SACRAMENTO, CA —-(Ammoland.com)- Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) has issued the following statement concerning yesterday’s tragic shooting of innocent people at a Florida high school:
We grieve for our fallen American brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters who lost their lives at the hands of an evil killer in yesterday’s horrific mass murder at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the victims, the community of Parkland, Florida, and all those affected by this horrific and senseless murder of innocent people.
It is both heartbreaking and infuriating to see that, once again, opportunistic politicians and the craven gun control lobbyists who pay them would rather leverage this tragedy to push their dangerous agenda than to take meaningful steps to protect America’s students and teachers. But the crimson thread in attacks on our school campuses is not the methodology or motive of the killers, but the lack of truly effective security measures and an irrational reliance on mythical “gun-free zones” to keep armed violent criminals out.
Time and time again, we see that evil and insane people intent on causing death, injury, and chaos simply ignore the thousands of federal, state, and local criminal laws that prohibit acts like murder, terrorism, assault, and illegally carrying guns onto school grounds—and wreak havoc until they voluntarily end their attack, commit suicide, or are stopped by a law-abiding hero….usually one that is armed.
Yet, instead of deploying serious and effective safety measures at our schools, the too-common refrain of the anti-gun fetishists is to attack the rights of law-abiding people. America’s legislative buildings, courthouses, airports, and government offices are protected by robust physical security measures, controlled ingress, and weapon detection devices—backstopped, just in case, by law-abiding people with firearms. But too many schools have little-to-no real ability to deter, repel, or quickly stop a violent attacker before innocent lives are lost. Are our children and teachers less worthy of effective security measures than our legislators, judges, and government agency workers? We think not.
Earlier today, President Donald Trump said that “no child, no teacher should ever be in danger in an American school.” We agree. But until our state and local governments enact laws that actually protect our children and teachers with real physical security barriers, controlled access to school grounds, and armed quick-response officers on every campus, our children and the people entrusted to care for them at places of learning will remain at risk.
As we have said before, law-abiding gun owners are not responsible for evil or insane killers who use firearms in their immoral acts, just as peaceable Muslims are not responsible for radical Islamic terrorists flying planes into our buildings and killing thousands, slaying hundreds in bomb blasts, or even running over dozens with vehicles. We reject the idea that the American people and our fundamental human right to keep and bear arms for self-defense must suffer for the crimes of the wicked.
The right to keep and bear arms, like freedom of speech and the right to due process, is a bright-line rule that separates the people from tyranny and servitude. Our nation’s founders, and their Reconstruction-era counterparts, wisely took great pains to protect fundamental rights like those contained in the First, Second, and Fourteenth Amendments in the very textual threads of our social fabric—not because they are benign, but because they are both inherently dangerous and necessary to an enduring free Republic.
Firearms Policy Coalition demands that state and local governments immediately implement serious and robust physical security measures at our schools. FPC will continue fighting to defend and advance the fundamental human right to keep and bear arms for self-defense inside and outside our homes.
About the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC)
Firearms Policy Coalition (www.firearmspolicy.org) is a 501(c)4 grassroots nonprofit organization. FPC’s mission is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, especially the fundamental, individual Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
Why don’t we just stop having huge school buildings where we gather all of our children together? With today’s technology, we could have much smaller schools and class sizes, using the virtual classroom for most subjects. This way, if some maniac does still decide to attack a school, there would be far fewer children gathered in one small area. I realize that such a tremendous change in our public school system would take time, but it’s really time to change to a more modern model anyway.
What we need is for schools to wake up and pick two teachers per hallway at every school to take a physiological test then, a gun safety course, monthly target shooting, & get their conceal carry permit. Then for them to train with police. Also have a code word they could shout out so the police would know that they are not the active shooter they are looking for if one should be on campus. IF nuts knew teachers had a way to defend not only themselves but our students we would see less of this…
Broward County Schools is the sixth largest school district in the United States with a budget approaching two billion dollars (271000 students with revenues over $7000 per student). They should be responsible for providing adequate security for their staff and students. They have the resources in their own community to pay for this. Just because an incident, or several incidents have received national media attention, does not mean that it is a problem for the federal government to solve. The communities in Broward County are well aware of the dangers in their community, have the resources and should be taking… Read more »
@martin 10-32 A school district that has a budget of approaching two billion dollars and has security problems? That is outrageous! That school administration has to be fired!
