"It'll be a sad day for this country if children can safely attend their classes only under the protection of armed guards."
If it is up to the NRA spokesman last Friday speaking for his group, this is precisely what needs to be done, arming the "good guys" to do battle with the "bad guys," including armed guards in every one of America's schools. He said "call me crazy" if we want but that is the NRA's position. Sir, you are crazy with a capital "C"!
First, what we do know is that the NRA is the lobbying group not only for those individuals who possess firearms lawfully or who support the Second Amendment, but for those corporate entities that manufacture firearms for sale and distribution. So, it would not make much sense for a trade group to advocate positions or for legislation that reduces firearms in the open marketplace that then diminishes bottom lines, would it? Of course it would not. Thus, arming good guys, including at all schools, would mean more sales and that would make NRA members really happy. So, we have corporate greed and profits versus what needs to be done ethically, morally and legally to get guns -- like assault weapons -- off the streets.
Sure, the solution is multi-faceted, as if composed of pieces of a pie. One slice is making sure background checks are completed on all who purchase firearms, including at gun shows. Another is to have complete and interlocking data bases, including those in the military. Still another is to do away with firearms that do not, and never were intended to, protect home and person, like those assault or semi-automatic guns. Another is to have manufacturers install locking mechanisms on guns that only the purchaser knows about. Another of these slices is to provide for an improved mental health system, so that the likes of a Lochner in Phoenix who almost took the life of Gabby Gifford, or a Lanza who did his terrible deed days ago at Sandy Hook can never come into possession of a "weapon of mass carnage." Still other considerations must include liability, even criminal, for those not properly storing, maintaining or selling firearms. Why not have such a Damoclean Sword swing over those who want to protect person and property. Nothing in the Second Amendment precludes the right to bear arms having parameters around it. Even looking at violence in movie houses, with videos and over the Internet is another part of the pie. Why can't videos of violence be rated like movies; there would be no infringement on one's First Amendment rights by doing so. To be sure, nothing we do will stop violence caused by guns 100 percent of the time, but that used to be a goal, however unattainable.
With issues continuing to swirl on and about the Fiscal Cliff as we head into a new year, and with the Biden Task Force having until late next month to come back with its report, which then will take even more time to review and act upon, the concern grows that those who we elected for the new Congress will do what their predecessors did before them -- nothing. This time must be different, for otherwise the children who were murdered in Connecticut will have died in vain. Of course, the lives of all whose deaths were murders will have died in vain as well. We can no longer allow this to remain; this "status quo" is totally unacceptable.
In the end, guns kill and the less of them around the less of a chance there will be victims of gun violence. To say otherwise is indeed crazy, illogical and immoral.
Let me close by referring to the quote atop this post. Looks like it was said right after the massacre in Connecticut, perhaps by President Obama, Senator Dianne Feinstein, or others supporting new laws to diminish gun violence ala the pieces of the pie described above. All of you would be wrong! The words were those of President Dwight David Eisenhower, said over 55 years ago (9-23-57) regarding occurrences that took place at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh? But now is the time effective legislation and change needs to be undertaken and passed.