Man urges readers to watch NRA video
Dear Editor,
If you have not watched the National Rifle Association (NRA) video of their response to the recent Connecticut incident you owe it to yourself to do so.
Please watch it in its entirety thus enabling you to know the "real" version not the short clips and quotes sometimes used by the media. To me it makes so much sense.
During my law enforcement employment and reserve deputy duties schools would hire us for security at school functions such as basketball, football games and school dances etc.
So the thought of having armed security in our schools is not a new concept.
And that was during early times when you could just walk in to a school during school hours through unlocked doors.
Still they thought the need was there for certain functions.
There are some schools that have a trained officer on duty at all times, but due to the money crunch and allowing a few anti-gun people to dictate their wishes we have created an area that the "bad guy" is free to enter or at least be on the property.
Once entry is gained into our schools this person is confronted with no "trained qualified person" capable of escalating their response to meet the specific incident at hand.
For a long time our country has had a "major" mental health care problem. Now due to lack of that care for so many years, victims of mental health are now becoming quite evident.
Law enforcement's hands are tied as there is little they can do without the appropriate preventative laws. It's up to us to fix this now; taking firearms out of the hands of good people will not fix this.
We have enough gun laws on the books that are not being enforced already.
As for the media, most have a pressured one-sided view about guns.
Anti-gun folks have their share of extremists that will not listen to any form of reason.
There are those that think the rifle used in Connecticut is an assault rifle like used by our military.
Remember the saying "If it looks like a duck it must be a duck". That being the case then the rifle used in the Connecticut incident must be a military type "assault rifle."
It is not. The military version is capable of being fired in the full automatic "machine gun" mode, where the civilian version is semi-auto only.
That is a common available function of many makes and models of rifles, shotguns and handguns of civilian firearms for years and years.
Full auto capable firearms have their own restrictions already in place. It appears to me that the definition of an assault rifle needs to be updated and more specific.
The National School Shield Program, instituted and I am under the understanding that it is paid for by the National Rifle Association, entails training and security consultation and can be customized to suit each schools needs.
Why not try it? The lives of our kids depend on it.
Please talk to your school authorities encouraging them to give this program a chance and be involved in keeping our kids safe at school as most responsible parents do while they are not in their direct supervision.
If some research is done you will find that eliminating the “No Gun Zone” thus allowing qualified concealed carry is the way to go.
It is active in one of our states and and a few others are looking into concepts such as this.
You can find this video and text version in its entirety at NRA.org on your computer.
I also encourage you to read an article by author Larry Coreia. It is lengthy but rivets your full attention. It can be found at thepatriotperspective.wordpress.com.
Al Koper
Oregon
Retired Law Enforcement Officer
Life Member National Rifle Association
Life Member Illinois State Rifle Association
