By William Kiphart
PoliceOne Member

Sandy Hook has changed me forever. I try to keep abreast and keep you all informed on trends in such incidents. The difference about the days following Sandy Hook has been the direction of my research. Usually I look at the details of an incident and try to find a way in which we can improve our tactics or thinking to address such issues when we encounter them. With Sandy Hook, I most inadvertently started looking at the history of school shootings not only in the United States but globally as well. I am not sure I’ve had a good night’s sleep since . . .

Not one child has died as a result of a fire in a school in the last 25 years. Yet parents, officials and the law requires fire extinguishers and smoke alarms in our schools.

Yet, not counting any of the tragedies in 2012 or 2011 (just between the period of 1992-2010), 433 of our children were murdered at school, on school property and at school events.

That is 24 children a year as an average murdered in our schools. Those numbers are from the Bureau of Justice Statics, 2011. U.S. Department of Justice, Indicators off School Crime and Safety Report.

I have studied, analyzed, and tracked 90 active shooter/bomber/killer cases back through 1982 and 124 school-specific incidents back to 1927 (114 of which have occurred since 1982).

Let me be clear, 114 school shootings since 1992.

There were 157 deaths, mostly our children, as a specific result of school house active shooters in this period. There were another 27 active shooters at universities with an additional 89 deaths attributed to them — again mostly our children. You may not hear about some of these as often, if the shooter is stopped before killing or injuring someone, it is deemed not newsworthy.

Thus far, I have only been able to locate two instances where a murderer entered a location with prior knowledge of armed security or police, and both are outside of the school house active shooter profile.

One was the U.S. Capitol shooting in 1998 and the other being the Kirkwood City Hall shooting in 2008. Both were revenge shootings by older males not fitting the school shooter profile or targeting children. This research is ongoing.

I have not located ANY active shooter/murderers with the school house shooter profile that occurred with armed security or police assigned to that location. And there are plenty of schools with such security or resident officers in place.

Further, in places such as Texas and Oklahoma, just to name the big two, properly credential staff is permitted to carry concealed weapons and this is made publicly known. They have not had any active shooter incidents at any of these locations either. Ever.

Many school active shooters commit suicide or surrender when challenged by authority, or are physically subdued. My research indicates that only about 10 percent of active shooter cases involve any resistance toward law enforcement or other intervention, and this is nearly non-existent with the school house active shooter profiles.

When we talk about the school house active shooter/killer profile, it is a combination of traits and circumstances that generally exist within these incidents.

The shooter is most often a Caucasian male, 14 to 17 years old with several incidents having them as young as 11 to 13 and an occasional anomaly of a female. They typically have documented behavioral problems and are currently or previously have been on drugs for such problems.

In all cases, the weapons are illegally possessed and in all but one case that I have found illegally obtained.

This profile also indicates that the classic school house active shooter is non-confrontational.

This means they will not enter or engage targets in a location that presents armed resistance. These shooters specifically target children with adults in the school being collateral or secondary targets. They seek maximum child body count.

They seek the “softest” or easiest target available, our children. They are exclusively students or past students at the location of the school shooting, providing them legitimate access to the location. What this means in nearly every one of the 433 deaths, locked doors, security cameras or the like in no way could have prevented the shootings.

The classic profile also finds the offenders exposed to violence in video games, movies and real life violence prior to the Concrete Operational Stage of cognitive development, typically seven to 11 years of age. NOTE: For great detail and insight on this dynamic and particularly if you are a parent, see “Stop Teaching our Kids to Kill by COL Dave Grossman.

Simply put, the profile of the active school shooter will not even attempt to go into a school if he knows armed security is in place. The evil murderers who pray on our children and the defenseless are non-confrontational and cowards by mental predisposition.

They feed on fear, the weak and defenseless and particularly those who run and/or hide and cower. This is how they feel their power. They will kill themselves, as is often the case, rather than be confronted by an armed adversary.

This is not a gun-control issue or a mental-health issue. This is a school security issue and transcends locked doors and “stranger” drills; all good additions, but not the solution as we clearly see by these numbers.

