Schools and Guns

Today as the buses were loading up for dismissal two of my patrols came to report a problem on one of the buses. They informed me that one of the students on the bus was telling that he had a gun. I was pretty sure that the kid was just playing around but I thought better safe that sorry. So I made all the kids get off the bus and I looked through the kids backpacks.  I did not find anything So I talked to the student that had been claiming to have a gun. He admitted that he was just playing around with a rolled up piece of paper. 

I thought "point made" and he and the other students on the bus may think twice about making a threat about having a gun. 

Next I'm sitting at home having dinner and watching the news and a story comes on about a shooting at a school in Colorado   two miles from Columbine High School. That made me catch my breath. I thought about the students at my school then I thought about my niece and nephew who were students at Columbine High School in 1999 when 12 students and one teacher were killed by two gunmen. Fortunately this time only two were shot and suffered only only minor injuries. Have you ever seen minor injuries from a gunshot wound? I have and they are not very minor looking.

Is it just me or has the defense of gun owners rights gone too far?

Meeting with Detectives

Last Wednesday Jan and I met with the Tampa Police Detectives that did the investigation of Debra Monce when she shot my wife. As we expected they told us that it is not a crime to mishandle a gun, shoot someone and leave them without lending any aid what so ever. There are no laws that say that it is wrong to do that. On the contrary the laws protect persons with guns. When we obtained a copy of the police report the information about the gun had been redacted, as a person who had been shot Jan had no right to know what type of gun had shot her.

 The state of Florida and the Federal Government also protect Debra Monce in other other ways. In Florida it is against the law for me or anyone else to obtain information about who holds a concealed weapons permit. The Federal Government has also made it against the law to know how many or what type of guns an individual owns.

And because no charges were filed against Debra Monce she still has the right to carry concealed weapons and to buy as many guns as she wants with out any kind of background check. Just walk in show them her card and walk out with a gun. And now she can put a notch in her gun.

Other fun facts that I learned whole meeting with the Detectives; I thought that I had an idea of the number of guns that a crowd of people would be carrying. From my research I had determined that about 3 in a 100 people in the State of Florida had a concealed weapons permit and then I figured that at least that many more nuts also carried guns without a permit. Not quite 10%. When I spouted that "fact" to the detectives they assured me that I was wrong with my figures. The number that the police assume ( and I'm sure that they have a better idea than me) is out there is at least 25%! One in four.That is a lot of guns. That means that at family night at our school there could be upwards of 100 guns.

Thats a lot of nuts. And other than asking each person if they are packing heat and trusting their answer there is no way for me, the school, the police or anyone else to find out who they are. That is till the bullets start flying. Then if the gun nut can convince the States Attorney that, Oops, my bad I "dropped my gun" then they can continue with their meetings even while their victim is carried away in an ambulance.

Too much time

When Jan was shot there were phone calls, e-mails and reporters stopping by wanting an interview. The story was hot and everyone wanted a part of it.
Jan and I were still trying to process the fact that she had been shot and were not ready to talk. Jan was a victim and had what I can best describe as victims guilt. She had been shot by Debra Monce and was worried about her feelings. We wanted it to just go away.
But it still is not. Jan still carries a bullet in her body put there by Debra Monce and her gun. We both carry anger and frustration at Debra Monce and the system that allows her and people like her to carry guns.
The NRA says that guns don't kill people, people kill people. Well if Debra had been caring a knife, a lighter, a rope, a book or almost anything else and dropped it. Well that is all that would have happened, what ever it was it would have just hit the ground and laid there. Jan would not have been shot, we would not be living with this anger.
But unfortunately too much time has passed the news, and the interest in the story has faded. Which is funny to me because nothing has changed. Debra has taken no responsibility for her actions, more people in the State of Florida are able to secretly get guns and concealed weapons permit. I say secretly because in my research in Florida the identity of concealed weapon permit holders is kept secret by the state. The only thing I could find out is the number of permits issued. That worked out to be 3 in every 100. o next time you are in a crowd guess how many people are carrying guns. It gives you pause.

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