The children of Florida are demanding #NeverAgain.
Never may not be possible in a society awash with guns — but America can do much more to prevent school children from being murdered in their classrooms.
The students of Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School are showing us the way. Through articulate arguments and determination, they (and their parents and teachers) are turning their grief, fear and anger into action.
Florida politicians would be wise to heed their resolve and their promise to use their first vote to insure that “something changes”.
It’s not just Florida politicians who should take notice.
In 2020 3.9 million children born since the 1999 Columbine Massacre will vote in their first presidential election. These young people have grown up accustomed to “active shooter” drills in their schools. In the 13 years since Sandy Hook there have been 200 school shootings and 400 students have been killed.
Their fear is our shame. When our legislators took campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association (NRA) instead of passing reasonable gun safety legislation after Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after any one of 198 other school shootings – voters should have voted them out of office. But we didn’t.
In business when we see a pattern of adverse activity, we quickly work to identify the potential corrective action and implement them to alter the trajectory of the pattern.
For example, most of these child killers have a lot in common:
- All of them exhibited signs of social alienation or mental illness
- All of the school shootings were student on student violence
- Most of them obtained their weapons legally
- Many had parents who overcompensated — repeatedly – effectively covering-up and excusing for their child’s abnormal behavior
- With few exceptions, they were able to pass a National Instant Criminal (Background) Check (NICS).
It’s time to implement sensible corrective action:
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Raise the National Gun Ownership Age to 21.
Science tells us that the adolescent brain is not fully formed – that impulse control is not yet mature. It makes zero sense to allow an adolescent who cannot buy a beer to buy a powerful semi-automatic gun and high capacity ammunition magazines. Congress should raise the national age limit for gun ownership to 21.
The lack of impulse control magnifies the normal angst teenagers experience as they evolve from childhood toward adulthood.
The lack of impulse control leads teenagers to sometimes treat one another cruelly. Bullying is not new, but bullying magnified hundreds, thousands of times through social media can have deadly consequences.
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Include Juvenile Mental Health Records in NICS
Pediatricians no longer believe that children who exhibit mental illness as early as during their toddler years will “grow out of the problem”– mental illness – ranging from Asperger Syndrome to bi-polar disorder (manic depressive) to attention deficit disorder and anxiety disorders.
While juvenile criminal records might appropriately be sealed in most states the same is not true of mental health records because those illnesses are likely to follow the child into adulthood.
It is not necessary to unseal those records to put a “flag” into NICS requiring further investigation for juvenile offenders and diagnosed mental illness.
Such a flag would not preclude gun ownership, but would require further investigation before granting the permit to purchase.
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Authorities Must Follow-up On Every Credible Threat Reported
The FBI was warned twice about Nikolaz Cruz and did not follow-up. The FBI has committed to improving their threat evaluation process.
Many states have laws that require the temporary surrender of fire arms in cases of spousal abuse or if law enforcement deems the gun owner to be a danger to themselves or others. These are called “Red Flag Laws”.
Florida does not have such a law. Even if the Miami Field Office of the FBI had contacted Nikolaz Cruz – it is not likely they could have disarmed him.
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Implement Strict Training and Licensing Requirements
A gun is a powerful weapon. A life can be transformed or lost in an instance – deliberately or by accident. No one should be allowed to own or use such an instrument without rigorous training and evaluation.
No state would issue a driver’s license to an adolescent (or adult) who cannot demonstrate the ability to drive a car – cars can (and do) kill.
Why is it different for guns?
An examiner testing an applicant’s ability to use a gun safely might, also, be able to pick-up signs of a potential risk.
A gun licensing program would not be a guarantee against gun violence but it might reduce the number and frequency of shootings.
None of these measures would infringe on the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
March in Solidarity #Neveragain
Strengthening the NICS background check system and, even licensing firearms, wouldn’t guarantee the elimination of gun violence in our schools, churches, concerts, or airports, but tighter controls might save lives?
A complex, urban society needs realistic checks and balances between personal liberty and the common good.
That’s why all of us need to mark March 24 on our calendars.
It’s time to MARCH in solidarity with the students of Parkland, Florida, our own children and in memory of the 400 school children killed over the last decade.
Graphic courtesy of (WKYT TV) Nicholasville, Kt.
