Words Of Wisdom Or Is It Despair?

It is too late for gun control in America: Neil Macdonald

Marjory Stoneman Douglas students are battering an insuperable wall of legal and political iron

By Neil Macdonald, CBC News 


The teen activists today are probably too young to remember the awful despair of the Sandy Hook families — who pushed for, yet failed to see change — but they should prepare to experience it themselves. Because they will. (Gerald Herbert/Associated Press)

As America's attention span wanes, and the clock ticks down to the next school shooting massacre, it's almost poignant to watch the abruptly politicized teenagers, burning as righteously as young people do when they coalesce around a noble cause, hectoring important politicians, making them squirm on television, clearly believing that they shall overcome.

But they shall not overcome. These lambs may not be silent, but they are battering an insuperable wall of legal and political iron.

Yes, yes, their president has convened a few televised group encounters with survivors, clutching a sheet of talking points that included the numbingly banal "I hear you," but there's a chasm between hearing someone and actually listening, and the men and women who run America are actually just pacifying, knowing the uproar will end.

Trump holds speaking notes during a listening session with high school students and teachers. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)

The youth protests are quite understandable: these are kids who grew up being told they have an absolute right to protection from words that offend them, let alone mass murderers carrying weapons designed to kill soldiers in war.

In fact, though, the bedrock law of their country guarantees both things: the right to offensive speech and the right to own and carry battlefield weapons in public.

These youth have also been misled, especially since the 9/11 attacks, into believing that the most sacred duty of their president is to protect American lives, when in fact their president has no intention of protecting theirs. He will do nothing to prevent the next murderer from picking up an AR-15 and setting out for some school to see if he can break the previous shooter's record.

This is not opinion. It is the only possible conclusion.

Americans have created facts on the ground that have become immovable objects, and it is on them that the efforts of the teen activists will crash and break.

There are three principal ones:

The law

The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states the following: A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

That sentence was ratified in 1791, a time of flintlocks, and liberals have argued it cannot possibly translate into allowing the citizens of a largely urban America to lug around high-efficiency military killing instruments in 2018.

But the only voices that really matter belong to the judges of the Supreme Court, and they have ruled, recently and repeatedly, that that is precisely what the 227-year-old phrase means.

In the 2008 Heller decision, the court swept away the District of Columbia's efforts to regulate rifles and shotguns and ban the possession of handguns in private homes. It ruled that the Second Amendment literally confers the right to carry a weapon. Period.

In McDonald v. Chicago, two years later, the court confirmed that subnational governments have no power to restrict the Second Amendment.

And in Caetano v. Massachusetts, two years ago, the court further declared that the Second Amendment applies "to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding (of the nation)."

In other words, Americans can bear whatever modern ordnance they can carry, from sniper rifles to hand-cannon pistols to the weapon of choice for mass murderers, the AR-15.

Political reality

America's gun enthusiasts are represented by the National Rifle Association, which lavishly rewards and savagely punishes politicians, and which believes its members' right to target practice supersedes government's obligation to protect life.

The NRA preaches that the best answer to a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, a catchy but patently stupid slogan that often fails, just as it did in Florida, where an armed deputy, presumably a good guy, was stationed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He remained outside, in a defensive position, as Nikolas Cruz, his AR-15 blazing, murdered his way through the school hallways.

The most severe test of NRA power was actually in 2012, after mass murderer Adam Lanza, AR-15 in hand, killed 20 schoolchildren and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.



After the Sandy Hook shooting, grieving families arrived in Washington to show pictures of their dead children to discomfited politicians (Jessica Hill/Associated Press )

Sadness and horror ensued. President Barack Obama, weeping, demanded Congress act. Grieving families arrived in Washington to show pictures of their dead children to discomfited politicians.

I spoke with them, and I remember their desolation, and how they grasped desperately at the possibility their tragedy might effect change. With naïve confirmation bias, journalists encouraged them, writing that this was the tipping point.

