Cleveland School Shooting Highlights Plight of Unarmed Victims

This story was updated during the first 24 hours after the attack, as more information became available.

There was a shooting today at SuccessTech Academy, a Cleveland high school located across the street from an FBI office in downtown Cleveland. Early indications are that multiple people were shot and transported to area hospitals. The Associated Press (AP) is reporting the attacker, believed to be 14 year-old freshman Asa Coon, is dead.

Our thoughts are with the victims and their families. Unfortunately, we know from past experience that Mayor
Jackson will soon be standing in front of cameras attempting to blame
"lax" gun laws for this tragedy, and renewing calls for his duplicative
and superfluous "minors with guns" law.

Click 'Read More' for the entire story.

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width=254 border=0 align="right">No one knows all the details of this event yet and we do not want to speculate on unknowns. But it can be concluded that the shooter, at
a minimum, broke existing Federal and State gun control laws. The Federal School
Safety Zone law was violated, as the gun clearly was within 1,000 feet
of a school. In fact, one study has shown that almost the entire city of
Cleveland is within 1,000 feet of a school. Beyond this, Ohio's School
Safety Zone statute, R.C. 2923.122, was violated, and it is highly
likely Ohio's law prohibiting providing firearms to minor was violated.
Not to mention the countless laws against shooting at humans, shooting
near a school, assault etc. Can anyone seriously claim that just one
more law will prevent these tragedies?

90% of multiple victim public shootings in our country occur in the few places victims are not permitted to defend their own life with a gun. We know that teachers and school officials who have the knowledge, skills, and tools to stop the killing of our innocent children are by law not permitted to bring the only tool (a gun) which can stop an active shooter onto school premises.

The AP is reporting that Coon was able to access the building despite there being an armed security guard at the building's main entrance (the attack occurred on the 4th floor), and previous AP reports have stated that "parents are angry that firearms got into a school equipped with metal detectors that students said were intermittently used". No matter what we learn about how Coon gained entrance into the building, there can truly there can be no more conclusive of a demonstration that passive prevention efforts will never work.

As the discussions of how we can prevent future such attacks commence, it is important to stress that this isn't the first time an armed student has made it past these types of security measures. "No-guns" signs, metal detectors, security cameras and security guards combined were not enough to stop an armed student at Minnesota's Red Lake High School from killing seven people two years ago, and the use of at least some of these measures weren't enough to protect the students of SuccessTech Academy. Yet what are we beginning to hear from Joanne DeMarco, president of the Cleveland Teachers Union, but suggestions for these exact same failed measures to be adopted in every school in the city!

Too many lives have been lost due to the same tired, failed methods. For the sake of our children, it’s time to revise the well-intentioned, but disastrous policy of "gun-free" safety zones.

Just a day prior to this attack Buckeye Firearms renewed the call to remove our schools from the list of the defenseless victim zones (see "Teachers Begin School Year Armed with Lucky Charms").

How many gun bans need to fail before people accept the fact that gun
laws disarm victims, not criminals?

What if?

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Witness saw school shooter loading gun in bathroom

SuccessTech Academy sophomore Rasheem Smith, 15, was in a fourth floor bathroom Wednesday when he saw Asa Coon change clothes moments before he went on a shooting rampage.

Coon removed his slacks and a red and gray hooded sweatshirt and put on black jeans and Marilyn Manson concert T-shirt, Smith said.

When Smith saw Coon load a gun, he left but didn't tell a teacher.

"I don't know what I was thinking, he said. "I didn't want him to shoot me."

Fifteen minutes later, Smith was eating lunch in the cafeteria, also on the fourth floor, he heard a loud sound. Yet, Smith, believing it was nothing more than a book slamming on a desk, didn't react.

Then Smith heard someone shout that a student had a gun. Just then Smith saw Asa shoot a teacher.

Now more than ever, it is Time for the sun to set on the Culture of Sheep!