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Protect Kids or Confiscate Guns?
Townhall.com ^ | February 23, 2018 | Pat Buchanan

Posted on 02/23/2018 3:18:35 PM PST by Kaslin

In days gone by, a massacre of students like the atrocity at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School would have brought us together.

But like so many atrocities before it, this mass murder is tearing us apart.

The perpetrator, the sick and evil 19-year-old who killed 17 innocents with a gun is said to be contrite.

Having confessed, he faces life in prison. For the next half-century, Nikolas Cruz will be fed, clothed, sheltered and medicated at the expense of Florida taxpayers, including the families of those he murdered.

Cruz's punishment seems neither commensurate with his crimes nor a deterrent for sick and evil minds contemplating another Columbine.

It didn't use to be this way.

On Feb 15, 1933, anarchist Giuseppe Zangara tried to assassinate President-elect Franklin Roosevelt in Miami. His arm jostled, he killed instead Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. Five weeks later, on March 20, 1933, Zangara died in the electric chair.

Swift, sure and pitiless, but that legal justice system worked.

With Cruz, the system failed up and down the line.

Cruz should never have been allowed to purchase or possess a gun. He was angry, alienated, isolated. Police had been to his family home to deal with complaints 39 times. Yet he had no arrest record when he purchased his AR-15.

Classmates at Douglas High had speculated that if there ever were a school shooting, Cruz would be the one to do it. The FBI was alerted a month before that Nikolas Cruz was a time bomb ready to explode.

The NRA was not responsible for the system-wide failure from Douglas High to the FBI. As the NRA's Dana Loesch told CPAC Thursday:

"The government can't keep you safe and some people want us to give up our firearms and rely solely upon the protection of the same government that's already failed us numerous times to keep us safe."

As for the AR-15, it is the most popular rifle sold. Five million to 8 million are in circulation. Veterans since Vietnam have trained with, and many fought with, the M16, which is first cousin to the AR-15. Veterans are among the millions who own them.

While all agree AR-15s should be kept out of the hands of crazies like Cruz, the establishment insists that it is the gun that is the problem.

We hear demands that AR-15s be banned and confiscated.

Proponents should put that proposition to a vote. But a prediction: The moment it is brought up for a vote, sales of AR-15s will explode, as they have before. If the weapon is banned, as alcohol was banned in Prohibition, millions of law-abiding Americans will become law-breakers.

And who will barge into America's homes to seize and collect the rifles?

Moreover, if people have decided to mass murder classmates or co-workers, inviting "suicide by cop," are they going to be stopped from acquiring a semiautomatic by a Congressional law?

Have our drug laws halted drug use?

Many of the guns confiscated by police are in the possession of thugs, criminals and ex-cons who have no legal right to own them. Yet, if we are going to prosecute the illegal sale or transfer of weapons severely, we will have hundreds of thousands more in prisons, at a time when we are instructed to empty them of nonviolent offenders.

As for mental illness, it seems more prevalent than it used to be, and the numbers of those on medication seems a greater share of the population.

Do doctors decide which of their patients are fit to own a gun, and which are not? Should doctors be held criminally liable if they fail to alert police and one of their patients uses a gun in a violent crime?

Who will maintain the federal registry of the mentally sick unfit to own a firearm?

The anger and anguish of those who lost family or friends in this atrocity is understandable. But passion is not a substitute for thought.

There are twice as many guns in America as there were just decades ago. And a primary reason people acquire them is because they believe they need them to protect themselves and their families, and they no longer trust the government to protect them.

They view the demand for banning and confiscating specific weapons as a first step down the inexorable road that ends in the disarmament of the people.

Most mass shootings take place in gun-free zones, where crazed men of murderous intent know their chances of maximizing the dead and wounded are far better than in attacking a police station.

Our embassies are defended by Marines with M16s. Security guards with guns defend banks and military bases, presidents and politicians.

