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That doesn’t matter. California has much stricter gun laws and there have been plenty of shootings there. One thing we have learned is that these shootings happen all over the country. Stricter gun laws via state doesn’t change much at all

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Nah, everyone should homeschool their kids. Have you learned nothing? Drag shows, porn in libraries, and automatic weapons are around every corner.

As a 33 year old who was homeschooled by good parents who did their best and I can definitely say that homeschooling is not the answer. I made out pretty well with my upbringing and have a solid job, wife, house and relative success. I also have depression, social anxiety, isolating behavior, and the 7 years of therapy I've had will continue for the foreseeable future. I can function just fine in society and am the best case scenario. Check out r/HomeschoolRecovery for several thousand more reasons not to choose that path.

The problem with homeschooling is the same problem with guns. Morons and nutcases think they can handle the responsibility.

But. Can't.

We all know what the answer is. Let's stop pretending.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I feel like it’s a view point we don’t often hear.

It helps to a point but it still doesn’t stop a teen from taking the weapon their parents obtained legally. Or from someone driving across state lines.

>That doesn’t matter. California has much stricter gun laws and there have been plenty of shootings there. One thing we have learned is that these shootings happen all over the country. Stricter gun laws via state doesn’t change much at all

Ultimately, the solution has to be federal and every super lax state can and will undermine the stricter laws. States surrounded by likeminded states, like us, do benefit from that collective mindset making it that much tougher. RI's gun laws benefit from NY/NJ/CT/MA being strong too.

Outside of Alaska and Hawaii, every state's laws are always gun law efficacy is going to be limited by its neighbors. That being said, i strongly disagree with the implication that state level laws are somehow not effective or useless. That's disingenuous logic and usually only invoked as an excuse for inaction.

And FWIW, California ranks 44th in gun deaths per capita. There's still room for improvement but the states with notoriously lax gun laws in the country see a LOT more violence. Their neighbor Arizona has an F rating from most gun control advocacy groups and their firearm death rate is over twice as high as California.

Thanks for being open to it. While I don't want to outright bash homeschooling because I do think my parents did their best, their motivation to protect us from the world had consequences too. As much as folks like to freak out about CRT, LGBTQ+ rights and ban books, I think there's a lack of awareness around what happens when your knowledge base is riddled with gaps due to improper education. The result is always ignorance and almost never children being protected.

This is a pretty complicated situation and unfortunately it seems like logical and rational discussions are rarely held on these forums anymore. I definitely don’t have all the answers, but I am objective and I can use some critical thinking. Gun Laws are pretty strict in this country and I know people will say it’s not true, but it is. And let’s not compare ourselves to other countries like the UK or Australia who don’t allow guns at all as benchmarks for comparison. Because we for sure have more gun related incidents, but they have a proportional amount of knife/blade related incidents to their population. The amount of firearms in circulation in this country is staggering but the fact that our numbers aren’t higher is a testament to solid laws, owner rights and practices. Now I worked in local gun shop in this state for little bit so I gained some additional incite. In RI you’re required to take a basic firearm safety course provided by DEM in order to purchase a pistol. The test is multiple choice but isn’t something anybody off the street can just wing it. It covers proper firearm safety, nomenclature, and storage. Once the test is completed the gun shop sends it to DEM where it can take several weeks to be scored. It’s a pass or fail test. You’ll know you passed if you receive your “Blue Card” in the mail. Until then we wouldn’t even let you touch a pistol in the shop. Now that’s to buy a pistol. To buy a rifle in this country you have to be at least 18 (although I think they may have passed some bills to up that age to 21 recently). This is an area that for sure could use some tightening up, because this is where the “assault weapon” class is. And theres plenty to debate on both sides of what is and what isn’t an “assault weapon” what an “automatic” (a firearm that shoots continuously while the trigger is held) and “semi-automatic” ( a firearm that shoots one round when the trigger is pulled and has to be released in order to fire again) essentially every known firearm today are semiautomatic. Automatic firearms are banned entirely in most states and even if the state allowed (which RI does not) the cost to own one of these is unrealistic for most of us. Do I think 18 year olds with no formal gun training be allowed to purchase any type of firearm and the answer is no. I don’t think you should let someone without any driving experience get behind the wheel of car for the first time because they turned 16 either, but at least they have a permitting process for the car. There is nothing like that for firearms. And I know the Bill of Rights protects us for a lot of what we have that other counties don’t, but I think in this area we could add some realistic training expectations. I’m definitely not for abolishing gun rights in this country. So in RI and every other state that I’m aware of you have to be 18/21+, (have a “Blue Card” for pistol purchases) can pass a local law enforcement background check conducted by the State Troopers, and pass a federal background check in order to purchase a pistol or rifle. The state background check could take a week or so and they run your name through the local LE databases to see if you are or have ever been arrested, charged, or under active investigation for a violent crime. Automatically disqualifies you from owning a firearm. The federal check does the same thing except at the federal law enforcement level (FBI, ATF,DEA etc). Those checks used to come back pretty quick. If you made it though all those checks then you would be approved to pickup the firearm in 7-8 business days known as “cool down” period. And there’s some other areas where the wait period is decreased due to military status, law enforcement/first responder, or you have a conceal carry permit. Those all have their vetting process in addition to the other background checks. I know this wasn’t part of the discussion topic but I wanted to outline the process of gun ownership in the state to show that it isn’t as easy to get your hands on a firearm as easy as the media makes it out to be…legally. Illegally I wouldn’t know but could assume there isn’t too many checks and balances in place. To answer the question about school safety is no I don’t feel 100 percent confident. I have 2 school aged kids that we are highly considering on homeschooling for various reasons but this being a big point in the decision process. At minimum there should be 1-2 school Resource officers on site at all times. Even having a police car parked outside of a school is enough of a deterrent. As proved by this recent school shooting where according to local police departments the shooter choose the school due to the decreased security as the first choice had too much security. We pay a crazy amount in state taxes for dumb shit honestly, the least we could do is spend some of it on our kids safety. Lastly we need to be having conversations about the uncomfortable elephants in the room too. We seem to be having an uptick in mental health concerns as contributing factors to these incidents and to say that’s not it and that’s it’s the gun fault then we will never work towards a solution. No person who is mentally sound shoots kids. We don’t tolerate it anywhere else in the world but for some reason here we can’t admit that it plays a big part of the problem. These conversations need to be taking place at our local towns and cities level. We can’t expect the government to solve our problems and nor should we. We need civil discourse to achieve solutions. Starts in our communities.

