Gun Control

As more and more information is distributed about the Parkland shooting, it becomes evident that those blaming the NRA, were incompetent in their response to mitigate the situation. By blaming the NRA it takes the heat off those who were inept. 

Today the Firehouse Magazine reported that “Paramedics asked six times and were denied permission to enter the Parkland High School where students lay wounded and dying on February 14.”

Every time Michael McNally, deputy chief for Coral Springs Fire Rescue asked to deploy the two Rescue Task Force teams, the Broward Sheriff’s Office captain in charge of the scene, Jan Jordan, said no. Even after the shooter had been arrested, the rescue team was denied entry.

(And it is not acceptable to say the scene was not safe. For fire and Ems there is no such thing as a safe scene. Any scene can go bad. We train for bad situations. If you are not willing to be aggressive in the care of the patient then stay in the station. Our world has changed and we need to change with it.)

How many students could have been saved? Statistics indicate that over 50% of the victims of an active shooter die due to blood loss. Two rescue team are ready to enter the scene to do their best to save lives and the inept incident commander refuses to allow them to do that which they are trained.

So now we know the resource officer and the incident commander failed to act. It will never be known if the paramedics would have changed the outcome. But they were never given the opportunity to try.

The accusations against Dana Loesch and the NRA are clearly used to take the heat off the incompetent way this scene was managed. It’s easy to blame the gun, the NRA and the government. The credibility of the accusers is certainly suspect given the negligence shown in their handling of this crisis.

The wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invite ruin.

Proverbs 10:19

Police officers arrested David Sims, a 12-year-old autistic boy from Texas, after he reportedly pretended to play with an imaginary rifle at school.

Adding insult to injury, officers also reportedly handcuffed the young boy and dragged him out of the school — through the front entrance — in front of his peers.

Have there been instances like this before?

So, so many.

• A 10-year-old Pennsylvania boy was suspended from school for making an imaginary bow out of his pencil, pulling back an imaginary string and shooting an imaginary arrow in 2013

• In 2013, a 7-year-old Colorado boy was suspended from school after playing “Rescue the World” during recess because he threw a pretend grenade

• Another school in 2013 suspended a 7-year-old boy for “making gun noises” with a pencil. He was just pretending to be a Marine, like his dad

• An 8-year-old Florida boy was suspended from school after playing a game of “Cops & Robbers” with a friend in 2013. His “crime?” Making a gun shape with fingers. Which seems kind of necessary if you’re going to play “Cops & Robbers.”

• A 7-year-old boy was suspended after accidentally forming a school breakfast pastry into a gun shape in 2013

• A 10-year-old Massachusetts boy was suspended for two days after making laser sounds at one of his peers in 2014

• In 2017, a 5-year-old North Carolina girl was suspended for playing with a stick that looked like a gun

• In March, a 13-year-old student faced a two-day suspension after simply sketching a gun. To be fair, he also sketched a terrifying Ninja Turtle, a devious magician, and an imposing castle

Source: The Blaze

A teacher feels threatened by 12 year old boy with an imaginary rifle? Are you kidding me? So what trauma did the teacher create for this young boy? When people become frightened, they tend to behave irrationally. Fear can make you stronger or it can paralyze you. 

Has common sense been eliminated in our schools? Are the staff members unable to see the difference between right and wrong? Or maybe it is easier to have a zero tolerance policy even if some situations don’t appear to warrant it. Schools are meant to be institutions of learning not institutions that suck creativity out of the students. 

Most people can recall the best teacher they had in school. Why? Because that teacher encouraged, inspired and they helped you learn. They can also remember the worst teacher. Why? Because they criticized, ridiculed and they made learning an unpleasant experience. Schools that forget what learning is all about, by trying to control students every move, will only squelch the desire for life long learning.

Instead of training teachers, staff and students how to react in an active shooter situation, let’s develop zero tolerance policies that make no sense. Schools are so anti – gun that a piece of pastry that is accidentally formed in the shape of a gun, is suddenly threatening and scares staff members to the point of suspending a 7 year old student. Remember that almost all school shootings were stopped by the use of a gun.

