Guest Post by Walter E. Williams
Having enjoyed my 82nd birthday, I am part of a group of about 50 million Americans who are 65 years of age or older. Those who are 90 or older were in school during the 1930s. My age cohort was in school during the 1940s. Baby boomers approaching their 70s were in school during the 1950s and early ’60s.
Try this question to any one of those 50 million Americans who are 65 or older: Do you recall any discussions about the need to hire armed guards to protect students and teachers against school shootings? Do you remember school policemen patrolling the hallways? How many students were shot to death during the time you were in school? For me and those other Americans 65 or older, when we were in school, a conversation about hiring armed guards and having police patrol hallways would have been seen as lunacy. There was no reason.
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What’s the difference between yesteryear and today? The logic of the argument for those calling for stricter gun control laws, in the wake of recent school shootings, is that something has happened to guns. Guns have behaved more poorly and become evil. Guns themselves are the problem. The job for those of us who are 65 or older is to relay the fact that guns were more available and less controlled in years past, when there was far less mayhem. Something else is the problem.
Guns haven’t changed. People have changed. Behavior that is accepted from today’s young people was not accepted yesteryear. For those of us who are 65 or older, assaults on teachers were not routine as they are in some cities. For example, in Baltimore, an average of four teachers and staff members were assaulted each school day in 2010, and more than 300 school staff members filed workers’ compensation claims in a year because of injuries received through assaults or altercations on the job. In Philadelphia, 690 teachers were assaulted in 2010, and in a five-year period, 4,000 were. In that city’s schools, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, “on an average day 25 students, teachers, or other staff members were beaten, robbed, sexually assaulted, or victims of other violent crimes. That doesn’t even include thousands more who are extorted, threatened, or bullied in a school year.”
Yale University legal scholar John Lott argues that gun accessibility in our country has never been as restricted as it is now. Lott reports that until the 1960s, New York City public high schools had shooting clubs. Students carried their rifles to school on the subway in the morning and then turned them over to their homeroom teacher or a gym teacher — and that was mainly to keep them centrally stored and out of the way. Rifles were retrieved after school for target practice (http://tinyurl.com/yapuaehp). Virginia’s rural areas had a long tradition of high school students going hunting in the morning before school, and they sometimes stored their guns in the trunks of their cars during the school day, parked on the school grounds.
During earlier periods, people could simply walk into a hardware store and buy a rifle. Buying a rifle or pistol through a mail-order catalog — such as Sears, Roebuck & Co.’s — was easy. Often, a 12th or 14th birthday present was a shiny new .22-caliber rifle, given to a boy by his father.
These facts of our history should confront us with a question: With greater accessibility to guns in the past, why wasn’t there the kind of violence we see today, when there is much more restricted access to guns? There’s another aspect of our response to mayhem. When a murderer uses a bomb, truck or car to kill people, we don’t blame the bomb, truck or car. We don’t call for control over the instrument of death. We seem to fully recognize that such objects are inanimate and incapable of acting on their own. We blame the perpetrator. However, when the murder is done using a gun, we do call for control over the inanimate instrument of death — the gun. I smell a hidden anti-gun agenda.
I think technology and too many damn people on the planet are causing 99%+ of the problems.
–Wip
No way, No how, No argument, No explanation, No apology. No one will take my guns from me.
They may well kill me. But they will not disarm me.
Agreed.
USA used to be one of the safest countries in the world. It was like Japan is today, only a handful of murders per year in a population of over 100 million. Now we have the same demographics as Brazil and therefore, the same problems as Brazil.
From the safest, wealthiest country in the world, to a 3rd world cesspool in 1 lifetime. Thanks Boomers!
johnson wasn’t a boomer nor that generation, nor the greatest generation.
In the early days of the paper ponzi system, things were pretty good for most. As the ponzi system grew with the population and the introduction of the final enslavement tool of the population via credit/ debt massive issuance of more ponzi paper and it’s destructive force of inflation.
Many people have come to the conclusion that sum ting is wrong.
This has the owners very worried and rightfully so, hence the many fake shootings narrative.
That’s the fundamental difference between today and yesterday.
Walter knows the problem. “Liberal/ Progressive Policies” That being said The Marxist Governor here in NY has come up with the idea. That teachers who think a student may be a problem…..Should be able to get a judge to remove guns from the parents home. Just thinking that the student could be a problem. It has little chance of passing. So they say,but he got the unconstitutional Safe Act passed. Liberals……..They always have the solution to the problem they caused.
There are no morals. Whatever is “legal” is “Otay, ‘Panky.” Today’s “adults” grew up winning something even if they lost at something. They never had to deal with defeat. People are now rewarded for their mistakes. How many times have you heard the term “single mom” put into play? On the other hand, the law-abiding are penalized for… obeying the law…
…It won’t be long now…
There were fathers in the home, moms stayed home and were there to answer any fears and soothe any anxieties, and all the kids were white. Also you knew if you sassed a teacher you’d be in more trouble when you got home because teachers (and cops) were much more feared and/or respected. Ah, the good ole days..
He’s telling the truth. My brother and I at about 12 years old about 1957 took the bus to Jacksonville and we each bought a 22 rifle and rode he bus back without any problem. Men carried rifles in racks and revolvers in glove compartments in their pick ups. People were Conservative Christians and good citizens. Serious crime was so rare that when it happened, word spread like wildfire and a small posse formed. When someone robbed a store my dad was at, he and other men chased the robber and captured him. The KKK tied (just tied) a neighbor about a half mile away to a tree for beating his wife. Crime was rare and men were men. Today the country is run by godless Liberals and crime is common; everybody is afraid of the criminals, the laws, the Cops, the lawyers and the Judges. The trend is for everything to get worse no matter who we elect.
