67. The part about the three references…he make the argument that if your family doesn’t trust you (etc), then you shouldn’t be able to own a gun. How many families are anti-gun, save for one. I remember reading an article here recently about someone who told his family he had owned, and it wasn’t popular with anyone else in the family, even got a talk from his uncle about why he thought he needed a gun. Mind you there are avenues to get help for folks that are a danger to themselves or others (gun or not). But the letters of reference would equate to essentially asking permission from your family…and a friend…and a co-worker…to be able to purchase a firearm. Self determination be damned.

    And “any individual who wants one and can get the cash together can buy any gun that exists?” Really, any gun that exists…

  68. NO wonder our kids are so screwed up by public school “education”. This wimp is ready to give up rights under the illusion that it will make him safe.

    PATHETIC.

  69. “I’m sick and tired of hearing gun enthusiasts claim that any kind of gun regulation is an attack on the second amendment, or that the solution to gun violence is more guns.”

    Another good example of the Blood Dance (h/t Leghorn). First this guy denies that the cause of the shooting was a undoubtedly deranged teenager and THEN the guy claims the moral right to promote a political agenda that basically states that American citizens, protected by our Bill of Rights, and Constitution, have too much freedom and need closer governmental regulation. Good thinkin’.

  70. I cannot believe this bag of shit. My family — ALL OF THEM — died when I was 6 because of a fucking drunk driver. What “family member” writes my letter of recommendation? What am I? A third-class citizen because I’m an orphan?

    I hope this piece of shit rots in hell for empowering that drunk fuck to kill my parents AND my rights.

  72. I really don’t mind someone deciding they are against private ownership of firearms. What I do mind is:

    a. Internally hypocrisy arising from a desire to disarm the public while not wanting to take any alternative action to provide effective defense against maniacs and terrorists until such disarmament is accomplished (e.g., the creation of a police state). That’s obviously where this person stands, and he is a teacher but can’t recognize his own internal failures of logic (or is perhaps just personally dishonest).

    b. When someone can’t even do the basic research to get his fact right. In this case, about Israeli gun laws. Been there, lived that. He is completely off his rocker in what he writes. Essentially his statements are lies. That is, false. Look it up, the facts on the (very restrictive, but NOT what he states, are easily available on-line. So, its time to disregard him unless you belong to the Oregon socialist democracy.

  73. Scan the rest of his Facebook posts. Typically mindless lefty (not classical liberal).

    Not open to debate either.

  74. Here’s an excerpt from someone in Bloomberg’s march today:

    “I want to see our laws protect out children, not our gun lobbyists.”

    Yes. Because laws protect you. When a gang of thugs is baring down on you all you have to say is “Hey man that’s illegal. And totally not cool, man.” They will back down. Or at least in the bufu candyland these antis live in they will.

  75. Warning, sarcasm ahead: I agree completely. I think in order to post on facebook and use your 1st amendment rights you should have to be vetted by at least three people. Including whatever majority political party is in charge, because they obviously set the agenda that most people agree with (I mean, democracy–like, duh!~).

    That way, we can keep all that horrible stuff off the internet. Hmmm, let’s extend that to videos as well (except hollywood they can have an exception). Everyone knows RT is crazy (this part is not sarcasm), but since everyone agrees they are just out to hurt america, we should be pro-active–shut ’em down!

    Also, I have an idea. If you can’t get a few “reputable people” to agree that you are okay, you can’t go take a college chem course. Let alone physics, my God! Or drive a car. Or believe in a religion (or perhaps in some places you can’t be an athiest).

    Hell, let’s take this a step further, I think we are really onto something here! Kitchen knives should also require proof that you can cook and you can’t buy a car without a background check (that guy in cali that was all over the news killed more people with knives and his car than with a gun, so we should be extra-safe!) Also, baseball bats should require written approval from a coach, guardian, parent, school, or local authorities.

    Seriously, this is your public school system at work. It’s like you MUST fail a philosophy course AND a stat course, then you can teach at a public school. It also somehow requires you to re-interpret the words “not” as “sometimes” or “no” as “maybe a little bit”. It’s the same sort of mindset that I’d imagine a rapist would have, honestly (no doesn’t really mean no if I don’t want it to!)

  76. He describes how scary it is to be huddled into a corner holding a bulletin board for protection.

    I imagine that is quite scary.

