3 things we can do RIGHT NOW to make schools safer that are better than marching

Today, Bloomberg’s Everytown organization is sponsoring protest marches across the country to demonize and hopefully criminalize legal gun ownership by responsible, law abiding adults.

They say that the goal of the marches are to stop gun violence, stop mass shootings at schools, and to keep kids safe, but, as I’m about to show you, all of these stated goals are built on lies and deception and just designed to suck people in and make gun owners look like monsters.

So, today, we’re going to talk quickly about the truth behind these lies and I’m going to lay out 3 things that YOU can do today that have the potential to make schools safer in the next 7 days.  Not 7 weeks, or 7 months, but things you can do today to be a part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Let’s get right to it…

I’m not going to list domain names or full organizational names because I tend to get a big jump in hacking attacks when I write about these types of organizations.  It turns out that they believe free speech is a monologue which they control and they have no tolerance for diverse thought.

The marches this weekend call themselves “March For Our Lives.”  They appear to be grassroots uprisings, but they are cleverly orchestrated events.  If you go to their website, you’ll see that the email addresses for contacting them are “Everytown” addresses.  Everytown is one of Bloomberg’s organizations created to end the legal ownership of firearms by US citizens.  The goal of the march is to get as many young hurting/scared/naïve kids and adults to buy into a false argument and then make it appear as if the majority of people want gun control.

So, let’s look at the myths, starting with the names and terms they use.

“March for our lives” sounds awesome.  After all, who could argue with it?  If you’re against it, you must be against “our lives.”  That would make you evil.  You don’t want to be evil, do you?  More importantly, you don’t want people to think you’re evil, do you?  I thought at first that it was the name of a pro-life march, but that obviously wasn’t the case.

The naming of the event was designed to shape the narrative.  But let’s look at the facts.

I need to preface all of this by saying that it’s horrible when an innocent person dies.  But I would argue that it’s horrible regardless of what the cause of death is.

1. If marchers, protesters, and the media actually want to actually save lives…specifically the lives of kids…maybe they should focus on the things that kill kids in the greatest numbers, like car accidents, malignant neoplasms (cancer), and suicide, which all kill more kids per year than school shootings according to the CDC. In fact, more kids age 10-19 die in a single average year from heart disease than have died in school shootings in the last 17 years COMBINED.

But do you know how many people have died in school shootings since 2000?  According to the news coverage, it must be thousands.  In reality, it’s roughly 150.  Just under 10 per year.  This includes elementary, middle, and high schools, but not colleges.  Why do I say “roughly.”  Because that number includes husbands killing their wives at work, youth love triangles gone bad, and the majority were the result of gang violence, including guys in their 30s shooting each other in a school parking lot after school hours.  If you count the Rancho Tahama shooting (I did), where no students died and nobody died on school property, the total number of mass shootings at schools (not colleges) since 2000 where 4 or more people were killed is 6 (six).  You can verify this by going to Wikipedia, downloading their charts of school shootings into excel, and sorting the data however you want.

The roughly 150 deaths at school shootings in the last 17 years is bad.  It’s a tragedy.

But according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 2,000-3,000 teens die per year in car accidents.

According to the CDC, 4,000+ 10-19 year old kids die from suicide each year.

According to the CDC, roughly 1,000 10-19 year old kids die each year from cancer.

According to the CDC, roughly 100 10-19 year old kids die each year from the flu & pneumonia.  That’s STILL 10x more deadly than school shootings.

Please understand that I’m not trying to minimize the lives of those who died in school shootings or the pain that their friends and families feel on a daily basis.  But if the goal is to save lives, there are more effective ways than criminalizing private ownership of 300+ million guns in a feeble attempt to end school shootings.

In fact, I would STRONGLY argue that we could save more teen lives by teaching teens about the addictive nature of portable game consoles, internet connected phones, and social media.  Teach them how their feedback loops for dopamine and serotonin are being manipulated, cortisol levels elevated, and sleep cycles disturbed and teach them how to take control of the process before they get in a car wreck or come to the false conclusion that suicide is the best option.

2. The 2^nd stated goal of the marches is to “end gun violence.” Ugh.  As I’ve said before, “gun violence” doesn’t exist.  It makes as much logical sense as “fork overeating.”  Guns exist and violence exists, but guns are inert and don’t commit violence…people do, and they do it with a variety of tools.Even if “gun violence” were real, it wouldn’t necessarily be bad.  As an example, the appropriate use of “gun violence” saved the Jews from Hitler.  Do we really want to stop officers from using “gun violence” to stop violent threats?  Do we really want to stop women who are being threatened with rape or great bodily harm from using “gun violence” to protect themselves?

   We will never end violence or gun violence.  Violence has been and always will be a reality for humans and animals.  Denying that violence exists doesn’t make it go away or make us safer.  Guns simply shift the balance of power.  It gives the old, the weak, and those who want to live at peace a more level playing field against violence.  Or it gives tyrants a mechanism to control their subjects.  Our best option is to train up good people in the appropriate and just use of violence to protect the innocent from evil people who are willing to use violence to impose their will and take what they want by force.

