1998). The fact is that crime in schools, by firearms, are a fraction of 1%. In respect to Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, one has to wonder; if teachers were allowed to carry guns, might so many lives have been lost? The violence could have been stopped and children's lives saved. Instead, helpless, fifteen people dead and twenty individuals injured on the April 20, 1999 massacre. (CNN, 1999). So what, then, is the solution? Armed guards in schools? This would certainly be a crime deterrent; what person then would attempt to shoot up a school if they, themselves, have a chance of being shot?.
Gun control is a topic that most individuals would just as soon avoid like the plague. It's not a "comfortable" subject for most, one reason for that is a lack of knowledge which many possess regarding guns and their laws. There is such an overwhelming anti-gun movement in the media, it is often hard for the public to discern fact from fiction, and one lie which is frequent in the media is that anti-gun laws prevent crime. This theory is unfounded and most certainly untrue. The fact is there are thousands of federal, state and local gun laws. In 1968, The Gun Control Act (Public Law 90-618, 18 U.S.C. Chapter 44) prohibits anyone convicted of, or under indictment for a felony which could be punishable for more than a year in prison. This includes fugitives, illegal drug users, illegal aliens, and persons with mental incompetents and various other individuals from purchasing or possessing a firearm.
Looking at gun control laws which have been passed, and their results; one has to wonder why individuals are still determined to remain on such a dangerous path. Washington, D.C. placed a ban on handgun sales which took effect in 1977; by the 1990s the city's murder rate had tripled. The majority of the murders in the city were committed by a handgun; the law did not suppress the problem it amplified it.