A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. — Second Amendment, US Constitution
The Bushmaster .223, reportedly used by Adam Lanza in his murderous attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School, comes with a 30-round magazine, enabling the shooter to fire all 30 rounds, one for each pull of the trigger, in a minute or less. The D.C. sniper, John Allen Muhammad, and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, used a Bushmaster .223 in nine of 10 sniper-style murders in the Washington area in 2002.
As an elected official – Councilman in Byram Township, NJ – I regularly receive email from residents expressing their concerns. Everything from taxes being too high, to traffic or speeding on town streets, to noisy neighbors or poorly maintained properties. Usually local concerns about local issues.
Last night, I received the letter below in response to Friday’s horrific mass-murder of children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.
Let me say this first: I am a gun owner. I have been since since I was twelve years old. In the Midwest, where deer, duck and pheasant hunting is a way of life for many, you grow up around guns and are taught a respect for them. I respect the right of citizens to own sporting weapons. But the Bushmaster .223 (as pictured above) is not a sporting weapon, and has no place in the hands of the general public, in my opinion. Nor do clips or magazines capable of carrying more than ten rounds of ammunition.
That said, my reaction to this letter? Wow. Can anyone really believe that more guns in the hands of the public – in a public school, no less – will put an end to the growing number of mass-murders we are currently experiencing? Let’s arm everyone then. That will help, right?
Incredibly, as I’m writing this on Sunday morning, Michael Moore just posted this on Twitter:
If only the first victim, Adam Lanza’s mother, had been a gun owner, she could have stopped this before it started.
She did own guns. Many guns. In fact it was part of her ‘arsenal’ that was used to kill her and the 26 others in Newtown, CT on Friday.
Mark Follman – a senior editor at Mother Jones – has an interesting piece, “More Guns, More Mass Shootings—Coincidence?” posted on Friday. In it, Follman wrote:
There is no evidence indicating that arming Americans further will help prevent mass shootings or reduce the carnage, says Dr. Stephen Hargarten, a leading expert on emergency medicine and gun violence at the Medical College of Wisconsin. To the contrary, there appears to be a relationship between the proliferation of firearms and a rise in mass shootings: By our count, there have been two per year on average since 1982. Yet 25 of the 62 cases we examined have occurred since 2006.
Follman’s article goes on to state:
But while access to weapons is a crucial consideration for stemming the violence, stricter gun laws are no silver bullet. Another key factor is mental illness. A major New York Times investigation in 2000 examined 100 shooting rampages and found that at least half of the killers showed signs of serious mental health problems.
The problem that must be addressed is much more than just easy access to semi-automatic assault weapons. We need to be paying more attention to mental health issues, as well as – in my opinion – an explosion of violent ‘entertainment’ games becoming more and more popular among our youth.
David Frum – contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast and a CNN contributor – wrote in a column entitled “Every Day is the Day to Talk About Gun Control” on Friday:
A permissive gun regime is not the only reason that the United States suffers so many atrocities like the one in Connecticut. An inadequate mental health system is surely at least as important a part of the answer, as are half a dozen other factors arising from some of the deepest wellsprings of American culture.
Is it time for stricter gun laws? That is a debate that we must have in this nation. And it must begin today. Renewing the assault weapons ban would be a great place to start. Do we need too increase our attention to mental health issues in this country? Most definitely! A national commission on mass violence would be another appropriate action.
But the giving guns to school teachers, administrators or special ‘armed defenders’ is not the ‘silver bullet’ to solve the increase in gun violence in this country, as far as I am concerned.
Here is the letter I received Saturday evening. Names and email addresses have been deleted to protect the privacy of those writing and receiving this email:
From: <name removed>
Date: Sat, Dec 15, 2012 at 11:14 PM
Subject: FW: Front Sight Special Blog: When Will We Wake Up?
To: <removed>@byramschools.org, <removed>@byramschools.org, <removed>@byramschools.org, <removed>@byramschools.org, <removed>@byramschools.org, <removed>@byramschools.org, <removed>@byramschools.org
Cc: towncouncil@byramtwp.org,To BOE members. There is no question in my mind that below is the right thing to do, now. Then signs that say “we are armed and trained”, not “gun free zone” I don’t care about being PC. I don’t think a real policeman is the answer either. He/she would be the first target.
Before this tragedy ever happened, my opinion was that there needs to be a primary armed defender in the front office, with minimum two back-up armed defenders that would usually be in separate parts of our schools. If one is out, two is still good.
