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Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012 | 2:02 a.m.
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, addressed the nation Friday. He managed to spread the blame among movies, video games, playing politics and unsafe schools. About the only thing he did not blame was lack of regulations on automatic weapons and magazines that hold upward of 100 bullets at a time. He called for armed police in every school. That is not a far-fetched idea until we have time to get automatic weapons off the street through gun legislation. I would not use police officers. The cost is estimated at $5.5 billion a year for that ...
A drone over every school.
Actually, a pretty good suggestion about placing the American National Guard into service at local schools. Neighbor schools need to include the families they service in the decision making regarding their individual school.
It might be a thought to put automatic weapons and high capacity ammonition clips to a NATIONAL VOTE, permitting each and every registered American voter to weigh in on this vital issue, as it does infringe into the grey area of 2nd Ammendment rights. Let the People of the United States of America decide. Thank You.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
The salient point Blanner makes is "There is plenty of blame to go around." Exactly. But it all begins with the shooter. Without that nutcase, we would be talking about lots of other things as these outrages would never occur!
President Obama and the Democrats want another stimulus, they want to hire more government workers. He has said all along we need more fireman, more policeman, more teachers and a well armed national civilian security force. I think funding is even in the new health care law.
Geez,
Did it ever occur to the chucklehead NRA backers that if someone is armed in the school that schools are sort of big, one gun ain't gonna get it, the next Adam Lanza can scope out the token gun holder in the school and be waiting for him as he goes to his locker to hang his jacket, put his lunch or iPad away...
Someone not ready to be killed is usually a sitting duck for someone intent on killing them.
Better solution is a stigma free reporting system for the reported and reportee, and everyone taking some responsibility for acting less like savages in America.
The same paranoid wingnuts who believe Obama's black helicopters are coming for them ... are pushing for a government-run police state solution to gun violence.
Do we need anymore proof that suicidal conservatives are off their meds?
Is the National Guard home from Afghanistan now?
Obama sends his kids to a private school with 11 armed guards that are not part of a Secret Service detail. Just business as usual.The rest of us are entitled to protection for our kids and grandkids in school also. Just thinking...
"[The NRA] called for armed police in every school. That is not a far-fetched idea until we have time to get automatic weapons off the street through gun legislation. . . . .I would propose using our National Guard."
Blanner -- your letter shows profoundly ignorant reasoning. For starters "automatic weapons" on "the street" isn't the problem, it's the shooters. Duh!
And that's not what the National Guard is for, it's the official state militia and it's been co-opted by the federal government. Then look at what it has done in the past -- like the Kent State massacre, then its sinister use in New Orleans during Katrina, confiscating the weapons the people desperately needed to defend themselves during the following anarchy.
"It might be a thought to put automatic weapons and high capacity ammonition [sic] clips to a NATIONAL VOTE, permitting each and every registered American voter to weigh in on this vital issue, as it does infringe into the grey area of 2nd Ammendment [sic] rights. Let the People of the United States of America decide."
star -- actually don't need to go that far. This kind of regulation is up to the states, not the feds. That's part of the U.S. Supremes' decisions in McDonald v. City of Chicago.
"...it all begins with the shooter. Without that nutcase, we would be talking about lots of other things as these outrages would never occur!"
lvfacts -- good point! All these discussions here, thousands of miles away, gives that shooter power over all of us. A sobering thought. . .
"Obama sends his kids to a private school with 11 armed guards that are not part of a Secret Service detail. Just business as usual.The rest of us are entitled to protection for our kids and grandkids in school also."
Houstonjac -- good point, but guarding his little girls is both necessary and reasonable. Taking your post to the next level, what needs to happen is to remove the barriers from all kids' first line of defense, their families, then the community. Families have the privilege deciding what's best for them, within reasonable limits. I'm surprised there's nothing mentioned in these Discussions about homeschooling.
Overall We the people need to get off the government teat and do what's best for us and our own.
"...government security is just another kind of violence." -- Rep. Ron Paul's comment on this NRA/Blanner proposal @ http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/dec...
Why is it that Liberals never ever want to hold the deranged killer responsibility. Why is it Liberals refuse to address mental illness. Why is it Liberals refuse to address the cultural environment of violence.
Killers will murder even if guns and clips are scarce but Liberal think that more gun control is the panacea of stopping murders.
The scam of Senate Diane Feinstein's bill is the exemption for all the guns and clip already in circulation in America and it exempt buying over 900 named guns restricting only 100 guns
Federal law prohibits possession or acquisition of guns by persons with "adjudicated mental defects." Seung-Hui Cho, Jared Loughner, James Holmes were KNOWN mentally ill. Our mental illness health care delivery and reporting system is broken.
Robert Blanner, of North Las Vegas, Nevada,
Why don't you volunteer your time, get gun qualified and donate your money and your time by applying to the school district to be a school law enforcement officer?
You sound like you want to escaluate the problem and sit at home with the remote in your hand, eating your popcorn and watching the action on TV.
Mr. Robert Blanner, North Las Vegas, your buddy, National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre has stayed too long. His ideas are dated, out of touch.
