How about all of you pro-gun people offer some suggestions to help curb these violent actions.
I'd start with much stronger and much more sever penalties at the Federal level. I would also make it legal but not mandatory, for any teacher to arm the self
AFTER proper training while on school grounds. These are punitive and preventive measures, but not cures.
In the home front of "cures" the only path I see is riddled with a
very slippery slope, and that is Mental Health incarceration. I'll remind you of the Virginia Tech campus shooting in 2007. That individual had been previously under a 72 hour mental health hold. The doctors determined that he was able to self-medicate and this, presented no danger to society. As long as
he self-medicated.
Now here's the tricky bit: at what point are we willing to abandon our civil liberties of Due Process and Presumption of Innocence in light of the potential saving of 10, 20 or 30,000 lives? Yes, it seems extraordinarily callous to say that, but in a country of 320,000,000, it's a rounding error of the population.
Had the State of VA incarcerated that shooter, you can bet your bottom dollar that the ACLU would have immediately filed suit against unlawful detention. Their best intentions notwithstanding, their result (similar to the ravings of the now hyper-political NRA) is to enable criminals not punish them. We worry more about criminal's right to fair and impartial trials than we concern ourselves with the victims.
You want less ongoing violence, step up the Penal system to the levels of Saudi Arabia, China, Korea, etc... Our prisons have long abandoned rehabilitation and become jungles filled with ultra-violent animals. At the cost and expense to the public safety. I concede that the none of the recent school shootings was perpetrated by an ex-con, but a huge portion of the violence that does occur, which in turn spurs the need (real or imagined) for self-protection. I have to think that this type of mentality is part of Oz's success.
Maybe Dave, Terry or Retro will chime in with comparisons on their penal system and it's effectiveness. But ours is broken, worthless, and in desperate need of overhauling.
I'm tired of hearing politicians proclaim their willingness to infringe on our Constitutional Rights under the guise of "saving just 1 child's life" when they are completely unwilling to do what's necessary to deal with the criminals already in the system. Start culling the herd, with extreme measures and dispatch. I think then you'll see a sudden switch in the level and frequency of street crime. Less street crime=less gun violence.
And add to that a media blackout on profiling and turning into a social celebrity these whackjob shooters. Don't even mention their names. Just like the pinhead who lit off a bomb in the Boston Marathon. Screw him. Strap him down and put a bullet or needle in him. Viking funeral and cast his ashes over a landfill.
Might just work-
