Gunfire in School

  Again? This time a student of the school who apparently was angry with his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend and decided to take his anger out on the whole school. Seventeen died. My heart dies every time this sort of thing happens. I cry over innocent lives lost for nothing. It's so disheartening. And I can easily understand the frustration of many people who automatically call for gun control when these things happen. Their logic is, "no guns equals no shootings." Maybe that would be true if you could ever really round up all the guns in the country. It's doubtful you could do that when one of this Country's biggest exports is guns. But let's break this whole problem down and see what kind of solutions we can honestly come up with. I don't mean to step on anyone's toes here. I don't want to take one side and yell at everyone on the other side that they are wrong. For the sake of finding an honest solution, let's not take sides for a bit and see what we can come up with.

  First of all, there is the second amendment. We should address that issue first. The second amendment was put forth in our constitution because our Forefathers didn't trust governments.  They didn't for obvious reasons. Most of them had lived under the harsh and sometimes arbitrary whims of the monarchy of England. They also saw or experienced the same thing in other countries as well. So the second amendment was instituted as a safeguard against any government that might abuse its powers to the detriment of its own people. Guns were an insurance policy against just such a thing occurring. The question is do you trust government not to be abusive of their own people? I don't. There have been too many examples in recent history where a government rounded up everyone's guns and then began to abuse powers and kill dissidents. Sometimes by the millions.

  I know about the argument that in those days a musket might have made the difference. But with today's sophisticated weaponry in the hands of our police, homeland security, and military it will not be overcome by individuals with hunting rifles or even AR-15's. That's probably true, but it makes them think twice. So what do we do about the amendment? I personally tend to believe that our forefathers had the wisdom and forethought to really believe that that amendment was necessary. I would have a hard time going against that. But you know, that amendment has been in place for a long time. Guns have always been available in this country. Yet, these school shootings have mostly just happened in recent times. So, what has changed? Why now?

  Just about everyone I know had some sort of hunting rifle or shotgun in their home when I was young. Many adults and teens carried around shotguns in gun racks in the back of their trucks here in Texas. And there were fights and breakups with girlfriends back in my day as a youngster. But no one, went out to their truck and came back and started shooting up the whole place. It didn't happen. I'm sixty-nine years old. My school days were a long time ago. But even after that, it was different for a long time. I spent four years in the Army and then went to College for four years. During the eighties, I was divorced and began working in nightclubs as a bouncer to make a little extra money. I did that for several years. I broke up a lot of fights during that time. Drunks often threatened to go get a gun and come back and shoot me. But they never did. They also threatened to stab me, run over me with their car, set me on fire, etc. But they never did that either.

  So, what's changed? It's not the availability of guns or any kind of weapon for that matter. People have changed. It's not the fact that some people are mentally ill and not getting treatment. That was true back then, too. So, what is it? How have we changed as a nation? I can suggest some obvious changes that I've seen over the years that to me raise red flags. The first being the fact that our parenting methods have changed. And it's not only the lack of discipline at work here. Take away discipline at home and at school and add that to the fact that back when I was growing up, at least one parent was usually at home raising and in charge of their kid's behavior. When women entered the workforce in droves, those dynamics changed. I see that as the beginning of the problem. And no, I know we can't put that genie back in the bottle. The fact is, our kids are being raised now by strangers. And those strangers have their hands tied when it comes to discipline. 

  Another dynamic that has changed is we have become more and more a secular nation. People are turning away from traditional religion and God by droves. We could argue all day about the validity of religion and it's role in society and never get anywhere. I won't do that here. I'm just pointing out that this, too, is another one of those dynamics that changed and seems to be impacting society in a negative way. In my day, we knew all our neighbors and it was safe to leave your door unlocked and for the kids to walk or ride bikes to school even if it were miles away. Not today. Nuclear families don't even know the people living next door to them and don't want to. The old sense of community where neighbors helped neighbors and saw each other regularly in church and on the job is gone. Even small towns aren't safe anymore, and cities have become nightmares.

