"God Is The Answer To That"

No, He/She's not...but common-sense gun control may be.

Interesting, isn’t it, that in the aftermath of a mass shooting, the Far-Right will unironically claim that it’s “TOO SOON!” to politicize a tragedy by discussing common-sense gun control? It’s ALWAYS a good time to discover THEIR solutions, however, most of which involve MORGUNZ!!! And more God, faith, and prayer- none of which will do anything to stop a mass shooting.

In the above clip from Fox News Channel, many of the Far-Right’s “finest” chime in to provide 50 ideas they believe will make schools safer. The ideas range from arming EVERYONE to turning schools into the equivalent of forward operating bases in Afghanistan to focusing on faith and prayer.

One of the ideas was to “train the students themselves.” We should remember that the students massacred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, were 2nd-to-4th-graders, students under the age of 10. Are we to train them as infantry soldiers? Then, when they turn 18 and graduate from high school, they can go straight into the army as trained killers?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t schools supposed to be learning environments? How can we expect children to learn when their schools more closely remember maximum-security prisons? How can they have positive learning experiences when surrounded by high-powered weapons of war?

The scions of the Far-Right are all about “hardening” schools, enforcing prayer and faith in God, and arming every adult involved in educating children. Still, all of those things are antithetical to education. None of the 50 ideas offered will do anything to improve the quality of education.

They will, however, exponentially increase the possibility of an accidental discharge when little Johnny or Susie the lunch lady forgets to set the safety on their 9mm pistols.

Oops…sorry about the hole in your forehead, Mrs. Johnson!

The one thing they resolutely refuse to consider, much less discuss, is common-sense gun control. I’m not talking about taking guns away from everyone. Still, I’ve not heard a rational, reasonable argument as to why an American civilian needs to own or possess a weapon of war. There’s no argument to be made for a civilian owning an AR-15, AK-47, or similar weapon. These weapons' only purpose is to kill other human beings in combat. There’s no sporting purpose for them and thus no reason for a civilian to own them.

Yet the moral paragons of the Far-Right would instead focus on “Judeo-Christian values,” “moral rot,” and “decreasing social media exposure.” In specific contexts, those might be appropriate and proper topics to address, but not when the subject is school shootings.

Besides, if you ask 50 people about what “Judeo-Christian values” and “moral rot” mean, you’ll get 50 widely disparate answers.

The issue is that the Far-Right isn’t serious about addressing the problem of mass shootings in schools…or anywhere else. They’d much rather wait until people begin to move on from Uvalde and our collective attention goes elsewhere. It’s all about delay, delay, delay.

The nattering nabobs of the Far-Right believe that the only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. That propaganda hasn’t ever been confirmed, and it certainly wasn’t true in Uvalde. It makes for a good talking point but has no basis in reality.

The good news is that there finally appears to be at least some movement in Congress for at least some common-sense gun control. Perhaps a national red-flag law, enhanced background checks, and maybe even banning- or at least making it more difficult for those under 21 to buy- assault rifles.

It’s a step in the right direction. No one can say with any certainty that what Congress is considering will stop or even slow down those determined to carry out mass shootings, but it’s worth a try. It’s a starting point, and perhaps Uvalde will represent the beginning, the time when Republican politicians could no longer resist the pressure to DO SOMETHING about the fact that our nation is awash in guns.

I’m not saying that all 50 of the ideas in the video are patently ridiculous, though most of them are rather laughable. “Moral rot” and “Judeo-Christian values” may be things to address, but not in terms of mass shootings. Neither are ideas that revolve around turning schools into heavily armed minimum security prisons.

What’s getting lost in the Sturm un Drang is that we’re talking about educational institutions. Our children go to school to learn. If every adult around them is armed, what will that do to the learning environment? And how many accidental discharges will it take before the scions of the Far-Right realize that arming adults in schools is a disturbingly poor idea?

Teachers are not soldiers. Some may have been soldiers at some point in their lives, but no one becomes a teacher so that they can carry a weapon in their classroom. People become teachers because they want to make a difference in the lives of students, not because they want to face the possibility of having to take out a mass shooter.

Besides, if the armchair warriors of the Far-Right won’t trust teachers with MAs or Ph.D.s to teach history, how can they be OK with those same teachers carrying a loaded 9mm pistol in their classroom?

Because only a good History teacher with a gun can take out a…oh, never mind….

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