An Experiment To Big To Attempt

The NRA call for stationing armed and trained guards in every one of the over 100,000 public schools is a bold proposal.  The child-like logic of putting a good guy with a gun in front of a bad guy with a gun is intriguing.  Clearly a school principal without any means of defense is easy prey to someone bent on killing other teachers or students.  So would the NRA proposal work?

Maybe.

Both the tragedies at Columbine and Virginia Tech, however, involved the presence of trained and armed guards.  So we know it is not a 100% solution.  I believe that if it generally were known that all (or a) school had armed guards, someone bent upon mayhem would adjust his/her plan to either avoid the guard or eliminate the guard and then proceed with their plan.

Armed guards could also invite attacks by simply being there.  And the response to an attack by a bad person might result in unintended collateral injuries and deaths.  Bullets have a strange way of finding unintended targets.

I think there is even a more insidious aspect to this NRA proposal.  Most all of these violent shooting crimes have involved mentally fragile people (armed with automatic weapons with large capacity clips) who were trying desperately to make a statement.  If the solution to Newtown is just arm the schools, what makes anyone think a mentally sick person is going to be content with having a shoot out when he/she might select a different (and easier) target…  What about malls, sporting events, marathons, churches, parking lots, beaches, etc.

The notion of preventing another Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy by arming each of the 100,000+ public schools is an experiment too big to run.  Common sense suggests, much to the contrary, that taking all military like weapons off the streets, confiscating all large capacity ammunition clips, and criminally charging straw gun purchasers as well as those who lose weapons and do not report the loss, will work as well (or better) without the unintended consequences.   Hmmm.

 

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Tags: congress, guns, nra, sandy hook elementary school

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