And then nothing tipped. The NRA shrugged it off. A ban on assault weapons was voted down by a huge margin in Congress, and a subsequent set of much milder measures fell four votes short in the Senate. Because four Democrats — Democrats — voted against.

"I do not see a path for my support," declared North Dakota Democrat Heidi Heitkamp. No other explanation was really needed.

The American Arsenal 

There are more than 300 million guns in America. They aren't butter; they don't perish, or come with a best-before date.

Law-abiding Americans own guns, criminals own guns, smart people own guns, idiots own guns, violent people own guns, and mentally ill people own guns (President Trump helped see to that).

And what might happen if politicians and the courts ever actually do gather up the nerve to reduce the national arsenal?

Look to the origins of the Second Amendment. As the federal court of appeals in D.C. has ruled, Americans have the right to bear arms in self-defence, which it defined as "resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad)."

Think about that one. Americans have the right to amass an arsenal to defend themselves against their own government, if it becomes tyrannical.

And anyone who doubts that millions would regard any effort to take their guns away as the depredations of a tyrannical government need only consult the essays regularly carried on the NRA website.

It would be civil war.

It is too late for gun control in America.

President Trump's musings about banning bump stock devices, which can turn semi-automatic rifles into machineguns, is risibly token.

And the sudden surge of conservative concern about mental health, as though all mass murderers are mentally ill, is purest hypocrisy.

Are these not the very people who scoff in contempt when a lawyer attempts to save his client from the needle by claiming insanity? Are these not the people who believe evil exists and must be contained?

Well, it exists, all right. And America has provided it with a target-rich environment.

The teen activists today are probably too young to remember the awful despair of the Sandy Hook families, but they should prepare to experience it themselves. 

Because they will.

Being On The Wrong Track

Trump’s proposal to arm teachers panned by experts as a ‘colossally stupid idea’

by ELIZABETH CHUCK and CORKY SIEMASZKO


President Donald Trump has proposed a solution to end classroom massacres once and for all: Arm some of America's teachers with concealed weapons, and train them to "immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions," he said Thursday.

But gun violence experts, educators, and school safety advocates immediately panned the idea.

"It's a crazy proposal," said Dr. David Hemenway, a professor of health policy at Harvard School of Public Health and an expert on the public health impact of gun violence. Chuckling, he added, "So what should we do about reducing airline hijacking? Give all the passengers guns as they walk on?"


Avery Gardiner, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, called it a "colossally stupid idea."


"If having more guns in more places made Americans safer, then we would have the lowest rates of gun violence in any developed country in the world, and the exact opposite is true," she said, calling the notion that "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" a myth.“So what should we do about reducing airline hijacking? Give all the passengers guns as they walk on?”

"There could be instances of real confusion that would lead to tragedy if we had more guns in more classrooms," Gardiner said. "What about the time the teacher accidentally leaves the gun unlocked in the desk drawer, and it's picked up by a student? Think about the burden on schools to make sure the teachers are safe to carry guns. Who's doing that checking and monitoring and retraining?"

Statistics show that states with stricter gun laws and fewer guns have less overall gun violence than those with more lax laws and more guns. Hemenway, who has done extensive research on guns, said it boils down to access to weapon.
Trump: Gun-free zones are like 'ice cream' to killers

"The evidence is overwhelming, starting at the home. A gun in the home increases the risk that people in the home will die. That's because there's more suicides, more gun accidents, and more homicides," he said.


The experts added that even with proper firearms training, to expect a teacher to be able to shoot down an attacker — and not accidentally injure anyone else — is unrealistic.

"To be trained is not just about shooting. Your heart is beating like crazy, your adrenaline is all over your body, and you have to make a wise decision about what to do," Hemenway said.

Brian Levin, a former officer with the New York Police Department, said in the heat of the moment, it's too easy to misfire. He recalled a time early in his career when he almost shot an unarmed man fleeing a shooting scene.

