God, this is it. Police state.

[DemocracyMouse]

Is anyone else as angry as I am about the Parkland students being FORCED to use see-through backpacks? And they're talking about getting metal detectors like prisons and courthouses. What has happened to our country??? It's time for a nonviolent revolution. It is time.

CNN has the story.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/02/us/marjory-stoneman-douglas-clear-backpacks/index.html

"It's difficult, we all now have to learn how to deal with not only the loss of our friends, but now our right to privacy. My school was a place where everyone felt comfortable, it was a home away from home, and now that home has been destroyed," he said. 'This backpack is probably worth more than my life'
......
Senior Delaney Tarr tagged Rubio in a tweet of a picture of her bag with feminine products and the orange price tag attached to it.
"Starting off the last quarter of senior year right, with a good ol' violation of privacy!" she said in another tweet.
In addition to displaying the orange tag, senior Carmen Lo stuffed a sign into her backpack that read "this backpack is probably worth more than my life."

[AJT]

1. My grandson has to walk through a metal detector at his high school

in Chicago.

[DemocracyMouse]

2. Does he accept it as normal?Has he ever known the exquisite feeling of being considered trustworthy?

[AJT]

4. He accepts it. It's sad because it is a decent school.

He is a rare white kid in the school and has never had any problems. He really doesn't see color, he's gone to very diverse public schools his whole life. It's sad because most of the white families send their children to private schools because they are afraid that the public school is dangerous, and it isn't at all.

[democratisphere]

27. Your grandson will be a better human for going to the public school.

Hope he does well in school and life. You must be a proud grandparent!

[cilla4progress]

3. Disgusting.

What we are doing to - not for - these kids.

[exboyfil]

5. And the expense rolls into the per student cost

which is used to bash the school system over the head.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. I'm reminded of how after the theater shooting in Colorado,

certain movie chains made women open their purses to inspection. Apparently that shooter was a woman who brought in his guns in his purse. Not.

And again, the Parkland shooting was NOT a student who brought in his guns in a back pack.

To (appropriately I think) mix a metaphor, this is locking the barn after the well has been poisoned.

They are idiotically going after the wrong thing.

The problem is guns. Let's take away the guns, as so many other countries have. Let's stop pretending that shootings are normal and a sad consequence of our second amendment. Let's decide the people's LIVES matter vastly more than the fucking guns.

[Igel]

10. It was a former student.

Who brought in his gun and ammo magazines in a backpack.

Notice that the metal detectors probably wouldn't have done much.

Nor an improved background check.

The MD shooter was underage and couldn't legally buy the gun he used.

Parkland's a rare event. Trying to stop it by means of what the school does is pretty pointless, to be honest. Thing is, the parents and students scream, "We need to have the kids be sheltered and made safe." How do you do that in the school? You can't just sit there, you need to do something.

A local school here put in metal detectors after the school board had just finished saying "no" to metal detectors and reversing itself after a fatal stabbing. "This will keep out kids safe," everybody said. Except that the stabbing was done with a ceramic knife that metal detectors wouldn't have picked up. The stabbing was also an exceedingly rare event.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. And of course the possibility of no guns

is never an option.

Personally I'd confiscate them all.

For hunters, the guns can be kept in a place where you go and check them out during hunting season.

No need for guns in the home at all.

[MichMary]

13. "Personally I'd confiscate them all. "

How?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. Not sure.

Maybe we can ask Australia for advice.

[MichMary]

20. Australia

doesn't have a Second Amendment, a Constitutional RIGHT to bear arms.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

21. And they don't have mass gun murders.

Isn't that strange?

As long as people defend the 2nd Amendment, as long as they say we can't possibly take guns away, then there's no point whatsoever in getting worked up over the latest mass shooting. Each new one should be greeted with a giant yawn.

[MichMary]

23. You're right

except for the giant yawn part. The Second Amendment will not be repealed. Guns are not going to be confiscated.

The only thing to do is to make schools safer, by installing metal detectors, and implementing policies, such as clear backpacks which will make it more difficult for people like Cruz to sneak weapons in. We also need better systems for identifying and treating people who are likely to kill.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

29. Not sure how much better the system needs to be.

Many people reported Cruz and nothing was done. Let me repeat that. Many people reported Cruz and NOTHING was done. Just imagine, if he hadn't been able to get a gun, seventeen people would still be alive. Gosh.

So long as the lip service of "identifying and treating people who are likely to kill" takes precedence of getting rid of the guns, then people will continue to be murdered and maimed. Metal detectors and see-through back-packs are meaningless. As are guards, even armed guards at schools. There was an armed guard at Columbine, and at Parkville, just to name two.

