CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, December 24, 2012

Kindermord: We can prevent it!

In 1914, after the Battle of Ypres (e-pra), the Germans coined the term: Kindermord, meaning: "Slaughter of the Innocents." Here it is 98 years later and we just witnessed preventable Kindermord at an elementary school in Connecticut.

But if we put aside the emotional hyperbole of the gun-grabbers and the gun-defenders alike, the prevention of Kindermord in our schools can become a reality. (We leave for another time the impact of: drugs, violent movies, violent video games, and the ACLU’s opposition to a national data base of the criminally insane; preferring, instead, to address the prevention and deterrence steps that can be taken here and now.)

The key to Kindermord prevention is doing what works, even though that means bending the provisions of Constitution’s 2d, 4th, and 5th Amendments along the lines of the bending than is already being done by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) with regard to who gets to board U.S. domestic air carriers and who does not.

Still, think of school buildings as airliners. To gain entrance, you need a photo ID card. A staffer who has been vetted and commissioned to do so, checks your ID and decides to allow you inside or not. Students, parents, regular vendors, and suppliers would need ID cards. All possessions would be screened with a magnetometer to insure they do not include any prohibited objects such as guns, knives, and bombs. Those desiring entrance would encounter big signs that say: "Some staff are armed and trained. Any attempt to harm children will be met with deadly force."

Ever since 9/11/2001, similar "adjustments" to the 2d, 4th, and 5th Amendments have been in effect at our nation’s airports and, despite some grumbling, most air travelers have gotten used to them. An ever-increasing number of Americans do not know what airline travel was like prior to 9/11, 2001. It won’t be long before a majority of American’s will see today’s TSA procedures as just, well...normal.

Granted, when the crazed, mass killers are no longer able to slaughter school children, they will seek other venues as some have done in the past: shopping malls, theaters, and even churches. But, as more and more jurisdictions have approved the carrying of concealed weapons, the numbers of shootings in those jurisdictions have declined. Moreover, when responsible, armed citizens have intervened, the amount of carnage has declined as well.

Thus far, all the crazed, mass killers have been males. For some reason, the pro gun-control media have forgotten December 9, 2007, when a crazed male started shooting worshipers in a Colorado Springs church. An armed woman quickly brought his rampage to an end, suggesting a gender modification to George Orwell’s famous statement: "We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us."

Whether it is a fully-automatic firearm (highly-regulated since 1934) or a semi-automatic weapon or a 30-round magazine, the scofflaw killers will find a way to be armed with lethal weapons no matter how many well-meaning, gun-control laws are enacted. (Timothy McVeigh used ammonium nitrate to murder 19 children and 149 adults.) Disarming sane, responsible citizens whose mere existence serves to deter violence only makes sense to the terminally naïve.

Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University.

©2012. William Hamilton.

You may unsubscribe to "Central View" at any time by sending an e-mail message with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line and addressed to news@central-view.com. You will receive an automated acknowledgement.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com