Before you bring it up......

I've been on a "safety committee" for an 1800 student school for the last 3 months.......I may need some after talking with these folks....geez.

I guess I just don't understand the unwillingness to talk about school security vs. the willingness to talk about gun control.  How, exactly, does anyone think we can control half a billion guns?  We lost 6 people to a shooting in our city hall chambers.  We installed metal detectors, closed one of the access points, added an officer for the security detail, built a hidden escape door in the chambers, and have other measures that cannot be revealed.  In other words,  we hardened our security.

School shootings are not going to stop.  We can argue all day about why they happen or what kind of people shoot up a school, or what kind of weapons they use......but not one of those things are constant from incident to incident.  At some point, if we truly want to protect kids at school, we are going to have to talk about actual protective measures and not a bunch of silliness that's never going to happen.

Sure.....but we still have to play the hand we're being dealt.  Right now, the only winner is protecting the kids while they are at school....everything else is just a bunch of blabber.

What it will take is more money to retrofit schools with security measures and guards.  There is no traction for that in the schools because any money they get from tax increases they want for salaries.  Then there is the argument that they don't want schools to become "fortresses" where kids can't move about freely.  Then they argue that by having more security guards (more guns) you are creating a situation where adding guns doesn't actually make you safer.

In the end......the meetings I go to all end with wanting to form committees to study what some other committee somewhere studied.....you can then apparently convince people you are actually "meeting and working with law enforcement to make our schools as safe as we can".   I think this is what educators do.......they have a lot of meetings, eventually have a conference, and then break up into committees.

Because they talk all the time and accomplish nothing......the only thing I can figure is they don't want their little kingdom disrupted in any way.  It's maddening.

Do you mean to tell me that we can't control 500,000,000 (or more) guns??

Bro.....you need more guns! 

I was talking to our State Rep, who called me after the Florida school shooting and wanted to pick my brain about guns and gun control since I've been our firearms instructor for 15 years.  She asked me how many guns I owned and there was silence after I told her.  She asked how much ammunition I had at my house and there was an audible gasp from her. LOL

We talked for about an hour and after we were done she told me that she had never considered most of what I told her.  She figured it was because she basically knew nothing about guns and had never been around them.  That's pretty typical from the anti-gun side, but I always find it incredible that they want to create or support legislation on them.  That's like me demanding to make rules about space shuttle travel. 

Yep.....my grandpa and my dad taught me to hunt, and they were both cops as well,  and now I have all their guns....although I have already started to give some of them to my son, nephews, etc.  I have so many more guns then I ever set out to have....especially once I started building black rifles as a hobby of sorts.  I'm lucky in that I get to shoot 4 or 5 times per month and don't have to pay for ammo.  I've been to the Sig Sauer academy in New Hampshire,  FBI range in Quantico,  Marine Corps rifle training....blah, blah, blah .  The Sig Sauer guys were the most impressive.....all former special forces operators.....SEALS, DELTA, etc......and man those guys could shoot!!  My point was mostly going to be that every time I get sent to one of those places, or go to an armorers school for remington, sig, Rock river, smith & wesson, etc.....we get the opportunity to purchase any of their weapons at 50-75% off retail......and so I do. At some point we started loading our own ammo and it just got silly.

Back to the theme.....every time I think about the govt. in this country trying to ban guns it makes me laugh.  I guess the folks who don't know anything about guns really are clueless as to what they'd be up against.

Sadly, I agree with you that the horse is out of the barn on the effectiveness of any gun control legislation.

I don't live in the States and so don't know much about background checks and gun sale restrictions, but it is my understanding that there is nothing currently in place in any State that would prevent the Blood Bather from going out and buying a gun today.

No law will ever be passed to take guns away and likely won't be passed to limit the sale of assault rifles, but why the resistance to restrict sales to those who have no business owning a gun? 

It's a myth that there is resistance to that.  The fact is, we have THOUSANDS of gun laws that prohibit all kinds of people from owning a gun....they just aren't enforced.  So now the sentiment is, "we have all these laws already and they do no good, why make more?"  It's a valid argument.

Still, even that discussion is overridden when you think of the sheer number of firearms now in the publc's hands.  There are NO laws that can be made that will stop guns from being stolen from unlocked vehicles, sold by unscrupulous people (not dealers, just folks who have a lot of guns and can make HUGE profits by selling to someone who couldn't otherwise buy), traded, etc. etc.

It's over with.......say it out loud.....MORE THAN HALF A BILLION GUNS IN CIRCULATION.  The best you can do now is arm yourself......it's easier for a criminal to get a gun than at any other point in history.....by sheer numbers available.

The issue is much bigger than anything you guys are talking about.  You're all talking about treating the symptoms but completely ignoring the underlying problem. 
It's not a gun issue it's not a security issue, it's not a mental health issue, it's a society issue.

We as a society have gotten away from the importance of family, accountability, and allowing our kids to fail.
There are many facets, but these kids have all but one come from a broken family and are pretty much all outcasts from society where they simply don't fit in.  Our PC culture tells us to embrace people that are different rather than letting them get their butts kicked until they stop being an idiot like we have throughout history (oh no...  don't bully our future school shooter, let him stay isolated and alone)
I grew up in the 70's and 80's and there were typically fights once or twice a week after school.  I kicked some butt and had my butt handed to me, and you know what.  This was a bonding exercise for those of us who were outcasts.  I was the stereotypical loner outcast who was bullied and beat up, but I learned how to fight back and after delivering a few butt kickings of my own I became respected and integrated with the very people who previously bullied me.  I'm still friends with some of them today. 
We've gone so far as a society to "protect" kids that we've become far worse abusers than could have ever been imaged by their peers.
Parents don't raise their kids any more, parents put their own interests first and cast their kids off to video games and the internet to be raised.  They go into virtual worlds without end to find the only acceptance they can because society won't allow them to earn it in the real world and their parents are too busy and selfish to care.

I'm kind of babbling, but it has nothing to do with security, guns, or mental health, it has to do with the importance of the family unit and allowing kids to be kids.
We could ban and confiscate all guns and it doesn't change the fact that these kids are unable to deal with the reality that is their life because of the society we've built.  They'll grab a car and drive into the stands or make a bomb with parts from the internet.  Sure, we can make schools stronger and stronger fortresses, but it will just push the carnage to sporting events and other venues.  We have to address the root and it will take many many years.

Tony - everything you said there is 100% correct.  However, I can't control the way other people raise or,  more to your point,  don't raise their kids.  So then it becomes a matter of protecting ourselves and each other from these idiots.  I'm not a family counselor, but I can get a guy with a gun out of a building, or stop him from entering in the first place.....we just have to decide that's what we're going to do.

Hat's off to Jason Seaman, the Indiana middle school teacher who yesterday charged a kid with a gun who came into his classroom firing.  Although shot 3 times, Seaman subdued the kid who was shooting and probably saved countless lives. 

That's a Man!