Printed for High Plains Journal.
2nd Amendment must prevail
At the end of the day the people in my circle really only want one thing, the will of the people to be the policy going forward. I have just attended a Kearney, NE City Council meeting where over 100 people came forward to witness the will of the people make the influence needed for the correct outcome. The thing of it is that it was a revisit to the issue of restricting our right to bear arms. In Oct this local governing body passed an ordinance that called for the posting of gun free zone in most city buildings and that got the masses stirred.
Right off the bat I must give kudos to the Kearney City Council to revisit the issue and ultimately rescind a poor writing very vague ordinance that clearly was not given enough time and transparency before passage. Afte listening to all of the council members I am convinced that there goal was not to restrict 2nd amendment rights but thought they were doing something to protect the people.
You see this is where I really go sideways on the issue, I don’t need nor expect “the government” to protect me stay out of my way and I will do that myself. Now I think the bigger issue at hand here is that nobody showed up the first day the ordinance is passed. We have that problem in a bad way. We tend not to pay attention to issues until our back is against the wall. In all fairness there was no publication of the topic prior to initial passage but what is most important here is when the public found out this body put it back on the agenda and fixed the problem by a 3-2 vote.
Now the best thing that occurred by this situation is the folks did show up, speak up and generate some interesting information that needs to be presented every day. I am writing this on Nov 29, 2023 and on Nov 29, 1990 George H.W. Bush signed into law the Gun Free Schools Zone Act. Many folks made the case in Kearney that when you post a sign Gun Free you create a fish in a barrel scenario.
The data is pretty clear in show that to be true.
There have been 2,646 school shooting incidents in the U.S. since 1966. Of those, 2,205 (94%) occurred after the 1990 School Zone Safety Act
There were 238 school shooting incidents during the National Assault Weapons ban, 293 in the decade before, and 347 in the decade after.
62% of school shootings (as defined) occurred during non-school hours (1970- 2022).
Firearms were used in 61% of targeted school attacks, and 39% used knives between 2008 - 2017.
Now there tons of folks that try to discredit the said information about the crimes involving firearms. They go about it in creating a confusion around definitions on things such as “mass shooting” versus “active shooter.” To me the data is once again clear look since 1934 when the first federal firearm restriction legislation was passed we have continue to enact 1325 state gun laws as of 2022. Yet it doesn’t seemingly matter how many laws are passed the rhetoric continues from the law maker that we need to create a law to help that.
One final observation that really sent a loud message to me at this meeting in Kearney was the number of Veterans that were present and the high percentage of them that took advantage of the open mic opportunity. Look these men and women have dedicated their lives to protecting our rights as United States citizens. The truth of the matter is that I say thank you to ever Veteran who proudly displays the fact that they are Veterans but have come to realize if I truly want to show my appreciate, I will exercise the rights they have protected for me.
Hopefully you will be more vigilant in this regard as well, where we are headed you will need them.
Kearney, NE City Council fixes their own screw up from Oct meeting infringing upon 2nd Amendment rights.