"Often times when you’re having an adrenaline-filled situation, you’re not sure who the target is," said Levin, who is now a criminal justice professor at California State University, San Bernardino.

Dr. Amy Klinger, director of programs and co-founder of the Educator's School Safety Network, a nonprofit that supports safer schools, said she found it "ironic and sad" that the only training being discussed for teachers is weapons training.

"How about training in violence prevention, or all of the other threats that schools face, like severe weather, noncustodial parent fights, and bus accidents?" she asked. "I'm thrilled that the president is having this conversation about school safety. But I'm concerned that we're not looking at the really effective options first."

Not everyone is opposed to arming schoolteachers: In a Washington Post-ABC News poll out this week, 42 percent of Americans said allowing teachers to carry guns could have deterred the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, last week.

And after the Sandy Hook shooting, about 200 teachers in Utah partook in a free gun training course, led by firearm activists who argued that armed teachers could thwart shooting rampages in their schools. Hundreds more in Butler County, Ohio, signed up for a similar class after the Parkland shooting.
Cori Sorensen, a fourth grade teacher from Highland Elementary School in Highland, Utah, receives firearms training with a .357 magnum from personal defense instructor Jim McCarthy in West Valley City, Utah on In this Dec. 27, 2012. Rick Bowmer / AP file

But many prominent figures in education are slamming the idea.

"Educators need to be focused on teaching our students. We need solutions that will keep guns out of the hands of those who want to use them to massacre innocent children and educators. Arming teachers does nothing to prevent that," said Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, which represents 3 million educators in the U.S.

Even pro-gun educators don't necessarily support Trump's plan. Dr. Joshua Grubbs, an assistant professor of clinical psychology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, owns multiple guns — but said he couldn't imagine bringing them to class.

"Even under the most ideal conditions, shooting with a handgun is extremely hard. Practically speaking, on a range with ear protection on, at complete peace, that's hard and takes a lot of skills," he said.

More importantly, he said, bringing a gun into class creates an adversarial dynamic.

"You're asking teachers, instead of seeing the best in students, to constantly be on guard for a student that might be a threat," Grubbs said. "It's no longer a safe place for you to learn. It puts the teacher more in a law enforcement role. You relate differently to a teacher than you do to a police officer — and you should relate differently."


In response to questions from reporters about whether it would be practical to arm 700,000 teachers, as Trump has suggested, White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah responded on Thursday afternoon: "I think when you have a horrific situation like you had last week, and some other school shootings that we’ve seen, these horrible tragedies, what we think and don’t think is practical can change."

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed in the Parkland shooting, told MSNBC on Thursday that the massacre would have been much worse had teachers been armed.

"You had pandemonium, you had kids running all over, teachers running all over. Everyone was trying to get to a safe place," Guttenberg said. "You would’ve had a shootout, with all these kids and people running all over. That would not have saved lives. It would have led to further loss of life."

Students Taking Over Gun Debate

They are driven by endless grief and sorrows. They will take to the streets, they will have a voice and they are going to make the long overdue difference in the American gun debate.

Which ever news outlet we look at these days, it brings the news of Florida students rallying against decrepid gun laws in the United States. With tears streaming down their faces they are directing their powerful messages to American politicians who have long since abondanded their duty to serve and protect the people in their constituencies. They have been paid and bought by the NRA, the most corrupt terror organization within the United States. Democrats like Republicans have turned a blind eye towards the terrible toll of lost lives sacrificed on the altar of the NRA. 
Students of America are now telling the world that enough is enough. They will rise up and make necessary changes come true.
When Trump rescinded an Obama-era order prohibiting gun sales to mentally ill people he laid the ground work to the recent Florida tragedy.  Obviously the Obama order alone did not eliminate the entire mass shooting problems in the U.S. but it was a step into the right direction. True to his mindless supporters and the criminal NRA, Trump thought it a good idea to ease up on restrictive gun laws a year ago. He has provoked the wrath of many people in the United States and especially Florida.

