Local View:
Keep weapons of war away from citizens.
I am a gun owner. I am also a member of the National Rifle Association.
In addition, I am a retired public school administrator with 34 years of experience from the public schools in Florida.
I have myself taken a gun away from a high-school student.
My outrage about the killings of students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School cannot be described. Our children and educators deserve better.
Do not talk to me about school safety. I made the decision years ago to take a bullet for a child or a staff member if it ever happened. I was an assistant principal at a large school then — 1,100 children and 125 staff members. I kept a baseball bat in my office because I decided I would take that bullet in a pro-active way. I would not hide under my desk and plead; I would hit and fight for the children I loved and the staff members I adored.
Do not talk with me about mental health. Crazy people do not need guns. Anyone knows that. Do talk about more extensive background checks.
Don’t give me that baloney about hunting. I have hunted. I did not need a powerful weapon to hunt doves in Broward County years ago.
I live two miles from the Pulse nightclub. For years I lived six miles away from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.. I have flown in and out of the Ft. Lauderdale International Airport countless times. All three are recent scenes of mass killings of people with high-powered weapons.
Do talk with me about banning assault weapons and modifications to make guns repeat, and repeat, and repeat.
There are millions of U.S. citizens like me. We own guns. We believe in the Second Amendment. We believe more in keeping our schools, places of worship, and public places safe from people with the desire to kill people with powerful weapons. Safer schools and better mental health are certainly desirable. Even more desirable is keeping weapons designed for war and carnage out of the hands of civilians or those not in law enforcement.
We do not need assault-style weapons to hunt, keep our homes safe or show off in collections. Why do you think those in law enforcement, the National Guard and military reserve units have armories? To keep weapons locked up from people who might misuse them. We need our elected representatives to grow a spine and focus on gun control.