The 10- to 15-year sentences handed down to the couple this week prompted strong national commentary from former Florida judges who presided over the trial of the shooter in the 2018 Parkland High School shooting.
Old Broward County Circuit “I think it sets a precedent that parents can no longer be stupid,” Judge Elizabeth Scherer told Fox News.
Unfortunately, politicians are still sometimes stupid when it comes to responding to gun violence and school shootings. Watch as the Tennessee Senate passes a bill that would allow teachers to carry handguns.The state Senate passed the bill on Tuesday. The party addressed a disappointed nation, including parents of a private school in Nashville where a former student killed three students and three faculty members last year.
Neither parents nor teachers expressed support for armed teachers and administrators in surveys. Results from a national survey of teachers released Thursday by the Pew Research Center found that 70% believe allowing school employees to carry guns is not effective in preventing mass shootings.
Most teachers (69%) supported improved mental health screening and treatment for children as a deterrent to school shootings. A 2022 Pew University survey on school shootings found similar responses from parents. 63% said strengthening mental health services would be very or very effective in preventing school shootings.
America’s first school shooting occurred 25 years ago this month at Columbine High School in Colorado, killing 15 people and injuring 23 others. Despite the pain and shock of the tragic events of April 20, 1999, politicians remain in the shackles of the gun control lobby and are responding to the growing threat of school shootings rather than reforms to reduce carnage. , are responding with lockdowns and intruder drills.
For example, in the fall, Georgia Lt. Gov. Bert Jones will award $10,000 a year in scholarships to teachers willing to take firearms courses and carry guns at school to protect themselves from active shooters. This proposal attracted a lot of attention. Georgia’s 2014 “guns everywhere” law already gives local school districts the power to decide whether to arm teachers and staff. Jones’ proposal is Although it was not approved this Congress, it would have been an incentive.
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Few Georgia schools have acted on the General Assembly’s support for armed staff, understanding that a social studies teacher pulling out a gun to take down an armed intruder is something out of an action movie. In reality, even trained police officers cannot deter or stop school shootings due to the swiftness of the attack and the shooter’s deadly intent.
The U.S. Secret Service found that two-thirds of school shootings end within two minutes, and nearly half within one minute. A national study released in July found that police presence in schools reduced unarmed threats and physical attacks, but did not stop school shootings.
In developing profiles of school shooters, the FBI found that they are often men with poor coping skills, depression, low tolerance for frustration, and a sense of being treated unfairly and denied. They found that people were more likely to have acquaintances than friends. And the shooters expect to die either at the hands of the police or by suicide. The Violence Prevention Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit research center, explains that “mass shootings are public displays of violence intended to be final acts.”
The reason for school shootings in America is that they have easy access to firearms. The project maintains a comprehensive database of mass shootings in the United States and shows that 80% of school shooters obtained their guns from family members, most often their parents or grandparents. It has been.
In his final comments to the Crumbleys for allowing their son to freely use a gun despite obvious signs of mental instability, Judge Matthews said: “It just kept getting bigger and bigger and was ignored.”
The same can be said for American politicians. They ignore parents, educators, and students at the door even as the knocks get louder, and they say the only solution to the gun problem in schools is more guns. It only welcomes the regulatory lobby and its dangerous beliefs.
