I remember years ago, when I used to be a reporter for a very local newspaper. I was attending a township council meeting and the council’s discussion was focused around the proposed purchase of a new fire engine for the township’s firehouse. At that time the price for said engine was around 250,000 dollars and one of the councilmen remarked that the purchase of a new fire engine might be too expensive for the township at that time.
That’s when the mayor spoke up and said that if the purchase of a new fire engine saved the life of even one township child then it would be money well spent no matter the cost. After that the proposal passed unanimously, including the eager vote of the one frugal councilman who had brought up the idea of the purchase being too expensive in the first place.
Today I have been reading about the recent tragedy in Oregon involving another horrendous school shooting by a lone gunman and about how local school districts around the country have been partnering with local law enforcement agencies to help prepare schools and school personnel for situations similar to the one that occurred in Oregon and elsewhere around the country.
Some states even now require local law enforcement agencies to stage real time drills in which they mock invade local schools in attempts to prepare teaching staffs and students for the real thing. Many have called the mock raids frightening and hard to determine whether they are drills or the real thing and wonder why they are being staged or conducted at all.
School administrators and law enforcement personnel have answered critics by saying that if it helps to save even one child’s life then no matter how real or frightening they may be, they are indeed well worth it.
And of course almost everyday these days one can see or hear someone in government demanding that Planned Parenthood be de-funded and that perhaps the United States government should even be shut down because if it means saving the life of even one unborn child then it would be well worth the effort and the cost.
So can’t we have some stricter background checks for gun ownership and maybe tougher registration procedures to ensure safer ownership and perhaps even new gun laws that are more in tune with laws that we already have for the safe owning and operating of motor vehicles and for the regulation and use of drugs and narcotics? I mean even if they save the life of even one child wouldn’t it be worth it?
Nope! Definitely not. It wouldn’t be worth the life of any number of children or adults. Even if it didn’t cost anything… and even if everyone still got to keep all the guns they wanted. Now way. No how. Uh-uh…
ipledgeafallegiance 
Now, don’t go getting all sensible on us. 😉
I think drills are an excellent idea. I remember participating in disaster drills in high school, and they were effective tools. Of course we weren’t preparing for madmen, but we did have confidence in our police, fire, paramedic, and hospital teams I’m case of fire, boiler explosion (the school was a WPA project from the 30s ), or earthquake
It makes sense to do them now for the dangers of society now.
In Australia we really don’t understand the gun-ownership-if-my-right way of thinking. We just don’t understand it.
It’s a terrible thing. It’s about guns. It’s about mental illness. Most of all it’s about a culture of disposability in which, in a world of fewer and fewer jobs, young men (and women) don’t see a future that includes them. College is too expensive; production has moved off shore. In a culture that rewards that creates soul-killing awful jobs, and then rewards us with the diversions of materialist stuff, life has little meaning. Even those with “promising futures” are suffering depression at the paltry list of options. Not surprising that the outcasts direct their anger and desperation in an exalted exit. Tell me, how is this any different than the suicide bombers of the jihad? Young people who cannot see a viable future, can be sold on an angry, dramatic ending. We need to look hard at a culture that glorifies violence. Then we need to tackle the thorny issues of disposability, depression and ready access to guns.
Very well said. I agree.