It's not that putting a police officer at a school is wrong, it's that the NRA.....

[Tommy_Carcetti]

....is insulting our intelligence.

Listen, there's nothing intrinsically wrong about the idea of a school having a uniformed police officer on campus. There were worse suggestions that the NRA could have made....although I think they did also suggest that besides police officers, private citizens could be armed and on campus as well. And there's your worse suggestion because we don't need more George Zimmermans out there.

But here's my problem with the NRA on it: That's their only suggestion. And it's basically a meaningless token gesture of them attempting to claim that they "said something."

Meanwhile they made no mention of how we were supposed to pay for these officers. And you can bet your bottom dollar that they won't follow up on that suggestion either.

And of course there was no mention of the real problem of guns in this country, which is that they are too plentiful and too easily accessible by people who have no business getting them, and that there are guns and ammunition clips being sold to private citizens that have no business being sold to private citizens.

But who are we kidding there, right?

[Thinkingabout]

1. He seems to think the guards will be free.

You are right, cost of his suggestion was not mentioned how he intended to pay for the cost of armed uniform personnel but he probably did not think his suggestion for enough to know there would be cost involved. Is the NRA going to suggest we have armed guards every where in the US? Where will their suggestion stop.

[Cary]

2. Columbine High School had armed guards. n/t

[Iggy]

3. WRONG... Please Read the Text of His Speech Today

Mr. LaPierre recommended WAYYY more than armed cops in our schools. he also recommended a:

National School Shield Emergency Response Program for every school that wants it. From armed security to building design and access control to information technology to student and teacher training, this multi-faceted program will be developed by the very best experts in their fields.

Former Congressman Asa Hutchinson will lead this effort as National Director of the National School Shield Program, with a budget provided by the NRA of whatever scope the task requires. His experience as a U.S. Attorney, Director of the Drug Enforcement Agency and Undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security will give him the knowledge and expertise to hire the most knowledgeable and credentialed experts available anywhere, to get this program up and running from the first day forward.

If we truly cherish our kids more than our money or our celebrities, we must give them the greatest level of protection possible and the security that is only available with a properly trained — armed — good guy.

Under Asa’s leadership, our team of security experts will make this the best program in the world for protecting our children at school, and we will make that program available to every school in America free of charge.

That’s a plan of action that can, and will, make a real, positive and indisputable difference in the safety of our children — starting right now.

I wonder how long Biden and congress will spend "studying" the problem before they come up with, surprise!! more or less the SAME plan as the NRA??

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/nra-press-conference-full-text-of-wayne-lapierres-speech-today/politics/2012/12/21/56993

[JDPriestly]

4. In other words, he recommended a police state.

That's what he is calling for.

That's what police states do. They have armed guards hanging around looking for something to do, guns ready.

The armed guards intimidate the citizens into silence as well as into behaving themselves.

I can't believe that the NRA thought through.

I guess that La Pierre did not travel in Eastern Europe during the Communist era. Even there, they did not have as many guns in schools and other public places as La Pierre is suggesting.

Who does he think are going to control those guns?

Well, guess what, it is going to be the government. The very government that the NRA members claim they need their guns to keep in check.

This is the most ridiculous "proposal" about guns yet. Just the very opposite of what is needed. We would be better off with really restrictive gun controls.

[Iggy]

7. What a Totally Weak Load of Crap

Do you live in a barn somewhere remote?

Every stinking time I go to a Cubs game, I have to go thru security, my GF opens her purse to be searched. There are armed police standing in the background watching.

Every stinking time I go to the airport, I have to take off my shoes, my belt, my watch.. etc. etc... and I walk thru a metal detector or a body scanner.

DO these obviously needed, common-sense security measures mean we live in a police state???

Gimme a break, please.

[JDPriestly]

10. You are an adult going to events other adults attend.

It's pretty horrible that you have to have armed guards, but adults can be dangerously rowdy even without assault weapons.

As for the airport, Homeland Security is in my view a huge intrusion on our right to travel, our freedom of association and other freedoms.

I posted earlier about how the East Germans made sure their people were safe and secure.

Some years ago there was a shooting in the Los Angeles Civil Court -- a father in the midst of a nasty divorce shot his wife in front of their child.

Now we have security checks with metal detectors I suppose in all the courts. That is again OK in a courthouse because it is a place where parties to disputes meet. They aren't always civil. Some of them may be dangerous. Of course, alternatively, we could take guns away from people accused of abuse or involved in divorce. That, in my opinion, would be a good idea.

But we should never, never have the extreme security measure of placing people with guns in schools where are unarmed, innocent children to every day.

If our country is so unsafe that we need armed guards in the schools, we are no longer a free country and it is our own fault - or at least the fault of the gun-crazed.

You can have guns for hunting and not be a danger to others. What a pitiful state our country is in. It's sick, sick, sick.

[hatrack]

5. Another bunch of fat federal contracts, IOW

Oh, and lots and lots of gun sales - AND police state trappings to boot.

[Iggy]

8. You Are Unable to Acknowledge??

weapons are the Number One export of our nation.

Probably has something to do with the terminal wars we are now mired in.

Congress wasting Billions on this is OK with you? but not spending one billion (probably less) on installing state of the art security systems in our schools to protect children?

Weak.

[spanone]

6. it's wrong.

[rustydog]

9. If the shooter had access to a 357 revolver, most of the kids would be alive today

the reason for automatic and semi-automatic weapons is to lay down fire to hit what you are incapable of taking out in one shot. Most people can't do a dirty Harry point the "most powerful handgun in the world" at a bad guy take one shot and drop him. That is not the real world. n we arenot all navy seal snipers.