Gun control is not the answer to school safety

In response to Whitefish Superintendent Heather Davis Schmidt’s recent column, in which she uses her position as a platform for her beliefs, I want to take this opportunity to offer a more realistic view. She doesn’t want to debate the Second Amendment in the modern era. Neither do I; I want to make sure that my kids are safe. But you can’t stick your head in the sand and refuse to debate it in hopes that the problem will go away. In my opinion, our government, which includes our public education system, caused the problem, and they’re too stubborn and arrogant to solve it. Schmidt mentions that we need to address the culture they’ve created in our schools. Let me be the first to say an enthusiastic “Amen!”

From what I got out of her column, it seems that if we all make sure that each student feels included and accepted (a laudable goal), the students will be safe because no one will want to shoot people. I’m guessing she thinks this will also work in society as a whole. The problem is, we don’t live in a Utopian society, not everyone is willing to follow the rules, people still get mad and commit crimes of passion, and mental illness will always exist. And, though the statistics she quoted regarding school safety are somewhat reassuring, it doesn’t lessen the pain of those who have been affected by these tragedies.

I’m not in favor of further gun control for two reasons: 1. If you stop law-abiding people from using guns, criminals won’t stop. 2. And this is the real reason people are against gun control: We don’t trust that, once some curbs are put in place, the political far left won’t stop pushing and pushing for more and more restrictions. History shows us that, once started, government regulations never stop; they only grow. This is true concerning taxes, welfare programs, and political correctness. Our federal government, and in some cases, state and local governments, shows little self-restraint, but shows plenty of arrogance and ignorance. I feel the same way about our public school system. It’s not that the teachers and staff don’t care, it’s that many of them have bought into the Kumbaya teaching method, or they’ve been forced into it by the supposed experts in Washington.

So the kids and their teachers are supposed to pretend they don’t see the stupidity (or confusion, or perversion, or mental illness) of others because, heaven forbid, the offending person might be offended by being noticed for the offense. Schools gave up the moral onus of teaching right and wrong long ago. They threw out God and the Bible and absolutes, and introduced moral relativity and political correctness. Well, how’s that been working out for us? Schools, from pre-schools to post-high school institutions, now try to indoctrinate young children and young adults into thinking that a Utopian society is possible if the government taxes us just a little more, if we provide just a little more money to those who don’t feel the need to contribute to society, if we just quit “clinging to our God and our guns.” Incidentally, how many of the mass shootings in this epidemic were committed by those of us clingers?

On the safety of our kids in schools, you’ve heard the saying, “Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight,” or as my seventh-grader said, you’re not going to subdue a school shooter with a dog’s chew toy. And you’re not going to save lives by talking to someone on a rampage. The time for talking is over when the shooting starts. A “gun-free zone” means that only the good guys are unarmed and vulnerable. Even outlawing all guns completely and declaring martial law won’t cure mental illness or hate. And it won’t stop people from acquiring guns illegally. There are some schools that are armed. Kids are safer in those schools because a shooter is going to be stopped sooner.

Doug Adams, Whitefish