There must be a realistic/practical way to reduce odds for another Florida high school tragedy

Wednesday's horrific tragedy at Florida's Stoneman Douglas High School was not the GOP's fault nor the fault of the NRA nor any other single entity or person.

Geezee, many pro-gun control stories and commentators never even blame the shooter nor even mention his name. Instead it's become the firearm and access to it that are the problem.

We had an obviously trouble kid. I mean how long does a person's "check engine light" have to say illuminated before family and friends and officials take notice? There appears to be a huge parental responsibility gap here..

He is said to have repeatedly pulled the school's fire alarm for which he was expelled. Sorry, but that's a crime and he should have been held accountable with the first instance, if not all of them.

Instead, as we're beginning to learn, the school system simply kicked him out the door for someone else to deal with. Even his former classmates said the kid was a ticking bomb.

Evil will manifest itself because evil always manifests itself. Without the firearm this kid almost certainly would have found some other method. Maybe not killing 17 people all at once and maybe not with a firearm but he still would have killed. Perhaps by driving a car through a crowd of students. Perhaps by kidnapping people and torturing them. Maybe more than one person, too.

Those examples are every bit as common as what the media would have us believe is the exclusive domain of so-called "gun violence."

And, yes, we gun owners need to come together and say "okay, there's a problem here of others using in an evil fashion what we use daily lawfully." I am not sure how that can be done but I believe we must try and focus ourselves towards a workable solution.

Let's face it, we're are not going to get every AR platform rifle or 20-, 30-round magazine off the streets. The train left the station ages ago. Many gun owners simply do not trust their elected officials to say "that's enough" without believing they'll also end with "for now."

But there has to be a solution and that solution must include the Giffords, Hollywood, gun control prone legislators, and members of the public recognizing and admitting that the vast majority of AR owners in particular and gun owners in general are good eggs. Their proposals must be realistic, specific, targeted and not some "first step" toward further gun control measures. Not if they want the cooperation and input from us gun owners.

And we gun owners will need to accept that we have to do more to help keep our arms from falling into the wrong hands, whatever that solution may be.

But all of us must always be aware: Push evil's head down somewhere and its going to pop up in some other fashion somewhere else.. Evil is evil and it will not be denied.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net