The Israeli model for school security or that implemented by Russian school authorities after the attack in Beslan targets a different adversary than we face here, but the tactics and lessons learned with the deaths of thousands of children are the same.

We protect our borders with armed professionals. We protect our money, banks, and armored cars with armed professionals.

We protect our legal system and judges in court houses with police and armed security.

We protect our government buildings with police and armed security. We are beginning to protect our college campuses with armed officers.

We protect many of our hospitals with armed officers.

Why do we not protect our most valuable thing in this world, our defenseless innocent children to the same degree and commitment? As we have seen, police can not prevent something when they are summoned after it occurs. They must be there before to prevent it.

If there were 433 people murdered in your neighborhood, what would you want done?

Yet too many times we accept it in our schools with our children.

Denial and hope is not a tactical defensive strategy.

With the evil in this world, are you really OK with leaving your child unprotected? One gun in the hands of a trained professional would have not only ended the horrific event in Sandy Hook, but based on history and research, prevented it from ever occurring at Sandy Hook.

Let me make you as uncomfortable as I can. Do you believe this will happen again? As you put your child on the bus, what is your thought? Are you praying and hoping it is someone else’s child that gets murdered next time?

When you saw the news on Sandy Hook, perhaps you said, “Thank God that was not my child.”

The time for denial is over; it is time for action to protect every child in this country.

Adding armed police or security of some type to schools is the only way to stop this trend and it is growing exponentially.

Each one of these offenders feeds off of the previous and seeks a higher body count and recognition. Gun control simply removes guns from those who legally attain them which, in a school shooter profile will rarely if ever be the case.

Each and every one of us must start demanding and continue demanding that our most valuable asset to our lives and the future of our country be defended and protected to the same degree our judges, government officials and money is protected.

Send this to everyone you know — particularly non-law enforcement people — and do not rest until our children are defended and protected every day.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

65 COMMENTS

  1. How many if these children were 17 year old drug dealers getting killed by a rival drug dealer or were younger kids shot as a product of a poorly aimed drive by by other drug dealers?

    Almsot all of these murders are a product of a deteriorating family structure over the last 40 years. Fix the culture.

    • Very good comment. The root(s) of the problem include the modern American anti-male father-less culture. Drugs (prescribed and illegal), lack of perceived economic opportunity and hope, etc and much more all contribute too.

    • Unfortunately, with increased crowding, I think things are going to get a whole lot worse — a “Behavior Sink.”

      “The mortality rate among females was extremely high. A large proportion of the population became bisexual, then increasingly homosexual, and finally asexual. There was a breakdown in maternal behavior. Mothers stopped caring for their young…”

      ~Carla Garnett (2008) Plumbing the ‘Behavioral Sink’: Medical Historian Examines NIMH Experiments in Crowding. National Institute of Health Record. Vol. LX, No. 15. http://nihrecord.od.nih.gov/newsletters/2008/07_25_2008/story1.htm

      Sound familiar?

      And Jefferson foretold this happening also:

      “When they get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe.” ~Thomas Jefferson December 23, 1790, to Martha Jefferson Randolph

      We’re seeing symptoms of the inevitable “progress” of City-Statism (Civilization.) Sure, it’s “progress,” but diseases can progress too.

  2. Good write-up.

    2 aspects that I always think of too:

    1. These crazy shooting started happening when people were taking SSRIs. Many of the mass shootings involve them. http://ssristories.com/

    2. Why keep piling our kids into education factories to make 1920s factory/office drones? Public schools are obsolete.

    • Good points that often go overlooked. We’ve got a couple of generations of kids doped up to get them through the day. Speaking admittedly without a lot of knowledge on this, I wonder how kids would ever learn to control their emotions and impulses on their own when they’ve lived most of their lives in an artificial fog.

    • I think you’re putting your cart before the horse. They’re on meds because they’re crazy, not crazy because they’re on meds.

