Diamondback6
Member
Mods, please move to Legaal, Activism or Activism Planning if appropriate.
Anyway, I'm in the very fortunate position of having an old friend and classmate now in the State Legislature, and it occurs to me that the best way to keep the Grabbers' hands off our guns in the wake of Sandy Hook is to demonstrate that we have much more effective and less-costly alternatives, and win the general public over with them. I've put together a "core" for a package based on a few ideas that made sense to me from various sources.
I also have a bit of a unique perspective, based on an experiment that the Chancellor of my college approved some friends in Security and I conducting back in my college days: The summer after Virginia Tech, on a Friday when the rest of the campus was shut down, they, a few friends among the faculty who could spare the time that I asked to assist and I did a Full Scale Exercise using airsoft, with the Chancellor and the Director of Security umpiring and me playing the role of the "Red Team". In a nutshell, in several run-throughs we found that other things can slow things down and buy time, but the only way to STOP a truly determined Spree Killer is swiftly applied overwhelming force, with equal or preferably superior firepower. Campus policy was that Security had to go with no more than Mace, and even though we made a persuasive case to the Chancellor for better equipment in our demonstration, his Executive Assistant (an anti, who liked neither the fact that there was an off-duty cop in Security NOR the fact that CCW permitholder students weren't preemptively expelled just for having that cred) somehow had some bureaucratic dirty tricks up her sleeve and killed any chance of implementation... (Though the policy at my alma mater, at least when I mustered out several Chancellorships ago, was that if you have a carry permit, as long as you keep it concealed so nobody finds out about it, or nobody raises a stink about it, you're golden, if somebody finds it AND complains then it goes or you go.)
Anyway, the foundation that I'd propose:
1. Harden classroom doors, more along the lines of an airliner cockpit door--door is more resistant to fire (at minimum I would advocate stop a .44 Magnum slug, ideally a .223, pipedream a .30-06 or .308 NATO), door is locked at all times and for entry you have to be buzzed in by the teacher, much like how in some apartments or hotels you have to be let into the building by a remote-unlock from the front desk.
2. At minimum, authorizing staff who desire to carry and have Concealed Weapons Permits to do so, subject to them taking additional training (though precisely what kind I'm not yet certain; this is a "conceptual framework" not a Ready-To-Introduce bill) and the restriction that they use a minimum caliber of .380 auto (or maybe 9x19mm Parabellum), they must keep it ON-BODY (no purse-carry) and CONCEALED so nobody knows who the armed staff are except maybe the principal. Alternate for the squeamish: establish an educational-institution variant of the Federal Flight Deck Officer armed-pilot program, with training and firearms run through the Marshal's Service.
3. We DO need to overhaul the mental-health system... both to make it easier to identify and manage the violently insane, but also to de-stigmatize clinical diagnoses and reassure the Good Guys that not only will voluntarily seeking help NOT cost them any rights, but shows them to be better people for recognizing what needs to be done and doing it. (I speak from personal experience on this, living with Asperger's; when I first started serious training I had serious worries about how it would affect my eligibility for a carry permit, and in reply one of the cops who trained me gave what I consider some of the highest praise I've ever received, telling me that after completing standard police training he would be quite comfortable swearing me in as a member of his department. Though I know there ARE people who are like "Autistic? With a gun? *empties bladder and bowels*") I do not know HOW to fix it, but the first stage of remedying a problem is recognizing that it exists, and I think any sane person is at that point. Perhaps penalties for obstruction of diagnosis and treatment, since Peter Lanza spent a great deal of money trying to cover up that he had a not-quite-right son, and even now that $1-million-plus annual salary is being used to great effect in creating a "wall of silence" between his homicidal son's head and those trying to get inside it to figure out what triggers lit him off and what could have been done to recognize early-warning signs and save his mother's life and the lives of those people at Sandy Hook. (It appears that his mother trying to take steps to get him diagnosed and into care may be one possible flashpoint--he liked his gravy train of having Mommy take care of him with Daddy's unlimited money and didn't wanna grow up, she wanted to have a chance at a life of her own rather than being chained down with a trial-size Frank Breitkopf*, and he took lethal exception when she wanted out of what he saw as his quite comfortable arrangement.)
