The root of the problem is that there are too damn many guns floating around in this society and it’s too damn easy for anybody to get one. But, let’s face it, we’re not going to do anything about that anytime soon.
In the wake of the tragedy at Madison’s Abundant Life School, Speaker Robin Vos was quick to say that proposals for universal background checks and red flag laws will not see the light of day in the Assembly. Madison Sen. Kelda Roys says she’ll introduce them anyway and good for her, but even this stuff is pretty weak tea. Anyway, Vos’ reaction just underscores how the paranoid gun extremists have a hold on his party. Increased background checks and red flag laws have the support of 80% of Wisconsinites and 70% of gun owners — including this one. No matter. It’s the gun zealots calling the shots.
But Vos did say he supported permanent and expanded funding for the state Department of Justice’s Office of School Safety. The office was created in 2018 by then-Gov. Scott Walker, but it was funded in recent years through Federal COVID relief money and legislative Republicans refused to replace that expiring funding with state dollars. Now, Vos says he’ll allow that to happen and apparently at a higher amount as requested by Attorney General Josh Kaul.
The office provides a hotline for tips about people who might be planning a school shooting, training for school staff in identifying potential problems and support services after a shooting takes place.
Another positive development is that a leader in the state’s Muslin community, Masood Akhtar, has stepped up to offer to buy a new security system for Abundant Life and to lead a corporate fundraising effort to evaluate existing systems at other schools and to pay for improvements when necessary.
The response to this reminds me of our response to climate change. We missed our chance to do something about the actual problem, so now we’re going to spend billions, probably trillions, of dollars managing it. So, instead of doing anything about the easy access to deadly weapons, we’re going to have to spend millions of dollars on “hardening the targets,” as if our schools are nuclear missile silos.
On one level this is both tragic and crazy. But it’s what we’re left with. The alternative is to do nothing, and the cost of that can’t be measured.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
The focus needs to be on the mental health awareness and treatment of potential killers, not their weapon of choice. Guns get the most media attention, but crazed individuals have shown they can and will kill with knives, hammers, vehicles, and many other things.
Possession, sale, and use of illegal drugs is legislated against in every way imaginable, but it all continues. More restrictions on firearms will only hamper law abiding citizens.
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Well, yes, but guns are more efficient killers than other weapons. Two dozen kids and teachers could not have been stabbed to death in Sandy Hook.
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That is an argument against any restriction whatsoever. Yes, people will break laws; shall there be no laws?
I guess we should also allow shoulder fired middle launchers and tanks. Why not personal use nuclear weapons? After all, in the hands of a responsible individual we have nothing to fear from any of those weapons.
Set me straight- Where do you propose we draw the line between what’s legal and illegal? Why do you choose this particular line?
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