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Dealing with the RECOIL

Local officials look for solutions to gun violence in schools

By LISA BOWERS

Journal Ishpeming Bureau

MARQUETTE –Call them mass shootings or massacres, incidents like the one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, with its senseless loss of 17 lives, sparks a heated debate.

How do we keep the public at large safe while honoring the right to bear arms as guaranteed in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?

Is the answer stricter gun laws and more rigid background checks; is it arming school staff in order to make our schools a “harder” target; or is the answer perhaps somewhere in the middle?

The National Rifle Association, a powerful force for the right to bear arms on the national political stage, stood silent on the issue for a week after the incident — finally decrying gun-control advocates and members of the news media during the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday.

NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre told the CPAC audience that armed security guards in schools would put an end to shootings.

“Evil walks among us,” LaPierre told conference attendees, “And God help us if we don’t harden our schools and protect our kids.”

Marquette County Commissioner Joe Derocha, who is a member of the Negaunee Rod and Gun Club and has been endorsed by the Upper Peninsula Sportsman’s Alliance, agreed that a properly trained armed guard might be part of the solution.

“It was Marquette County Sheriff’s Lt. Lowell Larson’s idea several years ago to use office time in the schools — using armed personnel from the Department of Natural Resources, State Police, and the sheriff’s office,” Derocha said.

The idea, Derocha said, was to give the officers from those three organizations office space in which to do their paperwork to wrap up their shift during the beginning and end of a school day.

“I think there is no greater deterrent,” Derocha said. “The presence of an armed law enforcement officer sets the tone, and that may be a solution to the unbelievable problem that we face today — without any additional cost to the taxpayer.”

The School’s take:

NICE Schools Superintendent Bryan DeAugustine said the ability of a school to be welcoming while maintaining the safety and security of all the people within it can be a delicate balancing act.

“During the school day, when the students are in class, we feel like we are getting better and better at keeping secure,” DeAugustine said. “We are concerned about it all the time, but during a big event, we are extra vigilant about who is coming or going.”

DeAugustine said Westwood High School and Aspen Ridge Elementary School were redesigned some years ago, with only one point of entry or exit.

“We didn’t want any blind entrances, we want to have eyes on the people that are coming and going in a face to face setting,” DeAugustine said.

The environment gives employees the chance to interact with visitors one on one, he said.

“We feel face to face interaction gives people the chance to see their state of being, facial expression, body language and tone of voice when they are coming in,” DeAugustine said. “We feel that gives us an advantage, and gives us a feel for what their intentions are.”

As for why he thinks school shootings my have become more prevalent over the last decade, DeAugustine points to a study performed at Ohio State University by Brian Wick.

“The idea is that popular media, social media, it lays out school as this amazing time of friendships,” DeAugustine said. “Life is more three-dimensional than that fairytale that is being portrayed. Everybody goes through moments that are very positive and everybody has moments that are negative. There are kids that are struggling to measure up to that idealized version of the school setting that is portrayed on social media and popular media.”

The problem can’t be solved solely by schools, but they can be one of the first lines of defense for students who might feel disenfranchised, he said.

“I think that is part of the way we are going to solve this, to be inclusive and kind and connect kids to a sense of well-being,” he said. “Get to them (first), before they get so dejected — so separated from a good, normal school experience — (we want to ensure) that they turn away from violence of any kind.”

One of the positive trends, DeAugustine said, comes from No One Eats Alone — a student led organization that celebrates inclusiveness with a No One Eats Alone day.

The idea is simple, according the the NOEA site, that all kids should be included, valued and accepted by their peers.

As to the national conversation about arming teachers, DeAugustine said that might run counter to the ideal of keeping schools a safe and inclusive place.

“I think we have to be careful normalizing the idea that schools are violent places, and violence is expected,” DeAugustine said. “Schools are welcoming busy places where human interaction is the heart of what we do.”

David Kent, a Concealed Weapons Permit instructor and Federal Firearms Licensed dealer said he agrees, to a point.

“In schools, those bullets are going somewhere,” Kent said. “And how confident and competent are those teachers going to be with a firearm, especially under stress and once you pull that trigger, no power on earth is going to bring it back.”

Kent said, in his own personal opinion, a non-lethal weapon like a taser may be a better fit for a school setting.

“You don’t have to be right next to the shooter like you would with a stun gun,” Kent said. “A civilian grade taser shoots 15 feet, and last for 30 seconds, which should give you enough time to disarm the shooter.”

