I've held back on commenting in this thread the past few days, as my own thoughts on the matter are still kind of developing, but I've enjoyed reading the informed opinions of you all. So first, let me say thank you for keeping this discourse civil and the discussion ongoing, as it's been a lot more informative and nuanced than anything else I've read or heard on the subject. Some of my thoughts:
-This particular incident seems largely to be a complete and utter failure on the part of law enforcement. It's not like this kid up and decided one day, without warning, "Hey, I think I'm gonna shoot up a school today," there were 20-30 separate reports made to law enforcement. And not a single damn thing was done about it. I could see dismissing a single, isolated complaint, but there was a pervasive pattern here. What went wrong at the FBI or local PD that this was never followed up on? Was it lack of resources? Lack of proper protocol? Was protocol even followed? Something went seriously wrong here. If we need to create another legal mechanism to keep a known threat such as this Cruz kid from his guns, than so be it, though I agree there needs to be oversight and due process. Call it Monday morning quarterbacking, but this incident was entirely preventable.
-Second major failure on the part of law enforcement was the school resource officer, the man whose charge it was to protect these kids, is a coward. A berkeleying Bob Costas. He was the only person with a weapon in a position where he could have done something to at least limit the loss of life and he sat there and did nothing, even as completely unarmed teachers went charging to the scene. Sure, easy for me to say sitting here at my key board, but if you're going to sign up to do that job you need to be prepared to do all that entails, including putting yourself in harms way when the situation calls for. We can talk all we want turning schools into prisons, adding security, adding armed guards, but here we have a 'good guy with a gun' who was in a position to act and chose not to. Not sure what you can do about that.
-I think arming teachers is a silly solution, even on a voluntary basis, that is more likely to do harm than good. Putting more weapons into schools is only allowing another point of access for these disturbed individuals, as well as normal students who might simply have a curiosity in weapons. You can put whatever rules into place you want to try and make sure those weapons are secured at all times, but mistakes will happen, and the potential consequences are severe.
-I have very mixed thoughts on the whole assault weapons issue. Philosophically, I have a pretty libertarian mindset and have a hard time agreeing to take rights away from any law abiding citizens without just and proper cause, while also recognizing the social contract dictates we need to have some level of reasonable standards to be upheld to prevent us from devolving into complete chaos. It's the fundamental question of a free and democratic society, where you draw that line. I have a very hard time seeing why 99.9% of the population has any legitimate reason to own one (but by that same token why does anyone need a 500hp sports car? They surely kill enough people on an annual basis as well.) For the record, I am a gun owner and have shot AR-15s and other "assault style" weapons.
I also don't believe simply banning assault weapons, or semi-auto rifles altogether, is going to solve the issue at all, it's simply going to displace it elsewhere. Can't buy an AR-15 and 30 round mags? No problem, I'll buy a Glock, which is much easier to carry and conceal and will also dispense bullets as quickly as I can move my trigger finger, and stuff my pockets with 15 round mags (not that you can't get 30 round mags for a Glock either...) So then what, we ban all semi-auto pistols, which is a perfectly reasonable and hugely versatile weapon for self defense? I also have a hard time seeing how one would specifically word the language on an "assault weapons" ban in a way that couldn't be Smokey Yunik-ed without also outlawing a number of other perfectly reasonable weapons.
I've got more I'd like to say, but it's about time I head home from work, so maybe later.