*UNSUB in Criminal Minds episode "No Way Out": a brilliant but sociopathic kid whose mother tries to isolate him from the world to contain the damage he can do, but the downside is that after she dies he's set loose on the world living on her money and what he lifts off those he kills.
Anyone have any ideas to elaborate on, develop or expand this? I've crossposted this in a thread at GunHub, but thought two sets of heads are better than one.
As pointed out by GunHub member Kevin Gibson, we have three rings of security to deal with on any site of any kind, and four pillars for each ring.... Rings are "Outside Building", "Inside Building" and "Individual Room", pillars are "Deter", "Detect", "Delay" and "Respond."
OUTSIDE
Deter:
Detect:
Delay:
Respond:
INSIDE
Deter: possibility of armed staff roaming, restricted entry
Detect: all entry requires "buzz-in" authorization or key
Delay: hardened doors
Respond: lockdown building, alert SRO and principal and immediately call local LE
ROOM
Deter: possibility of armed staff inside
Detect: panic-button attached to door buzzer, so
Delay: hardened door buys extra time
Respond: armed staffmember if present, panic-button to trigger master alarm, lockdown school and alert SRO and principal
Since we can't edit posts after 24 hours, I may have to repost edits incorporating further findings and your suggestions into a later reply.
Anyone game for helping pitch in on this? I'm hoping to develop this into something that not only could I pitch to my old buddy who represents me here, but that we could all fire off to our Congresscritters as a popularly-supported "Fire Mission" alternate option. If we can get one Congressman from a rural, low-population, head-screwed-on-straight district to introduce it...
Educators, I would especially appreciate your input on this, what potential unforeseen complications you might notice and ways to address them.
Anyway, I'm in the very fortunate position of having an old friend and classmate now in the State Legislature, and it occurs to me that the best way to keep the Grabbers' hands off our guns in the wake of Sandy Hook is to demonstrate that we have much more effective and less-costly alternatives, and win the general public over with them. I've put together a "core" for a package based on a few ideas that made sense to me from various sources.
I also have a bit of a unique perspective, based on an experiment that the Chancellor of my college approved some friends in Security and I conducting back in my college days: The summer after Virginia Tech, on a Friday when the rest of the campus was shut down, they, a few friends among the faculty who could spare the time that I asked to assist and I did a Full Scale Exercise using airsoft, with the Chancellor and the Director of Security umpiring and me playing the role of the "Red Team". In a nutshell, in several run-throughs we found that other things can slow things down and buy time, but the only way to STOP a truly determined Spree Killer is swiftly applied overwhelming force, with equal or preferably superior firepower. Campus policy was that Security had to go with no more than Mace, and even though we made a persuasive case to the Chancellor for better equipment in our demonstration, his Executive Assistant (an anti, who liked neither the fact that there was an off-duty cop in Security NOR the fact that CCW permitholder students weren't preemptively expelled just for having that cred) somehow had some bureaucratic dirty tricks up her sleeve and killed any chance of implementation... (Though the policy at my alma mater, at least when I mustered out several Chancellorships ago, was that if you have a carry permit, as long as you keep it concealed so nobody finds out about it, or nobody raises a stink about it, you're golden, if somebody finds it AND complains then it goes or you go.)
Anyway, the foundation that I'd propose:
1. Harden classroom doors, more along the lines of an airliner cockpit door--door is more resistant to fire (at minimum I would advocate stop a .44 Magnum slug, ideally a .223, pipedream a .30-06 or .308 NATO), door is locked at all times and for entry you have to be buzzed in by the teacher, much like how in some apartments or hotels you have to be let into the building by a remote-unlock from the front desk.
