Gun control again and again

The mainstream media is now displaying the fact that they have no shame in manipulating tragedy for their agenda. The most recent is their shameless exploitation of high school students to advance their gun control agenda.

This issue is continually in the news. A national school walkout was conducted on March 14 then the March for Our Lives was held on Saturday. Something of this scale could not be organized by high school students, no matter how capable. No, this was organized at a much higher level.

Don’t misunderstand, those students have as much right to speak out about school safety as anyone else. However, the deck is stacked for certain positions while eliminating any opposing or alternative view. That is exploitation. For example, in the recent March for Our Lives and the school walkout, there was only a call for more gun control. No other possibility was mentioned. Further, most of those gullible students there could not even say what an “assault rifle” is.

I suspect the school walkout was scheduled during school hours for a reason. How many students would have attended a rally after school hours? Probably about half. Many of those attendees were probably there as a good excuse to miss class.

You may have heard about the McQueen student who was suspended for an expletive-laden call to Congressman Amodei’s office, then unsuspended when the ACLU threatened to sue. There was also an expletive-laced interview on CNN with David Hogg, a Parkland student.

Here is some unsolicited advice for you who attempt to get your message across. An expletive-laden diatribe does not help you. It only illustrates that you cannot make a cohesive argument for your position. Your credibility is immediately lost. Learn from that. Do your homework and know the facts, and you will be much better off.

The real issue, the one not being addressed at all in the media hype, is that of protecting school children and enforcing gun laws as they stand. I have discussed the latter in a previous column, so will concentrate on the former.

Most of the celebrities who support gun control have a retinue of armed bodyguards. Media wonks blather about the need for gun control from secure buildings with an armed presence. Politicians do the same. If you go to the courthouse here locally on court day, you must go through a metal detector manned by an armed deputy. Likewise, federal court buildings and many other federal buildings have the same restrictions. Yet there is a seemingly unreasonable resistance to an armed presence in school facilities, both locally and nationwide.

I understand that cost is a big factor. I also understand that the lowest cost option is to utilize existing employees. There are school employees that are willing to undergo the training and certification necessary to concealed carry in schools. I agree, that should be an individual choice, not a mandated one. Placing yourself in the possible position of having to take a life is not an easy one. If that is not within your ability, that is your option. But just because you don’t care to does not mean that someone else will make the same choice.

That said, how dare you selfishly jeopardize the lives of children simply to suit your preference, your abhorrence to firearms, or any other reason. What gives you that right? What right do you have to determine that the judges, clerks, attorneys, plaintiffs, and defendants in our local courtroom are to be better protected than the children in your care?

Children are perfectly able to deal with the sight of a firearm, contrary to what the media tells you. In fact, seeing a pistol on a daily basis might remove the mystique of same. They might realize that a firearm doesn’t magically start to fire on its own. I can tell you from raising my own children that removing the curiosity factor from a firearm, along with properly enforced ground rules, makes it far less likely that a child will play with said firearm.

Or maybe that is the real problem. You don’t want that instant fear of a firearm removed from the equation because that doesn’t help the “disarm everyone” agenda.

You say it can’t happen here. I suspect that Sparks Middle School felt that way also, until Oct. 21, 2013. I suspect that those in Parkland and in St. Mary’s County, Maryland felt the same. The difference is that in Maryland the armed guard stopped further shooting. You don’t hear much about that, do you?

Tom Riggins’ column appears every other Friday. He may be reached at news@lahontanvalleynews.com.