08:37 – My favorite quote so far about the school shooting yesterday came from a police spokesman, who said that the shooter “may have suffered from a personality disorder.” Ya think? Most people would agree that a young man who shoots and kills his mother and then drives to the school where she taught and shoots down 20 kindergarten kids in cold blood is not quite right, to say the least.
Naturally enough, there is already a clamor for the government to Do Something. The problem is, there’s nothing that can be done to stop lunatics from going berserk. We might just as well demand that the government prevent tornadoes or earthquakes. Well, since essentially all of these mass murderers are young men, I suppose we might imprison all young men until they’re older men, but there are some practical difficulties with that idea, not to mention Constitutional ones. One thing is sure: more gun control laws aren’t going to help.
Well, there is one thing that would definitely significantly reduce the number and severity of these outrages. Allow ordinary people who choose to do so to carry firearms, openly or concealed, without requiring any permit, testing, or other restrictions. Anyone, anywhere, anytime. Any firearm. That way, when the wolf shows up, there will always be at least a few sheepdogs mixed in with the flock of sheep. And save harmless from any criminal or civil penalties any person who, in such a situation, stands up to the wolf.
12:55 – From one of the comments, here’s a sight you won’t see in the USA, more’s the pity.
It’s an Israeli schoolteacher, doing her job. It literally brings tears to my eyes, thinking about those women who sacrificed their lives trying to protect those children yesterday. They had only their bare hands and their bodies, so they used what they had and died trying. If only each of those classrooms had been equipped with a loaded assault rifle for emergencies. Or even a deer rifle. They might have had a fighting chance, and we might not have had 20 dead children and six dead teachers.