Fifty years ago, my Dad was talking with a salesman who had come in to the garage my Dad used to run. They got to talking about the shootings current at the time, and my Dad said, "The way I'd solve this problem is simple. Beginning at the age of seven years, every American schoolchild, boys and girls both, would begin training with weapons---one hour, every day, while they're in school. You start out with BB guns, and then you gradually move up to .22's, and then by the fifth grade or so, they move up to 20-gauge shotguns and such. All of this would be taught by qualified instructors, and the kids have to pass the instruction before they can graduate. By the time they leave high school, they should have had extensive training with rifles, shotguns, pistols---both revolvers and automatics---and you could even throw in crossbows and bows and arrows, or even light machine guns, if you're so inclined. Then, at their 18th birthday, they should presented with a qualified shooter's certificate along with their diploma, and they should then be required to carry a registered handgun at all times."
The salesman stared at Dad for a minute and said, "My God, man! Do you have any idea how many fruit loops you'd have out there carrying guns?!?", and Dad shrugged and replied, "Not in six months. They'd all be dead."
Think about it. They way things are right now, if there are forty people standing in a bank and a criminal comes in with a weapon and yells, "Everybody on the floor, now!", what happens? Everybody goes onto the floor; there's a police standoff, things drag out for hours, and innocent people may or may not end up getting killed by the perp. On the other hand, if a criminal with a weapon walks into a bank and yells, "Everybody on the floor, now!", and he's met with forty people pointing weapons at him and replying, "Say what?", what's going to happen?
Well, for one thing, the criminal, unless he's really out there, is going to give up the idea of robbing the bank. Or, if he goes ahead, there is absolutely no possible way he's ever going to leave the building alive. Same thing for sporting events, for concerts, for college campuses, and yes, for public schools. If a nut comes in with a weapon, he may very well start busting caps, but he's going to be dead before he can do the type of damage that these mass shooters do now.
I know it's a radical concept. The idea of every single citizen in America packing a gun at all times, everywhere, is a very disturbing one to a lot of people. Understandably so. But under my Dad's idea, those weapons would be handled safely and efficiently by people extensively trained to handle them; it would remove the mystique and glamor associated with weapons among people who know little to nothing about them; there would be much less chance of accidental shootings due to unfamiliarity with weapons; and crime would nose-dive because nobody is going to be stupid enough to walk into McDonald's and start shooting when there's 30 people in the place with enough lethal force to turn him into a riddled corpse within 90 seconds. You could, of course, have options put in place for people who wish to forego the program---Amish folks, or Catholic religious, or well-meaning but misguided neo-hippies who think if you bestow enough good vibes and displays of love and fellowship to the starving tiger, then he won't eat you.
I don't know. But I do know this: what we're doing now ain't working. That, I do know.
