Gun safety

I guess it is a step in the right direction that in the wake of Aurora and Newton, the Senate has finally come to an agreement requiring background checks of gun buyers. However this is a feel good, not really do anything solution. Sure it will help keep felons from getting guns, but what good are those laws when the lawful owners then leave their weapons unsecured? In addition to background checks, maybe gun buyers should also pass a safety check.

Driving a car, a potential deadly weapon, requires a written test AND a driving test to demonstrate you know enough to earn a license to drive. A rifle, also a potential deadly weapon and whose sole purpose is to fire a bullet at something, does not. Am I the only one who thinks that is nuts?

Knee jerk over reaction

Today is the first day back to school after winter break and, in response to the Newton tragedy, the mayor of Marlboro, NJ, an upper middle class neighborhood in central NJ, a little less rural than Newton, but otherwise fairly similar, has decided to spend the money to hire 9 extra police officers to sit in each of the town's schools and do nothing. I live in Manalapan, a town adjacent to Marlboro and there are people here demanding that we match Marlboro's arms race because they have bought into the exploitation by Marlboro's mayor over the fears of the general public for his political gain. They are furious at our mayor and school superintendent for catching their breath, taking the time to decide what is best and then "only" assigning two cadets from the police academy on an extra patrol for all of the town's schools traveling around the town and, coincidentally, are also actually patrolling the neighborhood.

For years we (people in this area) have been demanding an end to higher property taxes to pay for our schools so that teachers are actually being replaced by computer programs. Funny how we don't have the money to pay for a Spanish teacher in our elementary schools, but all of the sudden we can find the money for an armed policeman in all schools that will do nothing (Columbine had a police officer on site, Va Tech had their own police force and Ft Hood was an army installation) except make a few scaredy cats feel better and take money away from more important needs, such as educating our students. And guess what? This will still do nothing if some nut decides to take a shot. All it is is just a big waste of tax money in the very slim chance that one day an armed police officer will be needed. Money we don't have.

I'm not a blind, idealist. I know there are way more assault riffles held by frightened people, convinced the world is about to end thanks to irresponsible news entities, then there used to be. And that thanks to the irresponsibility of some, these lethal weapons are in the wrong hands. But an armed officer in every single building, especially out here is nuts. More importantly it  is a response to yesterday's attack. Who is to say the next attack will be with a gun? An officer at the front door won't do much if the next mental person, for example, decides to drive through a wide door or window unprotected by barricades. Want to add bulletproof glass and other barriers to the building itself? Fine. Like many parents after Newton, I took a look around both my children's schools after picking them up and noticed some easy fixes that would make sense to keep any intruder out.

You can't have police everywhere and I don't think we want to live in a society that does. If a cop is at the door then what about the school yard for recess?  When the same cop is used to sitting at the school all day doing nothing it will be just a matter of time until they become complacent and start reading a newspaper or playing around on their cell phone. And what will happen when, inevitably, a parent walking into the school for legitimate business gets harassed by the officer or, worse, an officer over reacts to a misbehaving pupil and turns a simple disciplinary problem into a legal problem? 

Newton was an aberration. One single nut that, if proper procedures had been followed, should never of even had access to a gun. No one is hunting our children.  I am all for the safety of the children but putting brownshirts in all our public schools is not the answer. Knee jerk reactions like this simply compromise liberty.

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)