Posted: 23 February 2018 at 8:58am | IP Logged | 9
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Jean-Francois Joutel: "It's very hard to convince someone, particularly a civilian, to run head long into a gun battle."
That's undoubtedly true. But the armed police officer on site at the school isn't a civilian; he's trained to deal with such situations. He has chosen, as his job, to be the one in harm's way for the civilian population.
One of the problems is that these situations are mostly reactive rather than proactive. We can have lists of gun purchasers; we can have identified those who shouldn't own guns; we can try to identify those with mental issues. But in the end, this is a country of 323 million people; it's hard to identify the crazies. Obviously, it's a simple task once they start shooting*, but by then, it's too late.
The easiest solution is still the obvious one. to end (or significantly reduce) gun violence, remove the guns. Effecting this, though.. that's the tremendous challenge. Maybe some smart high school students will be able to get it started.
*Of course, it's not so simple if there are a dozen people who, when a shooter starts using his gun, react by getting out THEIR guns. They probably aren't going to put on their white Stetsons to identify themselves...
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