editorials

In the military, they teach that an obstacle that isn't covered by an armed person isn't really an obstacle. Unfortunately, this principle was proven out at Sandy Hook. A deranged person was able to defeat a locked security door and all the brave souls inside could do is be the first to be shot attempting to protect the children. Whether the people depend on gun control legislation or building design to prevent future tragedy, even if they work as intended, both solutions will take many years to have any effect. The 2004 assault weapon ban was in effect for ten years with no quantitative effect on crimes using the weapons in question. And of course, new buildings take a while to build. So the question is what do we do while we're waiting for these grand schemes to have an effect.

No matter how many armed guards or hardened security features there are at a school, there will always be low-hanging fruit somewhere else. The football game, the school bus, the playground - and every other potential target where people gather, including churches, malls, parades, sporting events transportation hubs - you name it. Armed guards do not prevent intrusion in every case, either - no system is perfect. The assault weapons ban was never serious because it never extended to already owned weapons. Legislation banning the sale and possession of such weapons would be effective if it were accompanied by buybacks and enforced with rigorous prosecution that included forfeiture and jail time. Handguns and real hunting guns would not be affected.

I read/heard that California had a "Buy Back" for guns. $100 per gun and $200 for and "assault" type. If we could stop/control of the sales of guns without background checks, no gun shows,etc. it seems this would be a cheaper way to go than "rebuilding" the structures that are not "mass killer" proof. The guns that were turned in were to be destroyed. Lets get them out of this country in spite of the NRA, there is NO need for them except hunting humans.

Barjens - Assuault rifles start at about $500 for the cheapest and an average price is more like $1500. You really think people will hand them over for $200?

It's simple really and every teacher in America can tell you what should be done. All you have to do, is close your eyes, pretend you are in a classroom with 25 or more kids, and a shot rings out. What would your first instinct be? THAT is the answer.

If this really had anything to do with the safety of the children we'd be discussing never letting them set foot in a car. Any one particular school can expect to be visited by a gun-toting mass murderer about once every 8000 years or so but any discussion involving reason, logic, and common sense is so politically poisonous that nobody of any stripe dares to tread there.

The first sensible thing that comes to my mind would be relatively fast and not terribly expensive. I believe I have read at least twice that the shooters broke glass panes on doors. Put steal bars on any first floor glass pronto. This is all so incomprehensible to me as I am 56 and we never had a police officer or guard in school. I think at what has changed and there are so many things different now I have no idea what the answers are.