George Rebane
Silly me. And here all along I thought I knew what is a community dialogue in a town hall format. You know, a gathering for which they make a big announcement for everyone interested to gather together, hear some speaker(s), and then everyone has a chance to be heard. Au contraire mon ami. The gun violence town hall we’ve been talking about here for a week or more is really for a restricted audience, a select and correct thinking group perhaps, one that got the flyer you see here below. If you weren’t in that group, you’re SOL unless you can squeeze in with a last-minute RSVP. And, of course, RSVPs only work if you have something to respond to, sil vous plait. So I hope that some politically incorrect members of the community are also allowed to join that exclusive tete-a-tete this coming Friday, otherwise I’m going to be very lonely and may need an armed escort to exit the building. Bottom line, it ain’t gonna be announced in The Union.
[21apr18 update] The town hall came off pretty much as advertised; attendance was almost at capacity in the Nevada City council chambers. However, the way that the discussion was framed for the panel was a bit different than my takeaway from the first meeting. Actually, the discussion was not framed at all save for asking us all to talk about guns and school safety “on the community level”.
Judge Tom Anderson, who overall did an excellent job a mediator, in his opening remarks specifically stated that this was not to be a discussion on Second Amendment which would “take us all day” to cover. With this constraint, the rest of the evening consisted of a series of disjointed panel comments and answers that ranged from claiming that we have an ongoing shooting “epidemic” to a “crisis”, to arming teachers or not, to passing more gun regulations since they reduced crime, and on and on. We were not able to get to any specific problem that the community could get its arms around to solve, and that for the simple reason that none of us knew what acceptable problem domain were we supposed treat or even use as the basis for developing a list.
Lots of anecdotal comments were offered on how horrible it was to get shot at, have a loved one killed by a shooter, and the students’ fear of a massacre that now permeated schools nationwide, including in Nevada County. The consensus of the four liberal panelists was that the passing of more gun controls, and perhaps confiscating certain types of guns, would keep the kids safe and reduce crime since their data showed ‘more gun controls, less gun violence’. In actuality, as cited here previously, “there is no clear relationship between strict gun control legislation and homicide or violent crime rates.”
Jarod Johnson, owner of The Range and ex-LE officer, was the only other apparent non-liberal who strongly maintained that schools should each have an armed policeman on duty to stop massacres. And he agreed that only guns on the premises will stop people with guns. He didn’t quite finish with ‘when seconds count, police are minutes away’.
My interjected points (only one question was actually posed to me during the evening) included attempts to communicate the following.
- Right and Left agree on neither the facts nor their interpretation. The path toward a solution should start on whatever part of the worldview we do share.
- The search for a community solution should start with identification of a solvable problem and a specific utility (numerical metric) that measures our progress.
- Willing teachers should be trained and armed to reduce the loss of life in school massacres.
- Children learn fear from their elders (parents, teachers, media). Unreasonable fear of in-school massacres has to be carefully taught to young impressionable brains. Nevada County youth regularly die in traffic accidents at rates at least two orders of magnitude higher than from anything gun related, yet no one is afraid of getting in a car and driving off.
- Stricter gun controls do not affect suicide rates – committed suicides find alternate means. (Massachusetts was cited where suicide rates were supposed have dropped with increased gun controls – the fact is exactly the opposite, its suicide rates increased by at least 40% in the 2004-14 decade. More alternate facts.)
- Homicide rates are culture driven, not gun driven – London’s murder rate with knives now exceeds NYC’s with guns.
- The need to include the 2nd Amendment and its core purpose/meaning in ANY discussion of gun ownership, violence, safety, control, … is seminal because that is the basis for half the country resisting gun confiscators and any incremental ratcheting toward that goal.
- Saving teen lives (i.e. max expected lives saved) in Nevada County should not start with, or perhaps even include, the fortification of schools – drugs, alcohol, suicides, opiates, … should get our first attention and efforts.
- The next town hall on saving teen lives should define and recommend a locally achievable project or program.
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