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Pondering Parkland — 17 Comments

  1. What are your ideas to create safer school buildings and grounds to keep the murderers away from our children? ie: armed guards, armed faculty, locked, metal entry doors and gates to the outside, etc.

    • At this time, I have no specific proposals. I would have to research to identify what has efficacy.

      That being said, FBI research has noted that nearly all mass public shooting events end when the attacker is killed or cornered. Armed security stands a better chance of ending a shooting.

      We also know from research that garden variety criminals avoid armed victims. I’m unsure if mass shooters with mental disorders would be similarly dissuaded, but suspect they would (they may be crazy, but they do think and plan their assaults, and they want results … anything that keeps them from achieving a high body count make the event less appealing).

      One aspect is proactive lockdowns. In Sandy Hook and Parkland, the shooters entered after classes had started. If you had to pass security after classes started, it might eliminate a common form of entry.

      Most important though is unraveling why these people want to kill and defusing them before they go critical.

  2. It is clear from the facts in this case that the young man was clearly mentally disturbed. We already have a process in place for handling that sort mental illness. The mother clearly knew has she had called for police intervention. The police knew, as they had responded to those calls. The school knew as they had expelled him for communicating a threat. Any of these three parties could, and should have filed a competency petition on this young man. WHY wasn’t this done. Before we go looking for other remedies to the problem of violently mentally ill which may unnecessarily limit the rights of those who are not and never will be a threat, we FIRST need to find out why the system we have DOES NOT WORK.

    • +1.

      “There may be a legislative fix to deny sales of guns to people suffering mental illness, but it is clear that will not stop the problem. At Sandy Hook, the shooter murdered his mother before stealing her guns. At Red Lake, the killer murdered his grandfather before stealing his police-issued handgun and shotguns. At Marysville, the guns were taken from someone who had acquired them illegally.”

      And at Parkland, this legislative fix was IN PLACE, but never exercised by any of the scores of government officials or healthcare providers who were aware of this violent and troubled youngster. After the immediately previous mass shooting, we discovered that over 4,000 military dischargees who should have been reported under similar legislation were never reported. When the government will not put in the effort to implement its own existing gun control restrictions, it seems clear that we have passed the edge of efficacy of legislation.

  3. An excellent article. Thank you for your observations and analysis. I am forwarding it, with attribution and linkage of course, to my entire list. Thanks again.

  4. Jim from Arizona speaks for me as to door locks. What’s known as a storage room lock such as the Schlage L9080 would be the lock to use. Automatically locks when the door is closed such that ingress requires a key and egress requires pushing the handle down.

    As to mental health, to make a wild guess, just for males under the age of, say, 24, there might be tens of thousands who have been, or are under professional medical care for depression, autism, schizophrenia, antisocial behavior and the like. Involuntary medical incarceration likely would be limited to 72 hours, as it was some 40 years ago. Longer holds likely would require a court order. For all practical purposes, would not a public outcry and ensuing litigation against a government data base of any such medical care and medical incarceration for children, if for no one else, prevent any such intervention?

    Notwithstanding the large scale of effort and the seemingly high probability of a future incident in which the perpetrator previously had been treated, medically incarcerated, and even adjudicated as mentally ill, the effort while not futile, would seem exceedingly ineffective.

    It has seemed to me ever since reading about the teacher at Columbine (math?) who was murdered when, unarmed, he engaged one of the murders, that the last resort, and by far the most potentially effective response, is for a number motivated staff at any given school to be trained, certified and armed by local law enforcement for responding to an active shooter.

    My own experience as armed posse on the school patrol detail with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office (Phoenix, Arizona) is that we routinely inspired teachers and some parents to greet us with their middle finger.

    http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/voluntary-program-allows-polk-school-staff-to-carry-guns-at-work

  5. A typographical question. Tbe article mentions “VT” without defining it. Ordinarily, VT = Vermont, but this article doesn’t mention anything related to Vermont. What gives?

  6. This would be more effective than any “Gun Control Law” that Congress could come up with. Mother of Sandy Hook victim (6 year old son died helping other children) on Parkland school shooting. This was an interview on Fox News Sat AM 2/17/2018 http://video.foxnews.com/v/5735702743001/?#sp=show-clips
    After we arm the teachers, we can start to eliminate PCBS.

    Mother of Sandy Hook victim on Parkland school shooting
    Scarlett Lewis’ 6-year-old son Jesse was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
    VIDEO.FOXNEWS.COM

  7. The problem with emergency confiscation in practice is the person who has their firearms confiscated has to have deep pockets to afford the attorney’s fees and suffer wo/their property for months or years to recover the firearms. Sheriffs & police dept’s are notorious for dragging out the process of returning seized property. None of the state laws have any penalties for failing to return property. I would only support these laws if it included financial penalties for agencies that don’t return the firearms within 30 days after the confiscation order expires and plaintiff’s attorney’s fees were automatically paid by the defense.

    • I would need solid evidence of two or more such circumstances. By “solid” it would include things like mismatched expended cases, video evidence, bullet fragments from different guns extracted from the scene.

          • How would the average American gain access to evidence, like mismatched expended cases, video evidence, bullet fragments proving or denying different guns found at the scene, etc.? Is this possible? Is this released to the public in any shape or form? I don’t typically follow conspiracy theories and the like, but if I wanted to confirm what I am given in the news, it seems all I can do is trust what they say is truthful. If I see conflicting information, how do you confirm the validity of it?

          • Putting your hands on the actual evidence is unlikely.

            Though most police departments issue detailed reports of events like a mass shooting, evidence is tightly controlled to prevent tampering, loss, damage, etc. Outside of being in law enforcement and having a need to review evidence, odds are you could never get close to the stuff.

            The only real alternative is to obtain the formal reports and trust the cops who published them.

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