As usual you provide a thoughtful and well reasoned response. I appreciate that as well as you not attacking me or getting hysterical. Thank you.
The war on drugs is a fucking joke. That is more about incarcerating people than it is regulation.
I think the FDA does some good work. We have a pretty safe food and water supply. Flint, Michigan not withstanding.
I think the FAA does a pretty good job (9/11 not withstanding) of keeping us safe.
I think our system for how one can obtain a drivers license is for the most part pretty fair and reasonable. I think a similar approach to guns could work. Maybe if you are between 18 and 21 you have to go through a set number of safety classes, competency exams and have some restrictions. Once you are 21 and can prove that you are competent and pass a reasonable exam then you are good to go. Is anything going to make it go away entirely? No. But if something like this or anything for that matter can slow it down, save some lives, then I am all for it. I've see recent studies that indicate boys brains aren't fully developed til around age 25. Someone who does fucked up things at 18 may not do them at 21, 25, etc.
Why is it that I always hear Republicans suggest it's a mental health issue? I happen to agree that mental health plays a huge role. My problem is that Gov. Abbott in true Republican form slashed a couple hundred million from the budget that supported mental health. We can't have it both ways, right?
No worries my dude!
I'm always open for a gentlemen's debate.
I used the War on Drugs as an example because that's how i see this playing out. The FAA/FDA and many other government programs have their ups and downs, but to be fair i don't think they are an example of what i have in mind. They are going to retroactively regulate guns, or at least that's what people want, and i don't see that happening. It's impossible for them to backtrack, but i do believe that having a better training program will help, yet not much.
When i started hunting i had to take a Hunter's Safety Course before i could get a hunting license, as i was only 14 years old. You learn a lot from programs like this and believe proper training helps. I have a LTC in three different states and have spent most of my life around firearms in one way or another.
I know a lot of people who don't have a valid DL. I've been in a car accident 3 times in the last 10 years with people who didn't have a DL or insurance, one of the guys was in his 50's and had never had a DL. So again i don't think some government regulation is really going to help. But i will agree with you more or less.
The problem i have is that added training/regulations will not change the bad guys from doing bad things. Guns are pretty much banned in Mexico and it is heavily enforced, yet you have guys rolling around with all kinds of guns because Cartels don't follow the rules. Same thing IMO applies here, i don't understand how more regulations is going to prevent bad people from doing these things, it will make firearms harder to obtain, which may give the crazy person some time to change his mind. But if someone wants to shoot up a school, they are going to do it.
I do think having better training and tracking of firearms is a good idea. But the fatal flaw is how far are we wanting the government to have control? Once they gain an inch, they will take a mile. So for me it's conflicting because i don't want any of our freedoms taken away, regardless of a school getting shot up or not.
My thought is that we should have better security. Think about everywhere you go, there are armed security or off-duty Cops. Walmart even has City PD sitting out front where i live. Dispensaries too, banks, colleges, etc. All these places typically have armed security. The local Mall here has like 5 City PD that drive around and walk through the Mall at all times. The parking lot there is considered one of the safest places to leave a vehicle, so they sectioned off an area to use for car pooling.
Why not schools?
Better yet, WE the people should take control of our children's lives. Volunteer to sit out front of your child's school once a week and have a schedule with other people. We had this in Texas back in the 80's. Country folks would take matters into their own hands. Now this creates complicated logistics too, as you don't want you local Karen/Kyle sitting in front of a school causing problems. There can easily be a school program to have this implemented in a matter of weeks/months. I'm not talking about having these volunteers armed to the teeth, just having a presence and radios for communication. Something weird happens you can lock down an entire school in less than a minute or two.
The best prevention is NOT allowing them access inside the school. The exact same way they handled Covid. Pretty much all businesses here had people standing at the entrance to check your temp and force you to use hand sanitizer. Many places had Cops there too in order enforce masks. The local University here had Cops standing at all entrances to events for months, if you didn't have a mask they escorted you out.
Having parents or security present is a huge deterrent in crime. But again, this will still not stop these things from happening.
There was a guy yesterday in Texas, a big swole (BBing related) kneegrow, standing at the entrance to his child's school, he wasn't armed, but his presence is enough to make people think twice. Imagine if all of our schools had 4-5 volunteers per day monitoring the campus.
Why aren't are schools being protected? That is THE fastest AND easiest way to help prevent this. The government give billions of money to foreign countries for stupid things. Why not protect our kids?
Where i live and have lived in the past, we have a local group of people that take turns driving around the neighborhood during the day and night, looking for suspicious activity. These civilian watch programs work amazing with real results. Sometimes the best defense is just the presence of humans, even if they are not armed.
But at the end of the day, these things will always happen, it will never stop. You can ban guns 100% and it won't stop anything like this from happening.
As far as Gov Abbott, i was born in Texas and lived there most of my life. I think he has done some good things, but i have no idea why he slashed the mental health budget. So i can't comment on that.
My personal opinion is that America has become more comfortable with violence, movies, video games, etc. A lot of younger people don't value life as much as we did 50+ years ago. I think it's a very deeply rooted issue that has no real answer.
