Wednesday, March 21, 2018

AN UPHILL BATTLE--NOW IT'S A MARYLAND SCHOOL

   
And the carnage continues. This time it is Great Mills school in Maryland. Two students were injured and the killer was shot and killed by the quick action of the school resource officer.

In the absence of politicians and school leaders with backbones, the bodies pile up. It is next to impossible to get legislators to adopt even the most elementary measures to keep guns out of the hands of those who are a threat to themselves or others, terrorists, convicted felons, and spouse abusers.

In the wake of the Parkland school shooting, President Trump bloviated he would support raising the age to buy guns to 21. However, one dinner with National Rifle Association officials and that idea was dropped.


To quote Douglas Kellner in his book, Guys and Guns Amock: Domestic Terrorism and School Shootings from the Oklahoma City Bombing to the Virginia Tech Massace: “Given the power of the gun lobby and the cowardice of politicians, obviously only a minimal amount of gun control is foreseeable. Certainly, the attempts at reform after Columbine that were advanced during the Clinton-Gore years, and then repulsed during the Bush-Cheney years, are reasonable and in the national interest. Hence, for starters, reasonable gun control would involve: 1) returning to earlier attempts to require child-safety locks on handguns; 2) increasing the minimum age for gun purchases; 3) requiring stricter background checks on weapons purchased; 4) producing better data sharing among police, legal, and mental health institutions and universities; and 5) closing the gun show loophole through which guns can be purchased without background checks.”  (To be continued)

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