Showing posts with label Chardon Ohio shooting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chardon Ohio shooting. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

As school shootings increase, Arizona rushes to make guns legal on college campuses


Gun on college campuses legislation

There was a recent article titled “Why does America lead the world in school shootings?” by Dr. Frank Ochberg, a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Michigan State University and former Associate Director of the National Institute of Mental Health.  With notable credentials like that, the gun industry, particularly the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), should pay attention to his findings. 

One in particular was, “Access to guns is a significant factor in American school shootings. If kids could not and did not bring guns to school, we wouldn't have Columbine, Virginia Tech or Chardon, Ohio.”  He continues, “But the reason we have an American school shooting problem that exceeds other nations has to do with access to loaded weapons by kids who should not have that access.”
   
Other factors include peer warning signs, bullying gone unchecked, lack of recognizing mental illness, and violent role models and drugs.  Each is significant but without that access to the weapon there would be no killings or injuries, at least by guns, which are most prevalent in these incidents. 

What is most interesting about Dr. Ochberg’s study is that the U.S. has the worst problem in the entire world.  That is tragic for a civilized nation when compared to some third-world countries. 


AZ Sen. Ron Gould...finger pointing

But damn the killing of young adults and children, full speed ahead to force guns onto Arizona college and university campuses when both the educators and law enforcement are dead-set against it and have vociferously voiced their opinions.  The drive for Senate Bill 1474 is led by Arizona State Sen. Ron Gould who, some have indicated, has as his main intention to fire up the gun nuts in Arizona so they will vote for him in his run for a U.S. House seat.

The Arizona Republic says, “Currently, it is illegal in 22 states to carry a concealed weapon on a college campus. In 25 states, including Arizona, the decision is left to the individual college or university. No Arizona college or university allows guns on campus.  Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin and Mississippi require campuses to allow concealed weapons on campus.”  Another NRA promoted law forcing guns down the throats of those who don’t want them.

See video below on Arizona campus guns bill:



And while the Arizona gun bubbas are forging ahead with their campus legislation, there were two more shootings in the state, one at a Wilcox high school, the other at a Tempe (Phoenix suburb) nightclub, which wounded at least 14 people.  Tempe is the home of Arizona State University two miles from the club.  The shooters were not ASU students, who have said repeatedly that they do not want guns on their campus.


Chardon, OH shooter

Most of the focus lately has been on Chardon, Ohio’s High School where student
T.J. Lane
opened fire on February 27, in the Cafeteria, killing three and injuring two others, one paralyzed.  It wasn’t even his school, which turned out to be the Lake Academy, where a fellow student said he was “…being picked on for everything from his hair, to his clothes, to his quiet personality.”  Lane used a 22 caliber pistol and had a record of violence in the past.

But returning to the Arizona campus gun legislation, local Phoenix columnist Laurie Roberts puts the blame squarely on the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) exclaiming that if the NRA wants it, they will get it in Arizona.  And why not?  They have already been responsible for diluting the state’s gun laws to the extent that they are the loosest in the nation. 

Roberts says: “But then this bill isn't about making college campuses safe. It's about making the NRA -- and the sizable block of reliable Republican voters it can deliver (or take away) -- happy.”

And finally there’s the cost that will have to come from the university budgets that are already strained to the limit.  It is estimated that the legislation will result in one-time costs of $13 million for lockers to store guns that can’t be brought into buildings, with annual maintenance of $3 million.  The Arizona legislature has offered no support.  Pathetic!

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