The survivors of the Parkland shooting will raise hell. They are smart and they are very, very angry. Their loud voice will raise hope also with their parents and parents all over America, that maybe one day they can be asured that their kids are safe in school.

After publishing this posting I found an email of the NY-Times which just emphasizes the necessary change:



David LeonhardtOp-Ed Columnist

Vermont has some of the weakest gun laws in the country. After the school shooting in Florida last week, Vermont’s governor — Phil Scott, a Republican — initially vowed that those laws would remain the same.
But then he changed his mind.
He changed it just one day after his initial response. Why? In the meantime, an 18-year-old from Poultney, Vt. — a small town in the southwestern part of the state — was arrested for allegedly planning yet another school shooting.
“If we are at a point when we put our kids on a bus and send them to school without being able to guarantee their safety, who are we?” Scott said, according to Seven Days, a Vermont publication. “I need to be open-minded, objective and at least consider anything that will protect our kids.”
The governor’s about-face may be only words, but it’s still encouraging. And encouragement is important. I fully understand the instinct to despair about guns: Kids keep dying, and things never seem to change. But the only way they will change is if people outraged by gun violence resist despair.
“This world-weary prediction of inaction is pernicious,” ProPublica’s Alec MacGillis wrote this weekend, in a perceptive mini-essay on Twitter. “It demoralizes those who are actually motivated to fight against gun violence. And it lets off the hook those who are opposed to reform.”
MacGillis continued: “The NRA’s influence depends heavily on the PERCEPTION of its power. By building up the gun lobby as an indomitable force, pessimistic liberals are playing directly into its hands.”
Among the reasons for hope:
• The courageous — and deeply political — response of many Florida survivors, which felt different from any previous response. “The people in the government who are voted into power are lying to us,” Emma González, a senior at the Parkland, Fla., high school that was attacked, said at a rally this weekend. “And us kids seem to be the only ones who notice and are prepared to call B.S.” (Christine Yared, a freshman at the school, has an Op-ed in The Times.)
• Inspired by that response, the movement to reduce gun violence seems to have a new energy, driven by students — who of course have provided much of the energy for previous political movements. Individual schools have already held or planned walkouts. A nationwide protest is scheduled for March 14, with help from organizers of the Women’s March. Teachers are also talking about mass protest, as Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick explains.
• The share of Americans who own guns has fallen to its lowest level in almost 40 years: to 36 percent recently, from 51 percent in 1978. That, as MacGillis notes, “limits the voting power of the gun lobby.”
• State policy is a flawed way to regulate guns, since they can obviously cross state lines. But recent state changes nonetheless make the case for gun-safety laws. In Missouri, which recently repealed background checks for gun purchases, violence is up. In Connecticut, which passed tough laws after the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, gun violence is down.
Finally, if you have any doubt about the stakes here, I encourage you to look at the chart that ran with my column this week. It compares the overall child mortality rate across 10 high-income countries. The United States just isn’t trying as hard as every other rich country to keep its children alive.
The value of disagreement. “On the left, there has been some outrage at conservative voices on the Times Op-ed pages,” my colleague Nick Kristof writes. “But as a progressive myself, steeped in the liberal worldview, I must say that I often learn a lot — however painfully — from these conservatives with whom I utterly disagree, partly because they gleefully seize upon inconvenient facts that my side tends to ignore because they don’t fit our narrative.”
Nick concludes his column with this: “It should be possible both to believe deeply in the rightness of one’s own cause and to hear out the other side. Civility is not a sign of weakness, but of civilization.”

Delusional America

America’s mass delusion

Surprisingly, the strategy of praying to God is not stopping the mass shootings in the U.S. 

Scott Gilmore

Police investigate a shooting scene after a gunman opened fire on Republican members of Congress during a baseball practice near Washington in Alexandria, Virginia, June 14, 2017. (Joshua Roberts/REUTERS)

Is America’s national Thoughts and Prayers Strategy (TAPS) no longer working? This is a troubling possibility to consider, but it may be time to ask the question.

