SOLVE SCHOOL SHOOTINGS?
                   MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

Even if I were thirty years younger with great charisma and unlimited funds, I could not be elected president, nor any other significant office. You see, I’m neither conservative nor liberal. I’m not even centrist. I hate political parties and their platforms. If I were asked what I would do if I won the office, I would have to answer, “I don’t know.”

I do know this much. I would take the country’s problems one by one, locate people from all over the spectrum, and study the problem. I’d seek to establish the known facts, as opposed to theory. Then, with the help of the study committee, I would list all the possible options. Finally, I would narrow them down and choose which ones to implement FIRST to see what happens. The choice could be a mixture of things that could be easily done and actions that give the best chance of solving the problem. Then, we’d evaluate the results, not defending nor attacking them. Are they working or not? If not, we’ll modify them or change them completely.

>I fully recognize I’d need to get Congress on board with this. That’s part of determining what can be done and easily done.

There’s no underlying philosophy about big or small government. We would constantly ask, however, whether the states or cities could do this more effectively.

Even more important, we would never assume only one thing caused something, nor that only one thing can fix it. Most of the major problems that worry us, like gun control and school shootings will not be solved by simple answers, nor even two or three. In the time since I first wrote the two drafts of this blog, I read last week that Charles Williams who shot people from the tower on the University of Texas campus back in the 60's had a tumor with pressure on the amygdala region of the brain. Other shooters on autopsy have been found to have pressure in this area. He is said to have left messages asking people to stop him because he felt the urge to shoot people, knew it was wrong, but was afraid he could not stop it. That's the first time in 20 years following school shootings I have seen that! What else is out there? Is there any way to use it to head off other shootings?

Then, just a day or two later, I read that several of the shooters had saved stories of the Columbine school attacks before they were even born! Some copied those shooters apparel, like trench coats, and weapons. Are some of these "copy cat" murders? And if so, how do we use that info?

Moving right along, here's another example of the complexity: We have a problem with similar attacks in other places like nightclubs and Las Vegas. How can we stop or greatly reduce these events and save lives? The solution(s) will involve considering 10-12 different contributing causes. Here are a few we often see.

1 - Guns - the favorite "solution" currently being promoted by many students and others is restricting guns. They have several proposals.

   A - Registration: Tighten registration with a view to registering all guns eventually. Require private sales and gun shows to register their sales. Anyone watching TV crime shows knows the advantage of police tracing weapons used in crimes. Registration also gives the opportunity to exclude certain folks who may be dangerous with guns from getting them. However, it's a illusion to think that gun control would stop the shootings. The student murderers regularly took their parents' guns or weapons their parents bought or them. Education in locking up guns and ammunition will help some, but again, teen aged boys are usually trusted by their parents.

    B - Improve and expand background checks for all purchases  - including a delay (72 hours?) while completed. Decline sales to those with records of mental illness, felonies involving violence, domestic violence, etc. To do this will require keeping the data base up to date and continually reminding various agencies to keep up their input. But see A above.

    C - Ban “automatic” assault weapons. Actually these are semi-automatic, requiring a finger pull for each shot. The problem is twofold:

   1. Large magazines that hold two or three dozen bullets and thus a longer time before reloading. I’ve heard several numbers, most often six or nine, as a limit. That would not stop the attacks, but would reduce the casualties, hopefully by a considerable amount, and provide safe time to take down a shooter while he reloads, which happened in a restaurant shooting.

   2. Bump stocks. Many recommend banning these attachments that convert the semi-automatic to a weapon closer to automatic, thus firing more shots faster and not allowing time for victims to disperse. In a recent Waffle House shooting the gunman paused to reload or fix a jam, and a customer took the gun away, saving other lives.

> AT THIS TIME I have no problem with any of this. We already have the registration system set up. It does need to be upgraded and used more effectively. However much this may help, it will not solve the problem which is way more complicated.

>A major hold-up on the gun fix solution is the idea that the government will one day use the registration to confiscate all guns and enslave everyone. I simply do not believe this. In the US, “government” does not refer to a strongman or a cabal. The government includes legislative, executive, and judicial arms that serve as counterweights to each other. Both Obama and Trump have experienced the frustration of not being able to get their bills through Congress. When they have resorted to executive orders, the courts have stopped them. Yes, there are people who would eliminate guns entirely, but they are a minority, and it will not happen.

>Note the motivation of the guns lobby is to sell more weapons and ammo. Follow the money.

>As late as 20-25 years ago, many high school students carried rifles and shotguns in a gunrack in the cabs of their pickups. They went hunting before and after school. There were no school shootings. Obviously, the availability of guns is NOT the only factor involved.

D- How do the mass shootings apply to the killings by police of blacks and the retaliatory shootings of cops? Are they related, and if so, how?

     1. - I have seen videos of police shooting men who were running away from them. They are shooting them in the back. I have seen a video of an officer having a suspect on the ground in a chokehold with four or five other officers helping hold him down. The man later died, most likely as a result of the unnecessary chokehold. The hold may have been appropriate in the takedown, but after help came, why continue it?

    2 - Obviously a few cops are cowboys and some are prejudiced. Fire them, prosecute them, sure,but that will not bring back the dead. There must be better recruiting and training to get rid of the bullies and hostility toward other races.

    3 - The black community must commit to non-violence with respect to police. Most of the killings of police seem to be random, as if someone said, “Let’s go shoot some cops.” So they are more likely to shoot a friend of blacks than an enemy.  Neither most cops nor most blacks are enemies of the other.

