dakota44

With the school shooting in MD the NRA and rightwing gun nuts are back with the "good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun" crap. Yes...the Resource Officer stopped him....but not in time to prevent him from shooting 2 students. Had he been further away when the shots were fired, who knows how many more might have been shot before he could get there. I support the use of Resource Officers...but the reality is, given the size of these mega high schools...it would be sheer luck for one not to be too far from the action to prevent it or stopping it with minimal damage done. He would do everything to get there but the body count could be quite high by the time he did.
I also failed to see anything about the victims (one fighting for her life) from the NRA or its rightwing supporters. Shows what they really care about.

scrubbedexpat099

Since when has civil liberties been a rightwing gun nut thing?

I am sure there are many of us outside that description happy to see that what should have happened, happened.

BenK91

I’m genuinely not trying to be obtuse here but I’m not sure what you’re angling at with regards to the RO.

You’re saying you support them, but then saying you’re saying it’s sheer luck he got to the scene of the shooting in time? Surely if he wasn’t on the school grounds at all then it would be more than two people injured?

I agree with you about the NRA waving the statement around though. I agree with it to a point, I just don’t like how they wave it around during times of tragedy to get their agenda across.

dakota44

My point was that it isn't a cure all.....more needs to be done on rational gun legislation.

BenK91

Fair enough

dakota44

I referred to "rightwing gun nuts" to seperate them from the rational majority of gun owners who actually support more rational gun legislation. I suppose I should have explained that.

dakota44

Thanks. Even the situation in Florida....the RO was, in my opinion, rightly criticized for not entering....but..he was at another building on the campus when incident occurred. By the time he got to the site...multiple people had already been killed. Simply fact...high schools are too big..multiple buildings..floors...hallways..for 1 RO to be able to be in the right place at the right time. Better to have 1 on every floor of each building and then you have a chance. And a big no to arming teachers.

Steve_

If anything the incident in Maryland just proves the point that gun laws don't work, Maryland has pretty restrictive gun laws, certainly far more restrictive than are ever likely to be enacted nationally.

dakota44

Strongly disagree. If not for this...Long guns and antique handguns may be carried openly without a license. Maryland has state preemption for most but not all firearm laws. Certain models of firearms are banned as assault pistols and assault long guns.."....the victim count could have been much higher.

scrubbedexpat099

That describes the majority of this thread.

dc koop

"A well regulated Militia" Weren't these citizen soldiers ready to defend the country when called? Where did it ever say that every citizen could own a firearm. Not every citizen was a member of the militia.

zzrmark

Enforcement, or lack thereof, of existing legislation appears to be the sticking point.

Our neighbouring county of Pinellas, population just under 950,000, has just released figures for putting an SRO, or two, in all it's schools that don't currently have one. $23,600,000 to equip and fund the first year, $11,000,000 in each of the following years, to be taken from an education budget that can't fill teaching jobs. Maybe they should be putting a tax on gun sales to cover 'protection' monies?

caretaker

First thing I noticed about Pinellas Co. was the number of bail-bond companies along the road, and guys I met In St Pete's won't go fishing at night without a pistol in their tackle box. I live in what's considered a rough neighbourhood in Canada but wasn't ready for Florida. Sweetbay Grocery store had an armed guard protecting the cashiers and the beer, and she looked like she meant business, so guards for schools shouldn't be too hard a sell.

kimilseung

Given that the Constitution/BoR predates the army, it seems reasonable to read this amendment as concerning the army from an originalists PoV.

robtuck

The wording is such that people can argue either point of view. Either it was designed to ensure that all citizens had a right to carry weaponry that would ensure the Militia when called upon was ready, or it was that people deemed to be the Militia could carry such arms. Of course it could just have meant everyone can have the arms of bears.

As an outsider, so my opinion is limited, I find it odd that something written in a different time can be take as so sacrosanct. The need to add and amendment covering not owning other people is a good example - why should we ever rely on the views/opinions/beliefs of a previous generation? The world was different, why cannot adults have adult conversations to debate the relevance of such written declarations in a different time.