Asa Hutchinson (NRA Consultant, former congress person) on CBS Morning News 12/24/2012:
Question: ...there was an armed guard at Columbine, as you know about, Virginia Tech had it's own police force, Fort Hood, one of the most heavily secured facilities in the country.
If armed guards are not preventing mass shootings at those places why do you think arming every single school in the country will prevent more of these shootings?
Hutchinson: "Well, that's the uh, really, the purpose and the goal of my security experts, the team that I'm going to pull together, is to look at solutions across the board. It's not just about an armed presence, that's one element of the plan. We hope to have many other elements of the plan as well, from increased perimeter security, access controls. And these experts will look at the local schools and what can develop as a model plan, not one size fits all but different solutions for an urban school, a rural school, provide those free of charge to our local school districts that they can tweak to help keep our children more safe. So, it's not just about one solution but that is one option that we as a society would be very much in error if we took that off the table, which is the armed presence. We have those armed guards on our airplanes in a very discreent fashion, it's not the wild west but, it's a greater level of security that gives air transportation followers better safety, and we ought to provide the same for our children."
1. There is no guarantee of safety anywhere, anytime. So, whether it's armed guards, or a ban on assault weapons, we can't be assured that our children will be 100% safe anywhere. Sad, but true. Unless we accept that truth, we can't do the right things to minimize the threats to their safety (and our own).
2. Armed guards, "increased perimeter security, access controls." Sounds like prison to me. Is that the world we want to create? I've seen reports on television showing inner city schools that have these security provisions. I wonder if it's made a difference?
3. The NRA strategy is to stress they're looking out for the safety of children first. Gun control will take a long time to get through congress, but we can keep our children SAFE right NOW with armed guards at their school. The NRA know their argument (more guns is good) doesn't make sense so they're appealing to people's emotions; their fear, to make their case for them. Very cynical.
4. The NRA, apparently, will offer free consultations for schools to tweak their security plans...I suspect that means they'll tell you where to post the guard, which entrances to close down, and how high to build the security fence.
***
We live in a world in which the ultimate resolution to grievances is violence. It takes special people to begin a peaceful revolution...Jesus started one, right? Gandhi and Martin Luther King. (Maybe even Martin Luther?)
It's possible.
It begins with not taking the easy way out. It's easy to give everyone a gun. It's not so easy to stay peaceful when confronted with the threat of violence to ourselves, and especially our children.
(And we certainly shouldn't be putting our children on the front line of that battle.)
As adults, we need to be strong and face our fears and encourage peaceful times by being peaceful people.
We create the world we live in. Let's create a peaceful world.
(As a side note, this very debate is the reason we have to trust that police people and our government are exceptional. If we limit our individual access to guns, and allow the police and military to confront the violence in our society, we have to trust them. Maybe the gun debate has come about because we've lost trust? Another entry for another time.)
(Another side note: Gun lovers should take responsibility for other gun owners who cause problems. The NRA likes to say that it's not guns who kill people, people kill people. Well, of course that makes no sense because people couldn't be so deadly without guns. But let's assume it's true...the NRA should take responsibility for all gun owners and do what it takes to make guns safer for all - background checks for all gun purchases, including gun shows, for instance.)
(Last side note: the NRA doesn't care about the second amendment, they care about the gun manufacturers and protecting their money.)
