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Gun Control

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
--Thomas Jefferson

Notes

Massacres in Public Places (e.g. schools, malls, etc.)

Consider this situation: Let us assume you are in the school when Adam Lanza enters and begins to shoot children. You see him murder a child in cold blood. He has his back turned to you and beyond him is a solid concrete-block wall -- no innocent children or adults. On the table next to you, within arms reach, appears a loaded gun. You have 2 seconds to decide before Adam kills another child: Will you shoot Adam Lanza and stop his assault or not?

  • Israel's approach: "In the early 70's, Israel was faced with much greater problems of armed terrorist attacks on schools. The cry for more gun control was heard then too, but Israel very carefully analyzed all possible options before adopting the proactive position of arming and training selected teachers. School shootings stopped and terrorists looked for easier targets. Gun control never has and never will stop criminals and madmen from carrying out acts of gun violence."
  • County Police Chief Recommends Arming School Personnel. Posted 12/17/2012. St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch says it is time to talk about arming civilian school personnel following Friday’s massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, comparing it to arming airline pilots after September 11, 2001. “I see it no differently,” he said. “Pilots have been armed now for many many years, we’ve not had another hijacking and the issue is, for the bad guy, he doesn’t know which airplane he’s getting on, if the pilot is armed or not.”
  • Solutions For CT: There Are Some. Posetd 12/16/2012. Numerous building safety features the school could have installed at low cost were not implemented.
  • Gun Control WILL NOT Stop Crime: 22 Children Injured in China by Knife-Wielding Man. Posted 12/14/2012.
  • Teachers - It Is Time To Arm Yourselves Regardless Of The Law. Posted 12/17/2012. (1) Federal laws, including the Gun Free School Zones Act and the Gun-Free Schools Act, prohibit the possession of firearms within 1000 feet of school grounds (some states allow carry with the possession of a CCW, but this does not stop schools from firing teachers who do decide to carry if discovered). (See Federal Law on Guns in Schools.) (2) None Of The Teachers Were Armed. (3) Quick Police Response Was Meaningless. (4) Teachers And Staff Were Willing To Defend Themselves. (See Teachers tried to stop killer to protect pupils.)

Sandy Hook (December 14, 2012)

Bulletproofing

  • BulletBlocker.com. Sells bulletproof backpacks, gear, and more. Also see: Ballistic Protection Levels.
  • Amendment2.com. Sells bulletproof backpacks using expensive nanotechnology (i.e. carbon nanotube armor). The backpacks are selling for $300 each, as of 12/27/2012.
  • Backface deformation testing: When? soft armor is tested against ballistic clay, the depth permitted in a certified vest (called backface deformation) is 44 mm. That's almost 2 inches deep! That is what scientific and medical experts have agreed is the amount of "acceptable" trauma to a body from a bullet impact. Most bulletproof vests have a backface deformation of around 38 to 42 mm. Amendment2 armor is in the high 20s to mid 30s.
  • Protection levels: The National Institute of Justice has created a de facto standard by which all armor can be evaluated and rated as to its protective characteristics. There are 5 overall classifications, increasing in ballistic protection: IIA, II, IIIA, III, and IV. Basically, types IIA, II, and IIIA are for protection against handgun rounds, while type III and IV armors are for use against assault rifles (such as the AR-15 or AK-47), firing .308, 5.56, or 7.62, or similar rounds. At the present, a plate carrier with heavy ceramic or steel plates is required to stop these rounds. Amendment II is working on a version of RynoHide with the capability of stopping these faster, more powerful rounds. They hope to have these available by the first quarter of 2013.

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