  Okay,  here comes the biggie. Media. Mass Media that's ever-present in your face 24/7. Add to that social media and you've got a recipe for stirring the kettle to a boil in a very big hurry. A kettle that maybe used to simmer until the flames went out, now boils over in minutes due to constant fanning of the flames. There's no way I can see to put that genie back in the bottle either.

  There's one other dynamic I want to mention. And I know that most of you are not tuned in to this sort of thing. Or you treat it the way Mass Media tells you to and laugh it off as a crazy conspiracy theory. I would too. I want to. But it just keeps happening again and again. I've seen the smoke and I expect there's enough there to suspect a fire. Our own FBI seems to have an agenda different from what you would expect them to have in all this. Many times they are warned that individuals need to be watched. And they do. They discover that they have caches of weapons and have maybe made comments to their friends and families that are alarming. Not only does the FBI do nothing but watch, leakers have suggested that they knew and even encouraged those disturbed individuals to act on their threats. Very rich and powerful men run this country from the shadows. A coup took place when Kennedy was assassinated and some of those thugs are still running things. I have a bad feeling that their agenda is to get rid of the second amendment and then clamp down hard on us. We have seen lately how corrupt the FBI and CIA can be and that it may be used as an arm of whoever is pulling the strings. If this conspiracy theory proves to be valid, I don't know how we fight that. I know most of you think that is all silliness. Maybe. You could be right. But keep your eyes and ears open. And don't believe for a minute everything the Main Stream Media tells you. They are no longer news and journalists agencies. They are the propaganda branch of our government. Yes both sides, right and left. Our government wants us at each other's throats. When we are, we're not breathing down their corrupt/evil necks. Of this, I have no doubt.

  So how do we fix the problem? How do we make the school shootings stop? If it's some big government scheme to move public sentiment in the direction of abolishing the second amendment and putting their bootheel more firmly on our necks - the answer is we don't. We will see more, not less until their goal is accomplished. I hate to be so negative in this, but there it is. They have all the tools in place with MSM and Social Media. Unless we pull the plug on them, I don't see any other outcome. And I don't see anyone crusading to pull the plug on them.

  There are stopgap measures we can take. Some of our returning military men would make good armed security guards at every entrance to public school buildings. Some have gone so far as suggesting we arm the teachers. I wouldn't go that far. Entry points into schools should be looked at and minimized down to just one where possible. And that point should be guarded. 

  Another thing we might do is begin to move away from public school in favor of homeschooling. With today's technology, virtual school rooms might not be so bad. If I had young kids today, they would definitely be homeschooled. Of course, homeschooling works best if it's monitored. Someone has to be there with the kids. Retired grandparents could be paid an additional amount on their social security if they take on such a role.

  Mental illness definitely needs to be better addressed in this country. That almost goes without saying. Throwing drugs at every quirk does not seem to be the answer. In fact, it seems to be contributing to the problem. 

  Drugs is another factor that needs to be dealt with honestly. I'm appalled by the attitude of most of the people I know, especially those younger than forty when it comes to drugs when used for other than medicinal purposes. Almost everyone I know would be getting high all the time if it weren't for random drug screens on their jobs. What does that say about our society? With the illegal drug culture in our present society, crime and violence just go hand and hand. The drug problem is another of those dynamics that may be having a big impact on violence everywhere, not just in schools. 

 So, in conclusion, are school shootings a solvable problem that we can just magically make disappear by passing a no gun law? I sadly, feel that it's highly unlikely and probably unwise. I'm very afraid that the day we pass a no gun law in this country and manage to confiscate most of what the public already has will be the day when we see our government's true colors. That will be the day you will finally know without a doubt that democracy died a long time ago and something evil this way comes out of the shadows. So, our best bet is not to work toward a world with no guns (never gonna happen - THEY will still have theirs). Instead, we should focus on making our kids safe in a world that has guns and plenty of crazy people willing to use them. I pray fervently and grieve for the many victims of these tragedies already. And I continue to pray that we will somehow come to a successful arrangement that prevents all future catastrophes such as these recent school shootings from ever happening again. It is after all, what we all want.