Posted on 12/18/2012 8:19:23 AM PST by marktwain
From 1900 to the late 1990’s, there were no mass school shootings. Lest it be thought that guns were uncommon in schools, that was not the case. Guns were commonly brought to school for shooting competitions, hunting after school, for teachers to trade or show to each other or their students, or for show and tell. Guns were even made in shop class under the supervision of the shop teacher. Guns were common in gun racks in pickup trucks in the school parking lot. Even today, many schools provide special dispensation for students to take off from school for deer hunting season.
During the height of gun control fever during the Clinton Presidency, the Congress passed the Gun Free School Zones act of 1990. It was designed to make it impossible for ordinary people to carry guns most places, because it forbid the carrying of guns within a thousand feet of a school. If you overlap the 1000 foot gun free zones that surround schools in most cities and towns, no one can go about their daily business without intersecting one of these zones at some time.
The Gun Free School Zone act was quickly challenged in the courts, and found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court under the interstate commerce clause, in U.S. v. Lopez, 1995. The reasoning was simple: If merely possessing a gun within a thousand feet of a school was interstate commerce, and therefore subject to federal regulation, what could possibly be construed as not interstate commerce? Virtually everything would then be controlled by the federal government. As the Constitution means something, the interstate commerce clause must mean something. If all of life can be controlled by the federal government, the clause means nothing.
President Clinton blew a gasket when the Gun Free School Zone act was found unconstitutional. He fiercely lobbied congress to pass a replica act, slightly modified. He threatened to keep congress from adjourning to go home to run for office if they did not pass the replica act. They passed the new Gun Free School Zone act in 1996. Since then, federal prosecutors have been very careful not to prosecute many cases under the act, not wanting to present the Supreme Court with another test case.
The results of the Gun Free School Zone act’s passage have been devastating. The first mass school shooting occurred in 1997. As prominent researcher John Lott has noted, mass shooters are attracted to defenseless victim zones. While zones that ban armed citizens are a tiny percentage of the nation’s area, according to Lott, only one of the “successful” (four or more victims) mass shootings in the past thirty years occurred outside of a defenseless victim zone (gun free zone).
Why do mass shooters chose defenseless victim zones? Because they want the fame that goes with the media attention that a mass killer gets, and to get the attention, they have to kill a lot of people. If they are stopped by an armed citizen, they lose their chance to make the “record books”, and there is no point in mass killing.
Armed citizens stop about one in ten of mass killings before they become “successful”, but they are rarely mentioned because of this fact. Most of these life saving actions occur outside of defenseless victim zones.
Mass Killings Stopped by Armed Citizens Link
We have a real world counterexample to the Gun Free School Zone act in Israel. Israelis were confronted with a similar problem after the Maalot massacre in the 1970s They responded by allowing teachers, responsible older students, and volunteer parents to be armed in their schools. They have not had a child shot in a school since.
Israeli Solution Article Link
Since the Gun Free School Zone act was passed for the second time in 1996, 13 mass school shootings have occurred. This unconstitutional law has been a disaster and should be repealed.
Dean Weingarten
Thanks for the info. Just say NO to “Defenseless Victim Zones”.
Evil sparked the shooting. You can’t outlaw evil.
The problem boils down to this: the sheeple have been influenced to stay away from any type of gun and to be afraid of them. Since few are being trained in their use, the problem perpuates itself.
Arnold did in the Terminator but he was a robot.
What about the Grover Cleveland Elementary School (San Diego) shooting in 1979 with the "I don't like Mondays" female perp?
*
*
You are correct, she wasn’t IN the school, but she TARGETED the school from her home. To say it wasn’t a mass shooting at a school is incorrect.
I understand. I made a mistake in the wording in the first sentence. I asked the moderator to correct it, but perhaps they are not allowed to do so. I noted this in post # 5.
Fair enough. One thing about that shooting is that the perp’s MO is still strikingly similar to the other later school shootings, but it is also unusual as the perp was female.
“they still march with rifles. I do not know if they are in working order, or not.”
They are more than likely non-functional “drill rifles” similar to the “rubber ducks” that’s issued at the beginning of basic training for drill and ceremonies practice.
“When I was in high-school, I made a rather large brass cannon as a Father’s Day present.”
Oh the horror!
I graduated in 1962 @ Neligh HS, NE. We carried shotguns in our transportation vehicles in the fall so we could hunt pheasants during the drive home (~ 8 mi.). I took 3 periods of shop my senior year (I had already completed everything else worth taking) and completely sporterized a 98 Mauser 7X57 (I believe it was a Chek CZ). This included turning down the the barrel, turning down the bolt handle, smoothing and polishing all metal, shaping, smoothing, finishing and glass bedding the stock. Result was beautiful. Used it to take a couple of whitetails. The stupidest thing I ever did was to trade it for a 55 Ford when I was 19.
Breaking on Fox News:
Fear of being committed may have caused Connecticut gunman to snap
This, evidently, is what sent him over the edge. Mom was in the process of having him committed, and he went ballistic.
At least, that’s the story at the moment.
And that is lesson that should be learned, keep your guns and ammo under your control. She should have had them locked up or offsite.
Those with untreated schizophrenia typically have end of the world delusions, acute paranoia (the doctors are trying to kill me or take out my brain), beliefs that they are God, or Satan, or both. They also can have multiple personalities telling them things and they hear voices telling them things.
And they can be very dangerous to others.
I have seen it first hand and its not pretty.
Imagine looking at your kid, and knowing that he’s dangerous, and knowing that you HAVE to get him committed to an institution.
You raised him from an infant...watched him grow, and watched something go horribly wrong.
What a damned nightmare...and now his actions - and her inaction - have set in motion a chain of events that could very conceivably result in civil war in this country, because of a group of psychotic politicians...Seems mental illness is a common thread through this whole stinking, rotten episode.
What a f***ed up world we’ve inherited...
Clinton was elected in 1992 and inaugurated in January 1993. Just like he should not have been credited with the economic recovery that begain in March 1991 (the Bush Recovery) we cannot blame him for the Gun Free School Zones act of 1990. Bush should have vetoed this piece of crap.
The Gun Free Schools Act of 1990 was indeed originally enacted under George HW Bush, but was found unconstitutional in 1995. (Yes, Bush should have vetoed it in the first place.)
It was subsequently reenacted in 1996 under Clinton.
Gun Free School Zones Act—as reenactedSource: GunLaws.com pdf fileOriginally enacted in 1990 (P.L. 101-647, Sec. 1702(b)(1))
Overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, April 26, 1995 Re: Federalism; Congress exceeded its authority under Commerce Clause. (U.S. v. Lopez, 514 US 549)
Reenacted by Congress, Sep. 30, 1996 (P.L. 104-208)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.