    I’d be no less scared holding a firearm in that situation. I would be a hell of a lot more confident that it would be more effective against a shooter however.

  77. He said he didnt even know the student who was shot and killed yet he tells the news he talked about guns all the time in class. Lol liar.

  78. Another tortured, touched individual who was nowhere near the shooter, and didn’t even know the child who was killed.

    I wonder when he’ll seek treatment for PTSD?

  79. Time to stop whimpering .
    Get a CCW and a handgun.
    Find some way to carry it in your school.
    Stop crying over split milk you could not have stopped from happening.
    But could possibly had put a finish to it with a pair of real stones.

  80. “If your family doesn’t trust you, you have no friends, and your co-workers don’t know you well enough to trust you, then you shouldn’t be able to own a gun.”

    What if you’re a woman, either an only child whose parents are deceased or you were an orphan, fleeing an abusive husband and his obliging family, with a new job to support yourself? By what moral right do you trump her God-given right to defend herself? Or should she just die to placate your sense of righteousness? So much for the “If it only saves one life…..” myth.

    • We can’t use the what-if extreme cases like “what if there are no family/friends/co-workers because honestly the grabbers don’t care because those people aren’t like them.

      We have to point out that the “normal people” like them think this is a terrible idea because even with good family, friends, and co-workers, the very meaning of liberty is to be able to make these choices for yourself. This very concept is what attracts me to Libertarianism (even though I swing more left than most on this site).

      If someone is pro-choice but anti-gun then is it easy to frame this against abortion rights. If a woman should have the right to make the choice to terminate a pregnancy (or not), then she should also have the right to choose to own a firearm (or not). Carrying a firearm might even prevent abortion – by an extension of depending against a rapist.

  82. Here’s my proposed gun regulation: To buy a gun, you need 3 letters of recommendation: One from a family member, one from a friend, and one from a co-worker. If your family doesn’t trust you, you have no friends, and your co-workers don’t know you well enough to trust you, then you shouldn’t be able to own a gun.

    So an older person, not working apart from maybe a little from home, and with no relatives nearby, shouldn’t be able to own a gun? (like me, with all my relatives in other countries – although I’m not even in the U.S.A., so it’s academic for me personally). People on their own have more need than most!

    I’m not a lawyer or politician, so I’m sure my idea will be mocked for its naiveté, criticized for its lack of practicality when not even much weaker rules can get a hearing in Congress, and ignored in any case, since no one takes gun control seriously in America.

    Don’t knock yourself. I would criticise all that for its lack of practicality the way I just did even if you were a lawyer or a politician. And I would never mock it regardless of who you were because it’s more important to show wavererers how things are than to make them sympathetic to you and so to your scheme.

  83. “I don’t blame this on a mentally unhinged youth, although that might be what it was, or on lax security, or even on society’s general decline.”

    …because those things actually matter…?

    We’ve had guns- including ‘military blah blah weapons in civilian hands’- for quite some time. Why the upsurge in school shootings in the last two decades?

    For a science teacher he doesn’t know much about the scientific method.

    • School shootings ARE NOT BECOMING MORE FREQUENT. Don’t buy into media hype.

      “The day after CNN debunked the Bloomberg-funded Everytown claim that there were 74 Newtown-style mass shootings since Sandy Hook, Jake Tapper interviewed Northeastern University criminology professor James Alan Fox to look at the data rather than the anecdotes. Over a 40-year period, Fox concluded, mass shootings have remained flat — even while the population of the country has grown significantly over the same period”

      http://hotair.com/archives/2014/06/13/cnn-no-really-mass-shootings-are-not-on-the-rise/

      • Yes they are becoming more frequent in the last two decades. Just because gunsense whatever makes up some numbers doesn’t mean you can stick your head in the sand and not examine the real ones. Legit school shootings as any reasonable person would look at them happened very rarely before 1990 but have increased significantly since then. The overall murder rate has gone down in those same years, mostly because it was at an abnormal high just before then.

  84. I’m in upstate New York, rural upstate New York, as in closer to Montreal than NYC. I’d be tickled pink to have only his regulations to get my pistol permit. I’ve got my permit but they have my soul.

  85. “In Israel, people outside the army who want to own a gun have to take a training, and if they pass, are allowed to buy a once-only, lifetime supply of 50 bullets.”

