Virginia Tech

There has been much discussion about the murders at Virginia Tech and the lunatic involved so I thought that I would offer a few of my own comments.

1. Shootings happen at schools because they offer a target rich environment where everyone is unarmed. Laws prohibit firearms at schools so only criminals are armed.

2. Media coverage also offers the true psychotic the opportunity for fame. The Virginia Tech killer took time to go to the Post Office and send a video to NBC. Television networks, of course, deny any responsibility for influencing people in their actions. To accept this denial is to deny the usefulness of advertising on television. Wait!! Now I understand. Only the commercials influence people's actions, not the regular programming.

3. Privacy laws prevent us from finding out that someone is actually mentally ill and just about anything else. Of course, criminals are able to get your social security number, drivers license info, and anything else they need. Usually they get this information from the same government that won't tell you that your neighbor is a mass murderer.

4. We are more concerned about student self-esteem than safety. There is no way that a rational person would believe that the VT killer should have still been a student there.

So what can we do?? First, let's remove problem students who are interfering with the education process. Face the facts, we can't save them all. Second, let's arm the teachers. I can hear the howls from here! "Are you crazy?' First, I guess you didn't read the name of this blog. Second, assaults on teachers are a growing problem. They are so common in the local school system that they no longer make the news. If teachers were able to protect themselves, this problem would vanish almost overnight. Let's be honest. The first time that a student assaults a teacher and gets shot in response, we can send the School Resource Officer (police officer) for doughnuts. We won't be needing him anymore. Can we trust teachers to use this force wisely? The answer is simple. Can we trust problem students not to attack teachers and other students?

Let's face it, What we are doing now is not working and conditions are getting worse. Time to change directions.