The importance of guns:

Guns, especially hunting rifles, are part of an Upper Peninsula way of life that spans generations, and the vast majority of gun owners here are law-abiding citizens, officials say.

There are no publicly available statistics on how many firearms there are in the region, state, or country because there is no federal law requiring the registration of guns.

According to Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, federal law prevents such a database from existing.

“In fact, federal law prohibits the use of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to create any system of registration of firearms or firearm owners,” the GLC website states.

Guns are important to almost 50 percent of the U.S. population, according to a 2017 Pew Research Center Study.

Four in 10 Americans say they live in a gun-owning household, according to the study, while three in 10 say they personally own a gun.

The study shows that 74 percent of gun owners feel the right to own a firearm is essential to their personal sense of freedom, and about 73 percent say they can’t see themselves ever not owning a gun.

The only other barometer that might indicate gun ownership levels could be the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, implemented by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1986.

Private pistol purchases require a permit and background check in Michigan, but long-guns and rifles can be transferred without any such documentation, according to Giffords.

Any firearm shorter than 18 inches from the stock to the end of the barrel is considered a pistol or hand gun, according to the MCSO.

Michigan law requires the buyer of a handgun to have either a handgun purchase license or a license to carry a concealed handgun if the seller is not a federally licensed dealer.

Sheri Ennett, office manager at the Marquette County Sheriff’s office said only convicted felons or individuals who have a mental order issued through probate court can be denied the right to own a handgun or obtain a concealed weapons permit.

“We run a criminal history, which takes minutes. If they have a history — anything that we can question whether or not they are eligible, we often call the firearms unit if we are questioning it,” Ennett said.

That has not always been the case, especially with concealed weapons permits, Ennett said. In 2006, there was a local gun board that reviewed requests and issued permits.

“When we had a gun board, we would get a list from the clerk and we would run a background check on every one of them,” Ennett said. “Then we would fax a list to other agencies to see if they had had any contact with that individual or if there is anything in that person’s history that would make them an undesirable person to have this. We would compile all that information and give it to the gun board.”

Ennett said FFL dealers cannot see information on pistol permits with the same detail as law enforcement agencies can.

“People in the private sector — they are not seeing what we see,” Ennett said. “They are getting a yes or no. Yes, they can have a firearm, or no, they cannot.”

Marquette County Sheriff Greg Zyburt said the national background check system might not give law enforcement the information necessary to make an informed decision.

“Quite often, if you run the NICS, it doesn’t tell that they were at this house for domestic violence eight different times, but there wasn’t enough probable cause,” Zyburt said. “Or, they did go to court and he was arrested but it wasn’t a conviction or they dropped it down to assault and battery versus domestic violence, so it wouldn’t catch that. So the gun boards caught a lot of stuff that just isn’t out there.”

Zyburt said he would like to see local law enforcement have more input regarding weapon permitting, with the ability to appeal a decision.

Proposed solutions:

Zyburt said he would like to see the local authorities have some say when it comes to hand gun permits, but in the short-term keeping schools and the public at large safe requires training.

“I think it’s education, its training, it’s school drills exactly what to do, it’s the drills for law enforcement in responding to active shooter situations — which pretty much every agency in the county is (doing). We work and train together also. So if, Marquette City, Chocolay Township and Forsyth happen to be responding, they all know exactly what the next one is going to do. So it’s training together,” Zyburt said.

“We’ve done other things in law enforcement, like ‘go bags’ where we actually have gun, bullets, identification, a vest in a bag in our private cars. A lot of the officers have radios now all the time with them so if they hear something, they can respond off or on duty to shootings. Then the security of the school itself, having one entrance in and out, having glass partitions, having all of the things that they are doing now. I think its a combination of all of that.”

He said an important element is also the power of observation by students and teachers, and recommends the utilization of OK2SAY.

The program allows anyone to confidentially report tips on criminal activities or potential harm directed at Michigan students, school employees or schools.

“I think we really have to emphasize that type of thing, because I think each one of the shootings there were precursors that gave warnings,” Zyburt said. “And if someone had said something (about) each and every one of them it may have made a difference. I think if they see something or feel bad about it, don’t hesitate to call the authorities and just run it past them.”

OK2SAY tips can be submitted anonymously on any of the following platforms: by email at ok2say@mi. gov; by phone by calling 855-565-2729; send a text to 652729; download the OK2SAY app on your mobile device; or visit the ok2say website at www.michigan.gov/ok2say.

Lisa Bowers can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 242. Her email address is lbowers@miningjournal .net.

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