EASY FIX: DITCH THE IDEOLOGICAL PALAVER AND SAFEGUARD OUR SCHOOLS

LISTENING TO THE CACAPHONY over school safety, I've noticed that the current debate boils down to Gun Control a la Australia (Democrats) vs School Safety a la Israel (Republicans). One side wants the number of guns in the country severely curtailed--even entirely eliminated. The other side wants to safeguard Americans' natural and constitutional right to bear arms while relying on the 2nd Amendment to effectively defend our children in schools.

And this: Raising the age to own a gun from 18 to 21 still strikes me as empty-headed pandering. Though it may be politically expedient, I believe all rational folks understand that it will solve nothing. (Look at the age of other shooters over the past 10 years. Well over 18 OR 21. Thus, there is no magic age at which the possibility of madness is altogether eliminated.) 

Also, and as I mentioned in a post below, setting age limitations on gun ownership is the Constitutional province of the States. (Yes, the Constitution needn't be cavalierly violated to achieve school safety--especially when such a violation is completely unnecessary; thus, I'm relieved to read that President Trump will defer to the States in this regard. Good for him.) I would warn Trump against overreaching his executive authority in gun control matters, but, to reasonably placate those who FEEL age is a key factor when projecting possible gun violence, I would ask him to urge Governors and State AGs at the President's upcoming confab with them to follow Florida's example: to own a semi-auto rifle, one must be 21. But, again, that should be properly left to the States. 

Also, to ensure the safety of our schools, which should be our primary, overriding concern, sufficient armed personnel must be deployed full time at each school. A mix of willing and well-trained teachers and armed resource personnel would provide the defensive depth needed to properly deter and effectively react to a shooter. More thorough background checks and timely input of data into the national and State registries, more vigorous, proactive local engagement and mental health intervention and adequately armed and trained personnel at every school is the answer. No brainer.

**School safety is solvable. It's an easy fix, folks. But the Left would have you believe that disarming law-abiding citizens is the ONLY acceptable solution. Poppycock. They clearly appear to care more about advancing their totalitarian political agenda to disarm Americans than in protecting our kids. 

NO! To a Constitutional Convention of States

OMG. Though I am sure he's well-intentioned, I'm very disappointed that Hannity now so strongly supports a Convention of States effort to rewrite the U.S. Constitution. Re-written by whom? All those stellar, sober statesmen and clear-thinking constitutional scholars out here? And just who might those stellar paragons of faithful constitutional construction be? (Mark Levin, who assails and negates the 10th Amendment? I don't think so.)

The Constitution doesn't need to be re-written; it needs to be ENFORCED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The remedies for enforcement are already there: We the People (organized resistance, push-back), invoking the 9th & 10th amendments against federal usurpations, a carefully applied traditional amendment process outlined in Art V.

Permitting well-intentioned but unproven folks to re-write the Constitution to "improve it" is akin to risking burning down the forest to protect it. Doing so fundamentally violates our founders' warning against such a sweeping and fundamentally careless action.

ENFORCE, DON'T REWRITE. OUR CONSTITUTION IS ONLY AS GOOD AS OUR WILLINGNESS TO ENFORCE IT. UNLESS ADHERED TO AND STRICTLY ENFORCED, THE CONSTITUTION, AMENDED OR OTHERWISE, IS BUT A STREAM OF WELL-MEANING WORDS. IN SHORT, an amended Constitution can be just as easily violated as an un-amended Constitution. And the risk we run of placing the awesome responsibility of re-writing our well-tested, sacrosanct Constitution upon those for whom we have little faith or knowledge regarding underlying biases and motivations should cause us serious, sobering heartburn. Organize to Enforce the Constitution. Don't risk it's be re-written. IF we go that route, we may be deeply disappointed by the finished product. Re-writing doesn't fix the problem. It could very well exacerbate the problem. Don'[t mess with a good thing. The Constitution isn't failing us. WE are failing the Constitution.