So let’s take a scenario: Kids drink copious amount of over the counter cold medicine to get high. Sometimes they OD or foolishly mix it with other drugs, or generally get themselves into trouble that naturally comes with unsupervised children tweaked out of their minds.
Media reports get out, and parents of dead or injured kids start telling their horror stories. So the political call is to ban Tylenol, and require a doctor’s prescription for hemorrhoid cream!
Now of course DXM abuse is a real thing, and most stores have moved it behind the counter and will only sell small amounts to people over the age of 18. But my fictitious reaction is really how gun control works.
Let’s first do a little historical recap.
During prohibition and the great depression there was a massive crime wave of bootleggers and interstate bank robbers. These criminals favored automatic weapons, and cut-down guns for easy transport and concealment. These weapons were most often stolen from police or army arsenals, or in the case of the Chicago mob, likely issue weapons brought in by corrupt cops.
The solution, make sale of automatic and short barreled firearms prohibitively expensive!
Then we had The President shot by a Communist nut job, His brother shot by an anti-Semitic nutjob, and a Civil Rights Leader was shot by a Peckerwood nutjob. The solution, make gun shops have to have licensees and deny people convicted of certain crime the access to buy guns.
Then we had a US President shot several times with a 6-shot .22 Revolver by a mentally ill man who legally bought it! The solution, waiting periods and background checks for gun sales.
The Brady Campaign later used James Brady’s injury from that 6-shot revolver to implement a ban on semi-auto rifles and magazines holding more than 10 rounds!
So as comical as my quip about the ban of Tylenol and restriction on hemorrhoid cream, it really rings true with the anti-gun reactionaries.
A Reynolds High School teacher said he’s lobbying for gun control legislation, including background checks, a minimum age requirement and safety training for gun owners, in light of this week’s deadly shooting at the school.
…Needler said the shooting has moved him to political activism for gun control. In his post, he outlines potential gun restrictions, including requiring gun purchasers to get three letters of recommendation before obtaining firearm and mandate “rigorous” gun safety training. He also supports background checks and minimum age requirements for gun owners.
Now let’s look at his case. We have a 15 year old kid who was too young to own or buy guns, and too young to have a carry permit. He broke into his father’s gun safe and stole two guns and brought them into the school’s gun free zone. Shot one student dead, attempted to kill a teacher, and then quickly was cornered by two armed police officers who were on site before the shooting, which lead him to take his own life. Here’s another line from the teacher’s screed.
In a post that’s been shared more than 1,355 times since Tuesday night, the veteran science teacher said he and his 40 or so students crammed into a corner of a classroom with walls made of “flexible bulletin-board material” that “any bullet that exists could go through easily.” Needler — who described the shooting as the nightmare he feared since he began teaching 14 years ago — thought about his wife and child.
So the “Solution” for this is his above crap about registration, letters of recommendation, minimum age requirements (which already exist!) and safety training. Nothing about the stupidity of a “Gun Free Zone” that is just a sign on the door. Nothing about how two armed men with guns kept this from becoming worse. Nothing about the foolishness of the “Shelter in Place” reaction to violent assault.
I’m not sure how such outlandish reactions happen. Even worse this man is a SCIENCE TEACHER! He allegedly has training in cause and effect, the scientific method, and vetting a hypothesis.
He SHOULD be ashamed of himself, but it appears that anti-gun people don’t have the ability to process shame.
My knowledge of the Reynolds shooting is pretty much headlines-only. I read the linked article.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong. The teacher works in a union shop represented by the Reynolds Education Association. The teacher’s actions give at least the appearance of being molded by the union leadership for the purpose of gaining an advantage in collective bargaining. My speculation here is low-grade hunch quality only. I’ll stand down if I’m off base. (I work at a university; I’m in a union. I have experience with teachers’ union leaders.)
My Father is a retired Union Public School teacher. He is ultra Liberal, and in a similar short-sighted big-on-talking-points way. I think it’s tribalism in his case. My Mom was telling me when they first met how obnoxious Dad was when he’d pontificate about Nixon’s Christian values. My Dad was never a practicing Christian, and you might notice that I have no particular religious tenants because that’s how my folks raised me. Still he came from VERY rural Maine which essentially can be compared to any other Rural agrarian part of the US.
If you want to “Fit in” without rocking the boat, or burning calories defending your positions (which I consider a Varsity sport in my own life, hence this blog) you mold your views to fit in. Dad went from Ultra Conservative Republican who sang praise of Nixon and the horrors of JFK, to a Ultra Lefty Democrat who sings his praises of President Obama (and Walter Mondale if you really want another litmus test), and what happened between is he went from being surrounded by Hard-Line religious conservatives, to surrounded by hard-line “Progressive” Democrats.
Just a guess, Dad won’t fess up, and I doubt this fella will either.
Thanks. I hope my hunch is wrong about the Reynolds teacher and his union. (BTW–I think students and the broader public would be shocked at how quickly the scholarly pose and teacherly decorum are dropped at union meetings. That’s another blog, I guess.)
And letters of recommendation, registration, rigorous safety training, minimum age requirements, oh and hell let’s add in “safe storage” and “owner liability” would have changed things HOW?
None of the guns were in the mutant’s name…. So is the teacher ignorant or lying?
Isn’t it nice how after a shooting the antis can exploit the deaths of children to demand anything and if challenged on it can go all wounded fawn.