If the only way to prevent the slaughter of children is, as the National Rifle Association suggests, to place armed guards in our schools, then let a special tax be levied on the sale of guns and ammunition. It is only fair that the problem pay for the solution.
Alfred Greenwood
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Al - great idea. I don't own a gun, but I'll pay my share for this. Lets also apply this to ILLEGAL ALIENS. How about we tax those that want to give things to ILLEGALS the bill? That way, the destruction done to the nation can be paid for by those that want it...and decent folks dont have to support it?
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My problem with this is that many on the Right decry Teachers and the Teacher's Union, does this mean the same people they claim cannot teach our children effectively are going to be a backup guard at the schools?
Where are these guards going to come from? We already know from inner-city schools that guards are a minimal response at best, unless we start equipping each school with metal detectors this is even less of a solution than the Presidents.
We are talking about an educated group of people; with the proper training,why can't they be effective? Also, we can hire part-time guards from retired/unemployed military folks who would be delighted to have a job; and they're already professionally pre-trained. Why don't we at least TRY it??
Dehumanist: Who said "Arm the Teachers?" Certainly not the OP. So what you do is set up a "Strawman" argument and then busily debunk it. Jeeze.
LaPierre (I didn't like the tone of his speech either) talked about getting security experts to work on the problem. Not just hire a bunch of Rent A Cops to stroll around school hallways ineffectively. Think about government buildings, they have effective security without an army of armed guards, and they are looking for terrorist threats, not one or two shooters. Which brings up a point, what are all the gun haters going to do if and when the first terrorist attack occurs at a school? Pass a law forbidding terrorists from owning guns? So the idea is to put a SYSTEM in place that works that fits each school.
Once again, the problem is identified as an object, therefore, let the buyer of such an object pay for the "solution".
"It is only fair" says you. What is fair about demanding people pay for a solution to a problem they are not REALLY a part of? I am not part of any school shooting that has occured. My guns were not there, neither was I. Nor were millions of other gun owners.
With your ideas, many of us without children could easily say "Parents with children should pay for schools, period, nevermind security" Why should WE bear the burden of THEIR children, we did not create them?
Al, some really smart people say that we had guns and nutcases long before we had school shootings. We are all smart enough to know they are correct. Something else has been added to the mix, we need to find out what those things are and take steps to remove them. I think of it this way "Just because the AR15 was designed and is sitting in someone's gun safe, does not make some young person say, gee, let me go out and shoot up a school full of children." Something else is going on.
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I think the elderly should have to pay a higher auto tax every time one of them drives a car through a store front.
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