Would Stricter Gun Laws Have Prevented Sandy Hook Tragedy?

The Answer is NO!

First let me start out by simply answering the question in the title of this article: NO! Unfortunately the reality is that if someone is willing to go inside a school and shoot innocent children, that person would exercise any means necessary to obtain a gun no matter how strict the laws are. People are wanting to fix this so that it will never happen again, but unfortunately a criminal will get a weapon one way or another.

When I was growing up and going to school back in the 80’s and 90’s, we never had to worry about something like this. The front doors to our school were unlocked at my elementary and middle school. We didn’t have fences keeping us locked in. Anyone could just walk into our school and come to the classroom. When I was in high school, we had an open campus. We could leave at lunch, go eat somewhere, and come back. We would walk all over our small town at lunch time. Now, you can’t leave campus.

Today, you have to ring a doorbell and look at a camera to be let inside a school. The playgrounds are fenced in. It’s safer, well more secure now that it was 20 years ago, but it’s now that the shootings are happening. I think we, as a society, need to figure out what has happened. Why are people doing the things that they are doing now, but 20 years ago they were not? It would have been easier 20 years ago compared to now, so that’s not it. I unfortunately do not have the answer.

Gun Laws Should Be Looked At

I do believe our gun laws should be looked at. I am 100% ok with a citizen owning a weapon for hunting or a hand gun to protect him or herself and their family. It’s the 2nd Amendment. I do not think though that an ordinary citizen needs an assault weapon, semi automatic or automatic weapon. I’m sorry but I don’t see the reason. Also, it is too easy for anyone to buy a gun. You can get on the internet and purchase a gun with no background check.

I have seen people on the internet discussing we should arm the principals and teachers. I don’t think this is the answer either. You can arm them, take them to a shooting range, and target practice with them all day, and they may hit the target every time, but they will not have the mentality on how to react if an intruder enters the school and pulls out a weapon. That takes a lot of training and experience. Our principals and teachers have enough on their hands as it is and do not need the extra responsibility and stress.

I have also seen people discussing placing an armed veteran at every school. This idea I really like. They have weapon training. Most have fought in a war defending our country against armed soldiers. Also unfortunately our country does not provide jobs to our veterans. We fail at taking care of the individuals that left their friends and families to go over seas and protect us from an enemy we will hopefully never see thanks to them. Another idea I came up with is an off duty police officer. I am sure there are police officers that wouldn’t mind taking 1 day a week to stay at a school for the day. If you get 5 officers that rotate the days of a week out, it puts a little extra money in their pockets and keeps our kids and school staff safe from these monsters.

Now Raises The Question, Where Would This Money Come From?

I am not a professional in this field, so my ideas are probably not the best ones, but here goes…

1. Taxes: There are over 150,000,000 people working in the US. If they paid a $1 tax a year to go directly to the purpose of protecting our schools, that would be 150,000,000 at least a year. I am sure it would be more complicated than this, but why does it have to be?

2. Donations: Set up a fund that people could donate to this cause as well as the tax. Imagine if a movie star (Lets use Robert Downey Jr. for this example) takes his income for 1 of the movies that he will be in next year and donate it towards this cause, that would be huge. Let’s admit it; a lot of actors and sports professionals are overpaid. If some of them would play 1 game and have their pay go towards this fund, we would have the resources to protect our schools.

We Need to Do Something to Protect Our Babies

These ideas are very far-fetched, I realize this, but they are ideas. Perhaps someone that is in the position to make something happen will read this and get a completely different idea by just reading mine. I just know that we need to do something to protect our babies from these monsters in the world. Tightening laws on guns will only prolong it. A criminal will get a gun no matter what if they want to murder innocent people.

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Tim Martin is a Technology specialist, who gives us insights into the technology and software that helps us to get through our day. Technology is everywhere, an increasingly pervasive part of our lives. Tim helps us make sense of it in many ways.