Given all the inexcusable failures of the FBI, Cruz's classmates, his teachers, and his guardian to take actions that would have prevented the school shooting in Broward County, FL, it is quite a reach for liberals to simply fall back on their usual anti-gun arguments as if the main problem were private gun ownership and the NRA. That's like blaming private car ownership and auto makers for cases where cars have been used to kill people.
That said, liberals, give your solutions to school shootings. WHAT do you propose? Here's what I propose:
* Raise the minimum age for gun ownership to 21.
* Require a background check for ALL gun sales--private sales, dealer sales, gun show sales, gun store sales, ALL gun sales--to prevent guns from being sold to people convicted of violent crimes and people deemed to be dangerously mentally ill by a mental health professional.
* Establish a national database for the dangerously mentally ill and require all mental health professionals to report the name and other personal information of anyone they have deemed to be dangerously mentally ill based on personally counseling/treating that person. At the same time, establish an appeals process where a person named in that database can challenge their status, and ensure that the appeals process takes no more than 60 days.
* Require--not encourage, but require--all schools to select 15% of their faculty to keep a gun at school and to receive, if needed, a basic gun-use class, with the gun to be kept in the classroom under lock and key and with only the teacher, the principal, and a vice principal having a key.
* Require counties to assign 10% of their day-duty police squad cars to do random patrols at schools five days a week. Even poor counties with small police departments could spare 10% of their squad cars to do random school patrols. Yes, this might mean that police departments would need to cut down on all the policemen assigned to do speed traps.
* Require schools to provide identification and reporting training to teach students about common behaviors/profiles of previous school shooters. For heaven's sake, if you see a guy talking about guns and about killing people and/or about killing animals on the internet or in person, say something to the police.
* Establish a national minimum sentence of 15 years for *any* crime committed with a gun or by someone who had a gun on their person during the crime. No whining exceptions. You steal a bike by waving an empty gun at someone to scare them off, you go to jail for 15 years, period. Tough luck, It sucks to be you.
What I do NOT propose:
* Universal gun registration.
* Banning AR-15s or other semi-automatic rifles.
* Limiting how many magazines or how much ammo a person can buy.
That said, liberals, give your solutions to school shootings. WHAT do you propose? Here's what I propose:
* Raise the minimum age for gun ownership to 21.
* Require a background check for ALL gun sales--private sales, dealer sales, gun show sales, gun store sales, ALL gun sales--to prevent guns from being sold to people convicted of violent crimes and people deemed to be dangerously mentally ill by a mental health professional.
* Establish a national database for the dangerously mentally ill and require all mental health professionals to report the name and other personal information of anyone they have deemed to be dangerously mentally ill based on personally counseling/treating that person. At the same time, establish an appeals process where a person named in that database can challenge their status, and ensure that the appeals process takes no more than 60 days.
* Require--not encourage, but require--all schools to select 15% of their faculty to keep a gun at school and to receive, if needed, a basic gun-use class, with the gun to be kept in the classroom under lock and key and with only the teacher, the principal, and a vice principal having a key.
* Require counties to assign 10% of their day-duty police squad cars to do random patrols at schools five days a week. Even poor counties with small police departments could spare 10% of their squad cars to do random school patrols. Yes, this might mean that police departments would need to cut down on all the policemen assigned to do speed traps.
* Require schools to provide identification and reporting training to teach students about common behaviors/profiles of previous school shooters. For heaven's sake, if you see a guy talking about guns and about killing people and/or about killing animals on the internet or in person, say something to the police.
* Establish a national minimum sentence of 15 years for *any* crime committed with a gun or by someone who had a gun on their person during the crime. No whining exceptions. You steal a bike by waving an empty gun at someone to scare them off, you go to jail for 15 years, period. Tough luck, It sucks to be you.
What I do NOT propose:
* Universal gun registration.
* Banning AR-15s or other semi-automatic rifles.
* Limiting how many magazines or how much ammo a person can buy.
