Lessons Already Learned<\/p>\n
Stupid is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result<\/em><\/p>\n {I was halfway through an essay on the \u201couting\u201d of Americans who work undercover for our intelligence services.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see that one eventually; but then this happened}<\/em><\/p>\n It happened:\u00a0 another seventeen year old white boy with guns; ten more kids and teachers dead, thirteen wounded.\u00a0\u00a0 It happened again.\u00a0 And until we, as a Nation, do something different, we can only offer our \u201c\u2026heartfelt thoughts and prayers;\u201d weak words with little meaning.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t matter whether you\u2019re ready to repeal the Second Amendment, or a card carrying NRA member, it is incumbent on all of us to DO SOMETHING!\u00a0 There are areas we can all agree on, I think, without crossing the lines that drive us into paralysis.\u00a0 So lets do those things, even though we know that one side or the other may be giving away \u201cbargaining chips\u201d in some later great debate about the weapons themselves.\u00a0 If those bargaining chips can save some lives \u2013 then give \u2018em up. Let\u2019s get to work.<\/p>\n For example, there really isn\u2019t an argument about background checks.\u00a0 Only the most radical \u201cblack helicopter\u201d folks are against a government-run system of determining whether someone is a criminal, or mentally ill, or under some other impediment that should prevent them from having a gun.<\/p>\n A full program might have stopped the Parkland shooter.\u00a0 His record should have stopped him from having weapons anyway, but part of the problem is that there are no national standards, and no demonstration of national will for keeping guns out of the hands of those who shouldn\u2019t have them. And in the Parkland case, there was no responsible parent to intervene.<\/p>\n And like it or not, this has to be a national program, it can\u2019t be state by state.\u00a0 We learned that from the Tennessee Waffle House shooter, who was prohibited from having guns in Illinois and moved to Tennessee.\u00a0 And we learned another thing from that shooting:\u00a0 that when someone is the responsible party who owns weapons, they have to exercise that responsibility.\u00a0 In the Tennessee case, the shooter\u2019s father was given the weapons by the authorities; he gave them back to his son.<\/p>\n So Friday, in Santa Fe Texas outside of Houston, a boy took his Dad\u2019s shotgun and pistol; made some fake explosives, and went to school.\u00a0 He shot his way through a glass door and continued shooting classmates and teachers.\u00a0 If we had responded to Tennessee, we might have made the father more responsible, and, maybe, prevented his son from getting the weapons.<\/p>\n No one expects their child to be a shooter.\u00a0 No one expects their fourteen year old to steal the car and go for a joy ride.\u00a0 But both of those things happen.\u00a0 It\u2019s up to the responsible adults to prevent both:\u00a0 lock the car and keep the keys, and lock the weapons away.<\/p>\n We know from Columbine that schools must find ways to \u201cknow\u201d their students.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t just happenstance, it has to be a concerted effort by school administrators to reach all kids.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about calling kids down to the guidance office and asking them if they might be \u201cschool shooters,\u201d it\u2019s about establishing ongoing relationships between kids and significant adults; teachers, administrators, counselors, custodians, coaches.\u00a0 Kids themselves know when their friends are troubled, they need to trust to reach out to an adult.\u00a0And it\u2019s about establishing a \u201cprotocol\u201d that recognizes when a kid is becoming disaffected, and how the school can intervene without making the situation worse.<\/p>\n And there are school security measures that might work.\u00a0 While I don\u2019t agree with the Texas Congressman: \u201cthe only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,\u201d school resource officers (police) are useful.\u00a0They not only represent a response to an ongoing shooting incident, but play an important role in mediating between two very different worlds, schools and law enforcement.\u00a0 And while we can\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t make schools look like airports with security checkpoints and scanners, we can take some reasonable actions to improve school security.<\/p>\n Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick showed his ignorance of schools, fire codes, and student behavior when he said \u201c\u2026there are too many entrances and too many exits\u2026\u201d\u00a0 and suggested there should be one way in and out.\u00a0But they are ways to restrict and control access to schools that can reduce or help contain the risks of a possible shooter.<\/p>\n All of these things:\u00a0 improved background checks with mental health additions, additional controls on the responsibility of gun ownership (or custody), emphasis by schools on developing relationships with all students, \u00a0school resource officers, improved school security; they all cost money.\u00a0 They are all issues with some disagreements.\u00a0 But they are all areas where there is a great deal of agreement, and the \u201cland mines\u201d of the Second Amendment and the structure and function of weapons are not involved.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start the process.\u00a0Let\u2019s get going on fixing what\u2019s broke.\u00a0Let\u2019s use the lessons we\u2019ve already learned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"