# How can we better prevent school shootings?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-better-prevent-school-shootings/644051
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [December 14, 2012, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-better-prevent-school-shootings/644051 "2012-12-14T18:46:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 30
### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2012, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-better-prevent-school-shootings/644051/581 "2012-12-29T02:57:15Z")
> [@doorhinge](#):
>
> Who else could legally ransack your home looking for whatever is listed on their warrant(s)?
I’m not saying they wouldn’t be the ones to do it - I’m saying nobody would be doing it in the first place.
> [@](#):
>
> Door to door gun confication efforts by various police departments and National Guard troops occured in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. By order of Mayor Nagin and the NO Police Chief.
>
> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf8trl69kzo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf8trl69kzo)
Oh, come on. You don’t see how an urgent, time-sensitive situation where public order and I daresay civilization itself had more or less entirely collapsed for a little while could be a tiny teensy bit different than legislating regular society over time ? Call for more urgent measures ? Don’t compare apples to dinosaurs.
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> Timothy McVeigh was his day’s “middle-aged couch-borne internet tough guy” whose last straw was some combination of Ruby Ridge, Waco, and the original Assault Weapons Ban. I’d wager that any attempt at nation-wide confiscation will spawn for more Timothy McVeigh copycats than we have federal buildings.
Be hard to be Timothy McVeigh 2.0, fertilizer purchases are carefully monitored these days. It’s actually sort of amusing - at this time the sale, distribution and purchase of nitrate-based fertilizers is more closely monitored and regulated by the BATFE than actual gun & ammo sales.
[Cite](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/23/1113044/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-Federal-government-monitors-big-fertilizer-buys-but-not-ammo-in-bulk)
> [@DailyKos Article](#):
>
> “There are protocols in place, voluntary ones, for people to call in to the Department of Homeland Security” when potential explosives get bought in bulk, adds Cloonan [the retired counterterrorism expert]. “Every time there’s an uptick in the terror warning, they have robust — and I mean robust — outreach” up and down the supply chain for potential explosives. Those alerts apply to people with criminal backgrounds or who are on terrorist watchlists, as well those who don’t. It doesn’t work the same way with firearms. There is no federal database of gun owners or gun purchasers. The Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986 prohibits the feds from maintaining one.
Y’all live in a weirdass country, you know that ? 😃
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### Author:  [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-better-prevent-school-shootings/644051/582 "2012-12-29T04:18:46Z")
> [@Kobal2](#):
>
> I’m not saying they wouldn’t be the ones to do it - I’m saying nobody would be doing it in the first place.
>
> Oh, come on. You don’t see how an urgent, time-sensitive situation where public order and I daresay civilization itself had more or less entirely collapsed for a little while could be a tiny teensy bit different than legislating regular society over time ? Call for more urgent measures ? Don’t compare apples to dinosaurs.
You can say that nobody would be going door-to-door to confiscate firearms if you like BUT that’s exactly what happened after hurricane Katrina. I don’t understand your confusion? It’s already happened. It’s a fact.
I didn’t know you could confuse apples and dinosaurs but I’ll take your word for it. hehehe. I’m not sure how you came up with your “Urgent” and “time-sensitive” assumptions but the storm had passed. The confiscations took place during the rebuilding phase.
Residents complained that there were not enough police officers to prevent the lootings and robberies that were taking place. Mayor Nagin and the Police Chief assigned many of the on-loan police officers from other cities to door-to-door firearms confiscating duty. Confiscating firearms from the very people who were demanding more police protection. Police protection that New Orleans could not supply. The police could not protect the people and Nagin and the city of New Orleans wouldn’t let the homeowners protect themselves.
Instead of using these extra police officers to protect the law-abiding residents from the criminals, Nagin chose to protect the looters from the law-abiding residents.
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### Author:  [@Richard\_E.Nixon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_E.Nixon)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-better-prevent-school-shootings/644051/583 "2013-01-03T22:46:20Z")
All you have to do is arm all the students. Then any shooter would be gunned down as soon as he pulled out a weapon. Plus, you wouldn’t need security guards or metal detectors at schools anymore. Just have the teachers pass out the pistols at the beginning of the school day and collect them at the end. Case closed.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-better-prevent-school-shootings/644051/584 "2013-01-03T23:58:28Z")
> [@Richard\_E.Nixon](#):
>
> All you have to do is arm all the students. Then any shooter would be gunned down as soon as he pulled out a weapon. Plus, you wouldn’t need security guards or metal detectors at schools anymore. Just have the teachers pass out the pistols at the beginning of the school day and collect them at the end. Case closed.
Why would you collect them at the end of the day? Just because the guns are school property doesn’t mean that the students shouldn’t have them outside of school. Most schools don’t pass out textbooks and then require them back at the end of the day. Same thing. If something is useful during the school day, students should have access to the same resources available away from school as well.
I kid but only a little. We could bring our own guns to school when I was in high school as long as it was hunting season and you left them in your vehicle. It was perfectly fine and fairly common among rural school districts up until the last few years. Other rural districts had similar policies but required guns to be checked into a central location for storage when people came to school straight from hunting. That was more for theft protection than anything however.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-better-prevent-school-shootings/644051/585 "2013-01-11T00:44:34Z")
[Another school shooting in Taft, CA – one major injury, three minor, body count of zero.](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324081704578233810052073612.html)_yawn_
> [@](#):
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> The alleged shooter was taken into custody at Taft Union High School in the 10,000-person town of Taft, Calif., after the teacher convinced him to put down the gun.
An **unarmed** teacher saves the day just using **words?!** Imagine that!
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### Author:  [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-better-prevent-school-shootings/644051/586 "2013-01-11T03:06:25Z")
Thank God for the teacher, because I guess the [guy with the gun](http://www.salon.com/2013/01/10/nra_alex_jones_gun_owners_of_america_quiet_on_new_school_shooting/) wasn’t very good.
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