Beyond Sandy Hook The Hypocrisy of a Tragedy By Mark “Six” James I suspect more children across the U.S. were kissed good night and tucked into bed by frightened, but very relieved, parents the night of Newtown’s fatal Friday. Fear tramples over our sense of security as easily as Hannibal the Great conquered Rome after intensely studying his enemies weaknesses. Until Hannibal’s surprise attack, Rome falsely believed it was abundantly fortified. It was unimaginable to the locals that the innocents in their safe place could experience ravishing death and destruction. After all, they lived in Romewhere things like that didn’t happen. Sound familiar? The tragedy in Newtown, CT serves as yet another reminder that there are people among us who have a level of determination and focus on destruction that most of us find unimaginable. Although it is hard to conceive that anyone would harm innocent children, Newtown is proof that it happens. Twenty elementary school children and six school personnel deliberately killed by a shooter in a town described by many as a place where “things like this don’t happen.” .
In many schools across the nation responsibility continues to be replaced by rhetoric and apathy. What’s needed today in schools across America are rational protective risk reduction strategies. Amid the fear, frustration, confusion, anger, anxiety, vulnerability, and plethora of other emotions rational adults feel around incidents such as the Sandy Hook school massacre, how many have demanded a survival program be put in place as a protective measure against active shooters? As a protection specialist, I urge responsible adults to view active shooter survival programs in the same light as school fire protection programs. In the last 50 years no child has died in a fire at school. Rational adults finally demanded multi-layered safety enhancements after a rash of fire related deaths. Consequently, the power of smoke detectors, water sprinkler systems, fire extinguishers, clearly identified exit routes, and routine fire drills were combined to help prevent loss of life in schools.
Countless numbers of adults cried because of Newtown’s school shooting. How many more innocents must die before enhanced safety protocols are implemented at every school in America? Active shooter incidents on school campuses are generating a lot a rhetoric. Much of the discussion now has shifted away from enhancing school safety to a disproportionate focus on gun control. Opponents and proponents seem to play political football with the issue. Meanwhile, innocents who haven’t had survival training continue to be susceptible to extreme violence. Law enforcement officers and private security professionals can confirm that law abiding citizens need to know how to be their own first line of defense until help can arrive. I know this because they talk with me about it when they’re in my training classes. There is so much misinformation being bantered about and two things concern me most. One is the potential for bad legislation based on emotion rather than fact. The other is a propensity to tie children's safety to political agendas versus enhancing safety protocols timely and responsibly.
I will never ask anyone to be less passionate about his/her point of view on gun control. However, I think it is important to find more harmonious ways to discuss differences of opinions without injecting empty rhetoric. Americans want to be educated not insulted. Moreover, ulterior motives and hidden agendas will never foster meaningful results. My job as a protection specialist involves risk mitigation and effective crisis management. I carry a firearm as a tool in my defense of others. That said, I offer some meaningful actions that could be taken to reduce the risk of people falling prey to active shooters. I separate potential solutions into multiple categories: •FBI background checks must be able to cross reference criminal history with medical history to reduce the mentally unstable from legally securing guns. •Loop holes regarding the sale of firearms at gun shows should be eliminated.
•Background checks should be required by purchasers at gun shows also, and authorized representatives performing background checks prior to a gun transfer should be in place. Just as independent mechanics are on site at auto auctions to test vehicles before a consumer purchase. The cost of those services would be included in the booth rentals. •As responsible gun owners it is critical we keep our firearms secure to limit them from falling into the wrong hands.
•Better security training of personnel at educational institutions. They must know how to lock down facilities quicker to limit a shooters access to additional victims. •Capable, trained professional guardians are needed in schools, not volunteers with concealed carry permits. Like school principals, professional guardians should be on every campus. They are as important as administrators and teachers from the perspective of creating a positive learning environment free from harassment and injury. As a child I respected police officers. Their presence provided a sense of security. What has changed? •Parents and others need to be taught to recognize pre-incident behaviors, monsters start out as gremlins. •Children should be taught to recognize and report comments which could be early warning signs of a potentially dangerous student or adult. •The stigma and embarrassment feared by parents before admitting their child needs psychological help must be eliminated. •Current guns laws must be enforced. The majority of gun owners are law abiding citizens and are responsible with their firearms. Piling on new laws that increase a false sense of security is not an answer. Besides, criminals don't ask permission. Motivated killers will walk through or around metal detectors.
They undo gun controls put in place for law abiding citizens. If another person is convicted of DUI, would it make sense to pass a law prohibiting cars? Or restricting your right to drive.
•Cosmetically similar sporting rifles should not be confused with assault rifles/machine guns. While their appearance may be similar, the functionality is totally different. Responsible citizens must become educated about firearms and personal safety; so they can effectively engage in meaningful dialog around real solutions. •A New York newspaper recently posted the names and addresses of conceal carry weapons permit holders in their respective area. I equate that action with treating law abiding citizens like sex offenders. The newspaper increased the potential for those gun owners to have their guns stolen by criminals and alerted them to bring a greater level of force to the robbery. And remembering Hannibal the Great’s strategy for overtaking Rome, the newspaper took away law abiding gun owner’s element of surprise. Banning guns won't stop criminals or mentally unstable people from committing violent acts. Chicago has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country; it also has the highest murder rate in the nation. The District of Columbia has a ban on large capacity magazines, yet NBC commentator David Gregory had no problem securing one for a news segment that demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the ban. Restricting large capacity magazines (or large capacity feeding devices as some call them), doesn't make life safer for law abiding citizens. That is a vain attempt at feel good legislation to calm the masses or advance a political agenda. Why do I say that? All you have to do is go to any handgun sporting competition (IDPA or IPSC) and watch average law abiding citizens change magazines. Most can change magazines in 1.5 - 3 seconds. It is not the magazine but the intent of the user. If a person with violent intentions were to arm himself with four, 5 shot .38 special revolvers-- and they are the only ones with a firearm --there is the potential for a lot of injured or dead people.
Again, it is not about the capacity of the firearm but the intent of the user. Have you ever looked at on average how many bullets police fire in a deadly force situation? Often considerably more than the average civilian would have anticipated. The ability to respond to a deadly force encounter whether as a law enforcement officer or law abiding citizen should be the same. The ability to protect oneself or others from severe bodily harm or death should not have a varying standard of application. The ugly reality is that evil people will do evil things. They will do evil until they are deterred. Sometimes that may have to involve a firearm. A deadly force attack cannot be stopped with a non deadly force solution. Active shooters are active killers; they are not hostage takers. Human beings deal with each other through one of two options: logic and force, sometimes characterized as reasoning and violence. Active shooters bypass option one and move straight to shock and awe (death and destruction). Legislation can’t change that. Maj. L. Caudill, USMC (Ret.) said it pretty succinctly "A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly." That statement also holds true of active shooters. A parent will never be prepared to bury children killed under a violent attack. However, we cannot allow hope to be our child’s only defensive strategy. It is time for action not hypocrisy.
Mark “Six” James is the Executive Director of Panther Protection Services a full service protection agency and an internationally published author. To find out more about Panther Protection Services visit www.pantherprotectionservices.com or www.facebook.com/pantherprotectionservices