Every time a mass shooting occurs, gun control advocates propose enforcing stricter gun control laws although the shooters typically bypassed gun laws that were already on the books.
The Great Debate
Gun Owners of America's executive director, Eric Pratt, went on CCN on Thursday to debate Richard Quest about gun control and how to prevent future mass shootings in America.
Quest: What is your answer to reducing the level of gun violence in this country?
Pratt: Absolutely. Thank you. I think that's an important question. First of all, it's important to understand that most of these mass shootings are occurring in gun-free zones, where guns are not allowed. Over 98 percent of the public mass shootings that occur in this country are in gun-free zones. And that's why we would agree with our police officers. 81 percent of them polled say that the way you stop this in the schools is to arm the teachers, arm school administrators, arm the principals. We think that would be a very successful strategy.
You never hear about a mass shooting in Utah. They've been arming teachers since 1995. You don't hear about it in Ohio where they've trained over a thousand.Quest: Frank DeAngelis, the Columbine principal, on this program, at the beginning of this program, specifically said yes, he's in favor of armed guards in schools — properly trained armed guards in schools — but he is against arming the general academic and faculty because he says, in his case, you know, he would have been shot because he would have tried to reason. And the police he spoke to say it is a mistake to arm teachers, academics, janitorial staff and the like.
Pratt: Well, look, we could interview different authorities on the subject. There's a Columbine survivor who is now in the State Senate and he says more of his classmates would be alive today if teachers had been armed. So he actually advocates arming teachers.
It's the way that Israel got rid of their terror at schools problem. They started arming teachers years ago and the attacks on school children stopped. Why is it that our Congressmen are better armed and better protected than our school children?
You know, you say arm school resource officers, well one of the first to get shot yesterday was the security guard there. I don't know if he was targeted, still waiting to find out more information on that but that's the problem when you have only one person — and who's especially identified as the one carrying a firearm — he typically will be the one who's targeted.
The Conclusion
Pratt is absolutely correct. Criminals will do everything in their power to break the law. Having gun-free zones, primarily on school grounds, opens students and faculty up to becoming prime targets for mass shootings.
It's asinine to assume that criminals will follow signs that say the school is a gun-free zone. If a person has the intent to harm another human being, a metal sign isn't going to stop them. The only thing that will stop these criminal is a good guy with a gun.
Watch the full debate:
