The NRA Proposal

[Revised version: The original version of this post contained an error in the calculation of the budget required by the NRA proposal.]

The National Rifle Association’s proposal to put a policeman in every school is not bad given the circumstances. Refusing to protect children with armed force when necessary in the vain hope to “de-escalate violence“, as an activist puts it, is tragically naïve. Let the madmen and children killers de-escalate violence first!

The NRA’s statement contains words of wisdom about which one wonders why it is apparently so revolting to so many people:

But what if, when Adam Lanza started shooting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday, he had been confronted by qualified, armed security?
Will you at least admit it’s possible [emphasis in original] that 26 innocent lives might have been spared? Is that so abhorrent to you that you would rather continue to risk the alternative?

“Members of Congress”, the NRA statement also points out, “work in offices surrounded by Capitol Police officers”.

The NRA’s statement, however, is not above criticism. Continue reading

The Rise of the Young Mass Killer

The Sandy Hook shooting raises issues that are often forgotten by both the pro-gun and the anti-gun side.

The first issue, ignored by the pro-gun side, is that the availability of guns does, other things being equal, increase the potential damage that madmen can do. A spate of knife attacks on schoolchildren in China has been recently observed, but with fewer deaths than for gun attacks in Scotland, Norway, or America. Continue reading