Post-Mortem Blues

[H2O Man]

5. Valid points.

And all very important points.

Nothing says that guns are too easy to get ahold of, quite like a six year old shooting his teacher. Or an extremely problemed youth having access to any gun, especially the types that school shooters prefer. I think that even a fair number of republican gun owners recognize that keeping guns out of those individuals' hands is not an Amendment 2 issue. But, obviously, the NRA has a level of control over republican politicians -- including some that wear black robes and sit on benches -- that is a stumbling block to common sense.

Studying crime can, unless one is familiar with the statistics that you note, scare people. And republicans like fear. It allows them to talk about loving police, and increasing funding for hiring more police ...... unless it has to do with January 6, of course. Yet the truth is that most police recognize the dangers of having guns so available. In the cases of "at risk" youth, they are limited to identifying and charging them for the behaviors that lead up to school shootings. We recently saw that not all police forces are capable of intervening in an active school shooting, even if they are trained to do so. And although they are good at "solving" the individual events once they are over, police are generally limited to identifying some of the at risk kids, but not to be a part of the follow-up care needed.

I agree fully that it is essential to elect Democrats to office at all levels. It seems safe to say that Democrats, unlike republicans, are open to listening to experts from schools and social work on potential ways of addressing this particular type of violence.