Once again an armed attack on a school has brought out the worst on both sides of the gun debate. Lives were lost,  and people were still learning what had happened and who the victims were when the talking heads start prattling on about gun control. I have been asked, and here are my somewhat scattered thoughts. 

I am still at a loss on how to respond to people and their parroting of talking points. My readers, while reluctant to comment directly on posts here (possibly due to comments being subject to approval – a precaution I use to avoid spam), never hesitate to email me. I love to hear from most of you. I cherish normal people, even when they disagree with me. Some of my readers argue with me regularly, and I love a spirited debate with intelligent people. Smart people forcing me to prove my points do not make me feel threatened, they make me better.

I do tire of the extremists. I do not know which is worse; the left-wing extremists who blame the weapon used when some wing-nut decides to kill people or the right-wing extremists who scream about False-Flags, second gunmen, green screens and crisis actors.

I am asked about my thoughts on the terrorist shooting at M.S. Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. I am asked if it changes my view on Gun Control laws, 2nd Amendment issues, or “can’t we please admit that no one needs an AR-15?” I am also asked how I explain away the student claiming to have spoken with the shooter while shots were being fired in another part of the building. That has to be a crisis actor, right?

The ignorant jump to turn this into a gun control debate, while predictable, is unwarranted. There are two glaring issues about this incident; mental disorder, and school action.

The killer is mentally disturbed. Obviously, anyone who thinks of taking a gun to a school and killing kids is a sicko. But, diagnosed or otherwise, this guy had mental issues. He had issues that go back long before this happened. It isn’t PC in our day and age to say someone is a sicko or to call out mental disorders. People are quick to attack when they think you are trying to stigmatize poor mental health. But some people are simply not all there. Some people who are not mentally stable are harmless, but some are dangerous.

You do not make unstable, dangerous people less dangerous by pretending that they are just misunderstood.

The next issue is in the school’s approach to safety.

By their own admission, they had kicked this kid out for being dangerous. And yet, he walked right on campus and started shooting.

From my perspective, if you want anyone to believe that you are serious about preventing these tragedies, then prove it. When someone is a danger – so much so that you need to kick them out of the school, then it would be wise to also take certain steps to prevent him from coming back on campus. Why do people insist on schools being Gun Free Zones, and still wring their hands over these tragedies? Take unemployed Veterans and place them at schools to protect the kids, and these shootings would stop. Allow teachers to be armed. Can you seriously argue that teachers should be trusted to shape the minds of our Nation’s youth, but should not be allowed the means to defend those children they are entrusted to teach? All the talk in the world will change nothing. Every time there is a mass shooting, all of the chatter starts, mostly on new laws that would have done nothing to prevent the shooting, and then we argue and debate, and do nothing. Because schools are soft targets, something similar will happen again, and the cycle continues. Wouldn’t it be great if you turn on the news and the newscaster said, “Today and man walked onto a campus carrying a duffel bag, an AR-15, and several loaded magazines, and a teacher took her .357 Magnum and sent his evil intentions out the back of his head in a pink fog. Now, here’s Bob with the weather!” 

Now for the extremists on the political right. 

I get really sick of the rush to call false-flag operation and claim these events didn’t really happen. Such actions are cruel to the families who lost loved ones. In this case, I was sent several links to a news interview of a student of the High School claiming to have talked to the shooter, while she could hear shots in another part of the building. The claim is that the shooter was either a patsy or there were multiple gunmen. Just like the Las Vegas shooting, people seem almost desperate for there to be more than one looney toon. But this story falls apart quickly to anyone willing to pay attention. She claimed to be in the hall talking to the shooter. And she said she heard shots in another part of the building, so there had to be two shooters. Right? Wrong. If she was in the hall talking to the shooter, the shooting had stopped because the school would not go out of lockdown while the shooting is taking place. If shots are still being fired, there will be no kids in the hall talking about anything. This is not a case of a crisis actor in front of a green screen. This is not a false flag. This is a kid getting the order of events wrong in a very traumatic situation. 

At the base of the issue is the way in which our society has allowed people to turn every minute detail of everything into an excuse for hate. Your political opinion does not make you superior to anyone, it just makes you another person with an opinion. You know who wants to hear about your political opinions? People who agree with you. You know who doesn’t want to hear it? People who disagree with you. 

Does your opinion on politics, or 2nd Amendment, or whatever current news stories that get you all riled up against have any effect on your ability to access food, water, and shelter? No? Then stop thinking in terms that allow you to justify killing people who disagree with you on matters of little importance. THAT would be an outstanding start.