Tragedy in Parkland, Florida. Another School Shooting
It was not long ago that we reacted to the mass shootings in Las Vegas or at Pulse nightclub. Senseless tragedies. Situations where nothing appropriate can be said, except this should never be allowed to happen. When it happens at a school and children are killed, its even more tragic.
Yesterday, it happened in our State, in our second-most populous County. It really hit home.
The mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was the worst school shooting since Sandy Hook Elementary five years ago. Five years ago! Nothing has been done in five years! No gun control measures, no new laws, nothing at all!
Our politicians’ standard reaction in these situations is to say, “our thoughts and prayers go out” to the victims and their families, but what are their “thoughts” and “prayers” going to do to fix this problem? Florida politicians push useless bills to satisfy and enrich the lobbyists and themselves, but completely ignore underlying problems and turn a blind eye to empirical evidence.
As Judge Mark Walker considers the voting rights of felons in Florida, I sincerely hope the Court will recognize how meaningful and important this right is!
So the solution to this problem is to pass yet another batch of laws designed to restrict even more people’s civil rights? Yes, as much as you may dislike it, if you look at guns, abortion, contraception, LBGT rights, etc, only ONE of those is actually mentioned specifically in the US Constitution. But if you like, we can pass these new laws FOR THE CHILDREN. Sound familiar? It seems like the one of the biggest dangers these day to The Children are OTHER CHILDREN.
So it’s looking like a concerned citizen warned the FBI about this lunatic’s rather ominous Youtube posts back in September. Ban the interwebz!!!!!
But look at the facts that hardly any other country has weapon laws like the US. Very few people are allowed to have weapons and not every kind of weapon. Death of weapons is a quarter of that in the US. So, this proofs that it does have an effect on less tragedy.
Cry about laws as much as you wish, until your own children or loved ones will be killed by such tragedy. Hundreds of laws are created around vsex offenders and nobody seems to have a problem with that….but any other law is such a big issue.
Even if it’s about finding ways to protect the innocent…..
Bur they don’t have our Constitution.
Actually JoeM – several of the issues you mention are in the Constitution. Abortion has been part of the Constitution for many years now.
Karen, please provide me with the article of the Constitution that includes abortion…surely it’s not included in that portion of our national documents that includes “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.
SCOTUS decided long ago that abortion falls under the 14th amendment.
https://law.justia.com/constitution/us/amendment-14/04-due-process-of-law.html
The Constitution does not have many articles and amendments that are specific. It was meant to be that way. However, when they constitutionality of a particular event or subject is decided it is considered a Constitutional right.
Our legislators can pass more and more laws and we will not be any safer. If a person is set on taking life the removal of guns will not have any impact. Next we will have to remove knives; then hammers; then screw drivers; then hard-back books; then bricks; then cars; then gasoline; and on and on. It’s the removal of Judeo/Christian principles in the morals of this nation that is giving us what we have. It’s nothing new. Great empires throughout history have fallen victim to the same destructive forces. What signal did the Supreme Court send to our society when it put the ‘seal of approval’ on the murder of the unborn for convenience sake? What about homosexual activity…one only has to consider what that really is to realize just how disgusting it really is? Then instead of demanding moral activity out of our young citizens we give them ‘protection’ in school so they can debauch themselves in a lifestyle so vividly encouraged by Hollywood on the silver screen. Where parents should be taking the lead in raising their children in a Godly moral atmosphere, many of the children don’t know for sure who their parents are. And our government makes it possible to sire these children for profit without responsibility. Yes, go ahead and pass more restrictive gun laws but nothing will change; only the techniques to continue this lawlessness. The people who make the laws are just as guilty as those who will ignore them.
There is one problem….it’s much easier to kill from a distance than close up. A riffle can kill more than one within seconds…with the other methods
…like a knife you can only kill one at a time…..
Also, close up the victim had better chances to fight back.
I just listened to the discussion about the sex offender registry mentioned in the weekly letter. They tried to defend it was needed in order to protect the children….
But this year has just begun and there have been 18 school shootings….zero protection of children….Every other day an incident. Shouldn’t we pay more attention and focus on other more dangerous situations than sex offenders?? No other country has even near as much violence as the US.
Well we see how good gun laws stopped this from happening. He bought the gun legal. What now tougher gun laws and punishment. It doesn’t seem to matter in this case.
I would support the idea of hiring armed veterans to secure all schools.
Wouldn’t that help alleviate two problems at the same time?
It is a tragedy that this young man with mental issues took so many lives, but the focus needs to be on mental health, not gun control. He was expelled from the school, other students called him a loner, and according to police there were many warning signs posted on his social media accounts. This country has a mental health problem, and more laws aren’t going to fix that – just like a sex offender registry doesn’t prevent first time offenders or reduce recidivism & mental health care does.
J.C., this issue is polarizing, but government needs to consider the views and opinions of ALL those impacted by their laws. I agree that every position is entitled to be taken into consideration and count.
This comment is truthful and correct thank you writing it
How do we lobby Tallahassee ???
Thanks again
Yes allowing convicted felons to vote will help balance our government , because we know our mistakes and know better than this never in trouble what led up to our bad decision making
More prevention and teaching mental health counseling would be huge.