Terry Longpre March 8, 2018
American Patriot’s
It is my opinion in this day and time if you attack or threaten to attack school children no matter what your age, you should be charged as an adult with an act of terrorism and what every state statues apply.
Also, parents need to monitor and teach their children respect for all, which most do. It is those where the parents fail children and young adults who will become wayward and want the attention drawn to them by an act of violence or threats usually on a social media site.
If the media would report the news and not sensationalize it by generating hour upon hour of viewing and page upon page of written material on these horrific, depreciable events, it would help to minimize the outcome. Anyone hear of copycat criminals?
I know the next statement will infuriate some of my readers, “The NRA is not the problem.” The problem started when the government took prayers and the Pledge of Allegiance out of the schools because of lawsuits brought by the minority of non-believers and then being complicated by single-parent homes, the family’s non-ability to correct their children (you touch me, and I’ll call the police).
Again, I am heartbroken over the shooting in Parkland and I pray every day for the survivors and their families. I am appalled by the Sheriff in Broward County and his Deputies who responded to the shooting in the way they did.
There is a distinction between assault and semi-automatic weapons. The gun industry’s traditional definition of an “assault rifle” is a weapon in use by the military having the capability to switch between semi-automatic and a fully automatic mode. In the U.S., civilian ownership of machine guns (and assault rifles) has been regulated since 1934 under the National Firearms Act and since 1986 under the Firearm Owners Protection Act. Just because a rifle may look like an assault weapon does not it make it so. (https://en.wilipedia.org/wiki/Assualt_rifle)
At the beginning of the 2017 school year, there were approximately 50.7 million students entering about 100,00 public elementary and secondary schools throughout the US. (https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372)
To be objective, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens. Six teens ages 16 to 19 die every day from motor vehicle injuries.
(https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/teen_drivers/index.html)
To put the horrific school shooting in Parkland in prospect since the beginning of 2018, 15 law enforcement officers have been shot and killed. Where is the outcry for them? They are the ‘Thin Blue Line’ which separates a civilized society from chaos. In Broward County, it appears that line is broken.
In Chicago, which is a gun free zone has had 70 homicides since the first of the year, Baltimore stands at 28 thus far and the list goes on and the numbers continue to climb.
We as Americans have a problem getting along with each other, we have shorter tempers and are constantly bombarded with social and news media outlets driving a stake into our self-confidence as united Americans.
God bless America and those who protect us.
Terry Longpre