House passed toothless school safety bill: Kennedy
The Capitol is seen in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018, as White House officials plan to meet with the Republican and Democratic leaders of both chambers to discuss the budget. Two new senators are being sworn in today, Minnesota Lt. Gov.Tina Smi
Millions of students poured out of thousands of schools in a nationwide walkout demanding action after the Florida high school massacre. Some were asking for gun control, others for school safety, and their innocent voices rang through the halls of Congress where the House sprang into action. Kind of.
They passed the most tepid, stingy and toothless school safety bill called the Students, Teachers and Officers Preventing School Violence Act, or STOP. As in, stop making these empty gestures to seem busy when you're actually doing nothing.
The bill provides a paltry $50 to $75 million per year, which is supposed to make a dent in our nation's schools, but will it do anything to address the black hole of violent mental illness that swallowed up that shooter taking 17 precious souls with him? No! These kids wanted a steak, and they were given a rice cake.
Worse than that, they are being fed a plate of lies that guns are the root of hatred and violence, and that somehow if you get rid of those and apply arbitrary band aids, like raising age limits to buy weapons, you will magically change human nature. That is so wrong and such a great disservice, and deeply immoral and misleading.
Kids are less safe, in part, because we have made schools not only soft targets, they are baby lotion soft as they advertise as "gun free zones" that have become defenseless collections of sitting ducklings. That is a problem, that is an injustice.
This bill does nothing, and I hope the feckless authors and adherents sleep well tonight on their bed of lies.