By Doug Newman

I originally wrote this on September 28, 2006.

In the aftermath of Wednesday’s hostage taking and murder-suicide at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado,  I can just hear all the gun grabbers proclaiming that it only goes to show that we cannot tolerate guns in — or anywhere near — schools. Well, one of their dream bills has just been passed by Congress.

On September 23, World Net Daily reported that the House of Representatives has passed an anti-drug and anti-weapon bill – HR 5295 — that “would require local districts to develop search policies – including strip searches – with immunity against prosecution for teachers and staff.”

HR 5295 reads in part as follows:

“A search referred to in subsection (a) is a search by a full-time teacher or school official, acting on any reasonable suspicion based on professional experience and judgment, of any minor student on the grounds of any public school, if the search is conducted to ensure that classrooms, school buildings, school property and students remain free from the threat of all weapons, dangerous materials, or illegal narcotics. The measures used to conduct any search must be reasonably related to the search’s objectives, without being excessively intrusive in light of the student’s age, sex, and the nature of the offense.”

Five things came to mind immediately.

• First, the requirement of “reasonable suspicion” of a teacher or school staffer is not nearly as strong as the Fourth Amendment’s requirement of a judge’s warrant that shall not be issued “but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or Affirmation.” In the case of Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), the Supreme Court stated that students do not “shed their constitutional rights when they enter the school house door“. These rights also include the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
• Second, student-teacher sex is happening more and more frequently across America. Moreover, there is a new trend of female teachers having sex with male students.

Columbine was a gun-free zone.

• Third, while schools have been gun-free zones for years, this do-gooderism did not prevent the orgy of blood at Columbine. The Harrises and Klebolds of the world do not give one flying rip about anyone’s little pantywaist gun laws. On that horrible morning in 1999, the students, faculty and staff were absolutely defenseless as those two little pukes sprayed bullets all over the school.

• Fourth, the War on Drugs has been a monumental failure. There is now one drug arrest every 40 seconds in America. Largely because of the War on Drugs, America – the land of the free – has the world’s highest incarceration rate. America has more drugs than ever and more dangerous drugs than ever. Drug prohibition has not solved anything and has created a whole new host of problems that did not exist when we started down this road decades ago.
• Fifth, there is no constitutional authority whatsoever for federal intrusion in education. Article 1, Section 8, which spells out the 18 duties of the federal government, does not even mention the word “education”. The Tenth Amendment forbids Uncle Sam from intruding in any area not authorized by the Constitution. (The Constitution thereby forbids the drug war as well.)

It took a village to kill 20 children here.

The same folks who laughed convulsively when Hillary Clinton stated that “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child” evidently have no problem with the idea that it takes a police state to raise a child.

Well, I have some news for police state groupies: disarming students did not stop Columbine and it did not stop Wednesday’s bloodshed 38 miles southwest of Columbine. Duane Morrison, 53 — totally undeterred by everyone’s stupid gun laws — entered a classroom, fired a warning shot and ordered all the students out of the room, except for six girls. Over the next four hours he sexually assaulted several of the girls and killed one — 16-year-old junior Emily Keyes — before killing himself.

I can hear people saying: “I basically support the Second Amendment, but do we really neeeeed guns in schools?”

Let me give you a little thought experiment.

Let’s say that one of the students ordered to leave the room on Wednesday at Platte Canyon High had a gun in his book bag. And let us say that, fearing for his life and the lives of those around him, he shot Morrison. The innocent life of Emily Keyes would have been saved and no girls would have been sexually assaulted and traumatized.

Let me give you two more little thought experiments.

Let’s say that students were not forced to “shed their constitutional rights when they enter the school house door“. Let us say that Eric Harris and Dyaln Klebold would have been deterred by the mere possibility that someone somewhere on the Columbine campus could have busted a cap on them on that horrible morning in 1999.

Let’s say that the mere thought that someone somewhere on the Platte Canyon campus could be packing heat could have been enough to deter psycho sicko Duane Morrison from doing what he did on Wednesday.

When you disarm innocent people, bad things happen.

Really bad things happen.

Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In the seven-plus years since Columbine, nothing has changed. We throw more and more money at schools, and they just get worse. We lock up more and more druggies, and things just get worse. We continue to disarm students and we get more school shootings. We continue to beg for our government to “do something” after every crisis, and things get worse.

It takes neither a village nor a police state to raise a child. It takes loving, dedicated, involved parents. Nothing will change in America until enough people realize this and starting acting accordingly. No law or “policy” can bring about this change. The needed change has to come in the hearts and minds of the American people.
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COMMENTS:
Hmmm….strip-searches of teenagers? Rep. Mark Foley would love that. — JM

The sickness of the “government” that has overthrown America and her founding documents continues to create a stench for all time. Let the puking begin. While I would never defend the sick behavior of what happended on Wednesday in Bailey, Colorado, I have been warning America that people are snapping, people have not changed that much since the dawn of man, but what has changed is the government. The government has overthrown the American constitution and they are intruding in every American’s life as never before. People are snapping, going postal. I have been warning America, as to what is the reason, the core root reason: The government that has overthrown America from within. That is your root cause and the “evil that is perpetuated by this government against Americans”. I know, shoot the messenger. I have heard it for years. One day, they will come for you since they have no more scapegoats for their tyranny. Folks like me will be long gone… — RS

The fastest means to make schools less safe is to ensure that all the good people are disarmed. Thus, any demented individual wishing harm may enter and know that it will be quite a long time before anyone with lethal stopping power will arrive.

Also, I agree with the person who replied above, it is very likely that the pressures on the deranged individual applied by our government are instrumental in causing him to perpetrate such mayhem. I suggest this without specific data and could be entirely incorrect in this instance, but in a world where violence–caused by governments including our own — is the nightly news feature, then it no longer seems so outrageous for people to do a little violence of their own. If, on the other hand, all around are nothing but people striving to do their best in association with others and the government does nothing but sponsor parades, well then it would be considered rather rude to hold up a school, and a person’s better nature would think twice before so doing. — RF

In actual fact, the War on Drugs has been a spectacular success. You make the mistake of thinking that the goal of the drug war was to curtail drug use and drug crime and to save people from dangerous substances. In fact, the drug is working exactly as it was intended.  The goal of the drug war is perpetuate an industry – the drug war industry – an industry in which many thousands of people are deeply invested and dependent on for their livelihood.  The goal of the drug war was to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars into an effort that can never succeed and will never end.  The numbers of Americans incarcerated for participating in this industry – albeit on the “wrong side” of the law – is totally irrelevant.  The only fear on the lawful side might be that they will run out of people to incarcerate – that’s why they have to scrounge around for new angles – say, doctors and pain killers or people buying too much Sudafed – to incorporate into the drug war.  The drug war is operating exactly as it was intended to operate and enriching exactly those it is intended to enrich.  The worst thing that could happen in the eyes of those participating in the drug war – on all side – would be either that Americans suddenly decide they don’t want to get stoned anymore or decriminalization of recreational drug substances.  The party would be over then.  All those problems you talk about – these are not problems, but opportunities to keep feeding the beast.  Those of us who despise prohibition in principle and the drug war in particular for the harm it has done to the country and to so many individual lives have it all wrong and we need to see that. The drug war is working exactly as it was intended to work.  It has created a massively profitable industry for those who participate in it on all sides.  And the “corruption” we like to worry about – that is an intended consequence. The corruption is the main purpose – not a side effect. — DC