Lone Wolves in the USA (new title)
Moderator's Note
This thread was called 'Lone Wolves after Newtown, Conn', which was a murder spree at a school and the focus has been lone wolf / lone wolves activity in the USA. There is a separate thread on lone wolves beyond the USA:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=16226 and a separate thread on Terrorism in the USA:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=8828 . Thread retitled 'Lone Wolves in the USA'. A small thread was merged in today (ends).
The murders @ Newtown, Connecticut have rekindled the debate over how the USA responds before such attacks occur. SWC has debated 'Lone Wolves' before, mainly as a terrorist tactic and after the Va Tech shooting a few years ago.
I am sure there has been ample coverage and commentary - a small proportion reaching my reading screen - and sometimes on the BBC.
Via RCP I found this article 'Even Experts Can't Spot the Next Violent Shooter' helpful, even if it "pours cold water" on several "pet" policy suggestions recently advocated:http://nationaljournal.com/domesticp...ooter-20121218
Passages like this:
Quote:
But even psychiatrists struggle to pinpoint who could turn violent. “We are really terrible at anticipating behavior, or predicting behavior. There’s no theory—in psychology or psychiatry—that gives us a good basis or framework” to predict what will cause a young person to act violently, said Dr. Victor Schwartz, medical director at suicide-prevention group The Jed Foundation.
I do wonder - as an observer of the USA - whether public policy priorities are wrong. So much is clearly devoted to 'Homeland Security' or counter-terrorism, I acknowledge there is a threat and since 9/11 rarely successful and not enough on responding to non-terrorist, occasional, lethal attacks.
Can the leviathan of counter-terrorism be re-targeted?
NRA's Future Coarse of Action
The NRA's Press Conference today was headlined by the Wash Post, NRA’s Wayne LaPierre: Put ‘armed police officers’ in every school (Sean Sullivan, December 21, 2012) (LaPierre has proposed this before).
The Post also has provided the transcript, Remarks from the NRA press conference on Sandy Hook school shooting, delivered on Dec. 21, 2012 (Transcript). It includes closing remarks by Asa Hutchinson (Wiki bio), which outlines a two-pronged approach to school security:
Quote:
HUTCHINSON: We all understand that our children should be safe in school. But it is also essential that the parents understand and have confidence in that safety. As a result of the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, that confidence across this nation has been shattered. Assurance of school safety must be restored with a sense of urgency.
That is why I’m grateful that the National Rifle Association has asked me to lead a team of security experts to assist our schools, parents, and our communities.
I took this assignment on one condition, that my team of experts will be independent and will be guided solely by what are the best security solutions for the safety of our children while at school. Even though we are just starting this process, I envision this initiative will have two key elements.
First of all, it would be based on a model security plan, a comprehensive strategy for school security based upon the latest, most up-to-date technical information from the foremost experts in their fields. This model security plan will serve as a template, a set of best practices, principles, and guidelines that every school in America can tweak as needed and tailor to their own set of circumstances.
Every school and community is different, but this model security plan will allow every school to choose among its various components to develop a school safety strategy that fits their own unique circumstance, whether its a large urban school or a small rural school such as we have in Arkansas or anything in between.
Armed, trained, qualified school security personnel will be one element of that plan, but by no means, the only element. If a school decides, for whatever reason, that it doesn’t want or need armed security personnel, that, of course, is a decision to be made by the parents and the local school board at the local level.
HUTCHINSON: The second point I want to make is that this will be a program that does not depend on massive funding from local authorities or the federal government. Instead, it will make use of local volunteers serving in their own communities.
In my home state of Arkansas, my son was a volunteer with a local group called Watchdog Dads (ph) who volunteer their time at schools, who patrol playgrounds and provide a measure of added security. President Clinton initiated a program called Cops In School, but the federal response is not sufficient for today’s task.
Whether they’re retired police, retired military, or rescue personnel, I think there are people in every community in this country who would be happy to serve if only someone asked them and gave them the training and certifications to do so.
The National Rifle Association is the natural obvious choice to sponsor this program. Their gun safety, marksmanship, and hunter education programs have set the standard for well over a century. Over the past 25 years, their Eddy Eagle (ph) gun safe program has taught over 26 million kids that real guns aren’t toys, and today child gun accidents are at the lowest levels ever recorded.
School safety is a complex issue with no simple, single, solution, but I believe trained, qualified, armed security is one key component among many that can provide the first line of difference as well as the last line of defense.
Regards
Mike
The four above Posts are pretty well correct.
Can't guard against nut cases with ANY Strategy; the NRA missed a chance to be part of the solution sez this Endowment Member, Slap and Bill as always add common sense. This isn't going away, the media does more harm than good and the fact that most the recent crowd of shooters were big time gamers isn't a strategic pivot...