      • I think the drugs absolutely need to be looked at. Go read the product inserts for any of the SSRI’s. The following from a study “A number of clinical reports have described a syndrome of obsessive SSRI-induced suicidality and aggression that seems particular to these drugs. ”

        – Suicidality, violence and mania caused by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)

      • “They’re on meds because they’re crazy, not crazy because they’re on meds.”

        not necessarily. especially when doctors have a financial incentive to recommend prescribing certain drugs.

        thats not a conflict of interest at all!!! LOL

        • This is a good point. It is very key when it comes to mental health and meds (especially with children) that doctors are responsible with how they prescribe meds and how much they watch for the warning signs of some of the very serious side effects from today’s modern drugs. These drugs do serve a purpose and they do not make everyone crazy. It comes down to needing a doctor who genuinely wants to help their patients overcome what they are facing.

  3. I have not located ANY active shooter/murderers with the school house shooter profile that occurred with armed security or police assigned to that location. And there are plenty of schools with such security or resident officers in place.

    Why doesn’t Columbine qualify? Not trying to punk you; genuinely curious.

    • Not inside the school, no. There was one armed guy outside, and he took a shot at 60 yards to try to stop one of the BGs from reentering the building. He failed.

      The only people with guns inside Columbine were the two crazy bastards.

      • Agreed, the cop happened to be in the parking lot when he had a long shot. I doubt (but don’t know) the cop wasn’t stationed in the school.

        • There was one cop assigned to the school, and one motorcycle cop was writing a traffic ticket right next to the school when the shooting started. Both took shots, and missed. The majority of the killing happened AFTER they had engaged the BG. (After BG exchanged shots with the cop, he fled to a building where he found many students hiding.)

  5. This is a mental health issue, the grabbers lack there of. When you have a group of people laugh about armed guards in schools saying they are useless, you have a culture that is 3 fries short of a happy meal. Fortunatly emotional problems are not a big selling point in court, Randy

    • We keep hearing the mental health theme but the fact remains, if we stop infringing on people’s right to bear arms the insane will not be able to carry out their plans fully. That’s a quick fix that will stop most of these incidents. Then we can talk about mental health issues all you want.

  6. All good information but the ACLU and NAACP are getting ready to battle any police presence — these are anti-police and the progressives will listen to these groups before they listen to the police. We have already seen both the NY and CT State PD say the magazine bans make no sense and are not enforcable but that has not stopped the politicians.

    Its good info that I will distribute but it will not have universal support and none at all in the hardline democratic controlled states.

  7. This should be required reading for anyone who wants to have a “reasonable discussion” about Sandy Hook.

    • It should be required reading, period!

      We all want to know why these things happen. William Kiphart just told us.

      Charlie

    • I was home schooled though the 7th grade and started public school in 8th grade because I wanted to play football. I was appalled at the level of illiteracy when I started public school…among the teachers, to say nothing of my fellow students. When I have children, the quality of education alone is reason enough for me to home school them. The security issue is even more of a compelling reason not to send my children to public school.

  9. It would be a safe guess that over the same period more kids in Chicago, Detroit, New York City, and Philadelphia were battered, smothered, choked, stabbed, and shot to death by fathers, uncles, boyfriends, and next-door neighbors of “kids.” Current attempts to outlaw common guns and magazines isn’t about the kids. It’s about police unions and military reserve generals looking for ways to lighten their job should we go through a round of civic disorder as US living standards fall. I’m all for seeding CCW teachers in schools. The real answer is to teach parents and siblings that if you have a young man who obsesses on guns and FPS’s ten hours a day but essentially does nothing else….double lock your guns, confiscate his, and get him psychiatric help immediately.

  10. This isn’t a mental health issue, it’s a tactical issue. The worst tactical situation is where only the bad guy is armed. Our politicians have responded by disarming the good guys, while keeping armed protection for themselves. There willful ignorance makes them pieces of sh!t, and their hypocrisy makes them evil pieces of sh!t.

    • They aren’t ignorant. They know exactly what they’re doing. As more and more people are disarmed, there will be more and more innocent victims. As the body count goes up, there will be more laws to disarm citizens and more agents of the state patrolling the streets — to keep us safe. Eventually, we will become a police state, with the pols in total control. Which is what they’ve always wanted.

      I won’t be alive to see it because these things take time; but your children will live in fear of their government.

