How We CAN End School Shootings for Good
After the recent school shootings in Florida and immediate attacks on guns, AR-15s, and so-called “assault weapons,” I decided to research, without political agenda, to see if people like me have been wrong. After all, I am a lifetime NRA member, and was a US Army officer, and Second Amendment advocate.
I also got some of my information from over a half century of being involved in the martial arts, primarily teaching and owning martial arts schools. With over a half century of experience, I hold grandmaster ranking in five martial arts, including 10th degree black belts in both jujitsu and judo, 7th degree black belts in tae kwon do and freestyle karate, and am a black sash instructor in Muay Thai kickboxing.
During the 18th century there was 1 incident of a school shooting.
During the 19th century there were 28 shootings.
In the 20th century there were 227 shootings.
So far in the 21st century, including the February 14, 2018 shooting, there have been 207 shootings.
Looking at the numbers in the primary article, I found that in the 1990 time frame of school shootings, the figure almost doubled, a drastic increase. I asked myself, “What did we do differently that caused that jump?”
The answer was easily discovered: The Gun-Free School Zones Act (GFSZA) is an act of the U.S. Congress which was introduced in the U.S. Senate in
October, 1990 by then-Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. It forbids the possession of any type of firearms within 1,000 feet of any type of school, be it public, private, or parochial. Hence, the signs you see prominently displayed around all schools now reading, “This is a Gun Free, Drug Free Zone.”
In teaching women and girls sexual assault prevention, I would tell them it is illegal to steal a purse from the front seat of an unattended convertible with the
top down. However, we must use common sense. Just because it is illegal to steal the purse, does not mean you should leave a purse sitting on the front seat of a convertible while you go work out in the gym at a shopping mall. That is insane, and so are the signs around schools. The Gun Free Zone signs become welcome mats for cowards, sociopaths, and miscreants. Less danger for the wimp to carry out his shooting rampage without getting shot himself.
There were will never be a successful home invasion or strong-arm robbery at my ranch, not because sheriff’s deputies will arrive in ten or twenty minutes,
but because the aggressors will die a very violent death before law enforcement can even get there. Bad guys know that, so they look for easier targets.
In teaching martial arts over the years, I noticed a distinct change in harried, too-busy adults from parenting, even dysfunctional parenting, which at least
gave children a sense of belonging, to what I call “prescription parenting.” I had patients referred to me by a well-known and highly-respected southern
Colorado pediatrician Dr. Helen M. Danahey, because I was strict, but fair, demanding but not mean.
I specialized in children with autism and ADHD because they needed healthier boundaries, not pampering. I cannot tell you how many parents brought kids in to our schools and had self-diagnosed their child with ADHD, although I would immediately see that their eyes did not dart around the room when talking to them, a sure sign of the affliction. I concluded most were simply spoiled brats, but many parents searched until they found doctors who would agree with their Google-inspired diagnoses and put the poor kids on medications. Hence, I got to teach weeble-sized zombies often-times.
The other thing I noticed while teaching was the high preponderance of children playing video games constantly, and many were games glorifying violence for the sake of sensation, not for patriotic or noble reasons. The bloodier they would make the games with laser guns, rockets, bombs, and machine guns the more kids would buy them.
I grew up emulating cowboy stars carrying six shooters, or John Wayne-type combat heroes, who would shoot and kill villains, but for heroic, patriotic, or moral reasons.
For years, I have watched the desensitization of our children with video games, or as I call it, “electronic heroin.” They wantonly shoot and kill bloody victims for no other reason than to achieve a higher score. When those with character defects move from the video game to the real world, their reward is to get greater media coverage than the previous shooters.
Feeling unloved, not listened to, or unfulfilled because a frequently-absent parent indulges them to make the parent feel less guilty, they strive for the negative attention of the world press and network television, who are only too eager to oblige. After-all, controversy creates cash, and ratings brings more into their coffers.
AR does not stand for “Assault Rifle,” a term created by anti-gun advocates. It stands for Armalite Rifle.Those zealots frequently say, “Who needs an assault weapon for hunting?”
Nobody does! They are for sport shooting, collectors, and home and family protection. In World War II, Emperor Hirohito of Japan was going to attack the United States along the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington, but his generals and admirals stopped him, led by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto,
Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy who cautioning said,, “There will be an American with a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
The framers of the Second Amendment were not trying to allow for the progression of hunting rifles’ capabilities. Very far-sighted and wise, they wanted to protect the US citizenry from both foreign invasion and power-mad scoundrels in our own halls of government. That is why we must have semi-automatic rifles with large magazine capacities.
When I was a boy in the fifties, I bought, by mail-order, a BB machine gun which fired BBs rapid fire while I turned a crank like a Gatling gun, and even in the mid-thirties you could buy an air-cooled .30 caliber machine gun by mail order, and it was delivered to your house by the postal service, no matter what your age. Automatic weapons were outlawed in 1980, but even back then, there were ZERO mass school shootings.
Do you really want to end mass school shootings? The answers are simple:
1. The news media needs to self-police and stop giving people who kill innocents news coverage. Tell about a shooting, do not name or show the shooter, or over-report the incident. Also, stop politicizing mass murders.
2. If you brought children into this world or adopted any, stop having karate instructors, school teachers, dance teachers, andvideo - games raise your children. Listen to your kids, don’t just bark orders, don’t spoil them because you feel guilty over getting divorced, do things with them. Get involved. If they are not getting your attention, being kids, they will end up getting attention elsewhere negatively.
3. If, God forbid, your family member is killed by a drunk driver, hold the driver responsible, not the car or car-maker. Most people are smart enough to realize this, but want to blame guns when some idiot kills people. 53 year old, Mikhail Popkov, Russian serial killer was a former cop and owned guns, but raped and murdered at least 82 women killing them with knives mainly.
4. Enforce gun laws already in effect, and government officials, actually oversee agencies like the FBI who ignored numerous warnings about the recent mass murderer Cruz in Florida. Investigate when you get such leads.
5. Congress, repeal the well-meaning but very inept Gun-Free School Zones Act (GFSZA) of 1990.
6. Our world has changed. Law Enforcement Officers with guns protect courthouses, congress, the White House, government buildings, but not public schools. Are judges, politicians, and federal and state bureaucrats more precious and important to us than our children? In lieu of the massive overhaul and cost of manning schools with armed security, start a volunteer organization of former well-screened, well-trained veterans and law enforcement officers with concealed carry permits to take turns providing security in all our schools against possible mass-shootings. Hospitals, etc. LOVE volunteers. Volunteers love volunteering!
7. Politicians: STOP IMMEDIATELY turning one group of Americans against another group so you can get votes and political contributions. Start acting like statesmen, not snake-oil salesmen.
No matter how much we close our eyes, smile hopefully, and click our heels together, this problem will not get solved by magic. The perfume of accomplishment is not found in television ads, but in the smell of perspiration and elbow grease from hard work.
My conclusion: The only good gun control is being able to place six rounds in a two-inch bullseye at one hundred yards.
Don Bendell, is a best-selling author with over 3,000,000 copies of his 29 books in print and a Pulitzer prize nomination in 2011, a 100% disabled Green Beret Vietnam veteran, and a 1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame, Don is studying for his PhD in Communications at Regent University, has a Masters Degree in Business Leadership from Grand Canyon University, and has 6 grown children and 11 grand-children He and his psychologist wife, Dr. Janet Bendell, own the Strongheart Ranch south of Florence, Colorado named for one of his best-selling westerns.
