"Marking the first anniversary of the shooting deaths at Columbine High School, President Clinton announced $120 million in new federal grants Saturday to place more police officers in schools and help even the youngest kids cope with their problems.
"In our national struggle against youth violence we must not fail our children; our future depends on it," the president said in his weekly radio address....Other subjects will include the risks, challenges and anxieties faced by young people today and what can be done to avoid dangerous or risky behavior.
"We need to talk about safety and security in every house in America," Clinton said....
Clinton also unveiled the $60-million fifth round of funding for "COPS in School," a Justice Department program that helps pay the costs of placing police officers in schools to help make them safer for students and teachers. The money will be used to provide 452 officers in schools in more than 220 communities.
"Already, it has placed 2,200 officers in more than 1,000 communities across our nation, where they are heightening school safety as well as coaching sports and acting as mentors and mediators for kids in need," Clinton said....
"As we prepare next week to mark the one-year anniversary of the tragedy at Columbine High School, our thoughts turn to the safety of our communities, schools and children," Clinton said. "All of us--parents, schools, communities and government--share responsibility to keep kids safe."
On April 20, 1999, two students at Columbine High in Littleton, Colo., fatally shot 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves." via Real Science
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12/22/12, "After the Columbine shooting, Bill Clinton wanted to put police in schools – and it was good. Now that the NRA has proposed the same thing, the idea is evil." Steven Goddard
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Above, NY Daily News front page, Tues., Dec.18, 2012
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Above, NY Daily News front page, Sat., Dec. 22, 2012
Pictured is president of NRA, Wayne La Pierre
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12/22/12, "Wayne LaPierre's Newtown statement pilloried by US newspapers," UK Guardian, Matt Williams
"New York Times and Hartford Courant among publications to denounce NRA leader's response as 'almost deranged'."
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12/24/12, "Yes, Columbine Had Armed Guards—And They Saved Lives," IBD editorial
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12/24/12, "Yes, Columbine Had Armed Guards—And They Saved Lives," IBD editorial
"As we have pointed out, the shooter at the theater in Aurora, Colo., had other theaters between his home and his ultimate target that he could have chosen. Yet, the one he picked was the one that publicly proclaimed itself gun-free.
We've also observed that in other school shooting incidents, such as at a high school in Pearl, Miss., the shooter's spree was cut short by the presence of an armed citizen able to shoot back.
Yes, the critics respond, and there was an armed security guard at Columbine High School in 1999.
Yet, 12 students and a teacher were killed by two armed intruders, as if that disqualified the solution of placing armed guards, possibly unemployed army veterans, at each of our nation's 100,000-plus schools.
Yes, there was, and it was the guard's presence and the resistance he and others offered that kept the carnage less than it might have been.
On April 20, 1999, Neil Gardner, an armed sheriff's deputy who had been policing the school for almost two years, was eating lunch when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold arrived at Columbine with their deadly arsenal and deadlier intentions.
Gardner said he got a call from a custodian that he was needed in the school's back parking lot. A few minutes later, he encountered Harris, and the two exchanged gunfire. The exchange with Harris lasted for an extended period of time, during which Harris' gun jammed.
The deputy and the backup he immediately called for exchanged fire with the shooters a second time and helped begin the evacuation of students, all before SWAT teams arrived, and before Harris and Klebold eventually killed themselves in the library.
Harris and Klebold also carried improvised explosive devices, some that detonated, others that didn't. One thing is certain — the armed resistance of Gardner and his backup bought time and saved lives.
There is no way of knowing how many lives were saved that day by an armed sheriff's deputy, and how many would have been slaughtered if nobody had been there with a gun at all.
We have noted that days before Sandy Hook, an armed citizen stopped a shooter threatening a massacre at a mall in Clackamas, Ore. It echoed what happened in 2007 during a rampage in Trolley Square, Utah, which was put to an end after an officer who was on a date with his wife, confronted the shooter and kept the 18-year-old shooter pinned down until more police arrived and killed the shooter.
Some would argue that turning our schools into so-called armed camps is not the answer. But until we find a way to address the common thread of mental illness in these shootings mixed in a deadly cocktail of video games and mass entertainment, a world in which deaths have no consequence and lives no meaning, having good guys with guns confront bad guys with guns is a workable solution that has save countless lives.
It even worked at Columbine." via Free Republic
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