  11. Get rid of “gun free zones” and encourage teachers and staff to carry. Free CCW permits, free training, etc. Most effective means of solving the problem with the smallest investment.

    • You’re correct. And that’s why I strongly suggest the Right look closely at how women view the Right as control-freaks, especially over female reproductive issues, if they want to quit loosing elections.

      Control freaks aren’t just gun-grabbers.

    • I don’t know who said this but it sertainly speaks to this issue, “Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him, better take a closer look at the American Indian. ”
      The people should be in control.
      The hot topic is gun Control as in who controls the gun.

  14. How is blaming “violent video games” for mass shootings any different from blaming “assault weapons” for mass shootings?

    Again, it’s the nutjob kid / teen / adult that is the problem.

    That and there are so many negligent clueless parents that are not actively raising their kids and just leaving them alone to play whatever they want without monitoring what content they’re being exposed to. Games are clearly labeled by the ESRB citing the appropriate age of gamers based on the content.

    The problem isn’t the “violent” game that is rated Mature, it’s the idiot parents for letting their 10-12 year old play a Mature rated game because they choose to be ignorant.

    Here is why you shouldn’t leave your kids unattended while playing Xbox live unattended: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhrtbiQhqO8&feature=player_embedded

    How many “death threats” did you hear? Or maladjusted kids acting like psychos?

    The internet and online gaming space is a terrible place for any child to venture into unsupervised, especially at a young age.

    Moral of the story: Video games don’t make kids violent by themselves. They’re clearly labeled. It’s the failure of parenting that is the problem with the result being kids without a moral compass or values.

    Use common sense and put the blame where it’s due.

    Who protects our kids? That starts at home with parenting.

    Equip your kids with common sense and a value system and they’ll be well-equipped to deal with the stupidity and crazy stuff they’ll discover online on their own.

    • I’m a completely stable individual. But that guys deserves whatever the hell he gets. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything more annoying. I don’t wish the kid death but I feel a substantial beating is in order.

      • Exactly.

        I’ve been playing games since the Atari and I’ve played all sorts of “violent” games. Yet, I don’t shoot up schools. Because I was taught right from wrong long before I even owned a computer or had internet access.

        Granted, I grew up with limited access to computers, the internet and television.

        Kids now are inundated in it at young ages. My generation is the last generation to grow up with limited access to technology and the internet. That’s something to consider.

        I was exposed to my first MMO in college and that was a real challenge because that’s when I realized how many stupid and immoral people were out there hiding behind their anonymity (also part of the problem).

        I admit, playing MMOs for the first time was a moral challenge and really tested my patience and tolerance of the huge exposure to just about every type of personality all at once. But it did come with benefits. I learned more about the importance of diplomacy and network building through those games than any formal course I’ve taken afterward.

        Nowadays, I still play games (albeit less due to priorities), but I recognize all of the pitfalls and traps that are very real for kids today that are venturing into their first real taste of a huge public forum for the first time. The possibility of abuse and mental challenges are very real. The internet (or any online gaming community) is really just a very ornate test of character.

        Some kids persevere and come out better and others actually crumble and have issues (or it aggravates any issues they bring in with them).

        • but were you on drugs which say on the label can cause homicidal tendencies, hallucinations, anti social behavior?

    • “How is blaming “violent video games” for mass shootings any different from blaming “assault weapons” for mass shootings?”

      its NOT. I was furious that the NRA decided to throw the scalding hot gravy on the video game industry, when they could have joined alliances with them. they alienated a potential ally that also gets victimized by the state.

      I personally have never got into video games. i nevertheless support them because i believe they are a expression of art protected under the 1st amendment. If we start scapegoating, well have bullshit like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Australia#Video_games

      hmmm, australia. where have i heard them mentioned before?

      “Who protects our kids? That starts at home with parenting.”

      a common sense conclusion in a world lacking common sense. god forbid we actually hold people accountable instead of blaming somebody else. that is the whole philosophy statists seem completely unable to grasp.

