I was on my way down to Miami yesterday afternoon on SB I-95 near Ft Lauderdale when suddenly on the northbound side came about 5 speeding police cars. I thought must be a huge accident back behind me when in reality it must have been related to the school shooting that went down about that time. Probably perpetrated by some left wing liberal peace activist....,
When in reality it was a psychotic kid who authorities were aware of and the FBI had viewed on a video six months prior yet claim they could not identify. Perhaps if they were not consumed in partisan political witch hunts they would be able to do basic police work.
Agree with George. Also a complete failure by the school to do a risk assessment on an expelled kid that had a history of discipline issues. Sometimes it's not left or right Dave, it's right there in bold letters.
Never saw a gun that could shoot itself. I suggest that the best solution is to lock up every individual with a mental illness that might be violent. End of problem
The snarky humor here is unwarranted. I understand that no one intends any disrespect toward the tragedy. Just sayin'.
Can you believe this 17 year old fellow student of the victims politicizing the terrible tragedy by criticizing Trump: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rally-parkland-shooting-survivors-rail-against-gun-laws-nra-trump-n849076 If you read her words and are not moved then you're a lost soul..... a victim yourself of callous right wing propaganda.
I'll give her a pass because of her youthful naievete and proximity to the tragedy. But what is your excuse?
The gun used here was bought days after Trump took office. Obviously he should have immediately voided the Constitution and taken away all 300, 000,000 guns in the US. When Obama, Schumer, and Pelosi had a filibuster proof Congress, just what laws did they pass that would have prevented this shooting?
actually, about that... Trump did just sign new legislation getting rid of the Obama era laws that made it more difficult for people with mental illness to get guns. Still, this is a local legislation problem. When it's easier for a teenage boy to buy an AR-15 than it is for a teenage girl to get birth control, obviously something is a bit outta whack. I do know that if someone tells you that if someone says the answer to a man with a gun, is more men with guns, you're probably talking to an arms dealer. Just my 2 cents. Signed, gun owner... cross bow shooting and pig murdering enthusiast
So... I've been staying out of this... listening to all the folks screaming for "action"... and of course not having any actual solutions other than "ban everything". Has anyone asked the question: "why is this happening NOW?" I went to a very large rural/suburban high school. And yep, there were actually a few guys who had their deer rifles hanging in the rack in their trucks in the fall so they could go straight to the lease from school. And yet... we never had any school shootings. Our parents never had any school shootings. So what has happened in the last 20 years? Something is different and it isn't the presence of the gun. Till they figure that out, they will still have some who want to kill at the schools. But instead of solving that, let's do something proactive in the now. While everyone haggles over some sort of new magical law, I suggest we do something to make schools a much less favorable target. Right now they are sitting ducks, practically begging for a shooting. "GUN FREE ZONE" is as laughable now as it was when it was started. No... you need to make schools hardened targets that deter crazy from even trying. Controlled access points. Armed security. Even have some teachers trained as defenders. This would not be that hard to accomplish, and I guarantee it would be infinitely more effective than another law that crazy/criminal will ignore.
Good ideas for schools Scott but the largest mass shootings in recent years took place in a bar and a concert venue. For Trump to abolish any law that makes it harder for mentally ill people to acquire weapons is unconscionable..... reprehensible and sick.
Can we at least tell truths about all this? It wasn't an "Obama era law" and Trump did not "abolish it"...it was an Obama administration RULE that had never taken effect. No existing laws were affected regarding who could or could not purchase a gun (the law states that any one ADJUDICATED as medically defective or who had been committed to a mental institution cannot pass the background check.) Trump didn't overturn the rule...congress did....yes, he signed off on it and did not veto it, but the House and Senate passed the repeal of the rule. The rule required the Social Security Administration to pass on to the FBI the names of all recipients of SS disability benefits for mental illnesses. It was opposed by the ACLU and many mental health organizations and disability advocates. Critics ignore this and play up the evil NRA as the only opponent of the rule. These people would be deprived of their ability to purchase a firearm not through any ruling that they were a danger to themselves or others, but due to the way their benefits were being classified by the government in a certain way. It deprives them of a right without any due process. You can be in favor of that rule...you can argue that those who feel it had major constitutional problems (as I do) are wrong...but at least tell the truth about it. And it would not have affected any of these monsters who have committed these crimes.
Right, Trump signed a Bill that rolled back Obama era regulation that is now law. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...ng-obama-era-gun-checks-people-mental-n727221 In the past few months I became involved in advocate work for those with mental illness, because I live in the Republican utopia of Alabama which has shut down the vast majority of mental health hospitals, consolidated them into a few facilities (which never ever had enough beds), and started running them as a 'more effective business model.' The end result is that the very few remaining mental health facilities are totally swamped and don't have room for another person. That means more people who belong in mental health facilities wind up getting sent back to jail where they live in GenPop, and the actual hospitals have entire hallways full of mental health patients that they have nowhere to put. They can't release them. They can't treat them. All they can do is put them against a wall in the hallway and feed them 3 times a day. I learned of that last little nugget during one of my most recent hospital trips for my condition. They could barely wheel me down to the CT scan area because we had to go around 4 rows (all at least 30 to 50 yards long) of mental health patients with nowhere to go. I'm all for putting their names on the list. I fight to help these people, but the vast majority of them have absolutely no business owning a gun. We've got one guy who has a sexualized fantasy about going to the Decatur Mall and shooting all of the women and children before capping himself. He's had this active fantasy for more than 3 decades. All we can do is hope and pray that his elderly parents live long enough to keep him medicated, or that they actually outlive him for some reason. Because if he comes off his meds, he's gonna try to do it again. Thoughts and prayers aren't good for a whole lot in this situations. I am now the 1st Vice President of the group and I butt heads with them constantly over these issues. We need serious infrastructure changes in our American culture/society. We no longer have civil discourse, we live in the age of 'shut up and dribble.' We need to be talking these things out and both sides need to come to terms with the fact that change is needed. What's wrong with a 5 round magazine cap? This is probably my arrogance talking, but if you need 15 rounds to hit your (legal) target, then you aren't a very good shot and need to be spending more time at the range. Do we really need legalized weapons like the AR-15? Especially when they are so legal and readily available, my teenage son could just walk right into the gun shop 2 miles down the road and buy one without so much as a second glance? The hardline stance of both sides will not work, and the hardline stance of both sides needs to change. The NRA folks need to accept that changes need to be made. They always seem to overlook the 'well regulated' portion of the 2nd Amendment. The other side needs to realize that we will never ban guns in the US. It just won't ever happen. Right now, we're at a gridlock and something has to give. Turning schools into prisons isn't the answer at all.
Great post Corey... I agree. I have said before that the second amendment was meant to insure ownership of a single shot black powder musket..... not an AR15. There is an interview posted on Facebook of Florida Gov. Rick Scott being interviewed at the end of last year about what he would propose doing to protect school kids and others from mass shootings and in an obvious bow down to the conservative right and the NRA he could only say "pray...pray against evil" and "console the grieving families". In light of what just happened it makes him look like an uncaring moron.
Trump has been so egotistically consumed with undermining Obama's presidency and making his own look good that he couldn't see the good of this regulation because it had Obama's fingerprint on it. Trump is a sick man himself.