I started to comment on other, well orchestrated forum regarding this or a similar subject, but I found myself with so much to write and opinion that wandered in somewhat of a different direction until I convinced myself I needed to make this a separate forum, with apologies, I wasn't trying to take a single bit of thunder out of someone elses' toolbox.
I suppose first off there is need for some level of allowing government agencies to study the effects of firearms in society, but it can quickly become a wide open target of gun haters to lobby and influence the studies. It comes highly in question of this writers mind, " who is qualified to do this?" Government agency is sometimes taken over a tool of constitution haters. period. Law agencies have recently shown a very flagrant self empowerment to control all truck drivers and now truck drivers are enslaved to a minute by minute of slavery type electronic accountability for their time, and consequently an agency within the USA government is dictating how long a truck should stop, should go, and every other little (gigantic loss of freedom) detail or iota involving the commercial drivers of the drivers life. So I ask, where is legislation capable of taking us and our (forget the word constitutional) freedoms? answer: straight down the hatch, and straight to a loss of liberty, loss of individual freedom Hell, offered in the name of nationalistic safety.
Turn this Gun free society idea around around and aske ourselves a question: What if the subject in question (whoever they may be), has (any) need to protect (gender free) their-self, in a home or business attack? I say the answer to this is already in place. Require a county sheriff permit to be on file 1) to allow one gun in reach of, or on the person of the citizen who files for it. 2) require all other firearms to be in locked cabinets out of the reach of minors. period.
Maybe require those who collect firearms, to have a family trustee listed as a responsible party to take possession and remove the guns upon the death of the owner. Having this in place removes the fear of others taking advantage of un-supervised gun lockers. period.
Just for info, I remember reading of early settlers and militia, having a public place to store weapons, and they were kept there, (yes even in the early days,) minute men, state and county militia etc, these were basically for use against invasion, or for community protection. Today, any kind of military base or outpost requires personal guns to be kept in a supervised gun arsenal upon such base. So, what I'm saying most importantly is Society already has established tried and true methods of gun control through specific purpose permits and public and private lockers. It might make sense to have gun collectors have a permit to collect and keep weaponry. Again, maybe implement a specific strategy of having total separate ammo storage, in such cases as these. It seems to make sense, and I'm saying some legislation could be useful if they were practical and based on common sense.
Just as a footnote, there are true American patriots who are going to always be very reluctant to disclose what they have stored in their own "doomsday" lockers, and I would vouch for most of them, as descendants of Americas best Freedom Fighters and are of high integrity. I actually feel safer if I am out on the western fringes of our country where un-attentive elected leaders have closed military bases, and left our frontiers wide open to whoever wants claim. Someone is there and could present a resistance in a national disaster or invasion. ( example, Ukraine). America has freedoms because of "the people". We can never allow disappearance of this insight and reality!
What many don't realize is that we need to limit the size of our government and restrict it from having dictatorial power. We need to stop it from having autocratic or totalitarian censorship. Freedom, Expression, Choice, and individual liberty needs to be carefully preserved in whatever else we do; otherwise we become a communist nation. Yes, I'm sorry but Democratic Freedoms have the alter-effect of slowing changing values to the point that we can democratically dispose of the dog, when only a fence was needed, or the dog just needed to have a little social training. The open range doesn't need however to be under the same regulations as would be needed in Chicago or New York City. For example there was a time when Dodge City needed to be cleaned up and Wyatt Earp, seemed to have the solution. I dare say however that You aren't ever ever going to orchestrate a Dodge City Gun Law on a city like Chicago or New York or Dallas or Miami. The best you are going to get is to teach and uphold safety through awareness, criminal prosecution, stringent parolee and threat investigation when indicated is necessary, while expecting and believing the best about law abiding citizens and allowing (us) to protect ourselves in any self defense situation as needed. Of course public locations need to have different safety modulations, but realize we have found even where say , Federal land laws are in place, State parks etc,. THERE IS NOT ENOUGH freedom to protect ourselves. I have seen guns restricted where wild animal and even human threat existed, but alas, the law said "no firearms allowed". Sometimes us Dumb Americans allow this mentality, " hmm we must be safe cause they don't allow us to carry" and yes, some may get ate by the bear. "Sorry citizen, it was more important to protect the bear?" What if you were in the post office or bank and you were able to stop a violent crime from being committed, but you had just five minutes before left your firearm in your automobile to honor a civil code? (in the car is not a safe place for the firearm, you probably have a permit to carry it and the safest place for it is in a holster on your person.) At least I would feel safer if it was!
Now the Last point: What to do In a public School Setting, College or Public Mall to preserve the safety of its users, and to be prepared for (any) emergency?
1) There is a nationwide and community level emergency response grid that should be enacted and mobilized before any occurrence. I will not elaborate on the steps and training and enactment of, because there are already manuals in place and are supposed to impact any emergency, school disaster included. CALL your local police or Sheriffs office and get involved. become a safety volunteer. Attend their training activities.
2) At the local level and school and college level appoint and implement on site response and triage and be specific about addressing violence involving firearm or diverse weaponry. Make sure their is a trained volunteer or paid safety officer onsite at these facilities who is able to counter, or Implement a counter espionage operation immediately and be sure that every one including this officer knows how to activate the Local/National Response team in your area.
My parting shot to any who diagree with this is: You are part of the problem if you don't speak up and get involved and make for certain that your community has an active emergency response team and that they provide access and full participation with its training to form an area wide force of reactive and vigilant emergency responders.
