Quote Originally Posted by mschrisgo2 View Post
if we confine the discussion to School Shootings, I think there are a number of things that, working together, could make the schools much safer: (really) secure campuses, ban violent video games and movies for children, re-cultivate respect for Life and authority at least in our children, get (real) mental health and counseling services into every school.

It is my firm belief that unless there is a concerted effort to bring many of the issues together, none will work. It is a complex issue and requires a complex solution.
I think you're right.

This problem strikes me as one you chip away at rather than solve in one big dramatic burst. No tearful Children's Crusade will melt the icy hearts of lawmakers, causing guns to disappear in one grand movie montage. No sophisticated system of abrogating habeas corpus will allow us to detect, detain and disarm the dangerously insane in the style of Minority Report. The NRA could disappear overnight, we could tear up inconvenient sections of the Bill of Rights, we could require small arms training for elementary school teachers certification. It wouldn't matter.

This thing needs to be attacked on a number of fronts long-term. More physically secure schools. A return, perhaps, to the bourgeois cultural values of an era where unhappy middle class kids seldom turned to mass mass murder. Some level of reconsideration of the 1970s mainstreaming trend for certain mentally ill people. Making sure gun owners a are held responsible for making a reasonable effort to secure their weapons. Reviewing our laws (and their enforcement) aimed at reducing the availability of firearms to felons, children or the (demonstrably) mentally ill; while recognizing the burden is on the government to justify limiting citizens' freedoms rather than on the citizens to justify keeping them.

There is no panacea, and we may never be as safe as more docile or highly regulated nations. But with time and work we can perhaps reduce the number of incidents.