Politicians, members of the media, and of course the public, quickly responded to the recent horrific shooting of several people during a baseball game in Alexandria, Va., including U.S. Congressman Steve Scalise, with a flurry of “thoughts & prayers”. President Donald Trump himself immediately assisted in TAPS efforts with his own tweet indicating that he too was doing his part by thinking about the victims and mentioning them in any communications he had with God.
Unfortunately, there is growing evidence that TAPS may not be delivering the results we would expect from appealing to an omniscient and all-powerful deity. For example, in spite of the well-executed TAPS implementation following the Alexandria incident, there was almost immediately afterwards another tragic shooting in a San Francisco UPS facility, killing two. Cleary something is amiss.

In a typical year, over 13,000 Americans will be killed by guns. To put that into perspective, that is six times more than the total number of American troops killed in Afghanistan over the last 16 years. America’s gun homicide rate is 25 times the average of other developed countries. There is now, typically, one mass shooting per day in the United States. Over the course of the year, 45 of those will be school shootings.

READ: Something is broken in the United States

This data is very surprising when you consider the power of beseeching God. You would think parting the Red Sea, or smiting the Egyptians with a plague of frogs, would be far more difficult than just reducing gun violence. It is worth noting, however, that most well-known examples of successful celestial intervention in earthly affairs are over two millennia old. This marked drop-off has gone largely unnoticed in American political circles and may be worth exploring in more depth.

The problem, if indeed there is one, could be denominational. Are Jewish prayers as effective as Protestant prayers when it comes to preventing future shootings, or healing existing victims? For obvious reasons, we know that the prayers of a southern Baptist will have no prophylactic effects on a Muslim in New Jersey. But will they protect Catholics? These are questions we should possibly start asking.

Perhaps we are not praying enough. Church attendance is down considerably in the United States. This presumably has a direct impact on both the frequency and quality of prayers. If this turns out to be the issue, the government could look at improving public transit links to places of worship, or perhaps even subsidizing sermons as a means to end gun violence.

The other issue that should be considered is whether the wrong people are praying. For example, when a notoriously adulterous politician tweets out his “thoughts and prayers”, does that carry more or less weight than a nun who silently mouths the same words over her rosary? There really should be better metrics to track this.

Is it possible we are saying the wrong prayers or in the wrong way? Not enough effort has been made to determine if TAPS is equally effective when tacked on to a press release as it would be as an addendum to the Lord’s Prayer. And, have you noticed that you rarely hear a politician implement TAPS in Greek (Σκέψεις και προσευχές) or even Hebrew (מחשבות ותפילות)? Could that be the reason 93 Americans are still dying every day from gun violence?

There are so many factors that need to be taken into account if we want to get to the bottom of this. Kneeling or not? Eyes open or closed? Does incense make a difference? Out of respect for the hundreds of children who are shot and killed every year in the U.S., we must answer these questions.

The White House, perhaps in co-operation with some of America’s leading research centres like MIT or Stanford, should launch an urgent nationwide investigation into why TAPS is not working. A series of randomized control trials in various states would be easy to organize and may produce invaluable data. Likewise, the government could test the TAPS methodology against other pressing issues. Does it help fix America’s crumbling infrastructure? Can it reduce the deficit? Will it fix Obamacare? Has the Pentagon considered a robust prayer response to the North Korean missile program?

With so many daily deaths, so many unnecessary tragedies, America’s leaders must do whatever is necessary to fix TAPS. If they fail at this, the United States would be forced to consider some very dire alternatives. In the United Kingdom, for example, when they decided thoughts and prayers were no longer working, they had to implement handgun laws that reduced shooting deaths by over 50 per cent. Likewise, Canada, Australia and Europe neglected TAPS and as result are forced to rely on firearm controls and background checks to keep their gun violence levels at 1/25th those in the United States. If America doesn’t address the TAPS problem soon, this might happen to them too.