This morning I watched Wayne LaPierre give his speech; which he called “the NRA’s contribution to gun debate”; no mention of removing assault weapons from the market. Instead claiming that arming the good members of society will help protect the innocent by shooting the bad members of society who use guns. More guns is not the answer; these supposedly good people could turn bad at any moment, a single bad life event can change a person; a moment of insanity you could say!
Then LaPierre went on to blame the video game and movie industry for all the violent imagery that is prevalent in the modern age. This is an old argument that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny; billions of people play these games and watch these movies and never have had an urge to go on a shooting rampage. A person has to be predisposed to act on these images. It’ll be more appropriate to blame the state for failing to deal with people with mental issues appropriately; I’m not claiming all mentally ill people should be institutionalized; but instead be treated rather than being ignored!
However I do agree with having armed security in schools; although LaPierre suggested the police should fill that role; which is unlikely given the lack of police resources. The best solution would be for each school district to employ a private security company to look after security in schools.
I also agree with LaPierre about media saturation; giving these killers the infamy they want; it could be covered without naming the killer. How many others will be copycats for the infamy? without being named; these copycats might think twice about killing many and taking their own lives.
It is a sad state of affairs where we even have to talk about having guns in schools at all. In the UK after Dunblane; handguns were banned completely within one year. I don’t expect that to happen in the US; but at minimum; assault rifles need to be removed from sale and all owners should have to hand those weapons in; with fair financial compensation. Also make it harder to get hold of firearms; psychological evaluations, more in-depth background checks, and have a limit of one gun per license holder and close the gun show loophole, which allows for a gun to be sold without any checks.
I knew the issue would in some way hit the violent games and film industry. Makes me gurn right up!