  15. A side note, why is it that the ONLY time it’s acceptable to profile by race and gender is when that race and gender happens to be white and male? Can anyone provide me with any other scholarly work wherein a profile is given of a criminal who just happens to NOT be a white male (without going to stormfront.org)? It seems like intellectuals get a small thrill by demonstrating how notracist they are by acknowledging that white males are crazygunmen.

    • The stats are what they are. Why do pedophiles tend to be white guys in their fifties? I dunno it just tends to be that way. And don’t go crying about reverse racism… We imposed our ways on others plenty. And who spews stereotypes more than us white folks.

      • Exactly, the facts ARE what they are, but the only time you’re allowed to bring up “the facts” is when “the facts” are about white males. Why can’t we bring up “the facts” about who tries to blow up buildings and airplanes? Or about who steals cars, or rapes women? BTW, congratulations on being very conspicuously not racist, you are obviously a very well trained white person.

        • I worked at a state prison BC. I saw lots of guys that did auto theft and rape that were white guys. Not to mention murder. Robberies. Drug dealing. Lot’s of white guys.

          When you go “woe is me, the poor white guys are being mistreated” you really aren’t paying attention.

          And just in case there’s any noobs here, I’m an OFWG.

        • What state did you work in? If what you say is true, someone should tell the civil rights professionals who you always hear decrying the fact that the justice system is incarcerating too many minorities. Did white men constitute the majority of those convicted of rape in your prison? Were the statistically OVERrepresented or were they statistically UNDERrepresented? If they weren’t statistically OVERrepresented then what’s your point?

          AT ANY RATE (ahem), this entire thing has gotten away from my original question. My question wasn’t “Hey, isn’t it cool that white men never commit any crimes?”, my question was why is it okay to NOTICE that a certain race does something more than other races ONLY when that certain race is white people? Again, the question wasn’t,”Has anyone here ever heard of a white person committing a violent crime?”, or “Hey, has anyone here ever worked in a prison and heard about a white convict being convicted of a non-white collar crime?”

          Example:

          We screen all passengers who fly on commercial airliners to try to prevent hijackings because hijackers are predictable (they’re at the airport trying to get on planes). In this situation, profiling would be helpful because of the massive number of passengers versus the limited number of screeners. We can’t profile in this situation because the profile would be of a non-white person.

          We don’t screen for spree shooters because they’re so rare and unpredictable, SO, what use is it to make the observation that white males are overrepresented among spree killers? Answer: this observation is of no use whatsoever, but it makes well indoctrinated people feel smart, sophisticated, well informed at notracist when they make this observation.

          Lastly, so far 2 people have made the brilliant observation that white men ALSO commit rapes/larcenies. No kiddin? Wow, thanks.

          Colin Ferguson.

          Seung-Hui Cho.

          Nidal Malik Hasan.

          Omar Shariff Thornton.

          Jacob Tyler Roberts.

          I could go on, but why bother.

        • BC, you wanted to bring up the “facts about who steals cars and rapes women” so I gave you some of the facts.

          As for the “facts about who blows up buildings” I guess pointing out the Oklahoma federal building bombing won’t go well with your “narrative” ?

          And this post was about protecting the children, not going off on a “woe is me I’m an abused white man” tangent.

        • Yeah, JWM, I guess you’re right. You really did a great job of making your point while rebutting my point. After reading your posts a couple of times I now see that’s it’s acceptable and even laudable to point out the crimes that whites are more likely to commit, but it’s bad to point out crimes that non-whites are more likely to commit. There’s no inconsistency involved in your line of thinking, because after all, white people bad, non-white people good. In addition to your former careers as a janitor, a correctional officer, some other thing you did that you retired from and your stints as a butcher/baker/candlestick maker I’ll bet you also taught debate and rhetoric at the collegiate level, because your arguments are as sharp as a razor.

        • Yep , BC, you got me. I’m not a college graduate and as a result I’ve worked a lot of blue collar jobs. I was not a corrections officer, I worked in the prison in another capacity.

          In all those nights and weekends that I worked my blue collar jobs I worked with a wide spectrum of people. And what we need to protect our gun rights is a wide spectrum of people.