[MichMary]

31. Maybe less "identifying" and more "treating" the mentally ill

This could have easily been prevented if the ball hadn't been dropped at every level. Cruz was practically screaming out exactly what he was going to do. But no one who was in a position to do something, did it.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

35. And that's hardly unusual.

Plus, the gun apologists want to blame fellow students who supposedly treated the murderers badly, somehow causing the massacre. "Look what you made me do!" is the claim of abusers and sociopaths. No. It's the killers who are responsible for their actions, and just wringing our hands and say we can't possibly do anything is bullshit.

What would have prevented Cruz from killing would have been, dare I say it? no gun.

[sfwriter]

7. " It's time for a nonviolent revolution. "

I think we call those elections.

[DemocracyMouse]

16. Amen to that!

[ck4829]

26. Like the one that had 65M people voting for one candidate but the one with lesser votes 'won'?

Doesn't seem like much of a revolution... or an election for that matter to me.

[elocs]

30. We had a presidential election in 2016.

It's too bad that so many thousands of voters on the Left chose to opt out of supporting Clinton in the swing states, either not voting at all or voting 3rd party, buying into the Big Lie that there was no difference between Clinton and Trump so it didn't matter if you voted for her.
Now after all Trump and his minions have done, I wonder how many would still do the same?

[lapfog_1]

8. Single points of entry

with metal detectors (or even 2 or 3 entries) will simply make the next school shooting more like the Las Vegas concert shooting... a target rich environment for the across the street shooter, or even the "part of the crowd" shooter who is queued up to enter, pulls his gun (because this is mostly a male thing) and shoots everyone behind him.

Not a solution.

Also trains our students to be ready for prison. As in a direct school-to-prison pipeline.

[Igel]

9. It's common in a lot of places.

Some schools have dress codes. Some ban backpacks altogether. Some have lockers. They all try to find ways to make it harder for the kids that can't be trusted to do bad things.

Problem is, if one kid is an exception then all kids must be exceptions.

[SCantiGOP]

19. Clear bags do not equal police state

Last edited Tue Apr 3, 2018, 05:24 PM - Edit history (1)

At all athletic events at my university women can only bring in clear bags. It speeds up the process and is not really intrusive.

On edit, rule applies to everyone, not just women, but men typically do not carry bags.

[Blue_Adept]

12. If they really wanted to be safe, they'd install metal detectors on the school buses

That way they don't even make it to school.

But really, once again, this is not a school issue. it's a societal issue.

[MichMary]

14. What about

the kids who walk to school? Or drive their own cars?

[Blue_Adept]

15. metal detectors in every doorway!

[DemocracyMouse]

17. Clear backpacks + metal detectors are not what the constitution means by a "well regulated militia"

It means they knew the arms (i.e. muskets) needed regulating. They also were concerned about the need to defend the country from outside attack. We have that now and it's called the Dept. of Defense. We don't need to necessarily get rid of the 2nd Amend. We just need to respect the original intent – and give more credence to other parts of the Constitution which should cancel out the 2nd Amend: such as the right to move freely and associate freely without intimidation. And that goes double for our children.

Musket:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifled_musket

[MichMary]

22. The original intent

of the founders is up to the Supreme Court to interpret, and so far they have interpreted it to mean that there is an individual right to bear arms.

The Constitution says nothing about the right to move freely and associate freely without intimidation. The First Amendment rights are limits on the government. You have no Constitutional right to freedom from fear of anything except the government.

So, no, there are no amendments which 'cancel out' any other amendment.

[MichMary]

24. I'm not all that angry about

a stupid backpack policy.

All the talk about laws and restrictions, etc. would have done nothing to prevent the Parkland attack. On the other hand, if Cruz had walked into the school with a weapon clearly visible in a clear backpack, someone would have stopped him. Hopefully. If the "School Resource Officer" had been willing to do his job.

[alarimer]

25. It makes no sense and would not have stopped Cruz

As far as I know. They are not doing the one thing that would solve this- banning guns, or even banning a specific kind of gun.

[MichMary]

33. Guns are not going to be banned

so they have to do what they can.

[alarimer]

34. Maybe, but these events will continue unless they are banned.

And confiscated. No amount of turning schools into prisons will change a thing.

It is morally reprehensible that this is the "best that they can do." No it isn't, not by a long shot. Solutions that won't do anything are not actually solutions.

[C_U_L8R]

28. Who knew AR-15's can fit in back-packs

Gahd, these people are useless.

[MichMary]

32. He had loaded magazines in a backpack

so a backpack was used to conceal something. Probably, a duffel bag won't be allowed in the future, either.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/us/florida-shooting.html

The suspect, Nikolas Cruz, 19, carried a black duffel bag and backpack, where he hid loaded magazines, the report said. He arrived at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in an Uber at 2:19 p.m. on Wednesday and pulled out a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, according to details described by the authorities at a news conference on Thursday.