2. At minimum, authorizing staff who desire to carry and have Concealed Weapons Permits to do so, subject to them taking additional training (though precisely what kind I'm not yet certain; this is a "conceptual framework" not a Ready-To-Introduce bill) and the restriction that they use a minimum caliber of .380 auto (or maybe 9x19mm Parabellum), they must keep it ON-BODY (no purse-carry) and CONCEALED so nobody knows who the armed staff are except maybe the principal. Alternate for the squeamish: establish an educational-institution variant of the Federal Flight Deck Officer armed-pilot program, with training and firearms run through the Marshal's Service.
3. We DO need to overhaul the mental-health system... both to make it easier to identify and manage the violently insane, but also to de-stigmatize clinical diagnoses and reassure the Good Guys that not only will voluntarily seeking help NOT cost them any rights, but shows them to be better people for recognizing what needs to be done and doing it. (I speak from personal experience on this, living with Asperger's; when I first started serious training I had serious worries about how it would affect my eligibility for a carry permit, and in reply one of the cops who trained me gave what I consider some of the highest praise I've ever received, telling me that after completing standard police training he would be quite comfortable swearing me in as a member of his department. Though I know there ARE people who are like "Autistic? With a gun? *empties bladder and bowels*") I do not know HOW to fix it, but the first stage of remedying a problem is recognizing that it exists, and I think any sane person is at that point. Perhaps penalties for obstruction of diagnosis and treatment, since Peter Lanza spent a great deal of money trying to cover up that he had a not-quite-right son, and even now that $1-million-plus annual salary is being used to great effect in creating a "wall of silence" between his homicidal son's head and those trying to get inside it to figure out what triggers lit him off and what could have been done to recognize early-warning signs and save his mother's life and the lives of those people at Sandy Hook. (It appears that his mother trying to take steps to get him diagnosed and into care may be one possible flashpoint--he liked his gravy train of having Mommy take care of him with Daddy's unlimited money and didn't wanna grow up, she wanted to have a chance at a life of her own rather than being chained down with a trial-size Frank Breitkopf*, and he took lethal exception when she wanted out of what he saw as his quite comfortable arrangement.)
*UNSUB in Criminal Minds episode "No Way Out": a brilliant but sociopathic kid whose mother tries to isolate him from the world to contain the damage he can do, but the downside is that after she dies he's set loose on the world living on her money and what he lifts off those he kills.
Anyone have any ideas to elaborate on, develop or expand this? I've crossposted this in a thread at GunHub, but thought two sets of heads are better than one.
As pointed out by GunHub member Kevin Gibson, we have three rings of security to deal with on any site of any kind, and four pillars for each ring.... Rings are "Outside Building", "Inside Building" and "Individual Room", pillars are "Deter", "Detect", "Delay" and "Respond."
OUTSIDE
Deter:
Detect:
Delay:
Respond:
INSIDE
Deter: possibility of armed staff roaming, restricted entry
Detect: all entry requires "buzz-in" authorization or key
Delay: hardened doors
Respond: lockdown building, alert SRO and principal and immediately call local LE
ROOM
Deter: possibility of armed staff inside
Detect: panic-button attached to door buzzer, so
Delay: hardened door buys extra time
Respond: armed staffmember if present, panic-button to trigger master alarm, lockdown school and alert SRO and principal
Since we can't edit posts after 24 hours, I may have to repost edits incorporating further findings and your suggestions into a later reply.
Anyone game for helping pitch in on this? I'm hoping to develop this into something that not only could I pitch to my old buddy who represents me here, but that we could all fire off to our Congresscritters as a popularly-supported "Fire Mission" alternate option. If we can get one Congressman from a rural, low-population, head-screwed-on-straight district to introduce it...
Educators, I would especially appreciate your input on this, what potential unforeseen complications you might notice and ways to address them.