    I’d liked to know where he picked up this little tidbit. There are armed teachers and staff at ALL Israeli schools! NOT all of them, of course, but a contingnt. On field trips, volunteer chaperons may also be armed. Amazingly, there haven’t been any attacks on, or from WITHIN, Israeli schools in decades.

  86. “It was absolutely terrifying to sit in my classroom, on the floor, in the dark, with a group of 40 or so students crammed into the corner against the wall”

    …waiting to get shot.

    What an awesome tactical move – everyone cram really close together in the corner of a classroom where movement and escape is nearly impossible. This is EXACTLY opposite of what they should do.

    The schools have no balls to actually deploy anything tactical.

    Jack

  87. A school shooting, A school stabbing, a school explosion, a school fist fight. Sounds like moral, family values, ethical issues – not gun issues.

  89. “We need to make it doubly illegal to carry stolen guns into gun-free zones with the intent to murder.”

  90. Most of these comments come across as high-on-machismo chest thumping and mockery of a man who just faced the fear of death. How will the other fence sitters who scroll through here react when all they see is condescension and arrogance directed at a man who is feeling scared and vulnerable? So you think we are winning? Just wait folks, if we we continue to be the small tent full of arm chair warriors lacking any compassion or empathy for someone who genuinely feared for his life — his irrational reaction aside — we won’t just push a few fence sitters a shade to the “rational” left, we’ll knock the who fence down. WE must go above and beyond with our integrity and decorom. It’s a war for hearts and minds, I and really lack confidence in winning if THIS is the way we handle gun violence victims.

  91. Here’s 3 case studies even a Democrat can understand.
    1) Local organic farmer’s free range chickens are being decimated by feral hogs. He wants to buy a rifle to protect his poultry, but can’t, because he doesn’t have coworkers to get a letter of recommendation from.
    2) Gay kid in the bible belt is ostracized by his family and has to set out on his own. He gets constant death threats and his apartment or trailer gets the windows shot out, etcetera, because he’s gay. He can’t get a gun because he can’t get a letter of recommendation from a family member.
    3) Old person who lives in a (now) crappy neighborhood is constantly being threatened by the gangs that have taken over the block. They don’t have any friends left to write a letter of recommendation, so they can’t buy a gun.

    It’s amazing how these gun grabbers can’t think these things through. Or maybe they just want to ban guns, but won’t admit it.

    • They won’t care about statistical outliers. We have to show them that average people with friends, family, and co-workers shouldn’t be restricted or dependent on their friends/family/colleagues to decide how to live their life. We are (mostly) free to make our own decisions.

      Maybe there should be 3 letters of recommendation required to buy a car, have a baby, or vote.

    • Actually, I think that’s his intent. The “3 letters” is a scheme that makes it appear that you can buy a gun, when the reality is, you can’t.

      It’s the same problem for people who live in states where concealed carry permits are “may issue” instead of “shall issue”. No matter how legit your reason is for wanting a concealed carry permit (commute through a dangerous area; you want to protect your business or family, etc.) they’ve never granted by the local LEO/sheriff because your reasons aren’t good enough.

  92. “To buy a gun, you need 3 letters of recommendation: One from a family member, one from a friend, and one from a co-worker. If your family doesn’t trust you, you have no friends, and your co-workers don’t know you well enough to trust you, then you shouldn’t be able to own a gun.”

    I thought this was: “the land of the free and the home of the brave”, not the land of the well liked. What kind of BS is this. How the hell is getting 3 thumbs up letters supposed to demonstrate that you are a good person? or a safe person? or a….. What WOULD that even show?! That you can get 3 idiots to sign a paper? Oh My God what stupidity did I just read?

  93. The vulgar ad hominem attacks in many of the responses here do nothing to promote the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

  94. I was never the best at school, because I hate doing the same work over and over again. So, since this teacher hasn’t been paying attention. Here is the answer from the back of the textbook.

    “Background

    Handguns have been banned in the UK since 1997. The law was passed in a national effort to make England “safer for our children” after a mass shooting at Dunblane, where 16 children were killed by suspect Thomas Hamilton. The Firearms (Amendment) Act (No. 2) was introduced to Parliament in the wake of the massacre, and is considered the toughest gun control law in the world. Punishment for possession of an illegal weapon can mean up to 10 years in prison.

    Sound familiar yet?

