Pants-of-dog wrote:Making the entrance more difficult for people to enter would probably not have made much difference in this particular case. The shooter would simply have shot the person at the door, as was the case this time.
For those who want more cops in schools, note that the cops that did show up refused to enter. This is perfectly legal for cops to refuse to protect people.
How could have the gunner entered the school quickly if the gate had been closed? He'd have needed to at least ram it, which takes valuable time.
He was inside the school ~2 minutes after shooting the cop guarding the entrance. Had he been delayed for 10-15 minutes, the school would have had enough time to go into lockdown (it did ~13 minutes after the incident began).
Any delays make it more likely backup will be able to show up and stop the attacker before he's able to storm into the building and shoot people. That's what one can expect from closing physical access to the school, delaying an attacker. It doesn't really substitute for the work of law enforcement. In the case of a breach, law enforcement obviously needs to be able to open all access whenever it wants, which can be done remotely, so the attacker has it harder to barricade in (as this guy also did, after killing the victims).
Tainari88 wrote:@wat0n wrote:
The problem with the USA is a very old history of having exclusions and the belief in their own exceptionalism and in their own right to dictate what the rest of the world is doing. You can't do that. The world is too big, and diverse and there are rules to negotiations in an international political arena. Trying to spend tons of money on foreign wars because you got to control the petrodollar, control all the bank flows and capital, you got to own all the raw materials, and invest in a lot of nations' defense so you can tell them what to do in their own house is not productive. It never has been. It is like the neighbor who wants to be the committee chairman of the HOA and doesn't believe in shared and consensus-placed decisions. It doesn't work. Imperialism doesn't work. Dictatorships don't work. Invasions by force because you want to control what belongs to another country doesn't work. Being racist and disrespectful doesn't work. Identifying with people and nations and groups that are powerful and wealthy but you are NOT either wealthy or from a nation with superpower status doesn't work.
Be true to who you are inside and your own internal value system. Don't judge others because you want to feel superior to them. Because if you look very hard? You got the same or worse flaws than the people you are criticizing. In fact hubris is a real serious sin and problem in Ancient Greece for a reason. It prevents the hubris-filled individual or group from taking responsibility for their own bad decisions. The US has some bad decisions they have taken. Over many years. Unless they make serious efforts to right it? It won't be getting better. The same applies to all nations. It still should not prevent governments from treating other governments as equals and avoiding being arrogant and abusive. Something that doesn't work for other governments either.[/highlight]
Hubris is indeed a problem, I agree with that. I can't think of any worse than believing you don't need to take preventive measures because bad things can't possibly happen to you.
As for your other points, I don't think those negate what I said about the existence of class systems. Cuba? The old elite that rules the island is clearly the powerful class, within the Cuban class system. You mentioned many reasons why that elite is unwilling to open the country up but you forgot the most obvious one, namely, that it would lead to its loss of control. It's funny and weird you mention the threat of the US wanting to control the island when in reality it is the gerontocracy who does that, as it pleases. It is also up to it to get along with the US, and "get along" means just that, including compensating US citizens who lost their property during the revolution. It seems like an excuse for justifying the control the current Cuban elite has over the country, and as you said those who are subject to it prefer to muddle through than getting killed in a failed revolution.
At last, if it was solely up to the US elites, I'm pretty sure they'd go for harsh gun control measures. Rich people definitely don't like the idea of everyone having guns.