I don’t know if ‘gun free zones’ are state or federal law, and I don’t care, it is insane. Have our council pass a resolution or our own law to override it. Local control is always best. A cop would be ‘armed’ or is armed while visiting the schools, so make the ‘defenders’ ‘honorary policeman’.
Get it done. No excuses.
Thank you,
<named removed>
——— Forwarded message ———-
From: <named removed>
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2012 2:43 PM
Subject: Front Sight Special Blog: When Will We Wake Up?A different perspective than what we are being pumped full of from the media…
I found myself asking essentially the same question; why was it so easy for him to just carry on? Maybe walking in would have been easy given the laid back small town beauty, but was no one capable of confronting him?
<named removed>
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
——— Forwarded message ———-
From: “Ignatius Piazza” <newsletter@frontsight.com>
Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2012 03:57:27 -0500
To: <named removed>
ReplyTo: info@frontsight.com
Subject: Front Sight Special Blog: When Will We Wake Up?For Immediate Release: Friday, December 14, 2012
Dear <named removed>,
Please Forward to Your Local Newspapers, Radio Stations, and Television News Stations
Subject: Gun School For Teachers
Las Vegas, Nevada: In the wake of the yet another senseless school massacre, I ask all our politicians, law enforcement officials, and school administrators one simply question:
WHEN ARE WE GOING TO WAKE UP AS A NATION AND PROTECT OUR CHILDREN?
How many more children have to die before we will find the testicular fortitude, as a nation, to put in place REAL policies that will stop a deranged gunman in his tracks, before he can commit mass murder on innocent and defenseless children?
How many times do I have to offer the nation THE solution?
What the hell is wrong with the leaders of our country? Find a pair, and make the RIGHT decision to protect our children, not more of the wrong decisions that create the opportunity for the next lunatic to murder at will with zero resistance!
Once again, Front Sight Firearms Training Institute, arguably the world leader in providing intensified courses in the defensive use of firearms for private citizens, has the answer to stopping further attacks on school children. Front Sight will once again offer free firearms training to any school administrator, teachers, or full time staff members designated as school Safety Monitors.
Front Sight will accept for training up to three staff members from each school, college or university.
Applicants must submit a letter requesting training on school letterhead signed by the top school district official and designating the applicant as the school’s Safety Monitor.
Please forward this e-mail to your state and federal legislators, local law enforcement departments and your child’s school administrator, as well as your friends and family, asking them to do the same.
Guns and Teachers
As Front Sight’s Founder and Director, I understand my offer to train armed school teachers may offend some school administrators and parents who do not see arming and training selected school staff members as a positive solution to violent attacks. However, historically, my approach has worked while gun control has actually increased violent crime by shifting the balance of power to favor the criminals and lunatics.
My offer is not a new idea. In the early 70’s, Israel was faced with much greater problems of armed terrorist attacks on schools. The cry for more gun control was heard then too, but Israel very carefully analyzed all possible options before adopting the proactive position of arming and training their teachers. School shootings stopped and terrorists looked for easier targets. Gun control never has and never will stop criminals and madmen from carrying out acts of gun violence.
In our country, every time a misguided individual on psychiatric drugs goes on a killing spree, anti self-defense legislators, watch the polls and exploit the dead victims in order to fool the public into accepting more gun control. It is time our country finds some resolve and the will to tackle the real problem, which is rooting out the actual influences in the lives people hat predispose them to commit atrocities. The problem is not guns. Guns don’t cause these incidents to occur any more than cameras cause child pornography or automobiles cause traffic fatalities.
Israel had the right answer. Society is safer when we train and arm our law abiding citizens. As the defensive training leader in the USA, Front Sight is willing and able to set the example for the rest of the country to follow.
Armed Teachers
Dave Clark, who recently retired after teaching for the last 25 years at Junction Junior High School in Livermore, California agrees with Front Sight’s philosophy. In fact, Mr. Clark has previously attended a Four Day Defensive Handgun course at Front Sight at his own expense and found the course to be exactly what is needed to train fellow teachers to stop an attack similar to Columbine school and Virginia Tech. “Front Sight provides safe and responsible training to a level that exceeds law enforcement standards.” Says Mr. Clark. “Among the many lessons taught, I learned universally accepted rules in justifiable use of deadly force. More importantly, I learned when not to shoot and how to be more mentally prepared to see a lethal confrontation coming before it happens in order to avoid it. The firearms training is second to none and clearly gives the graduates the skill needed to save the lives of those in their charge if ever attacked. If my school district chose to adopt a policy of sending selected teachers to Front Sight for concealed handgun training, I would wholeheartedly support it and volunteer as a Safety Monitor. There is no reason for our children to continue to be victimized when free, professional training is available to stop school attacks.”