    British citizens peacefully went to the police stations and turned their guns in like good little boys and girls. While England has never had a “gun culture” like America, their freedom to choose was destroyed on the basis of one incident. An incident that was repeated in 2010 in the British state of Cumbria, when a gunman killed 12 people. The law went into effect in 1998.”

    Gun bans only make it worse. Not an idea. A measurable fact. Just ask the brits how they are liking it.

    http://misguidedchildren.com/foreign-affairs/2014/01/england-to-america-dont-let-them-take-your-guns/11993

  95. “I don’t blame this on a mentally unhinged youth, although that might be what it was, or on lax security, or even on society’s general decline. This was a case, like all the other recent school shootings, of gun violence due to lax gun regulation, and the proliferation of military assault weapons in the hands of everyday citizens.”

    So…I suppose you don’t blame your students for getting “F” grades, then. Perhaps that’s due to “F” grades in abundance because of lax grade regulation, and the proliferation of teachers who freely make “F” grades available.

    You discredit yourself as an educator when you admit that a “mentally unhinged youth” might be the one responsible, but refuse to believe that he is responsible. When you admit reality, but refuse to acknowledge it, it is not gun rights supporters who are the unreasonable ones.

  96. I used to think we could solve complex societal issues and prevent crimes by making criminal acts double super mega godzilla rubber ducky ice cream sundae illegal and that we could take all the guns away real easily…. but then I turned 5 and stopped believing in baby stuff. Seriously guy rub some dirt on it get the sand out and grow up. Life is nothing like highschool and despite all of our best wishes ugly things can happen at anytime regardless of laws, availability of equipment, and your level of preparedness for that event. The best you can do is be as ready as you can be i.e. food in the freezer, mres in the closet, back up generator, so on and so on. Burying your head and trying to make ever one else alter their behavior to make you feel better about your cowardice shows your failure not only as a man but as a sentient being. Again suck it up grow up and take responsibility for your safety and the safety of those around you.

    “You never know the life you might save could be mine.”- James Dean

  97. I live in a “gun free”, highly regulated, utterly socialist Europe. I propose the following: He can come here and have more than he can ever hope to have in US regarding gun control and a “know it all” state, and I come there. This way, he is happy, I am happy, we are all happy. End of story.

    Now that I said it, it could be a solution: let’s exchange citizens, according to each one preferences. That way, each is with the ones alike, and there are no more problems.

  98. Not really sure why this was posted on TTAG.

    We all already know the kind of mindset we face in the liberal left statists. The resulting (and inevitable) disparaging comments didn’t further our position at all and serve only to sour anyone of a different opinion who might wander onto this article and the resulting comments.

    I suppose there might be some value in developing the personal restraint to read through MR Needler’s comments without cursing out loud or throwing the computer mouse at the monitor but I can get that on just about any website (the Washington Post website has plenty to offer). TTAG doesn’t have any mandate to provide disparate points of view.

    MR Needler targets an inanimate object as his tormenter; failed to display objectivity in is observations; stated skewed facts and put forth unworkable solutions. Even in terms of furthering HIS position his essay is deeply flawed. The fact that he is a member of the teaching community is troubling and unfortunate but he is HARDLY a member of a minority. Ostensibly the only audience he is preaching to is one comprised of those who are already of a like mind to his and he is ineffective at that.

    Why post this crap here? I don’t get the joke.

    • The point of Mr. Needler’s (Misguided) view being shared here, is the fact that the Anti -gun establishment will take up some or all of his thoughts and use them to further THEIR agenda.
      Yes some of the (Disparaging) comments where excessive ( I confess some even were amusing) He went through a type of situation most of us have never been through. But, having seen him on local news, he does seem to exude a less than sturdy image.
      As someone above stated “even with a gun in his hand He would be still be afraid, but at least equipped to face the threat.”

  99. You’re not too clear, because when you say “military assault weapons in the hands of everyday citizens.” you have no clue what you are even talking about. military assault weapons are illegal to own by everyday citizens. So get a clue, get clear, and then comeback with your comments.

  100. It simply blows my mind that people like this teacher haven’t got a clue yet that gun control doesn’t work to control crimes like this.
    They can’t or wont wrap their brain around the fact that it is a constitutional right to keep and bear arms. You throw that part out and you may as well toss the constitution in the trash, because at that point it would be meaningless. The government could do whatever it wanted without any recourse from it’s public.

