I. We Have Let Gun Owners Control the Debate Far Too Long
Gun owners love to put it back on US to find ways to protect ourselves (hardening our schools, arming teachers, etc.) rather than the onus being on GUN OWNERS to prove that they are sane and responsible. We cannot let them to control the debate any longer!
The cost and burden should be on GUN OWNERS to show that they are sane and responsible NOT us to go to incredible lengths to try to determine which gun owners aren’t and to protect ourselves from their dangerous weapons.
II. Right Now Gun Owners Have 100% Right with Zero% Responsibility
Here are the facts:
- At age 18, it is illegal to drink alcohol and illegal to rent a car.
- But, any 18 year old can buy an AR-15, a mass killing weapon, in about 15 minutes. Gun owners have controlled the debate for far too long.
III. We are giving 18 Year Olds a Dangerous Right with ZERO Responsibility
1. There is ZERO waiting period to buy an AR-15.
2. There are ZERO safety classes required.
3. There are ZERO training classes required.
4. There are ZERO certifications required.
5. There are ZERO mental health examinations required.
6. The current background checks are essentially meaningless to stop mass shootings:
- Today, there are very few things that are checked for in a background check that will preclude an 18 year old from getting an AR-15.
- You have to have been convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year,
- A fugitive from justice,
- Convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence crime,
- Legally found to be addicted to a controlled substance,
- Under a domestic violence restraining order,
- Under indictment,
- An illegal alien,
- Dishonorably discharged from the military,
- Renounced U.S. citizenship.
6. Today, receiving a diagnosis of a severe mental illness like schizophrenia is NOT enough to bar an American from gun ownership.
7. In fact, the only way someone is precluded from buying a gun due to mental illness is if someone has filed a process to have a judge LEGALLY DECLARE a person mentally unfit to own a gun or has involuntarily committed him or her to a mental institution. This happens rarely.
8. An AR-15 only costs $395 and most stores allow you to open a credit account to buy it with zero down and pay it off in installments. So, a mass shooter can essentially get these guns today for free - with no intention of paying it off.
9. We know from studies that "The rational part of a teen's brain isn't fully developed and won't be until age 25 or so." "Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have made it possible for scientists to watch the rate at which the PFC (pre-frontal cortex) matures, and have discovered the male brain doesn't fully develop until age 25."
So why are we giving teen boys the right to own a weapon of mass killing with ZERO responsibility?
IV. Here are Some Real Solutions: Bring Back Responsibility with Rights
In the United States you have rights, but with those rights you also have responsibilities. Right now the gun owners have made it so they have all right and no responsibility. We need to get sanity back and put the onus where it belongs on the GUN OWNERS to show they are responsible NOT on US to try to identify and flag any gun owner who has a potential problem and NOT on us to try to protect ourselves from their AR-15’s.
Let's bring back RESPONSIBILITY WITH RIGHTS:
- Raise the gun purchase age to 25. (Preferably ban all assault weapons).
- Like getting a license to drive a car, before you can own a weapon of mass death, you should have to take and successfully pass training classes.
- Require training courses, tests, a temporary license and a test to get a gun license.
- Require gun safety courses.
- Require Gun Mental Health Counseling courses before purchasing a gun. Right now, volunteering at my kid's school is much harder than buying an AR-15.
- Before I could volunteer in my kid's school, I had to go through a certification course and, as part of that, there were mental health courses on inappropriate behavior with children. I had to pass these courses to be certified to be a volunteer.
- Why not require gun owners to go through a similar course where they discuss appropriate uses of a firearm, mental health issues, suicide prevention, domestic violence issues, etc. so that people with potential problems can be identified and people with problems can be sent to the right programs?
- Require periodic re-certification of gun ownership rights and continued courses. To continue volunteering at my kid's school I am required to continue to go to and successfully pass courses. Lifeguards need to go through courses every two years to keep their certification. Every two years, gun owners should have to go through mental health gun counseling and training courses to re-certify their responsible gun ownership.
- THEY should have to prove to US that they are safe, responsible, and sane!
- Having teachers armed with handguns is not going to deter someone, like the shooter here, armed with a much more high-powered weapon like an AR-15, smoke grenades, and wearing a kevlar vest. And, usually, these shooters don't intend to leave alive. But, making the process to get a gun difficult and time consuming may.
V. The Cost and Burden Should be on GUN OWNERS to Prove They are Sane and Responsible, NOT US
Let's call for some responsibility with our rights! Put the cost, responsibility, and burden of owning a dangerous weapon where it belongs, on the GUN OWNER not on us! Stop making us pay to try to identify which of you might be a problem and to protect ourselves from your guns! Gun owners need to prove to us that they are responsible and sane to have the right and privilege to own a mass killing weapon. Gun owners need to pay for courses, certifications, classes, tests, safety courses, mental health programs, mental health screenings etc. to have the right and privilege to own a gun. They need to prove to us that they are safe, responsible, and sane to have the privilege of owning a mass killing machine.
VI. Arming Security Guards & Teachers Won’t Stop Mass Killings
The shooter in Florida was armed with a high-powered weapon, an AR-15, that can fire as many as 45-180 high velocity bullets in a minute. Some similar guns can fire up to 600 rounds per minute. The shooter also had smoke grenades which made it very difficult to know where there shooter was. Teachers said that with the smoke, echoes of bullets, and ricocheting bullets, they could not tell where the shooter was or even how many shooters there were. Moreover, the shooter was wearing a bullet proof kevlar vest. Studies also show that most of these shooters are suicidal and don’t expect to survive the shooting. Finally, most of these mass shootings only last 3 minutes.
Handguns Verses AR-15’s
AR-15 bullets can easily pierce doors and walls so that victims will be unable to easily escape or hide. Teachers and security guards will find themselves dangerously outmatched against the AR-15’s high-power and its high velocity bullets.
- The 9mm handgun is generally regarded as an effective weapon; its bullet travels at 1,200 feet per second and delivers a kinetic energy of 400 foot pounds.
- By comparison, the standard AR-15 bullet travels at 3,251 feet per second and delivers 1300 foot pounds.
Injuries Inflicted
- A typical 9mm handgun wound to the liver will produce a pathway of tissue destruction in the order of 1-2 inches.
- In comparison, an AR-15 round to the liver will literally pulverize it, much like dropping a watermelon onto concrete results in the destruction of the watermelon. Wounds like this, as one sees in school shootings like Sandy Hook and Parkland where AR-15s were used, have high fatality rates.
You can’t arm security guards and teachers with handguns and expect them to confront someone with a high-powered weapon that can fire off hundreds of high velocity bullets in a short time and who is wearing a bullet proof vest. The bullets fired by an AR-15 powerfully pierce through doors and walls. You cannot approach the shooter and protect yourself by hiding behind doors and walls. You cannot combat a spray of high-powered, high velocity bullets with a handgun. Now add to that smoke grenades, chaos, and not knowing where the shooter is or how many shooters there are. What you are asking is stupid and suicidal.
Moreover, studies show that most of these AR-15 mass killings last less than 3 minutes. Not much a teacher, in mass chaos and through blinding smoke, with a handgun can do in 3 minutes against an AR-15 spraying high velocity bullets. And in the chaos do we really want our swat teams to have to try to distinguish between who the shooters are: plain clothes teachers with guns verses the mass killer? Too much to ask of our teachers and our security guards!