TRUMP TAKES ON SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

      President Trump's Administration has thus far been remarkable in the way that it has met and solved problems. Trump has accomplished significant tax reform; is bringing us out of recession; and is well on the way to beating the Energy Crisis and the Opioid Epidemic. One of the ways that has accomplished these things---along with many other matters---is because he by-passes the Beltway Punditocracy and sleazy Corporate Media and goes directly to the people involved. A sort of modern variation of FDR's  Fireside Chats on early radio. 

      Last Friday, the President and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos held a conference with 40 educators and current and former students who had experienced mass murders in our public schools. Since the mid-1990's, these incidents have been occurring with frightening frequency. President Trump, however, rejected the idea that we should accept this as a New Normal, like the previous three administrations have done. 

      "I listened to their heartbreaking stories and asked them for ideas; and I pledged to them to take action. Unlike---for many years---the people in my position did not take any action. They didn't take proper action. They took no action at all. We're going to take action." the President said. 

      Trump also mentioned his visit to the Broward County Hospital (which went unnoticed by the Corporate Media): "People don't talk about the injured in these shootings. And they have to go through life with the horrid consequences of that situation that they were put in unnecessarily. 

       Some of the ideas floated around were very good ones, like re-opening the process of committing potential criminals to psychiatric hospitals and/or drug rehabilitation centers. Others, like extending various gun-control schemes, were more controversial. The President emphasized that---above all---partisan politics has to stop hamstringing any action. 

       Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County has initiated a new model of training and response to mass-shootings. His approach took down an airport shooting last year---and probably would have saved more lives in Parkland were it not for the cowardice of one of his deputies. 

      Be that as it may, while Sheriff Israel's model is an efficient reaction to the do-nothing attitudes of politicians, it doesn't address the root of the problem. As the late Jack Webb said on an episode of Dragnet,: "Our laws are better for dealing with dogs---we don't wait for a mad dog to bite somebody before we take it off the streets." Very well put. By Sigmund Freud's own definition, in the inability to participate in a civilized society; to behave according to civilized social norms---is mental illness. Thus, the mentally ill should be taken off of the streets and treated. 

      The Whacko Left opposes doing this, however; for obvious reasons. It's no accident that the most Left-leaning cities have the highest numbers of mentally ill, sexual deviants, and drug addicts. Yet the Left is being hypocritical when it demands that guns be taken away from the mentally ill. Why is this hypocritical? Because the Left also argues that the mentally ill shouldn't be judged and shouldn't be considered potentially dangerous. They are entitled, according to the Left, to all the same rights has the rest of us. So, by that logic---why should the mentally ill be denied access to weapons?

          The Left can't have it both ways. Either the mentally ill aren't potentially dangerous and should have access to guns; or they are potentially dangerous and should be taken off the streets. It's time for a commonsense discussion about controlling crazies, not guns,