    It wouldn’t matter though if it was tossed out, you’d still have gun violence, because criminals would still get guns or have them already. Kids would still kill other kids, they’d just do it with knives.
    Gun violence is a human issue not a gun issue. Teach people to respect their fellow human, or suffer the consequences as we already are. Go after gangs and drug dealers and make parents LOCK their guns up or make them responsible for the killing if their son or daughter is responsible for doing it, just like if 2 people rob a bank and one gets killed (by police or not) they are charged with the homicide of their dead accomplice.

  101. “Cowering in fear in the corner of his classroom with 40 students, surrounded by walls that could easily be shot through. . .”

    That is certainly NOT the proactive solution I would want my children’s teacher to take!

    Shooters do not routinely go and try to shoot up police stations. Why? Because they know that everyone there is armed, and it would be suicide by cop.

    The solution is to arm and train ALL faculty and staff who are so inclined (and that is hopefully most of them), and then spree shooting in schools and the victim count would both decrease dramatically.

    I want the educators in charge of educating my children to be armed at all times, so that any potential spree killers would be stopped dead in their tracks.

  102. below is an excerpt from a post I wrote in the “Mr. Todd columbine survivor …”
    where I also referenced about this Mr. Needler’s views

    http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/06/robert-farago/columbine-survivors-open-letter-obama-gun-control/#more-324017

    EXCERPT
    What people miss is that most of these shootings are caused by people under the age of 25 ( I’m being broad in the age, as under 20yrs is probably more to the point) background checks DON”T APPLY! Along with the Anti’s other regulations and criteria for gun control of law abiding citizens.

    What needs to be asked is WHY??? Why are children in effect living the equivalent of LIVE WARGAMES . As a kid of the 70′s (even with the occasional
    encounter with schoolyard bullies) I never could have thought about such violent actions.
    Though media and game manufacturers will dispute it, I suspect it DOES have something to do with the exposure and heavy participation in violent video games and TV shows, at ages WAY TOO YOUNG, that causes actions to transcend from a fantasy world into reality.
    I seem to recall Most, if not all of the suspects of shootings ( at least since Columbine) seem to have had an UNREASONABLE fixation on violent video games (and maybe possibly even influenced by violent tv/ movies) .
    (End)

    • And for other reasons as to why these shooters shoot — let’s not forget the tie-in to most, if not all, of these shooters having been on SSRI or other psychotropic drugs, and the admitted violent potential of these drugs as a side effect.

  104. I love when the antis like to compare the NRA to groups like “big tobacco”. They truly believe that its simply a lobbying organization for firearms manufacturers, not an organization that represents the common interests of 4 million citizen members. Funny, I don’t recall anyone paying yearly dues to be a member of “big tobacco” or driving around with “I’m big tobacco & I vote” stickers on their truck.

    Most of reading this are probably NRA members; We know it isn’t perfect. We may even completely disagree with some of its positions. We also know, however, that it (that is, the strength of its membership) is the 900 pound gorilla in the room when gun control comes up on congress.

  105. (Quotes)

    Hobbez says:
    June 14, 2014 at 12:30

    Teachers like this are whats wrong with the educational system.
    Reply

    Chas says:
    June 14, 2014 at 13:06

    This guy is living proof that education doesn’t necessarily make one smarter. In fact, in many cases, it has the opposite effect.
    Reply

    (end quotes)

    I Just found this…
    According to Google, Mr, Needler is also teachers(?) Part-time
    at the local Community College. Poor students…………………
    I wonder what he believes came first…. the chicken or the egg.

  106. here is a well written reply to Mr.Needler’s Facebook statement.
    It was written by Eric Reed
    Eric Reed is the President and Founder of Gun Rights Across America (GRAA). They have chapters in all 50 states, and a membership of over 200,000 freedom loving Americans. GRAA wholeheartedly believes that the Second Amendment is worth fighting for.

    article link
    http://buzzpo.com/teacher-oregon-school-shooting-demands-ludicrous-new-gun-laws/

    In reply to mr. Needlers FB Statement….

    Here follows is Mr. Reeds words:
    My direct response to Mr. Seth Needler. I trust that this will find him well.

    “Sir, I fully understand the terror that you lived through. As a former law enforcement officer, I can personally relate to the tremendous stress of the situation. But let’s address a few points you brought up in your post.

