Bush Summit To Discuss Solutions For School Violence
October 10, 2006
After three fatal school
shootings in a week, President Bush has told Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to come up with
solutions to addressing the problem in our nation's schools.
Specifically, the meetings -- which begin this week -- will host
educators and law-enforcement officials from around the country.
They are charged with reviewing security procedures around our nation's
schools to help prevent campus-based violence.
GOA has a great opportunity to show the President and others how to stop
gun violence on school grounds. Of course, it's inevitable that the gun
issue is going to come up. The media is already clamoring for that.
"There is a link in these killings," opined The Charlotte Observer. "A
gun was used." So, we need more gun control, the paper's editors say.
The Charlotte Observer is not alone. And that's why it is important that
the gun owning community present evidence showing how we can make our
schools safer. As GOA pointed out last week:
1. No amount of gun control would have stopped Charles Carl Roberts from
acquiring guns to commit his atrocity. Roberts had a clean record and
would have passed any and every background check.
2. The so-called "gun free school zones" have to go. Such disarmament
zones never stop bad guys from taking guns into a restricted area. In
fact, statistics show that the jurisdictions that ban guns tend to be
the same areas with the highest murder or crime rates (Washington, D.C.,
England, etc.).
3. The only school shootings that have been stopped prematurely were
ended because law-abiding citizens had guns -- such as in Pearl
Mississippi (1997) and at the Appalachian School of Law (2002), where
faculty and responsible adults were able to bring their own defensive
firearms to bear. This is an idea that Americans support, as 85% of the
American public find it appropriate for a principal or teacher to use "a
gun at school to defend the lives of students" in stopping a school
massacre (Research 2000 Poll).
To this end, Wisconsin state representative, Frank Lasee, will be
introducing legislation to allow teachers or principals to defend
students with guns. GOA has already appeared on MSNBC and other media
outlets to plug Lasee's bill.
This summit is a great opportunity to invite groups like GOA to present
the facts above and give concrete solutions for how to combat school
violence in our nation's schools.
ACTION: Because the subject of gun control is destined to arise at the
summit this week, please urge President Bush and Education Secretary
Margaret Spellings to invite gun groups like GOA and the NRA to present
the real facts regarding gun ownership in this country. They need to see
that arming teachers and principals is a solution that works and is
supported by 85% of the American public.
You can use the Take Action Now feature to send Bush and Spellings a
pre-written e-mail message