          But you want to play the poor, downtrodden white man card. Which helps to divide gun owners and completely ignores the realities of America from day 1.

          But you keep trying to play the victim.

      • @ Carrymagnum

        Whom, you ask, spews stereotypes more than white people? Gee whiz, that’s a tough one, but I don’t see how it matters. I also don’t know where white people imposing their will came into the conversation either…so…

        The point, in case you missed it, wasn’t that everybody is “down on the white man”. The point is that it’s UNACCEPTABLE in the media, in law enforcement and in academia to be down on anyone…EXCEPT the white man.

        If we can’t say that hispanics in Arizona are statistically more likely to be in the country illegally than other races in other places (never mind if it’s true or not), and if we can’t say that arabs are more likely to try to hijack an airplane in the name of allah (never mind if it’s true), then we shouldn’t be allowed to say that whites are more likely to commit a mass shooting. Never mind if it’s true.

        • I agree with you on mostly everything. I just don’t know why you had to bring it up
          And word it like that. It’s not conducive to our arguments here. And the imposing of the will point was that we made our bed with that one. I’d probably be pissed off for a few generations after slavery and segregation as well. And who better to point the finger at but the race responsible. Not saying its right. But it’s damn understandable.

  16. This blaming video games nonsense has got to stop. It’s the same anti-logic the grabbers employ.

    “The classic profile also finds the offenders exposed to violence in video games…” And? Spree shooters also tend to use firearms. Should we blame those too smartass?

    First person shooters have been around since the early ’90s. How many people in the U.S. alone have played and/or currently play FPS? 50 million? 100? How many kids play Call of Duty or similar as their primary form of entertainment? 10-20 million? How many of those have shot up a school?

    Every day we make the argument that you can’t punish the masses for the crimes of a few. That criminals and spree killers using firearms doesn’t mean that anyone with a firearm is a potential criminal or spree killer. Why do we forget the principal as soon as we’re talking about something we aren’t as interested in?

    The guy makes some really good points. I actually agree with pretty much everything he says right up until he suggests that correlation = causation with video games.

    Look guys. The facts and logic are on our side. We should focus on proving the grabbers wrong because they are. We shouldn’t just shift their attention so they can ban something else.

    • I had the same initial reaction as you, but look at what he actually said, he’s suggesting it can affect kids up to around 7 to 11, not older kids. Not sure that there isn’t something to that.

      • And this is where parenting comes in.

        All violent video games clearly labeled as 16+ or rated mature right on the box.

        So how are these violent video games ending up in the console or computer of that 7-11 year old without the knowledge of the parent(s)?

        If you have a child that is 7-11 and they are able to play violent games, then parents need to be more vigilant in policing what their kids are doing.

        Sure, even if your household is buttoned down, your kid can still get exposure at a friend’s place if they have a negligent parent or clever kid that’s good at hiding things.

        So what’s the only other option? Instill a solid moral compass and value system for your child. This is the best equipment you can give your child for when they venture out into the “real world”.

        • +1

          As a kid who grew up playing video games, to now becoming a teacher and a father, it’s really troubling how little some kids are being supervised by their parents. I have 4th grade and 5th grade students coming to school too tired to do anything because their parents let them stay up to 2AM playing COD or Minecraft. Parents complain that their kids throw a tantrum if they don’t get to play video games.

          TOUGH! That’s what being a parent is about!

          There’s no direct proof that video games turn people into killers, but there’s thousands of years of human history that proves that poor parenting sometimes does.

        • Nailed it. Bad parenting will produce horrible little beasts regardless of environment and culture, in most cases.

  17. My house doesn’t have any bloody video games, with the possible exception of Cabelas’ Dangerous Hunts. That said, I don’t think banning stuff is the answer. But for some crazy people teetering on the edge, these things can certainly be the nudge that sends them over.

    And most crazy people aren’t stupid. That’s why the Joker chose a theater where firearms weren’t allowed. The solutions are clear enough: Restrain the insane, and let people defend themselves. And lock up your guns so unstable or bad people can’t get them.

