Columbine Was an Easy Target—Guns Protect Schools From Criminals
Janalee Tobias is the president and founder of Women Against Gun Control.
Early 1970s. A young girl ascends high into the sky on a swing on her school's playground. "This is the safest place in the world," she shouts to her friend swinging next to her. It is recess in a small town in Idaho. She has been terrified since her mom warned her about "danger areas" like public parks, public restrooms, theaters, and getting separated from her parents in crowded places. "Mom, what's a 'kid nap'?" Her carefree world completely shatters when her mom answers, "stealing kids from their parents." However, her mom assures her that even though there are a lot of kids at school with not very many adults to watch over them, she will always be safe at school. "No one is mean enough to go to a school and hurt sweet, innocent children," her mom says.
January 1989. A disturbed drifter opens fire on a school playground in Stockton, Calif., killing five children and wounding 30 others. The young girl from Idaho now holds her newborn baby girl close. "Dear God," she prays, "please comfort the families of the victims and send guardian angels to watch over our schools. And—please, can you make the 'bad guys' go away?"
Longing to keep schools the safest place in the world and protect her children, this young mother becomes caught up in the notion perpetrated by most media, politicians, and other groups that banning guns and passing gun control laws will reduce crime and make the bad guys go away. After some research on the number of gun control laws passed, she discovers that even though there are more than 20,000 gun control laws on the books nationwide, crime has increased. She also learns that in states with more guns, fewer gun control laws, and laws that allow ordinary citizens to carry concealed handguns, violent crime drops.
Armed with those facts, she helps lobby for the right of Utah citizens to carry concealed weapons and later to keep the law intact for law-abiding citizens to have the right to carry concealed firearms on school campuses. She cites statistics that show that between 1977 and 1995, 15 shootings took place in schools of states without laws stipulating the right to carry concealed handguns, and only one took place in a state that had such a law. There were 19 deaths and 97 injuries in states without right-to-carry laws, but only one death and two injuries in states with such laws.
Additionally, the federal government enacted the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1995. This prohibits anyone from taking a gun within 1,000 feet of a school. Despite this act, there were shootings at 33 schools in just one year from Aug. 1, 1997, through July 31, 1998. "A logical conclusion would be that posting signs banning firearms and creating gun-free zones on school campuses and other vulnerable institutions is a note of encouragement for cowardly criminals who prefer easy victims—especially victims who can't shoot back," she states.
April 20, 1999. Two students at Columbine High School open fire on their peers and kill 12 students, one teacher, and wound 23. The United States grieves the loss of young, innocent lives.
April 21, 1999. Parents nervously send their children off to school, praying their child's school will not be the next killing zone. The young girl from Idaho is now in her 30s.
As usual after a mass shooting, she fields a steady stream of phone calls from other worried parents. Many express relief that if a shooting happened at their school, there may be a "good guy" with a gun and their child could at least have a fighting chance against a "bad guy" with a gun. Some parents are angry, blaming guns for the senseless killings. The pro-gun activist mother, in tears, then calls the Utah state representative who had tried, unsuccessfully, to ban law-abiding citizens from carrying concealed weapons to school. "It was very hard to send my daughters to school today, Dave. Please, I'm willing to put our differences aside and work together and find the causes of these types of crime and stop them from happening in the future." "Set up a time, and let's do it," Dave replies.
April 2009. Columbine shattered any remaining hopes of schools being the safest place in the world. School shootings and mass public shootings have dramatically increased. We live in a time of moral deterioration. We've sadly come to the realization that any one of us could become a victim of violent crime anytime, anywhere. I believe that people with differing views on gun control can work together to find solutions to stop the violence. In the meantime, this mom will cling to her guns and religion for her protection.
Reader Comments
Pro-gun losers.
Three words: Bath School Disaster
The date: May 18, 1927
The toll: 45 dead, 58 wounded
Before the internet.
Before video games.
Before dungeons and dragons
Before rock and roll
Before television.
Before prayer was removed from schools.
Children /Weapons / Song For My Son
Hello U.S. News This is just some input from a seasoned song writer musician .
I think we should be paying attention to world community in regard to
it's struggle and life experience . Example ( Song For My Son ) is a song about children weapons or son away at war . It is culturally diverse because of it's performance .This song has over 47.000 views and growing on You Tube . I invite you to view it and hope you enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gey8AAlMHDs
All the best at U.S. News
Mickey
Mickey Carroll
www.motherj.com
Grammy nominee
Gold Record recipient
The police have been shown to be terrible shots and terrible judges of gunfight tactics for over one hundred and twenty years, in the United States. Here is just one refereed survey of the data, from law enforcement itself:
http://www.theppsc.org/Staff_Views/Aveni/OIS.pdf
By contrast, CCW/CCP/CCL licensees are background checked, sworn, photographed, almost always fingerprinted, and proven to law enforcement's satisfaction to be free and clear of violent offenses, drug offenses, often ANY offenses, and free of mental defect, history of mental defect, and in good standing financially, and trained to handle, shoot, and carry concealed - a set of requirements which exceed most police departments'. Furthermore, those who carry concealed have had the experience of being armed in secret in public and the response is to humble, modest, and diligent in maintaining training, care, and devoted responsibility to being safe. Anyone who thinks a person, a parent, a professional, or any other typical permit holder fails to feel the crushing weight of responsibility the right necessarily entails is a fantasizer living in delusional naivete.
I invite any hysterical bigot against this civil right to attempt to gain a concealed carry permit in their home state (IL and WI hysterics need not apply) then comment after your experience. Otherwise you are projecting a personal hallucination, and your embarrassment is not pretty.
Although wannabe-Marxist internet commenters are known ignoramuses who can only type but not read, John R. Lott and David B. Mustard, 'Crime, Deterrence, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns'. The Journal of Legal Studies, 26 (1997), pages 1-68, summarizes the life-saving benefits of concealed carry and lawful gun proliferation, as do http://www.amazon.com/Bias-Against-Guns-Everything-Control/dp/0895261146/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240525352&sr=8-1
and Lott's lead-off volume "More Guns, Less Crime."
Permit holders are also trained to avoid, deter, disengage, and deescalate - points of which the tyrants who would lay us naked before the felons remain ignorant, not intentionally silent.
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