Mr. Blanner, are you out of touch? Do you want to escalate the problem? Please explain in detail the logic for your suggestion?
"Why is it that Liberals never ever want to hold the deranged killer responsibility. "
Future -- especially when the killers kill themselves as their last act. The herd still screams for blood. Reminds me of the Dark Ages event when the local authorities actually dug up a corpse and put it on trial for heresy or some such ludicrous cause.
"Why don't you volunteer your time, get gun qualified and donate your money and your time by applying to the school district to be a school law enforcement officer?"
Longtimevegan -- good point. So many here post yet do nothing more. Like those who "pray" for the unfortunate yet won't put a buck into the outstretched hand of one of our local cold and hungry homeless.
"From people who merely pray we must become people who bless." -- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche "Thus Spake Zarathustra" (1885)
For the past four years unhinged conservatives have been warning us about the coming police state that their favorite Kenyon-born Marxist boogieman would soon unleash on all real American patriots.
After the Newtown slaughter of 26 innocents, confused anti-government idiots are begging Uncle Sam to save them from the armed and dangerous Frankensteins they've created.
Sadly, these losers are legal citizens who cannot be forced to leave the country, though there is hopeful talk of secession by many loons living in red states.
Actually, we'd need two individuals guarding each school. Columbine had a guard, but he was eating lunch. We have to cover lunches, bathroom, sick, etc. So, double any costs. We can use the money we've saved by defunding mental health services for society's 'takers' to pay for it. Or maybe we can heavily tax large capacity ammo clip since the NRA demands we keep them, all the purchasers can chip in a little for the carnage it'll lead to. Just one great idea after the next!
Great idea.
First, permanently nationalize every state's Guard, then call it into indefinite service, then use it to replace the regular police forces, finally, use it to "guard" the polls from those who would try to vote "wrong."
It's been tried. Repeatedly. It's called a military dictatorship.
FYI, the letter writer, Robert Blanner, writes LVS letters often in support of democrats and their ideas. You liberals posting above are devouring your own kind. Attack the ideas of others as you wish but each negative post you're revealing more about yourself than your targeted victim. Is this your goal?
LaPierre before:
"Load your weapons, patriots -- jack-booted government thugs are coming!"
Lapierre now:
"Please help, Uncle Sam! Only your jack-booted govenmnent thugs can save us now!"
"It's been tried. Repeatedly. It's called a military dictatorship."
renorobert -- used to be the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 (Latin for "power of the county") forbade our military from being used in civilian law-enforcement operations like making arrests, conducting searches, or seizing evidence. Sadly, from Kent State to Katrina, it's just another good law eroded to nothing.
"...Mr. Speaker, my subject today is whether America is a police state. I'm sure the large majority of Americans would answer this in the negative. Most would associate military patrols, martial law and summary executions with a police state, something obviously not present in our everyday activities. However, those with knowledge of Ruby Ridge, Mount Carmel and other such incidents may have a different opinion." -- Rep. Ron Paul, from a June 27, 2002, speech on the floor of the House
I like the idea of an armed guard in every school. Preferably a trsined killer. Especially a trained killer. I would bet that any deranged mass murderer when confronted with another person with a fully automatic weapon that is loaded with belly busting bullets would run for his/her life. Lets do it.
Getting those weekend warriors to do anything would be comically difficult. The National Guard has deteriorated into a huge jobs program. They get paid for not much.
If a school district wants armed security, it needs to hire; arrange for training and manage them carefully. Oh yes...and pay for.
Odds are 99.99% of them will never be needed. Tough, boring job. Just not practical in the end. And taxpayers would object vociferously.
The key here isn't armed guards or gun control. It's monster (and thug) control.
"The same paranoid gun owning wingnuts who believe Obama's black helicopters are coming for them ... are pushing for a government-run police state solution to gun violence."
------------------------------
Fleecing Republican rubes taken to the next level.
Ye$$!
"If a school district wants armed security, it needs to hire; arrange for training and manage them carefully."
FreedomRadio -- you may not be aware CCSD has its very own police force, including an RV as a mobile command center. Just drive Maryland between Sahara and Charleston, they're based at the north end of that big school to the east. I agree completely with the kind of control needed.
"Where ideas are concerned, America can be counted on to do one of two things: take a good idea and run it completely into the ground, or take a bad idea and run it completely into the ground." -- the late, great George Carlin
I don't know, but putting an armed sentinel in every school nation wide seems like an inefficient and over reaction to me. In the end I suspect it might create more problems than it would solve. The first time some poor schlub is on the north side of the campus and a shooter kills 20 people on the south side of the campus before the guard can return fire, what will the answer be then? Put two sentinels on every campus nation wide? At this point, the occurrence is inevitable.
"Automatic" weapons are, and have been for decades, banned to private citizen ownership. The last time I read about deaths from automatic weapons it was from those supplied by the A.G., eric holder.
We need to weed out the continuous misinformation before a salient and productive discussion can take place about this issue.
30,000 gun deaths annually in this country...11,000 from suicide, 17,000 from criminal activity, the rest from accidents and nut cases.
