Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on School Violence
Earlier this week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales met privately with public safety, education and mental health officials in Jackson, Mississippi to discuss ways to make schools safer. What can we do? Some, like former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich have noted how students with concealed weapons have stopped such shootings on other campuses.
"I don't think that is the answer, quite frankly," Gonzales said in Oklahoma. Instead, authorities should enforce existing laws concerning the ownership and use of handguns, he said. Associated Press
This is sort of a silly non-statement. Of course authorities should enforce the law. The question is whether controlling guns or allowing responsible citizens to defend themselves would provide greater protection to citizens. The total ban on the Virginia Tech campus did not protect anyone. How are they to improve enforcement? Metal detectors and random searches, turning us into the police state the left is always accusing the right of attempting to create?
"We can't guarantee complete security," Gonzales said.
That is probably one of the most sensible things any politician has said on the matter. But I'll get back to that.
"We need to see what we can do as a government - on the federal level, on the state level - to ensure the safety of our students."
Yikes. What can the federal government do? Offer more training by the secret service? Have more conferences on school safety? Bring the principles of No Child Left Behind to the local police force? What could be done by government officials that was not already done?

In reading The Liberty Papers' take on the five minute delay by police before entering the building, which entailed more than half the time Cho spent shooting in Norris Hall, I was struck by one thought.

Five minutes. Two commercial breaks. Just a little longer than the average drive thru wait time. It may have been enough time for Cho to murder more than half his victims, but is it an unreasonable response time for police to rush in, break through the chained entrance and close in on a shooter?

What if the police did everything they could have possibly done?

We can't guarantee complete security.

At some point, we have to take that responsibility. As the Armed Canadian points out, there are three ways this tragedy could have been stopped. By police, although they are inherently reactive. There will always be a time delay between the start of a crime and the response of the police. By an armed citizen, however unlikely it may be that one would be present. Or by active resistance.

But we have to be prepared for it. And training students for the sit-and-wait mentality of the average lock down procedure might not be the best way to go about it.

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