    First, clearly you can’t be serious about blaming the gun instead of the shooter. Are you really ignorant enough to believe that if Padgett couldn’t get a gun, that he wouldn’t have used something else? Perhaps a knife, hammer, or even a rock. If someone wants to do harm to another, will they not find a way?

    You next stated that there’s a problem with “military style assault weapons.” I’m assuming you’d even support an outright ban on them based on the tone of your comments. Obviously, you know nothing about a rifle, or you wouldn’t even use the term “assault weapon.” As a teacher, I’m sure you’re aware what assault means. But in case you’re not….

    assault[ uh-sawlt ]
    noun
    1. a sudden, violent attack; onslaught: an assault on tradition.
    2. an unlawful physical attack upon another; an attempt or offer to do violence to another, with or without battery, as by holding a stone or club in a threatening manner.

    Nowhere in the definition does it refer to a certain type of rifle. Also, if you had any clue, you’d also know what’s inaccurately referred to as an “assault weapon,” is no different than any other rifle, other than it’s aesthetics. So banning those, is essentially saying that you want it banned because you don’t like the way it looks. But don’t take my word for it. Research for yourself.

    Next, you stated that gun owners are the other 10%, and 90% of Americans favor more gun control. Wrong again. If 90% favored it so much, we’d have it. Even the liberal CNN just did a poll on this very issue, and approximately 68% stated that the current gun laws are sufficient. See for yourself. http://www.examiner.com/article/cnn-poll-majority-rejecting-calls-for-new-gun-laws-after-isla-vista

    You brought up Australia. Their violent crime is through the roof! Don’t believe me?
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/08/21/Aussie-Politician-Complains-About-U-S-Gun-Laws-But-Gun-Crime-In-Sydney-Is-Out-Of-Control

    AUSTRALIA
    SINCE THE GUN BAN:
    Armed Robberies up 69%
    Assaults w guns up 28%
    Gun Murders up 19%
    Home Invasions up 21%

    Don’t like Breitbart? Use any news link you like. It’s readily accessible with a simple Google search.

    Finally, the NRA. It’s all their fault, right? Sir, the NRA lobbies for the gun rights of law-abiding Americans. Not criminals! In fact, I have yet to see the NRA take on a case fighting for the gun rights of a felon or schizophrenic. As a matter of fact, the NRA supports harsher sentences for convicted violent criminals.

    As I stated above Mr. Needler, what you experienced was nothing short of a tragedy. But as a teacher, I’m sure you understand that we have to deal with data, statistics, and facts. Not knee-jerk reactions based on misdirected emotions. I pray that you’ll do your “homework” (pun intended) the next time you start blaming the gun lobby.
    http://Facebook.com/EricReedGRAA

    P.S. You’re proposed plan for owning a gun resembles the antics nothing short of Nazi Germany, and doesn’t even deserve a response.”

  107. Sure he was in proximity to a shooting.
    But he sure has some dork ar$$ ideas. WOW. 3 letters? Not that Letters would have stopped this kid. Hey, How about we all drink with sippie cups. We might spill something and get wet. No wonder our kids are falling behind the rest of the world. He probably believes and teaches “bad” science to the kids because of the half baked crap in his head.
    He probably has tenure too. Oh well.

  108. Maybe Mr, Needler could take this up as a constructive cause.
    I shared below comment over at the Everytown for gun safety.

    ———–
    As a comparison of how children are killed…

    Cases that automobiles are involved or associated in deaths. Confiscate automobiles?
    I just saw a report on the “Today Show”. 13 children have died so far this year,
    due to being forgotten and left in Hot cars.
    Since 1998 720 children have died. Averaging 38 children a year.
    Where’s the cry “NOT ONE MORE” for those children?
    ————-
    SOOOOOOOO!
    Maybe, Mr.Needler could have anyone desiring to have a baby, get 3 letters
    of Recommendation before being allowed to have sex.
    If your family doesn’t trust you, you have no friends, and your co-workers don’t know you well enough to trust you with children, then you shouldn’t be able to have a child.
    Prospective parents should have to undergo a rigorous child-safety training course, submit to a background check, and meet an age limit, but Mr. Needler is not an idealist. He would think the above is something that every common sense person should be able to agree with.

    What do you think, Will it keep parents from forgetting their children in hot automobiles?

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