For the past couple of days, I’ve been listening to Republican politicians offer their solutions to mass shootings such as the one in Texas that killed 19 elementary school teachers and two teachers.
Senator Ted Cruz (R, Cancun) suggested the simple solution of having only one locked door at each school, something I’m sure has fire chiefs all over the country shaking their heads.
Other Republicans have suggested that what is needed is to make our schools “hard targets,” by transforming our schools into something that looks an awful lot like maximum security prisons, which we all know are lovely learning environments.
Arming teachers is always a popular idea among Republican politicians, who don’t trust teachers with the curriculum or what books are available in the school library, but are confident in their ability to stop someone with a military-grade weapon with a handgun. Second grade teacher Miss Taylor, aka, Clint Eastwood.
In school shootings, police often call for backup. Who backs up Miss Taylor? The school nurse?
Then, of course, there is the approach we’ve been taking all along: Ignore the problem altogether. Maybe it will go away. Or, at least, we can forget about it until the next tragedy, which unfortunately is probably only a week or two down the road.
Mental health? A cop-out. Other countries have their own share of mentally-challenged people without weekly murderous rampages.
What these Republicans are really saying is that there is nothing, really, that can be done aside from Thoughts and Prayers. America must be the world leader in Thoughts and Prayers by now.
There’s plenty that can be done. For starters, let’s get these military-grade weapons out of the hands of private citizens. That will move the needle. So will red flag laws that remove weapons from people exhibiting signs of mental illness or violence. Let’s implement universal background checks for every gun purchase, implement a waiting period of gun purchases, require anyone purchasing a gun to be at least 21 years of age, Let’s get rid of concealed carry and open carry.
No one thing will end this carnage immediately. But taken together, over time, these measures will work. As is said, a journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step and we’ve not taken the first step.
You won’t hear a Republican politician support any of these measures. You wonder what they were like in elementary school:
Teacher: “What does 2+2 equal?”
Future Republican Legislator: “Five.”
Teacher: “No.”
FRL: “It’s probably six, then.”
Teacher; “No. The answer is four.”
FRL: “Maybe it’s three.”
Teacher: “No. I just told you the answer! It’s four.”
FRL: “It could be seven…”
It’s all so very frustrating, particularly because if every measure mentioned above was implemented, it would have virtually no impact on the Second Amendment rights of an overwhelming majority of gun owners.
I don’t know anyone who owns an AR-15. I don’t see any of my friends carrying weapons in Kroger. The gun owners I know would pass a background check, would not seriously object to a waiting period on a gun purchase, would not be subject to red flag laws and would probably agree that anyone who isn’t old enough to buy beer probably shouldn’t be buying a gun, either.
I have no doubt that implementing these gun laws would save lives, lots of lives, lots of children’s lives.
But Republican legislators won’t support them even though it means they sacrifice nothing.
Is human life really that worthless?
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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