3. The 3^rd stated goals of the marches is to stop mass school shootings. A mass shooting is defined as a shooting where 4 or more people, including the murderer, die.  There have been 6 since 2000 and that’s horrible on multiple levels.  The 6 shootings were:

Newtown, CT
Parkland, FL
Red Lake, MN
Rancho Tahama Reserve, CA
Nickel Mines, PA
Marysville, WA

I believe 100% in the goal of ending mass murder at schools.  But people willing to murder others will always be able to get guns and eliminating legal ownership won’t stop mass shootings.  It will only tip the balance of power further towards violent criminals who are willing to break the law.  We can look around the world and see that mass shootings are interchangeable with mass stabbings and bombings.  Guns aren’t the problem.  A lack of good people not having the right tools & skills to stop violent criminals is the problem.

Fortunately, we have facts, logic, reason, history, and test cases from around the world to guide our steps.

Forcibly stopping murderers as early in their sequence as possible is the only method proven effective throughout the world and throughout history to keep them from beginning their spree or racking up the numbers they want.

Don’t get me wrong.  Mental health care is awesome and we should improve it.  Enforcing current laws is awesome.  But the only way to have an immediate, tangible impact is for large numbers of good people to have the ability to forcibly STOP murderers when they go kinetic…like Deputy Gaskill did in MD this week.

So, what can we do?

What can we do today?

They’re actually different questions.

There are some things that we can do that may be “better” solutions but they can’t be implemented immediately.

Training up additional teachers with state and local programs similar to the armed pilots program (Federal Flight Deck Officer program, created by the Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act) would be an excellent solution, but it would take months to get approved and implemented.

30 states currently have some form of armed teachers/staff…but it’s a mish-mash and in some cases is only an isolated secondary school or private school.  18 states have more widespread programs, but even most of those are severely limited.  Changing all of those laws and policies and the Federal laws that complicate the matter will take time.

In the meantime, what can we do?

Well, in Oklahoma, one school installed 7 bulletproof tornado shelters.  This makes sense in tornado alley when the tornado threat is a regular occurrence, but not in most of the rest of the country when school shootings are such a rare occurrence.  Most schools would save more lives from suicide prevention, driver safety, or leadership training for students.

There are bulletproof blankets, bulletproof rolling whiteboards, escape doors, and other great solutions that could be implemented…but they all take time and cost money.

The difficult thing about these solutions is that they are all a complete waste of money—right up until about 2 seconds after the first shot is fired in a school.  In that instant, they go from being a waste of money to being priceless.  If individuals donate them, it’s a no-brainer.  But if the school has to take the money from other programs, the decision process becomes infinitely more complex.

But what can we do that won’t take time and won’t waste money?

Adding an additional fire extinguisher in each room and showing teachers how to use them as weapons is a GREAT start.

One school has put a bucket of river rocks in each room…and it’s absolutely brilliant in it’s simplicity and proven effectiveness.

We can enhance the training of teachers who are already switched on…regardless of where they are in the country and what defensive tools they’re currently allowed to carry.

For teachers and administration who are already armed and already allowed to carry at school, we’ve donated well over $2,000 of firearms training–over $1,000 in materials to a single school–in the last month and a half.  And for every 21 Day Alpha Shooter course bought through >THIS LINK< we’ll donate more to teachers who are already carrying on the job.  So click on that link to help yourself AND to help an armed teacher.  Both you and they will see a marked increase in performance in the next 7 days with minimal time and effort.

For teachers and administration who aren’t allowed to carry purpose built defensive tools, we have a couple of other options.  They aren’t as good as a gun at a distance, but for a teacher who’s brave enough to confront a shooter and take bullets meant for their students and/or who can get an angle or close distance, the right tactical pen skills or tactical flashlight skills can stop a lethal threat in a few quick heartbeats.

The best information on stopping threats with a tactical pen is in our Special Forces TacPen Guide.  And when you order a Stealth Tactical Pen through >THIS LINK<, you’ll get instant access to the TacPen Guide AND we’ll give this valuable guide to 5 teachers or other school employees.  Supplies are very limited on this.

There’s a 3^rd way you can help make REAL positive change TODAY.  When you sign up for the Avoid Deter Defend situational awareness and defensive flashlight course, you’ll get instant access to the training, we’ll mail out the DVDs AND we’ll donate access to the course to a teacher or other school employee.  Click >HERE< to take advantage of this.

The great thing about a flashlight is that it’s something you can use every single day for ordinary purposes.  The correct use of a tactical flashlight can stop many target-of-opportunity attacks at a distance without having to touch the suspect and without hurting them if they didn’t mean any harm.  It will enhance your ability with any other defensive tool you may have, including a pistol.  Take advantage of this for yourself and help a teacher at the same time right now by clicking >HERE<

If you’re a teacher and want access to the training, simply comment below and we’ll get you taken care of.

Questions?  Comments?  Confusion about why the stats I present are SO different from what you see from the mainstream media?  Fire away by commenting below!

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