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Stopping School Shootings

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 2003-01-31 03:26.
by Bill St. Clair

This was a letter I wrote to the Albany Times Union on 16 March, 2001. They printed a slightly modified version.


Yesterday's Times-Union (3/15) contained an editorial proposing more gun laws, as did a recent op-ed. Great idea! We've got to protect our kids from gun violence. I'm sure more gun laws will work almost as well as more drug laws. If 20,000 gun laws don't keep our kids safe, I'm sure that 20,001 definitely will. Not! According to Census Bureau estimates for the year 2000 (www.census.gov/population/estimates/nation/intfile2-1.txt), America has 51 million school-age children (age 5-17). My memory says that about 50 kids per year have been shot at school recently. Tragic yes, but it means that kids are ten times more likely to die traveling to school than they are to get shot once they get there (www.schoolbusinfo.org/intro.htm). If I were worried about my kids' safety in school, which I'm not, I'd work at getting teachers and administrators to volunteer for training as safety monitors. All the laws in the world won't stop a crazy person intent on hurting my kids, but one man (or woman) equipped with training, determination, and a single gun, can stop that killer in a second.

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