Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Shootings Part 13

I write about this a second day in a row because of its importance. Mass school shootings began in earnest after the Oct. 1, 1997 shooting in Pearl, Miss. Luke Woodham, a 16-year-old killer, shot to death two students and injured seven others.

My family lived in Pearl for a few years and had we not moved for my new job my daughter, who was the same age as Woodham, would have been at that school.

In case we have forgotten or become numb to this, here are the mass shootings since at schools, only at schools. There have been many more. This doesn't include the Charleston, S.C. shootings in a churching June, and it doesn't include Lafayette, and it doesn't include Ft. Hood, and it doesn't include school shootings that killed one or less. Terrifyingly, there were more than these 13.

On December of 1997,  a 14-year-old student shot to death three and wounded four more.

On March 1998, two boys 13 and 11, shot four to death and injured 10 others.

On April of  that year, in Edinburg, Penn., a 14-year--old shot to death one and injured three.

On May 1998, in Springfield, Oregon, a 15-year-old shot to death four and injured 22.

In the most famous of the shootings, in April 199, in Columbine, Colo., two teenage students shot to death 15. FIFTEEN.

A month later, in Conyers, Ga., a student injured six.

On May 201 in Santee, Calif., a 15-year-old shot to death two and injured 13. In March 2005, a 16-year-old shot to death nine and injured seven.

On Oct. 2, 2006, a 32-year-old man shot to death five girls and injuring six at an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster, Pa.

On April 16, 2007, a student at Virginia Tech University killed 32 and wounded 24.

On Feb. 14, 2008, a man opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University, killing six and wounding 21.

On Feb. 27, 2012, A teenager killed three and wounded three at Chardon High School in Chardon, Oh.

Then there is Sandy Hook elementary, where 27 were killed including 18 children on Dec. 14, 2012.

Then came Oct. 1, 2015, ironically or perhaps not, the anniversary of Luke Woodham's trek through the halls of Pearl High School.

We've lost more than 100 students to shootings.

And we argue about whether to call them terrorists. How important that is.

So, what do we do? What is the solution? I've given this a lot of thought, and here is what I would do...

I would take six Congressmen or women of the right and six of the left, put them in a room and not let them come out till they have a compromise on gun laws. There must be a way to combat this. The gunman in Oregon had 13 weapons all bought legally. The Columbine shooters got their weapons at gun shows without any regulation apparently.

We spent a few billion looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, several billion perhaps on making ourselves safe from terrorism, can't we understand that guns in the hands of crazies are weapons of mass destruction?

Second, I would put metal detectors at the gates of ever school, with armed guards at those gates and at least one policeman in every school.

Third, I would make school counselors responsible in part for noticing and putting on lists of problem children.

I pray I never have to write about this again. I pray I must look for other topics. I pray that we, big boys and girls all, can come together and fix this problem. Again, you can't legislate against crazy, but perhaps there is some solution out there that could keep the guns out of the crazies hands.

Perhaps.

No comments: