Entries Tagged 'Guns on Campus' ↓

Last night at the joint Minnehaha County/Sioux Falls City Council meeting, Bob Kolbe brings his old shotgun for a presentation during open public input about how Republicans and the NRA have lost their minds. I’m with Bob, I support the 2nd Amendment and believe it is crucial that citizens can bear arms, but I am also in agreement with Bob, that 2nd Amendment clearly spells out with that right there is a responsibility of government to regulate that right. Just look at abortion, it was a right for 50 years, with regulation. Same goes for the 1st Amendment, numerous regulations with it comes to obscenity and libel.

What some may be wondering though is how did Kolbe walk into Carnegie, a public meeting space, with a gun (which I would assume was NOT loaded). Guess what? It is completely legal according to state law. Years ago (I believe during the Munson Administration) several councilors wanted to ban weapons at Carnegie Town Hall but quickly found out that they cannot because of our wacky legislature who thinks you should be able to carry guns anywhere. I have often been nervous about coming to meetings that have controversial items because there is nothing stopping anyone from walking into ANY public building in this city with a gun (I think the Federal and County Courthouse and Post Office is exempt). I do not own a gun and never have, but I support people who choose to. Now if we can only convince people to stop bringing them everywhere, especially public meetings.

I watched the meeting tonight online, there were great questions and good answers. WATCH REPLAY.

I think the officers present did their best to lay out a plan. I also understand that it is these officer’s jobs to have a plan and explain it to the public. But many in attendance were wondering where the Police Chief and Mayor were? The peeps I talked to who were there said they didn’t see them. Even if they would have been sitting in the audience, their presence would have been appreciated.

Say what you will about former Mayor Bowlcut and Bucktooth, but you damn well know he would have been there . . . of course he would have never had the meeting because he blamed increased crime on increased population.

There was over 300 people at the event. All councilors were present except Selberg and Brekke.

It was pointed out to me that the parking lot at Kenny Anderson Community Center has been torn up this summer, so I am curious where people are going to park tomorrow night at the town hall meeting.

I also wonder if Governor Noem will be invited to the meeting since she thought it was so wise to sign in a concealed weapon law this past legislative session?

Well, we all knew it was coming, eventually, some po-dunk school in South Dakota would take up the state legislature on the School Sentinel law;

The Tri-Valley School District is considering a policy that could change the look of school safety in South Dakota.

On Monday night, the school board passed the first reading of a school sentinel policy that would allow the district to arm certain employees.

I guess I never expected a school that large to take up the suggestion. Either way, whether you are for or against this (I’m against it) it seems the school board was being sneaky about the way they went about it.

Like I said, there is mountains of evidence why this is a very bad idea, but let’s not talk about that.

The school board decided to try to sneak this under the radar;

The second and final reading of this policy will be on April 11, which is open to the public. 

Yes, they mentioned it in some agendas, but notice they took the first reading without any input. It should have not gotten to first reading if the media would have known about their intentions ahead of time.

Cory also points out the continuing secrecy;

The icing on this bad policy is the secrecy clause. Parents will have no right to know which staff are carrying deadly weapons in school. Parents get no check on the board’s decision, no opportunity to say, “Good grief! They let that yahoo carry a gun? I don’t think so!” Parents get no opportunity to pull their children from an armed teacher’s classroom and demand that their children be placed in classrooms where no guns are present.

I’m willing to bet that most parents would be against an armed sentinel at Tri-Valley, but I guess we will wait and see.

Seven years ago, I did the above cartoon that printed in a couple of college newspapers. The colleges opposed the law then and still do;

“It’s something we all grew up with in high school and middle school that guns and schools don’t go together and so when we came to public institution, that same philosophy applied,” said Caleb Finck, SDSU Student Body President.

Did Stalzer even bother to talk to the college’s student body about this? Probably not, I’m not sure if Stalzer knows how to communicate without grunting like a caveman.

I care about children, but only the unborn with genetic disorders that are either a male or female and come from the hand of God, not a monkey. After they are born, they are on their own.

Every year, Pierre changes it’s name to ‘Guns & Abortion, SD’ for about 40 days, and our legislature wastes time on guns and abortion legislation. Their reasons? They care about children. Really?

Well this year, as in the past, they had a chance to tell us just how much they do care about kids, you know, the ones that are born and living already. Some of them failed.

You would think after watching this year after year a group that large couldn’t be that ignorant. I must clarify, some Republicans get it, I am talking about the extreme right that think the earth is 6,000 years old and evolution isn’t based on science.

So let’s look at their failures;

• Supporting anti-science, secular education while censoring evolution science. The right wingers think they are doing the children of the state a favor by teaching them anti-science supported creationism, while instilling theological ideas into the public schools ignoring separation of church and state. This is a civics and science lesson gone awry. It goes against everything the 1^st Amendment is about, and is more harmful to children then helpful.

• Legislating and teaching Hate. This one speaks for itself, making it legal to discriminate against a person based on their sexual orientation. This one thankfully failed, but that it even came up as legislation is pretty scary.

• Full Medicare expansion. This isn’t rocket science. Not only would it help a lot of children and keeping their working parents healthy it would put $200 million into the state economy. Of course some of legislators, like Isaac Latterell believe that the Federal Government is broke and a day of reckoning is coming where we won’t be getting money from the Feds anymore. Yup, Isaac, Ronald Reagan was using that talking point before you were born. As one of the legislators said in the last coffee, “If you have concerns as a constituent of how the Federal government is spending Federal funds, you need to bring it up with your Washington delegation, not state representatives.”

• Removing the sales tax on food. Democratic representative Marc Feinstein has been trying to remove the tax for years, unsuccessfully. For obvious reasons, removing this tax would help children. I have suggested instead of raising the taxes on other things – three adjustments could be made. 1) Remove the tax from raw, preparable and fresh foods only 2) Tax all products at the same rate-4% 3) Tax advertising.

• Denying counties a share of state sales tax revenue while voting against more lenient enforcement of non-violent offenders, like marijuana users. Why is the county getting further and further behind? Crime and the clogged court system. This also has to do with the safety of our children. When we simply just fine non-violent offenders instead of incarcerating them, we free up law enforcement and the courts to handle the more violent and serious crimes. This makes our community safer, and ultimately children safer.

So while the Right Wingers are busy talking about abortion and guns to keep our children safe and healthy, the work that actually that should be done is going straight over their heads . . . as usual. Some things never change in Guns & Abortion, SD.

While I don’t question this expenditure for the SFPD (Item #1), it baffles me a bit . . .

I would think a pistol would last several decades if you don’t use it. Of course, the pistols for the SFPD probably get used more then any pine wood spindle safety precaution at Carnegie Hall.

Trust me, there are many compelling arguments as to why the Sentinel Bill is legislative stupidity on many levels;

A proposal to let schools arm volunteer “sentinels” for defense passed the South Dakota Senate Wednesday and could be headed to Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s desk.

The school sentinels bill gives every school district the option to arm teachers, staff or community volunteers, but doesn’t require any district to bring guns into schools.

Allowing guns in schools to make them safer is similar to storing gasoline next to your backyard firepit to make it safer.

But I’m sure my commenters will have plenty to say about whether it makes schools safer or not. My biggest problem with the passage of this bill is how our state continually comes across as backwoods hillbillies because of our state legislators. Even if this bill passes, there won’t be a single school board in this state that will approve having armed sentinels in their schools. So why even move ahead with this? You don’t heal a black eye by punching it again and you don’t make schools safer from gun violence by allowing more guns in schools.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wauzrPn0cfg[/youtube]

I usually don’t comment about this stuff, because the best solutions to our problems are obvious.

Cartoonist Ombre, Hector Curriel says it best;