by Ken Hanson
I typically have a personal policy of not talking about shooting incidents as they happen. Anyone who's making political points off the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL is dancing in the blood of children.
But since the various mom groups, bought and paid for by Michael Bloomberg and George Soros, do not feel the same, I'm going to comment today.
I've been writing about school shootings for nearly 20 years. You can Google that. Solid fact.
There is a segment of society that just does not think the same way that you and I do. They don't have the same moral values or inhibitions. Call it video games, call it single parenting, whatever. The cat is out of the bag, scratched on Pandora's Box until it opened, and then they went to the barn and slammed the door shut long after the horse left. Abuse your favorite metaphor here.
You are not going to put words on a piece of paper, post a sign, have a feel-good participation award or self-esteem program that's going to address this. We have 3rd graders sitting on the bus in the morning on their iPhones trying to get bonus points for knife-killing zombies or killstreaks. That isn't going to change.
I routinely lecture at self-defense classes on self-defense laws. And I often get the questions…
You just need to understand there are people out there that don't think like us. All of the good thinking, the fuzzy thoughts, the words on the papers, the signs aren't going to change that. So either deal with the reality or deal with the fantasy world.
As for me and my house, we will deal with reality.
At least once a month I have a group of early childhood educators in concealed carry classes. They invariably want to make sure that their identities are not released. They're scared to death that their employers will find out. But they've made the personal decision that they understand the reality of the situation.
A little over 5 years ago – December of 2012 to be exact – I was watching yet another news account of a school shooting, and watching yet more politicians propose worthless and ineffective measures in the week of burying our school children. I picked up the phone and called Jim Irvine, president of Buckeye Firearms Association. And I just simply said, “Jim, I'm sick of talking about this, let's just do something. Do you think we can raise $25,000 to provide no-expense firearms training to school teachers that choose this option?” If there's one thing airline pilots do not lack, it's confidence. Jim said “Go ahead and make the announcement, I will find the money.”
I was on a nationally-broadcasted ABC Town Hall that night and announced a program providing teachers cost-free training and tools if they choose to do so. Over 1,000 applied for those first 20 seats.
Ask any of the various Soros / Bloomberg mom groups how many emergency trauma kits they provided to schools cost-free? How much they've spent providing gun safes to parents for free in a partnership with children's hospitals and pediatricians? How much gun safety training have they provided? What have they raised and spent on our teachers, who are the true first responders?
Our answer is over 7 figures, over 1000 teachers and five different states. Go look at the Soros / Bloomberg websites and try to find any resource for teachers other than words on paper. You won't find it.
Gun owners are not the NRA. And anyone shaking a stick at the NRA right now is simply attacking a boogeyman by proxy. The NRA is a convenient target.
The real gun owners – the people sitting next to you at lunch, the people coaching your kids on the soccer field, maybe even your K through 3 school teacher – they're out there and they're not drinking the Kool-Aid. They understand the reality and not the fantasy.
We are addressing the problem. Get out of our way.
Ken Hanson is a long-time Buckeye Firearms Association volunteer, receipient of the NRA-ILA Presents Defender of Justice Lifetime Achievement Award and author of “The Ohio Guide to Firearm Laws.”