    Not that the gun-grabbers need an excuse. Their game has always been the same, and any excuse will do, whether it’s crime, some atrocity, or even a natural disaster. Any reason is a good reason to disarm you because in the end, they want you to be their loyal, dependent subject.

  18. “Further, in places such as Texas and Oklahoma, just to name the big two, properly credential staff is permitted to carry concealed weapons and this is made publicly known.”

    I’d like to know more about this. CHL holders in Texas are prohibited from carrying in any school. Does anybody have a specific example of school staff being allowed to carry inside their school?

  19. “They feed on fear, the weak and defenseless and particularly those who run and/or hide and cower. This is how they feel their power. They will kill themselves, as is often the case, rather than be confronted by an armed adversary.”

    in your research, did you find that these kids prior to going “postal”, were in fear of their peers, able to be labeled as or categorized as week, fit the mold of someone feeling defenseless.?

  20. This makes me wonder what’s so toxic about the modern school environment, in that there seems to be a “revenge” aspect to many of these incidents. I suspect the nationalization of public education since the formation of the Dept. of Education has played a role. Formerly, education was a local matter, with local school boards calling all the shots, and presumably, Job ! is education. Nowadays, Job 1 making sure the schools are in line with the latest federal insanity, to assure the buck keep rolling in. My lady friend teach elementary art in Lincoln, Neb. 20 years ago she taught in inner-city Chicago. She says conditions today in Lincoln are much, much worse than they were in Chicago. It should be a huge scandal, based on the stories she tells. Teachers cope by being dis-interested time servers, getting drunk every night, or slowing losing their sanity altogether, as per my lady friend. I get to do talk therapy, listening to the latest horror stories whenever we’re together. She can’t wait to quit in a couple of years.
    The culture IS much to blame. Her school mingles the children of university professors with the illegitimate spawn of LBJ’s permanent underclass, gift of the “Great Society.” Many of these children are being raised in environments in which they fail to socialize, and functionally become sociopathic/psychopathic. Nothing can be done with them in the school setting, however. Nobody can even fail these days because Job 1 is to pretend the school is succeeding to keep the bucks flowing, etc.
    Sorry if I’ve rambled; I compose this as I typed. But I do think local control of schools would help. At a minimum, each school district board could decide whether to place armed guards without making a “federal case” out of it.
    Remember, all this is happening in Lincoln, Neb., by any measure one of the more livable cities left. I can’t imagine what Chicago is like by now.

  21. I read the story and his second paragraph really doesn’t help:

    “Not one child has died as a result of a fire in a school in the last 25 years. Yet parents, officials and the law requires fire extinguishers and smoke alarms in our schools.”

    Perhaps because of Smoke alarms and fire extinguishers being required and inspected no child has died see the different way you can take that. A gun grabber could use that as method to make their case if guns are banned there won’t be anymore school shootings.

    I love the liberal minds now grasping at doing what the NRA suggested, more guns in schools (they don’t want to admit it though). After 911 planes were not allowed to fly until some steps and logistics where put in place. Yet school started as normal after the break. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what happened last month and I haven’t seen a source on the events that occurred vs what’s been reported.

    Why not have doors that lock and can slow down/stop bullets. Once class starts the doors are locked and a camera or some other way of verifying who is outside before it is opened. It might not protect the first class but it would help the others. The fact that people are not talking about solutions even simple ones proves that this has nothing to do with protecting kids, it’s all about taking guns.

  22. “The Israeli model for school security or that implemented by Russian school authorities after the attack in Beslan targets a different adversary than we face here,…”

    So far.

  23. This piece needs wider distribution. Share it with anyone you know who doesn’t understand guns or 2A. They are being skillfully manipulated by the
    grabbers and we have not done a good job of focusing our responses on the core problem that has been perversely leveraged as an excuse to initiate confiscation. I believe there is a broad base of people in our nation who don’t have a particular affinity for firearms, but are being moved by the emotion of school shootings to sign on to the left’s agenda. It is a very short step once the specificity of active school shootings is defined to recognize that NONE of the proposed legislation would change or prevent these incidents. But we already knew that. This is not a time for compromise, it is a time for education.

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