A California school district has purchased 14 AR - 15 rifles, intended for use should they ever be needed to defend school aged children in the district.

Here in California, the Fontana Unified School District and its city police department have purchased 14 AR-15 semi-automatic rifles.  The purchase(s) is in response to concerns parents have about the safety of their children,  while at school.

The rifles have been brought onto the school’s campus and are being kept in a gun safe,  intended for police use, should they be called to the school in the event of a shooting. 

Understand that all but one mass shootings,  since 1950,  have occurred in “gun free zones.”  The only exception is the Gabby Gifford shooting,  which took place in an Arizona shopping mall’s parking lot. 

Columbine took place in 1999,  five years into Bill Clinton’s “assault weapon’s” ban,  which sunsetted in 2004,  proving,  of course, that laws bind only the law abiding.  Criminals do not give a care  -  that is what is wrong with an assault weapons ban.  

The first and most tragic mass killing on a school campus,  in American history,  was in 1927.  38 students were killed along with a number of adults,  when an angry father,  planted a number of bombs in an elementary campus and used his car as a suicide car bomb  -  the first such “car bomb” in history,  American or otherwise. No guns were used. 

Parents and pundits opposing the Fontana decision,  argue that “more guns will not prevent tragedies such as Sandy Hook Elementary.”  They are right,  of course,  but the presence of guns as a defense against such disasters,  does reduce such occurrences.  Sandy Hook,  for example,  was the only school out of 6 in the area,  that advertised its “gun free zone.”   The Aurora, Colorado theater shooting,  took place in the only theater out of 7,  that posted a “no carry permitted weapons allowed” on its building.  The shooter knew that the likelihood of armed resistance was far less in his theater of choice,  than in the other local movie houses.  

Hopefully,  the unreasoned hysteria on the Left,  will settle down, allowing for sensible solutions to prevail.  Exciting mob rule,  should never be the resolve of leadership.  Governor Cuomo's recent rant,  a hysterical effort to incite passion over reason,  is an example of such leadership failings.  

Two factors,  other than the use of guns,  are common to all of the more recent mass killings.  The perpetrators were all heavy duty video gamers,  young men who wasted hundreds of hours playing some of the most violent games,  imaginable.  And,  secondly,  they suffered from a pronounced level of mental illness.  

We have not taken a step forward,  in dealing with the current distress,  if these two circumstances have not been addressed.