Update: It looks like this poor young woman is dead, whether at her own hand or the FBI's we know not yet. This is a tragedy on so very many levels. That she wasn't reported, that no one got her help, that she could travel this far and do this........
Today, for those not aware, almost every school in the greater Denver area is closed. That's a frightening number of schools. Schools which were closed yesterday and will be closed today, and tomorrow, who knows?
Closed because of a young woman, a senior in high school who lives in Florida. Who made creditable threats, arrived in Colorado on a plane from Florida. And immediately went into a gun store and purchased a pump shotgun and ammunition. No questions asked.
Her father says he thinks that perhaps "maybe" she has a mental problem. Now, I am not one of those "the parent's should have known everything" type as such. But darn it, if your kid lives with you, surely you have some idea if they have a mental problem. Or if you kid is storing an arsenal in your garage. Unless you live under a rock.
More importantly, there is something wrong when you can just go to another state, buy a pump shotgun and ammunition and walk out-no questions asked. Now before the comments start, I am not anti gun. I am the wife, and sister in law of military people. I am a former military people. I have been the beneficiary of many hunters and in fact survived on donated elk when my now 40 year old daughter was a preschooler and I was changing careers and broke. My son regularly goes to the mountains to a shooting range. I have many friends who own guns, handle them responsibly, and are good examples of gun owners. The list goes on.
I am however, opposed to a system that is less stringent than getting a driver's license. Almost nobody needs a gun in the same day, and I can say fairly assuredly that no one non military needs a pump shotgun or an automatic rifle in the same day, or even the same week. We make people who want to drive a multi-ton car or truck take an education course, and prove that they are physically qualified. We also are unafraid of removing or limiting that license if said car is misused.
The fact that we are not willing to do that at the minimum when it comes to gun ownership is astounding to me.
And completely insane.
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Thank you so much for this column. I am in total agreement. I am the mother of teacher and a school psychologist in your area. Noone should have to worry that their lives or the lives of the students they are responsible for are in danger. In some states you need to wait 3 days for a marriage license. This idea of a person walking out pf a store with a gun in this manner is outrageous.
ReplyDeleteYes, my issue is that we regulate almost everything else in this country, I dont understand the fear of regulating guns. But that's just me.
DeleteThe NRA is very powerful - and not for good I fear.
ReplyDeleteYou may not be anti=gun but I am. I see no point in having a gun. I can get food at the market, If a gun were in my house I'd probably use it and that is danagerous. Who am I going to shoot? Yes, the nra would be nice but that point would be missed on the fools. Do you know you can't enter their building without going through metal detectors? Yea, I find that funny too. Each day I drive by their big ass building, give them the finger and get off my exit.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate guns as protection. I have considered getting one as a single gal but to date consider myself safe with killer dogs, or at least dogs who sound like killer dogs. I also have a great many friends, military and others who shoot for fun, my son started as an Eagle scout. And while I CAN get food at the market, I LOVE game, and someone shot that whether I did or not, lol. I DO believe that requirements should be much more stringent, and I DO believe that no one needs an automatic weapon that is not a military or police presence. I am not about absolutes, which is why i hate that the NRA is, lol.
DeleteThe NRA is a powerful group with deep pockets who have bought and lobbied us out of reasonable gun control laws for years. Back ground checks and closing the gun show loop holes are not unreasonable and do not go against the Constitution. Get money out of politics and that would cut the power from the RNA. News is now saying she killed herself.
ReplyDeleteI have always wondered about the Second Amendment that is talked about... The right to bear arms....
ReplyDeleteWell that was back when bears and other rather dangerous critters roamed your streets. It was also when it took 4 or 5 minutes to load the musket!! Really we have gun regulations in Canada so not having regulations (or very lax ones) really bothers me.
God bless.
The 2nd Amendment dates back to a period that the country had no standing army, and had to rely on the possibility that the Government might have to draft ordinary citizens to defend the Republic, and those citizens were expected to supply their own weaponry. The threats to our newborn country were real and from multiple sources, so it made sense to have citizens that were ready to go at a moment's notice. Clearly, that is not quite the case now, but the mentality lives on for many.
ReplyDeleteI looked up Colorado laws. She would have had a full background check to purchase any gun. She was not allowed to purchase multiple round guns. Her parents could have "called her in", but that is on them (and the FBI rarely does anything about that).
ReplyDeleteSaying that, I wish there was a good way to keep guns- all guns-out of the hands of mentally ill people. I like the idea of a several day wait after you apply for a background check. Most "gun show lop holes" have been closed. II understand those laws may get in the way of someone desperate to protect themselves, but most people do not shoot well in a panic anyway.
My husband and I have discussed qualifying on a range once a year as a way to have a gun. That way the range master sees you.
Let's face it though, bad actors will find a way. Most of the gun violence in the US is due to bad actors. Can you imagine if Baltimore shut down schools over the basis that children in schools were threatened? Heck, there would be no school! Those are not "legal" guns.
We owned land in Pueblo Colorado. We open carried shot guns because of the bear in the area.In Arizona we used guns to kill some tough rodents. Poison kills the hawks--so we chose to hunt and then dispose of the bodies in a non hazardous manner. I've shot a few rattlers before they struck. (I encourage non poisonous snakes.) Here, in Delaware, hunting is still a common thing. In fact, we have several young men who kill deer to feed their families. Their stand is in our back forest.
Tough issues. Like all of the ones we currently face- it will take time and logic to work it through. The conversation is a good one though.
Criminals have guns and use them in crimes, so it is good for law abiding citizens that want to own guns to have them. People often use guns to stop crimes and there are numerous cases of women who have used guns to protect themselves and their children successfully.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with law abiding citizens owning guns, IF they have shown that they know how to use them and had some sort of trainint, IF they store them correctly (most do not), I DO have a problem with the NRAs refusal of deeper background checks, laws that allow people to purchase guns and walk out the door with them andthe general inability to track gun users as least as well as we track people who drive cars. Statistically, the myth of the good shooter is just that.
DeleteGood day !!
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