    4 - The gun issue above applies here also. But race is much more at the center of this one. And that opens all sorts of worm cans from prejudice to education to law enforcement to sociology.
E - The school shooters are all white males of high school or college age. This is the biggest terrorist threat in America right now. Not those from the Middle East or Mexico.
F - Mental health facilities are often mentioned as needing upgrades. As a counseling pastor, I have been involved with mental health for at least 60 years. I have helped establish a parish mental health center and a pastoral care counseling center. All of these school shooters have mental health issues - obviously.

   1. - Law enforcement needs to be doing a better job keeping guns away from individuals who are already drawn to their attention. Several more recent shootings were done by young men who had several times been flagged to law enforcement. Perhaps police need to secure search warrants for them and remove any weapons from their houses and vehicles.

  F - Legislatures may need to look at updating laws to enable those warrants. The border between law enforcement and personal liberty in the case of mental illness needs to be studied and accounted for in the law. This raises the very tough question of the rights of citizens, especially the mentally ill. Another can of worms for another day, but it illustrates the complexity of today’s decisions. 

G - Police response and Intelligence - Particularly in the FL shooting, it looks as if the shooter had been tagged enough times for the cops to have anticipated trouble. Some kids would still be alive if the law had come down on this guy, kept guns away, and forced him into psychiatric care. Just yesterday (March 31 - see how this keeps changing) police found a Chinese “student” with a collection of guns, including assault weapons, and set him up for deportation. Obviously, this was a shooting that didn’t happen! Yesterday (April 4) a rare shooting by a woman happened at YouTube. This morning the news reported that her brother had repeatedly warned police about her.

H - 9/11 was the most radical act of terror in our country since Pearl Harbor. In addition to launching two wars, the vicious act appeared to trigger the fear of other terrorist acts, especially from militant Islam. Indeed, several Islamic radicals have tried to hurt us. Most have been stopped, probably more than the public knows.

How much has the combination of “9/11” and individual acts by Islamists contributed to an atmosphere of fear, conducive to planting ideas of violence in unstable minds? Yet Columbine, the first, happened in 1999, two years before 9/11.

I - News coverage: Some claim that coverage of Columbine and each subsequent school attack planted the idea in fragile and/or hostile minds. That may well be so, but what are you going to do? Certainly an attack that kills and injures many children (and adults - as in Vegas) is news on many levels. That leaves many questions, however. Is there a way to slant those stories in, perhaps, a shaming way to discourage copycats. I will be interested to see if the woman’s attack at YouTube results in more women aggressors.

J - Gangs and drugs: Police all over the county tell us that by far the majority of crime is drug related, often theft to buy drugs. A large number of shootings come from inter-gang warfare. I’m willing to explore whether “stop and frisk” should be allowed and tried again in high crime areas, especially shootings, until the crime rate comes down significantly. I’m a strong advocate of neighborhood policing, where cops focus on an area and get to know the people while building up a reliable grapevine of confidential informants. This would also emphasize ethnic cops in ethnic neighborhoods, e.g. black police in the "quarters."

K - Moral education - I agree strongly with separation of church and state. That’s another issue for a later blog - equally complicated. But we need to attack this on several fronts. It doesn’t take religion to teach in our school system, that while there may be occasional school ground fights, we should all grow past the childish solution of hitting each other. Our non-PC high school principal told the boys of the school to come to the football coach before a fight, and let him fit them with boxing gloves. After the fight, shake hands and become friends. Anger management needs to be built into our curriculums nationally! This not only tackles mass shootings, but innumerable acts of violence, from spousal and child abuse to road rage - maybe even reducing gang violence.

J - I wonder whether our intense athletic competitiveness increases our division into highly antagonistic sides. In government, we don’t need to compete. We need to unite with a view to solving problems the best way we can.

SUMMARY

Do you see why I maintain most national issues cannot be solved with simple 1-2-3 solutions? I haven’t yet mentioned the question of violent video games such as Call of Duty, where the player actually shoots at realistic human enemies. Studies have so far found no correlation between the gamers and increased violence. Still, I can’t help but wonder whether the school shooters had “practiced” on such games. And there are many more issues.

I would call for the government to study this as a public health issue, as an educational issue, and a law enforcement issue.

I would call for the churches and other religious institutions of the country to learn how better to teach and then focus on teaching relevant morality to its children, teens, and young adults. The time is now to preach and teach more frequently on the Sixth Commandment: Thou shalt not murder, along with Jesus’s comments on it.

I would call for legislation and enforcement of universal gun registration, limitation of magazine size, and banning both bump stocks and military type weapons in private hands. But note that I do not expect short term results, but I do think long-term, over years, it will make a difference.

And I would call on the American citizen to quit looking for simple solutions. The world has become immensely complicated and it is time to embrace the necessity to THINK, THINK, AND THINK SOME MORE! Include the thought that if these don’t work, CHANGE and do something ELSE!

Note I expect a lot of trial and error in the process. If something isn’t working, try something else. And into the process we must seek to preserve and defend the Constitution! Which brings me to the last suggestion. Let's re-write the Second Amendment to omit the militia clause. A simple statement to the effect that "Private citizens have a basic right to own guns for self-protection, hunting, and sports. Government has the right to register those guns and regulate their use in a manner consistent with the first clause. No effort shall be made to remove citizens' rights to keep and bear arms.