We could pay for School Security by taking it out of the sports budget and stop paying public school head coaches 6 and sometimes 7 figures. We need to harden the target and we can do it by redirecting funds from these other shamefully exorbitant budgets.
@Larry, Why in the heck would a high school coach get paid a six or seven figure salary, before the school’s security was assured?
I would like to put my 2 cents worth in. Why couldnt we just have a ID card with a picture and number identifying that student by having them inter a pin code just to enter her or his school. And if removed from the system for some reason. That would go into the data bank and evaluated by the school administrators response team that would follow up within 24 hours. I know it takes time but it would save lives and all the parents would agree, that in place would give them peace of mind that the school that… Read more »
what the hell is a id and camera going to stop ,are you afraid if someone sees you that will deture insanty if you do you are crazy too its ilagal to kill people regardless of how these people want you to see them put them in the dark instead
36,000 high schools plus maybe 60,000 other schools. $20 billion is a minimum cost estimate, coud easily be a trillion dollars a year. Every school gets the same level of security. That’s only fair. 99.9875% of the time they will have nothing to do but try to stay awake and alert. Once a school has “security” can you imagine the howls of protests from parents if there was a cut-back on staff to save money because there haven’t been any attacks in a decade? Le’s have Samantha wiggle her nose and make all the guns disappear. Then all the girls… Read more »
Despite all the ridiculous and ignorant ravings by liberal Leftists, the most common AR15s – chambered in .223 – are indeed NOT “weapons of war.” Nor are they particularly “high powered,” compared to standard “sporting” (deer) rifles. Even some pistols are higher powered! In fact, several states actually prohibit deer hunting with such ARs, specifically because they are NOT sufficiently powerful to reliably bring down large game.
I often ask Democrats a simple question… “When a wolf threatens a flock of sheep, is it best for the farmer to lock his guard-dogs outside of the sheep pen?” No socialist has ever given me an answer… instead, those idiots offer the (Best Little Whorehouse) Texas side-step, and engage in long-winded, distracting diatribes – that actually say nothing.
When I was a kid, we used to have Mental Health Centers, usually referred to as Insane Asylums. People would be sent there for help when they expressed tendencies such as the type supposedly expressed by Cruz (if you can believe what they are saying about him). Quite possibly he would have been under the care of mental health professionals instead of conspiring to shoot up those high school kids. And here is another question as to how far this insanity goes….last night I viewed a few vids on the net purportedly interviewing surviving students at the school. One girl… Read more »
From what I have read of the things that took place it seems (could be wrong) as though two staff members, one of whom was a security guard, died protecting students with their bodies. How much more effective would their efforts have been had they been armed? There will always be evil persons in the world; whether they are politicians who keep the price of our medicines artificially high by refusing to allow medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies directly, or deranged individuals like this one, or terrorists. And until evil is eradicated from the world, each individual, and all… Read more »
We Have So Many Battle Tested Ex Military and Law Enforcement
Personnel Out of Work That Would Love to Work at a School .
First Line of Defense, Have Them Patrol the Grounds .
Guard the Doors and Check any and All Who Enter .
Of course These Men & Women are Armed !
Holstered in Plain View ! (sorry snowflakes)
Like so Many Have Said Before ( NO GUN ZONES
ARE JUST SHOOTING GALLERY’s )
@Marky DV, I like the idea. Teams of three. Team training. Four teams per shift. Might even diminish the bullying problem that exists in every school. If even one life were saved… And why shouldn’t public school kids have the same protections that the rich kids get?
They can be paid by taking back some of the
money these no-teaching instructors don’t deserve !
All teachers should get paid on skill level not yrs. on job.
They can get a Bonus if they carry ( correctly) and are
up to putting their life 2nd. instead of cyoa.
There are 36,000 public and private high schools, at least another 50,000 grade schools. $20 billion would not be enough to hire security guards to really secure every school. Anything less than every school is just begging for dead kids in Pratt, Truth or Consequences, Bronx, Sand Point, or some “minority school” that can be used as political fodder. There are teachers in every school and they’ve already passed the background checks just to get the job. Assuming they are smart enough to learn how to shoot if they want o live seems logical. At least 25% of the teachers… Read more »
@jh45gun M, Only $20 billion. Is that all? The US gives more than that in foreign aid, NATO, or the U.N. It seems like an accounting exercise to transfer the money from Dept of State to the Dept of Education earmarked for armed security.