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>It helps to a point but it still doesn’t stop a teen from taking the weapon their parents obtained legally. Or from someone driving across state lines.

I think pretty much any steps done in the name of security can be described that way. Locking your front door can help to a point but won't guarantee you won't get robbed. All that TSA bullshit at airports helps make it harder to hijack or blow up a plane but it's not impossible. Having a complex unique password can help you not get hacked but it still can happen, etc, etc.

The only blanket stuff that's guaranteed to be effective are pipe-dream ideas that are just impossible in modern american society. Even the most fervent gun-haters who wish we could melt em all down and outlaw them aren't stupid enough to think there's any chance of that happening.

I think the only people who really believe in the plausibility of that kind of scenario are the ones who use their paranoia as justification to oppose every common sense restriction that the majority of the country supports like federalizing standards and making it so states with shitty gun laws aren't the source of weapons in states with tougher gun laws.

I’ve been looking into bulletproof backpacks. Sure wish the cost could be subsidized in some way whether that be a tax write-off or flat out paid for by the government.

Well, government has security for every government facility under the sun… except for… you guessed it all government school buildings. The government does provide the schools with a sign however, that advertises it as a “gun free zone”. Notice how this hasn’t changed? Makes you wonder…

Effective gun laws? Did you know the woman in Tennessee had no prior criminal record and passed her background check with flying colors? The truth is firearm laws many of which are unconstitutional do very little in stopping crime. Because people with criminal intent unfortunately don’t follow any laws what so ever. The best thing about our gun laws is a law abiding citizen can still own a firearm and protect themselves against criminal intent, for the time being anyway.

You sound like a very attentive and caring parent. Which is fantastic. I don't know the details of your life, but based on your comment, your privilege is showing. You can clearly afford to do this. You are in fact the exception not the rule. Like my previous comment up top, I'd recommend exploring r/HomeschoolRecovery.

Plenty of school shootings have occurred at schools with armed security. It didn't help the kids in Columbine or Parkland.

We have better security at the Warwick mall than some schools. I vote to homeschool. The factory style school system of the 1800’s is not made to create bright creative adults. It is designed to create complacency and predictability and instill that in adults.

I was also homeschooled. It works for some. It’s not a real solution for the vast majority.

You can't legally purchase a firearm in a state you don't reside in without that firearm being shipped to an FFL located in your state of residence.

Didn’t the school resource office in Parkland hide outside? A lot of good that did eh?

Many share your concerns but it feels better to do something about it. Keeping gun violence out of schools & decreasing it in the community takes effort. Suggest momsdemandaction.org/events Also Moms Demand Action-RI on facebook. Right now an Assault Weapons Ban (They are increasingly being used in mass school shootings) and a Safe Gun & Ammo bill are waiting in the state legislature. They need our support. All my empathy to the concerned parents. How can can the kids of RI concentrate on their schooling & enjoy life if they don't feel safe?

that is a safe storage of guns & ammo bill in legislature

I had a colleague who home schooled her child, and they were both lovely people but I don't think it expanded horizons for the kid. Mom and child both were autistic, which is not an issue in itself, but I did feel homeschooling didn't push the child out of a tight social comfort zone, so in the end they were two home bodies doubled up without any challenges to it. Then COVID happened, and now the child is in college now and having difficulties adjusting.

Thank you. Very informative post; I learned a lot about gun laws I hadn't known.

I agree with you: "lax" guns are always blamed. How kids got access to guns, etc. That it's all about too many guns. Unsecured guns.

As you point out though, especially when it's a school shooting, it's actually not about guns: it's about unsound minds.

Universal healthcare. And treating mental health / illness as no different than pulmonary health or cardiac health or cancer.

Not to mention Uvalde TX where the entire police force, armed to the teeth with military-grade hardware, didn't dare go inside

Stark comparison to the two brave officers from Tennessee, who used their training and wasted absolutely no time. The body cam footage should be sent to Uvalde police department for training.

I don’t know friend, but it’s really keeping my husband and I from having kids. I can’t justify bringing children into a world that’s literally burning, run by politicians who couldn’t give a fuck, and has the risk of them getting shot at school.

I’m good with my bloodline ending with me.

Yes but what’s to say an out of state person couldn’t cross state lines. That’s what I meant.

Yeah exactly. If we want armed security at every school we have to make sure they’re not flirting with the kindergarten teacher when a shooter shows up.

It’s definitely a thought I’ve had. My hope is this generation will make the world a better place.

That would be a given, best to have their own office with CCTV screens displaying all entrances and exits. Security personal can be female as well. It’s always a good idea to outline policy for your security to avoid such situations.

I’m a Millennial, 31 to be specific, and I’ve grown up with this shit. It’s not fair for us to expect this generation to change things without giving them the support or path ways to help that progress.

Until people start choosing little kids over money, nothing will change. Not the plummeting birth rate, not the school shootings, nothing.

Then they'd be in violation of the state they are entering, provided their firearm isn't legal in that state, or if they were lacking a permit to carry, if that was their intent.