I hear you brother. In ’63 (Virginia), I’d come home from school pick up my 20 gauge or .22 rifle, walk to the woods and bring home squirrels to eat. For those that have never eaten them, squirrels taste much like chicken. Point being, folks never batted an eyelash. They KNEW any kid walking around with a long gun had been trained by his father.
What has changed ?Our once overwhelming white Christian nation has allowed the courts to take The Bible , prayer and Christian morals out of schools , government and now society. We abandoned God now God has abandoned us as a form of judgement . It’s only going to get worse. Trust God on this.Read Romans 1:18-32.This explains very well what has and is happening.
BB… God has not abandoned anyone.
I see where you are coming from using the verses in Romans 1. Do you see that in these opening chapters of Romans that Paul (as a Jew) is addressing the Jew specifically and showing him that as God “gave up” on the Gentiles (back in Gen 11-12), he is now “giving up” on Israel? In these opening chapters and verses (1:1 through 3:20) God concludes ALL men under sin equally BY THE DEEDS OF THE LAW (given specifically to Israel – verse 3:20 is that conclusion – as Israel couldn’t keep the law thus proving their sin); that He might have equal mercy upon ALL (chapters and verses 3:21 – 8:39). The logic being that IF Israel is still raised above the Gentile nations (which they were – Deut 7:6), THEN is God still showing favor to one person over another. He is not today (2:11), as righteousness is no longer by the deeds of the law (3:21-28); which was Israels “supposed” righteousness (Deut 6:24-25). Please examine these verses and see if you still feel that God has abandoned us here in America, or anyone anywhere. He has not. Salvation is still available to any and all who simply trust in what God has already done, accepting the gift of His Son.
2 Cor 5:17-21… “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Such is the direct opposite of abandonment. It is ultimate mercy. He has reconciled the world unto Himself by the cross, not imputing our trespasses unto us! He paid the wages of our sin. The mystery Christ revealed to Paul shows that He didn’t die for us because we were trying hard to “be good” as Israel believed itself to be; because we were “worth” dying for. Your verses in Romans show clearly that neither Jew nor Gentile are worth dying for as there is no righteousness in us. Christ however died for ungodly men, sinners; because ALL men are ungodly sinners. He concluded us ALL under sin and yet He died for us anyway, Jew or Gentile… WOW. So to Him, somehow we were worth it. He offers us HIS righteousness (if we would take it) as we have none in ourselves. He must have some big future plans for us!
Romans 5:6-8… “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Make sense?
1979, Jimmy Carter creates the Department of Education.
1991+, first fully indoctrinated students graduate, have children, become “parents” for next wave of “enlightened” youth.
2018, David Hogg and a bald lesbian boost NRA memberships beyond their wildest hallucinations.
Kill the DOE before it kills us.
Common sense says we can solve these horrific school mass murders, yes they are mass murders not shootings by simply adapting the same way nature adapts. These stupefied idiotic punk mass murderers are bred and fed through internet glorified violent ‘games’ that make mass murder a game. These training tools for idle minded punks should be banned, not firearms. To immediately eliminate the mass murders of our youngest brightest minds lets use common sense by hiring only school teachers that are trained or able to be trained in the proper use of a 30 round clip semi automatic long barrel rifle. Place a secure gun safe that is beyond hacking or tampering with in each and every room where our youngest and brightest next generation gathers to be educated. These impenetrable gun safes should contain a firearm and two or three clips of armor piercing shells which each and every educator and administrator must be proficiently trained to use. I am certain there will be more than enough sharp minded able bodied educators that will be ready willing and able to take on this job. If and when these punks gain access to the educational facility a central alarm could be sounded which then and only then allows each and every trained educator and administrator to go to this gun safe accessing it using their simple personal private 4 digit code to open these safes and load the first clip into the gun. We older folks grew up taught to “duck and cover” which has not caused too much mental or physical damage as far as I can tell. The same practice drills could be instituted in each and every classroom and gathering area which would then be protected by a gun safe and many trained educators ready to protect their students who would have been instructed where to hide to protect themselves in each and every room. The trained instructors could then train their now fully loaded firearms on any and all entry points in order to extinguish the life of any punk that feels they can violate nature. The cost of such deterrents would be much less and in fact many more times effective than some roving wanna be cop that would more than likely call for back up when the SHTF. Wake up people we need to change up or we are going to be remembered as the dullards who just looked on and blamed the guns
The salient point of this article is that it is obvious that the accessibility and possession of guns is NOT the cause of the violence in our schools (nor our society at large). Solving that problem necessarily requires us to identify the real cause(s). Many of the comments take a stab at it. It is clear that political leadership in this country wants to solve the problem of citizens possessing firearms, not the problem of violence. Bad political leadership is another problem. Any suggestions on how to solve that problem?
Guns?
Turn most of the Left Coasts into Liberal Reservations and let them fund and Rule Themselves.
Haven’t all or most of these kid’s shooting up the schools been on some type of antidepressant or psychotropic drug? Which probably means their parents were/are too.
Getting people off the pharmaceuticals and helping them find meaning and purpose in their lives might go a long way in reducing the violence.
As late as the mid -1980’s we’d go hunting before school, and had our guns in gun racks in the rear window of our pickup trucks. I grew up in suburban Georgia.
School shootings were unheard of.