I’m not sure what it will take to place common sense back in our schools. But if the school’s culture doesn’t have common sense and it is not reinforced by the teachers, and the students, then our society is being short changed.

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

The following article is a reprint that appeared in the NRA-ILA Medium. I am reprinting it here because this young lady was terrorized everyday for six years. Imagine the strength she had to have to endure each day of fear. I want her story told because there are other women that are experiencing the same terror but may not understand how to protect themselves. Ms. Hillyer, you are a true inspiration. Job well done.

For six years I lived in constant fear of a stalker.

Submitted By Dawn Hillyer

Reprinted from the NRA-ILA Medium to help promote her cause.

For six years I lived in constant fear of a stalker. He harassed me, in person and online, at all hours of the day and night. I notified police and made several reports. A judge granted me a protective order. But still, the stalking and harassment continued. I truly felt all alone. He was slowly taking my life from me. It wasn’t until the death threats began that I knew I had to take matters into my own hands. I got a gun.

Today, I am one of nearly 730,000 concealed carry permit holders in Indiana. Carrying a firearm is my best protection in a dangerous world. But, carrying a concealed firearm for self-defense can be difficult because of the current confusing patchwork of state and local laws.

A bill in the United States Senate, S446, the Constitutional Concealed Carry Act of 2017, would eliminate that confusing patchwork of laws by requiring all states to honor each other’s valid permits. I am urging Senator Joe Donnelly to support this important legislation in the Senate. His vote is critical to our ability to protect and defend ourselves when we travel. As a percentage of the adult population, Indiana has more concealed carry permit holders than any other state in the country. Currently, permit holders from all 50 states can travel through Indiana and have their permits honored. But, when Indiana permit holders leave the state — 18 states refuse to honor our right to self-defense, including our neighbor Illinois. Not very neighborly, is it?

This is unacceptable. We know that threats to our personal safety don’t end at the state border. It is common sense, and more importantly, it respects the Constitution, to honor the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens in every state.

National reciprocity is part of America’s 30-year experience with Right-to-Carry legislation, which has been a resounding public safety success. Across the country, violent crime rates have plummeted as the number of concealed carry permits has soared. Today more than 16 million Americans have permits. Licensed concealed carriers in every state have proven far more law-abiding than the average American.

A 2014 study from the Crime Prevention Research Center examined permit holders in Florida and Texas. Between 2008 and 2014, Florida had an average of 875,000 active permit holders. Its permit revocation rate during those years (i.e., the rate of concealed carriers who had their permits revoked due to firearm-related offenses) was a staggeringly low 0.00007%.

We already know that dangerous criminals are not waiting for legal authority to carry firearms for their criminal activity. National reciprocity legislation is not for them. It’s for law-abiding citizens who wish to travel across state lines without fear of violating the law.

There are way too many cases where otherwise law-abiding gun owners had their lives turned upside down for bringing their firearm in the wrong state. After Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast, a North Carolina man doing emergency, storm-related utility repairs in New Jersey was charged with second-degree unlawful possession of a handgun, which can carry a prison term of five years, for volunteering to a police officer that he had his handgun in his vehicle. Exclusionary states such as Illinois make it nearly impossible for a law-abiding citizen to protect themselves while traveling. Reciprocity does nothing more than recognize that violent crime can strike anywhere and at any time. National reciprocity legislation recognizes that as law-abiding gun owners travel our great nation, they shouldn’t be subject to prosecution for carrying concealed to protect themselves and their loved ones.

National Reciprocity legislation would empower every law-abiding gun owner to take responsibility for their protection when they travel. It’s time for Congress to catch up with the rest of the country and ensure those rights are not infringed when Americans cross state lines. Every day Congress hesitates, it is complicit in the violation of constitutional rights and the basic human right of self-defense. The people of Indiana, like Americans across the country, understand that law-abiding gun owners should be able to protect themselves, including while they travel.

Dawn Hillyer lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana and owns HidingHilda, a local company that manufactures and sells concealed carry purses and other firearms accessories. She got into the business with the desire to empower women after being stalked for six years. Hillyer’s stalker was convicted in 2012 and sentenced to prison for 10 years.