Guns in Schools
There is evidence that a gun in the hand of a teacher will stop an armed attacker. The vice-principal of a school in Pearl, Mississippi used his handgun to stop and detain an armed killer until the police arrived. It seems obvious that armed and trained staff members inside the school are in a better position to identify the attackers and do something immediately to resolve the situation. It is much harder for police, who arrive on the scene too late to stop the killing.
Lawmakers With Blood on Their Hands
An obstacle to training and arming teachers is the current law in many states prohibiting the possession of firearms on school grounds even when the possessor is qualified and has a concealed weapons license.
Understand that those laws did not prevent or stop the gun violence at numerous schools over the last ten years. The brazen attacks in school after school during the last decade indicate criminals have concluded that ‘Gun-Free-School-Zone’ actually means ‘Government Certified, Helpless and Unarmed Victim Zone.’
Schools Can’t Afford to Pass on No Cost Security
Most school districts cannot afford to have even one full time police officer in every school, but they can easily afford to train three or more of their selected staff members to a higher level of firearms training than offered in police academies because Front Sight will provide the training at no cost.
Retired law enforcement firearms instructor, Mike Waidelich from Bakersfield, California strongly supports the Front Sight concept of arming and training teachers. “Nearly every tragedy on or off school grounds in the entire 30 years of my law enforcement career could have been prevented or the damage done considerably limited, by the presence of an armed and trained individual.”
Concealed Guns
The training provided in Front Sight’s basic training classes easily exceeds the training provided in most police basic training academies.
Front Sight proved it on their nationally televised reality series Front Sight Challenge. 80 Seasoned law enforcement officers from around the country went head-to-head in tests of marksmanship, speed and tactics against 80 private citizens– including teachers– who had not received any training other than Front Sight’s firearms courses. Remarkably, the Front Sight trained, private citizens won over half of every contest.
Teachers will be trained to carry a concealed weapon, so potential attackers will not know which teachers are armed and which are not. In states that have adopted concealed weapon laws for private citizens, violent crime has dropped. School attacks will drop as well once it is known that any of the teachers and staff members on school grounds have the ability and training to stop a violent attack immediately.
There is also scientific research that supports Front Sight’s stance on concealed weapon training from John Lott, Jr. at University of Chicago School of Law who published Crime, Deterrence and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns in July 1996. Mr. Lott’s research of cross-sectional time-series data from all 3054 U.S. counties from 1977 to 1992 found that allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons deters violent crime and appears to produce no increase in accidental deaths. If those states which did not have right-to-carry concealed handgun provisions had adopted them in 1992, approximately 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes, and over 60,000 aggravated assaults would have been avoided yearly.
Gun Control Increases Violent Crime
How many times must we experience another Littleton, Colorado or Virginia Tech or Newtown Connecticut massacre before we wake up, study the research and adopt policies which actually reduce crime and begin saving our children instead of leaving them helpless victims when the next psych drug user snaps?
Gun control increases violent crime yet some politicians continue to tout disarming law abiding citizens as a solution. Front Sight has a better solution.
Arm and train school teachers to carry a concealed weapon. And post a DIFFERENT sign outside of ever school!
Look for the RIGHT sign all over America. They are in front of the homes of armed and trained Front Sight students. If you were a deranged murderer, which house would you invade? One with an armed and trained occupant with a Front Sight sign or one who had a “Gun Free Zone” sign in his yard? The answer is simply to any rational person.
WHY ARE SCHOOLS ANY DIFFERENT?
Don’t have a sign? Get one here: http://www.readytodefend.com/frontsight/
Front Sight Yard Signs
Front Sight Window Decals
It is time WE WAKE UP and start providing REAL protection for our children in schools. Front Sight stands ready, willing and able to train every teacher in America if that is what it takes! Help us protect your children by demanding YOUR school send their teachers to Front Sight!
Sincerely,
Dr. Ignatius Piazza
Founder and Director
Front Sight Firearms Training Institute
7975 Cameron Drive, #900
Windsor, CA 95492
http://www.frontsight.com
info@frontsight.com
1.800.987.7719
