Why not best of both?

When gun control meets common sense

SOME HAVE said Arkansas should take action before “It can’t happen here” happens here. Oh, how soon we forget. Jonesboro happened here. Power Ultra Lounge happened here. And all the shootings that happened between them happened here.

It seems the simple, and simplistic, arguments have traditionally been between those who’d like more security and those who’d like fewer guns. But, even in 2018, is there any way to take the best ideas from both left and right, from Fayetteville and Lonoke, from those who have Coexist bumper stickers and those who wear NRA hats? Just because “the other side” came up with an idea doesn’t make it a bad idea.

For example, these redflag laws. The very Republican governor of Florida signed one into law after a mass shooting down there. The idea is to take guns out of the hands of disturbed people.

But not without due process. These laws don’t allow a cop to disarm a person in his home, minding his own business. That would run afoul of the United States Constitution. Instead, red-flag laws allow friends and relatives of an unwell person, or police investigators, to petition a judge to remove a person’s firearms—temporarily, until a hearing can be held. Arkansas is debating its own such law now. A legislative committee heard the pros and cons of such a law earlier this week.

The governor has been heard from, which is good. He has said he’s open to a red-flag law as long as it is “accompanied by due process.” Which is key. And a part of the proposed legislation in Arkansas.

State Rep. Greg Leding of Fayetteville is sponsoring the proposal in the House. He says the bill would require two law enforcement types to investigate a threat, then take the matter to a judge. Said judge would have to determine whether the person under investigation is a threat to himself or others. And a follow-up hearing has to be held within three days to determine if the threat still exists. If we may suggest, we’d add family and friends to the mix. They often know when somebody has gone off the rails, and they should be allowed to petition a court to save a life, too.

“These are drafts,” Rep. Leding assures. “And we’re willing to work with anybody. Republican governors across the country are signing [red-flag bills] into law.”

It’s hard to see the opposition’s point of view in all this. There are still some who’d put everybody at risk by allowing a mental case to die with his rights on. And kill. Friends, family, investigators, judges and follow-up hearings sound like a truckload of due process.

Various committees are also looking at whether to arm certain teachers and staff members on public school campuses around the state—as a last resort to foil school shooters. It’s another good idea that shouldn’t be discounted just because it wasn’t our idea.

This particular argument often devolves into somebody claiming that the pro-gun types want to arm all teachers. That’s an idea that we’ve never heard suggested. By anybody. It’s a classic straw-man argument, hung up for the sole purpose of knocking it down.

What we have heard argued—intelligently—is that schools are soft targets and need to be less so. The best option is to hire armed police to walk the halls. And in rural or poorer schools, where police are harder to come by, a few teachers— volunteers only, trained to the nth degree—can be one more barrier between our kids and the bad guys.

If that sounds like common sense to you, remember that in this debate, sense isn’t that common. Some would rather argue about how they feel about guns than take the very real steps to protect students. Feelings are great, but they’re not going to stop somebody from walking onto campus with a .38 special and shooting up the place. Neither are bumper stickers, or bumper-sticker arguments.

A red-flag law in Arkansas is a good idea. So is making schools harder targets. These are two ideas from opposite sides of the debate. Sometimes the twain shall meet, even in these ideologically charged times. But in between massacres, procrastination sets in, and urgency fades into delay. That must not happen again.

You’d think that these safeguards would be first on the agenda at the next legislative session starting in January. You’d think. You’d suspect. You might even insist.

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It’s become fashionable, apparently, to repeat this line on television: We need to get rid of the “gun culture” in America!

That’s what you say if you can’t think of anything else. It’s like saying the best way to improve education is to improve parenting. Of course it is. But you can’t legislate good parenting any more than you can pass a law to rid the country of its gun culture.

This is America, remember? Land of the free, home of the brave, and also of the ever-moving frontier, of hunters and fishermen, of Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. If some “expert” has nothing but slogans to offer, and fact-free ones at that, he’d do better to discuss something he knows something about. This is the kind of discussion that deserves more thought, and knowledge, and civility, than the average bumper sticker.