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Since 17 July 2006 |
Grub Street Interview
Matt Seinberg
I am so sick and tired of reading every week or every other week of school shootings perpetrated by unbalanced or vengeful individuals. What really burns my butt is our wonderful Republican controlled government is doing nothing about it. Send prayers and thoughts, but won't change policy to stop the slaughter.
The NRA wields unchecked power.
The politicians are so beholden to the National Rifle Association (NRA), they are doing nothing to stop the sale of assault rifles with bump stocks and other weapons, which the public should not have in their possession. The Sandy Hook school shooting, in Newtown, CT, on 15 December 2012, left twenty, most young children, dead. This event truly polarized the public.
The outcry, after Sandy Hook, was so great that the school was demolished and another built to replace it. Politicians bemoaned the attack and had a moment of personal silence before chasing their donation cheque from the NRA. The NRA, for its part, suggested more guns in schools, arm the teachers.
In America, there are 101 guns for every 100 residents. This makes any roll back in gun ownership, in the USA, difficult. It would take much resolve and likely two generations to reduce gun ownership to 31 per 100 residents, as it is in Canada, today, or 15 per 100, in Australia.
A roll back in gun ownership, in America, is possible. Convicted felons and psychiatric patients shouldn't get permits to own guns or any sort of weapon. This begins with deep background checks, which don't take hours, but weeks. If someone can't wait a month for a weapon, he or she probably shouldn't have a permit or a gun.
The federal government, through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) should have a national database, to which each state contributes, that includes people with legal carry permits. The information in the database would link with databases of criminal history and such of permit holders. Even if a small percentage of wrongly issued gun permits were uncovered, using these linked databases, it would surely save lives.
Leave the idiot politicians out of it. Allow law enforcement do it job, which it to investigate and solve crimes. Pressure law enforcement to find illegal guns and impound and destroy each one.
Here's a list of recent school shootings.
Here's a list of school shootings from 2016 to today that I read about in our local newspaper, "Newsday."
(1) 9 September 2016: Alpine High School in West Texas where a 14-year-old girl died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after shooting and wounding another female student.
(2) 28 September 2016: Townville Elementary School in South Carolina: a teenage boy killed his father then killed a 6-year-old boy, on a playground.
(3) 10 April 2017: North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, CA: a teacher and 8-year-old boy were shot and killed before the gunman fatally shot himself.
(4) 13 September 2017: Freeman High School in Rockford, WA, where A 15-yearold was killed and three female students wounded.
(5) 7 December 2017: Aztec High School, New Mexico: two students killed.
(6) 23 January 2018: Marshall Country High School in western Kentucky, two students killed, fourteen wounded.
(7) 14 February 2018: Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL., 14 students and three staff members killed.
(8) 18 May 2018: Santa Fe High School, near Houston, TX, ten students killed and 10 wounded. The student who did the shooting admitted that he spared people he liked.
How long must this go on? Metal detectors must be standard issue for all school entrances. How long is it going to be before our schools receive protection during all hours by law enforcement? I'm not talking about police officers, not rent-a-guards, with little or no authority. I mean officers from the local police department. Someone that can take quick and decisive action as required.
Every day, when my kids go to school, camp or work, I worry about what can happen. Will a disgruntled former or current employee seeking revenge for something they viewed as wrong against them enter the premises and start shooting at any person they see?
Heck, when I got work, I wonder of shootings, especially after management fires someone. Could it resemble postal-worker shootings that plagued America years ago? Will some alienated person show up one day, with a weapon, looking for revenge? I always keep my eyes on the front door, just in case.
Change begins with Congress.
Now is the time to write to the congress people and senators that represent us and tell them to stop this madness! If that doesn't work, vote them out of office in the November 2018 mid-term elections. Maybe then, our lawmakers will get the message.
Once again, we're mad as hell and not going to take these school shootings sitting down.
Matt Seinberg lives on Long Island, a few minutes east of New York City. He looks at everything around him and notices much. Somewhat less cynical than dyed in the wool New Yorkers, Seinberg believes those who don't see what he does like reading about what he sees and what it means to him. Seinberg columns revel in the silly little things of life and laughter as well as much well-directed anger at inept, foolish public officials. Mostly, Seinberg writes for those who laugh easily at their own foibles as well as those of others.
More by Matt Seinberg:
Fall into Winter
Florida Bound
College Road Trip
Blizzard Over Broadway
Air Check Disater Aftermath
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