My estimate is putting the national guard at every school would have stopped maybe 70 or so the last four years?
Meanwhile an average 80 PER DAY continues...the national guard is going to stop these how?
A self destructive idea. The active duty time for National Guard must be reserved for training and refreshing their combat skills in coordinated efforts with other Guard Units.
Sitting in an office, behind a deck with a loaded rifle hanging from a rack on the wall and waiting for shots to ring out is the most incredibly destructive, useless and non-productive activity proposed yet for the Guard.
The National Guard members are not trained for the single purpose of being highly tactical, swat team like units. They are a mosaic of skills going from logistics to repair of vehicles, etc. Installing diesel mechanics as first responders for a fire fight is a way to get them killed along with those they are supposed to protect.
Robert......
Let's start with a complete ban on assault rifles.
That alone will stop mass killings.
Also ban mega-round clips.
Stop the madness!
I think we all agree that our kids must be protected and kept as safe as possible while in our schools. The decision seems to be how do we best do this, who pays, and how much are we willing to pay, which will determine what level of security can be provided.
The NRA can play a very useful role by developing a school gardain training program where teachers, parents and other volenteers can be trained to protect our kids. All guards should be undercover and all firearms should be carried concealed just like the sky marshal program, it was well published that they could be on any plane, but no one was sure which flights, or how many marshals. This same strategy could work in our schools. No one would know who the armed gardain's where or how many in each school, could be teachers, a janitor or staff members? Keep the crazy's guessing but make sure everyone knows our kids are protected by armed gardain's !
Freedom Radio:
Getting those weekend warriors to do anything would be comically difficult. The National Guard has deteriorated into a huge jobs program. They get paid for not much
Really Joan Respondi!!!!!!!!!! My son-in-law spent over a year in Afghanistan as an MP. Comically difficult? Your post would be comical if it wasn't so assinine. Typical Liberal..
Hey Sun Jon my kid was no mechanic. He was an MP and dealt with some very unruly Afghans.
Seems like Becker and Respondi don't know to much about what they write.
ReFreeman wrote,
"FYI, the letter writer, Robert Blanner, writes LVS letters often in support of democrats and their ideas. You liberals posting above are devouring your own kind. Attack the ideas of others as you wish but each negative post you're revealing more about yourself than your targeted victim. Is this your goal?"
Is this a drive-by comment, or do you agree with Mr. Blanner's suggestion of placing armed police or guard personnel at schools?
FYI, ReFreeman reminds everyone that we should never have an opinion that is different from that of our party affiliation. If you are a democrat it is unconstitutional to disagree with one of your own.The republicans have been doing this for years and it sure beats thinking for yourself.
KillerB: Reference your comments on the Posse Comitatus act of 1878. The act applies only to the US Army. Application to the US Air Force was added in 1956. The US Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard are covered only under their own administrative regulations. The act originally provided for use of the Army only as otherwise specifically permitted in the Constitution (i.e. to meet an invasion force.) In 2006, the Republican Congress/President enacted legislation for use of the US armed forces in select "emergency situations." Waco? Ruby Ridge" No US Army involvement.
Use of the National Guard to protect schools, and other assembly areas, is an option currently available to state Governors unless otherwise restricted by the individual state constitutions/laws. Once the Army National Guard is called up by the President, it becomes part of the regular army and IS subject to Posse Comitatus.
Think it's a good idea to use the Nevada National Guard to protect public assembly areas? Ask Brian Sandoval to call out the Guard - and the legislature and Nevada voters to somehow finance the process. I'd guess it'll be VERY expensive. . . probably require a major tax increase on all Nevada residents.
We are going to need alot more volunteers for the National Guard.
We have sent them to fight foreign wars, used them post natural disasters. Suggestions have come elsewhere to have them guard the borders, and now the schools.
How long are they going to be deployed for in each of these protection endeavors?
Do you think we might have to draft National Guard members to fill all the needs being projected on them?
What happens to the careers of those weekend reservists if called up to stand guard at the door of a school?
Are we going to support their families, provide some post service education, medical care, etc.?
Mr Blanner and others thinking this is a good idea, are you going to sign up for the National Guard, if you aren't already?
Are you ready for higher taxes to support the National Guard in at least the same way we do for the military?
Will we have to initiate a state income tax?
Gee, there is much more to this than just hiring a guard to stand at the door of a school, or to even be walking around the school.
Well lets see I read an article, don't remeber where and an initial cost for protecting our children in schools was $5 Billion. I can find many areas in our government where we can come up with the money. Lets start with foriegn aid. Or how about useless spending on projects like Solyndra. I imagine many of us can find the money to protect the kids.
Sources of the statistics used to estimate the $5 billion cost for armed guards in schools...
"According to the National Center for Education Statistics there are 98,817 K-12 schools in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says cops make $55,000 a year. So we could put $5.4 billion as the low level estimate of the cost. Cops obviously have health care benefits and pension and disability benefits for police offers tend to be fairly costly so the real price would be higher than that."
I have a suggestion for the citizen's with state legislatures approving armed guards in schools.
Have a referendum on sending the bill to the NRA!