The best way to protect kids in schools may be to protect schools, and run down and incarcerate the known criminals and crazies who are the primary threats.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: banglist; education
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1 posted on 02/23/2018 3:18:35 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

“But like so many atrocities before it, this mass murder is tearing us apart.”

No, the Democrats are just using it as an excuse to tear us apart and demonize gun owners.


2 posted on 02/23/2018 3:21:13 PM PST by MeganC (There is nothing feminine about feminism.)
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To: Kaslin

...For the next half-century, Nikolas Cruz will be fed, clothed, sheltered and medicated at the expense of Florida...

There’s no plea deal. He can be Satan’s
responsibility.


3 posted on 02/23/2018 3:24:58 PM PST by Sasparilla ( I'm Not Tired of Winning)
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To: Kaslin

i’m not going to offer an opinion on this otherwise to say that 18 year olds are neither my dad’s generation nor Audie Murphy’s. My dad at 19 was an Easter Island invitee being told not to get caught by a head-hunter (literally). Meanwhile, Audie Murphy, was charging down German troops after being brought up in an abandoned railway car by an Native-American mom. He thought that the US army was the most warm and cuddly place he had ever been invited into. Compare that to today’s youngsters and imagine them armed. (I do not mean conservative teens.)


4 posted on 02/23/2018 3:27:32 PM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: Kaslin
Why is the answer always to disarm law abiding citizens who had nothing to do with the shooting?
In the mean time, a dozen people are shot every week in gun-free Chicago.

5 posted on 02/23/2018 3:32:51 PM PST by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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To: Kaslin

Just recall how the dinosaur media dropped, in less than 24 hours, the attempted massacre of 20+ GOP congressman last summer.


6 posted on 02/23/2018 3:36:25 PM PST by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: Kaslin

Protect kids by knowing that many people have guns. Confiscation of guns is preferred by people who are ignorant and hate truth.


7 posted on 02/23/2018 3:39:38 PM PST by mulligan (The)
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To: Kaslin
Broward county elected a Democrat for Sheriff and got what they deserved, a political hack.

Broward county Sheriff

From the Florida Sheriffs Assoc. page for Broward county.

"Our success will be measured by the number of kids we keep out of jail, not the number we put in jail."
~ Sheriff Scott J. Israel

Nuff said.

8 posted on 02/23/2018 4:08:35 PM PST by TigersEye (13 Russian Facebook trolls ... and a Siberian partridge in a Russian Olive tree.)
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To: BitWielder1
In the mean time, a dozen people are shot every week in gun-free Chicago.

The 17 killed in Florida is 17 too many of course, but Chicago alone averages over 13 murders per WEEK.

9 posted on 02/23/2018 4:12:36 PM PST by libertylover (Kurt Schlicter: "They wonder why they got Trump. They are why they got Trump")
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To: Kaslin
"But like so many atrocities before it, this mass murder is tearing us apart. "

Communists are tearing us apart. The American left is in America but they are not Americans.

One thing is clear when watching this stuff is that we are headed for a conflict with the communist left. These people are absolutely seething with hatred. They hate us, American's, normal people, good people, Christian people. It's not hard to imagine what would happen if we are disarmed and these people were in control.

10 posted on 02/23/2018 4:16:21 PM PST by precisionshootist
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To: TigersEye
Broward county elected a Democrat for Sheriff and got what they deserved

A day or so after the shooting I read an article that said the Broward County Schools had a non-cooperation policy with law enforcement, similar to Sanctuary City policies.

11 posted on 02/23/2018 4:21:56 PM PST by libertylover (Kurt Schlicter: "They wonder why they got Trump. They are why they got Trump")
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To: libertylover

I read that too. Based on his motto it looks like Sheriff Israel also thought that was a good idea. Also based on 39 contacts and nothing done.


12 posted on 02/23/2018 4:33:58 PM PST by TigersEye (13 Russian Facebook trolls ... and a Siberian partridge in a Russian Olive tree.)
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To: Kaslin

In 1934, there were just a few hundred sub machine guns in private hands. They were easy to tax and later ban.

