The FBI has confirmed that on January 5, 2018, someone who was close to alleged Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz contacted the bureau, warning that Cruz had repeatedly expressed a desire to kill people, bragged about owning guns, posted disturbing thoughts on social media, and consistently exhibited erratic behavior. An FBI spokesman said, “under established protocols, the information provided by the caller should have been addressed as a potential threat to life.” Bureaucrat-speak to justify ineptitude is offensive, but so is blaming guns for problems caused by mentally defective people. Cruz’s deportment caused cops to make 36 trips to his home in the six years before the massacre; that’s an average of one visit every other month since 2012. 20 such visits since 2016, according to Broward county Sheriff Scott Israel. Nikolas Cruz had been expelled and banned from the school he shot up, and he was known to teachers, students and administrators as a violence-prone creep of questionable sanity. The only armed cop on the scene, a deputy Sheriff, waited outside the school for over four of the six minutes it took for Cruz to massacre his victims. Students who needed Dirty Harry got Barney Fife.
In the late 1970s, I was a student at Mason City high school. At MCHS and at its parochial counterpart, Newman Catholic, there was always a small arsenal – which included semi-automatic shotguns and ammo – in vehicles in the parking lots during hunting season. Students hunted pheasant, ducks and other quarry and then drove straight from the fields to class. One could differentiate the good hunters from the not-so-good by the amount of bird blood pooled on the floor under the lockers. But there was never a mass shooting and even following some aggressive fights, nobody ever shot up a school.
Gun control supporters often ignore cases where armed citizens saved lives by taking out losers intent on snuffing out innocent victims. In April, 2017, an Uber driver with a concealed-carry permit shot and wounded a gunman who opened fire on a crowd gathered in Chicago’s Logan Square. In 2015, two armed men, angry over a ‘Draw Muhammad’ cartoon contest at a Texas school arena, tried to kill its participants and sponsors. They got about halfway across the parking lot before being blown away by some alert, armed Texans, who prevented the perps from unleashing carnage. Designating places as ‘Gun-Free zones’ ignores the fact that many such zones have become shooting ranges for the mentally ill, who often are just angry nobodies wanting to exit this world as a somebody. Arming teachers and other school personnel, as President Trump favors, could stop these perps dead in their tracks.
Our Constitution isn’t designed to effectuate drastic governmental action of the sort desired by most gun control activists. It’s written to preclude sweeping change, absent a strong public consensus favoring broad, game-changing reform. Such consensus is presently nonexistent with regard to banning 15-round clips, or making it harder for law-abiding citizens to obtain firearms.
Stricter background checks for guns bought via private sales could make it harder for crazies to obtain them, but most mass shooters bought their weapons legally. Updating and improving databases is a wise expenditure of tax dollars and should be facilitated. Banning bump stocks might lower crime, and Mr. Trump is doing that. Some gun control proponents claim those who oppose their more draconian proposals are tacitly enabling murder. That’s nonsense. Yes, America is plagued by mass shootings. But it’s caused by self-destructive, entitled, unstable people, and shortcomings in law enforcement. Guns aren’t the problem.
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Todd A. Blodgett served on the White House staff of President Ronald Reagan, and the campaign staff of President George H. W Bush. He also worked for the Republican National Committee, and the FBI. Mr. Blodgett lives in Clear Lake, and is a member of the Iowa Gun Owners and a Life Member of the NRA.
Why isn’t there zero tolerance for “pedophiles” answer the powers that shouldn’t be need youngsters brains fractured/mentally ill for their entire life, also the powers that shouldn’t be are the ones who practice such wickedness why else would they protect them, they are part of they’re Satanic rituals, I challenge you to research the topic of “Satanic ritual abuse” you will discover what they believe and practice you can find many resources on the topic on youtube, or go have more pork & cupcakes and stay in an ignorant mindset.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/4-laws-that-could-stem-the-rising-threat-of-mass-shootings/?wt.mc=SA_Facebook-Share
Nazi Revolutionry Army. Proudly helping Americans kill Americans since 1871.
Put the personal biases out of the picture with Blodgett and address the real issue!! You guys need to wake up!!!
I do not know Blodgett at all, but his point of guns not being the problem but people are….DONE, BOTTOM LINE….put the gun in the possession of a mentally stable person…it’s taken care of responsibly!!! Otherwise chaos ensues!! SOOOO MANY people missing the point of all these tragedies!! Guns don’t Kill people!!..People Kill people!! I know everyone’s heard this, but think about it!! Tragedies are so unfortunate/sad/disturbing….our country needs to use “Common Sense” practices to combat the issues we’re facing!!
Why Todd Blodgett was expelled from The University Club of Washington DC
(1) his repeated use of offensive racial and ethnic slurs while on Club premises
(2) his non-joking references to and comments about women, African-Americans, Jews and Native Americans in a derogatory and offensive manner while on Club premises
(3) his use of the Club’s facilities to conduct business with persons who publicly expound racist and anti-Semitic views.
Mr. Marquardt, NIT can be a good source of information and news and alternative viewpoints that are swept under the rug or otherwise ignored by the other media here in north Iowa. So, kudos to you for making this available.
And I realize that whenever Mr. Blodgett spouts off, readers click-on to see his crazy takes on controversial issues and bloggers from all sides jump in to register their thoughts. That is what I am doing right now. But Blodgett is a cynical guy who works both sides of the political fence who plays people for his own amusement.
What does that tell you?
He baits these people, and really has no desire to generate constructive discourse on important public issues. Toddy boy is a white collar version of Mad Max Weaver. I think the difference is, Max believes what he says while Blodgett only likes to throw as much you-know-what up on the wall, just to see how much of it will stick.
Something to think about.
Ms. Pantode, if being labeled a “gun grabber” is all you can cypher from my comments it’s clear to me you are not going to be part of the solution. I offered “my 2 cents” to direct our focus to where I believe our discussion should head.
I will be more blunt than Samuel Adams to enhance the discussion.
America has a serious emotional fever, or the Mental Health Flu. The disease got it’s biggest boost from our public school systems that decided it was more important to change the inner character of our children than to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. These germs spread into the Media, Politics, Hollywood, etc. These germs were exactly what President Kennedy was referring to when he said there was a movement under way to “change our culture”.
Apparently another germ being spread is being offended by words like “gun grabber” as “name calling” when it was intended to point out taking guns away will not solve our violence problem. This to is part of the Mental Health Flu!
Great-Grandpa J. clearly understands why we have the problems we have. What I take from Great-Grandpa J. is this: All of the changes he has seen has brought us to the our current problem of school shootings, not guns!
Great-Grandpa J. has described some of our lost virtues. It’s time we re-claim those lost virtues.