Tens of millions of semi-auto firearms in private hands. How are they going to ban what they can’t find?
Not enough prisons for tens of millions of now scofflaws.

Besides Haynes v. US says a felons are not required to register their firearms.


13 posted on 02/23/2018 5:03:17 PM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Re-open the insane asylums, stop drugging the kids.)
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To: Kaslin

Protect Guns Confiscate Kids


14 posted on 02/23/2018 5:19:45 PM PST by al baby (May the Forceps be with you Hi Mom Its a Joke friends)
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To: Kaslin

IT’S FOR THE CHILDREN (tm)

The statists default policy when they have nothing else.


15 posted on 02/23/2018 5:54:12 PM PST by Eric Blair 2084 (I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer to drink a bunch of them. Stay thirsty my FRiends)
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To: Kaslin

I don’t mean to be callous about this but the media are in war mode to rile the American public against President Trump and honest gun-owning American patriots. Their current cause celebre is the attack upon the 2nd Amendment and the killing of school children.

The fact is a child has better odds of being struck by lightening two or three times than getting killed by a mass murderer. Since the beginning of our country there has been a little less than 600 people (adults and children) killed at school; K-12 and college. As for the family and friends of those 600, the utmost sympathy goes out to them.

The media lays the blame for these school shootings on President Trump, the NRA and American patriots who own weapons. No mention is ever made of the violent games children can get hold of depicting cop killing and mass murder nor do they ever blame Hollywood and TV actors who star in violent gun-blasting and sex movies or the lack of proper parental upbringing of this nation’s children.

Absolutely ridiculous. What law can possibly be enacted that would stop a crazy person or an unloved or mistreated person with a history of violent behavior from committing a crime? NONE!

100 000 children die needlessly from cancer every year. Childhood Cancer Parent Organizations say that of the 220,000 children who develop cancer every year, 80% die without adequate treatment. Many do not even receive morphine. Where is the outrage?

Every year at least 350 children between the ages of 1 and 4 are murdered - EVERY YEAR!. Where is the outrage?

I could name many more, not the least of which include 2700 babies killed in the uterus each year but why all the media attention when someone gets shot by a crazy person? Here’s why: There is a plot in this country fully supported by the news media and the majority of politicians to disarm this country; I call these people liberals (progressives) and the liberals want to tear down borders and bring about a socialistic global society and a tyrannical government serving only the elite. The only thing stopping them is the 2nd Amendment which was issued to prevent such tyranny. Liberals must be stopped and if it comes to another civil war, so be it. I stand with our Founding Fathers who actually foresaw such action against our freedoms and the criticality of the 2nd most important Amendment.


16 posted on 02/23/2018 6:10:35 PM PST by New Jersey Realist ( (Be Nice To Your Kids. They Will Pick Out Your Nursing Home))
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To: precisionshootist

Yeh and who is going to try to disarm us? Those cucks that were afraid to confront a 19 year old in a school? I don’t think so.


17 posted on 02/23/2018 6:22:04 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Kaslin

The people they send to confiscate guns may never see their kids again anyway.


18 posted on 02/23/2018 7:01:37 PM PST by Caipirabob (Communists...Socialists...Fascists & AntiFa...Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: Kaslin
Where's the largest number of US citizens being killed by gunfire?

Minority areas of cities like L.A., Detroit, Baltimore.

Think the libs will go for confiscating the guns from minorities? /as if>

19 posted on 02/23/2018 7:33:20 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: Georgia Girl 2
" Yeh and who is going to try to disarm us? Those cucks that were afraid to confront a 19 year old in a school? I don’t think so. "

I agree they will never disarm us. It does make you wonder why they don't realize its far to late for disarmament. I think the left needs to wake up and smell the coffee. If they try to disarm Americans they will not only not be successful and we will still have guns but we will have ALL the guns. LOL

20 posted on 02/23/2018 8:04:20 PM PST by precisionshootist
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