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The Covenant School shooting in Nashville happened right in my backyard. The red and black bows in the school’s colors remain on mailboxes up and down my street after that tragedy in late March, when three children and three adults were gunned down. Not long after the shootings, thousands of people of all ages linked arms over 3 miles of downtown Nashville to get the attention of our Tennessee Legislature. We were outraged that our state representatives did nothing to address guns before their session ended.

Some of our politicians have responded, although not entirely as I might have expected. Gov. Bill Lee announced a special session of the state Legislature to be held in August on ways to “strengthen public safety and preserve constitutional rights.” When that session is held, all eyes will be on our gun-loving red state, home to three firearm manufacturers. Stay tuned.

And a few weeks back, Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee suggested that grandparents arm themselves to help protect schools. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the notion. It seemed farcical and yet sadly tragic, too, that she had no better solutions.

I believe grandparents would be more useful, and would be better able to get the attention of lawmakers, if we did more than just guard the door.

We could write letters and make phone calls in support of red flag laws, talk with people who own guns, educate ourselves and others about extreme risk protection, and insist on universal background checks before a gun purchase, because in my home state and many others across the country, we have none of that.

I know that there is a lively discussion about older people in public life, but we elders know a thing or two. We have tools that life has afforded us. We might be civic, neighborhood or church leaders.

And our wisdom should be tapped as we strive to achieve a solution to a seemingly intractable problem. We can help show a broken country how to overcome differences with selfless persistence and love of community.

At the very least, we have to try.

— Anne Byrne in America’s grandparents have the answer to gun violence

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RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

93 COMMENTS

  1. It’s sad to see such ignorance in a person who’s lived so many years. Red Flag/Extreme Risk Prevention laws are a violation of Fourth, Fifth, and (I believe) Sixth Amendment rights and background checks for firearms sold through a FFL are a Federal requirement, not a state requirement.

    As a grandparent myself, I’d be happy to stand guard over a school, if I were able. My only caveat is that I’m a bit too worn out to be effective–but I know a great deal of grandparents that would gladly volunteer.

    As for what I can do, I can “write letters and make phone calls,” too–but in support of enforcing existing laws against those who use guns while committing crimes. I’d also support enforcing existing laws requiring mental health providers being more forthcoming about reporting those who could be a danger so that they cannot purchase a firearm from a FFL.

    Bottom line… Not all seniors think like that one does.

    • Background checks are also a 4th amendment violation. “shall not be infringed.” What about the otherwise lawful act of purchasing a firearm suggests that someone might be committing a crime and should endure a warrantless investigation of their identity?

    • Since I qualify, age-wise, as a “grand parent”, perhaps a better line to form would be a line waiting to flip the switch or pull the lever on convicted murderers. I’ll bet with today’s tech, it could easily be done from home on a smart phone. It’d be a good way to reinforce the ages-old tradition of making one responsible for their actions.

  2. I qualify as senior. Alas I have seen that mere age does not by itself guarantee wisdom. This article is a great example.

      • One time when Pops was taking me out for some ice cream when I was 10, we saw two men kissing each other. I said, “what’s that Pops?” He said, “Joey, that’s love.”

    • Herbwuz,

      “Alas I have seen that mere age does not by itself guarantee wisdom.”

      And to prove your point, we need look no further than Ms. Byrne’s very statement, “We can help show a broken country how to overcome differences with selfless persistence and love of community.”

      Selfless persistence and love will most certainly NOT overcome the “differences” between the good people of our community and violent criminals.

      My father spoke true wisdom many moons ago when he stated that violent attackers only understand one “language”–righteous vigorous violent response in self-defense.

  3. The same folks who tout “red flag laws” and “preventive” measures are the ones who scream about the scumbags civil rights when law enforcement actually DOES try to prevent! Translation=It’s the evil guns!!

  5. Don’t screw with old guys. They’ve been there and done that. Got several T-shirts and not much left to lose.

    • Me too, and one of those shirts says … “A life sentence isn’t all that big of a deal at my age”

      • I’m a senior citizen. I would gladly guard my granddaughters school but they’re HOME SCHOOLED! They don’t need me for protection I hope(they live 700 miles away). Go & do likewise🙄

        • Probably true, since your species (the common possum) only lives 2 years…

  6. Stick to cookbooks, Anne. Nobody gives a damn what your opinions about firearms are, or anything related to them.

  7. “[media hype about] the nation’s [fabricated] public health crisis — gun violence — has many of us feeling vulnerable.” FIFY

    • She’s fueled by emotion, not wisdom. The violent crime and murder rates are predictably trending up due to the Left’s Color Revolution in 2020. However, it’s nowhere near where it was at the peak in the 90’s. It’s also better than the 80’s. Oh, it’s better than the 70’s as well. We can trace that generation of violence from the Left’s policies and revolutionary ideas pushed in the 60’s. That old lady’s clueless. The fact that she thinks she’s wise enough to offer solutions makes her both arrogant and dangerous.

      • “However, it’s nowhere near where it was at the peak in the 90’s. It’s also better than the 80’s. Oh, it’s better than the 70’s as well. We can trace that generation of violence from the Left’s policies“

        Correct, during the late ‘40s and ‘50s, the United States was awash with violent crime. But statistics clearly show in the ‘60s, as liberal policies become main stream, the crime rate started it’s continued downward trend. Sure, there have been some peaks in that time period, who can forget Ronald Reagan’s cocaine wars of the 1980s…

        https://www.statista.com/statistics/191219/reported-violent-crime-rate-in-the-usa-since-1990/

        • “But statistics clearly show in the ‘60s, as liberal policies become main stream, the crime rate started it’s continued downward trend”

          False.

          if you fully research conviction vs incarceration rates you will find that in all areas of the country with left-wing liberal policy that criminals were less likely to be arrested and convicted thus they don’t show up in crime stats because crime stats are driven by arrest and conviction rates. So crime did not actually decrease, it increased, under left wing liberal policies and its just that less were arrested and convicted under left-wing liberal policy not that the crime rate actually decreased.

          But, ‘context’ and actual research are things you don’t understand.

        • “statistics clearly show in the ‘60s, as liberal policies become main stream, the crime rate started it’s continued downward trend”

          You live in a fantasy world. You linked to something that began in 1990, not the 60s. Violent crime got so bad, Democrats had to get on board with law and order. They now apologize for that because it has been deemed to be “racist.” Are you dumb, ignorant, or evil? Based on what I’ve observed, I’m going with all of the above.

        • Dude,

          “Are you dumb, ignorant, or evil? Based on what I’ve observed, I’m going with all of the above.”

          You missed one – he’s a lying liar who lies, too. But, yes, he checks ALL of the boxes.

    • separate the black on black from the rest and suddenly things don’t look so bad….

  8. RE: “At the very least, we have to try.”

    That’s right seek safety in Gun Control the History Confirmed Agenda Rooted in Racism and Genocide. As plain as the nose on your face the Historical Warnings about Gun Control is the furthest thing from the minds of marching fools begging for Gun Control. Publc Ignorance about Gun Control circles back to the silence of those supposedly on point Defending the Second Amendment…You know who you are.

  9. Why not address the person , a female, that was so mentally disturbed she thought she was a male. Wouldn’t you mention that first?

    • most true mass shooters are “mentally disturbed”…its an unnatural act to kill people at random…but it certainly is an attention-getting device which may be what they’re seeking either for them or for some fucked-up cause….

  10. The solution to gun violence is to understand that there is no such thing. It does not exist. Just like other useless phrases like ‘assault weapon’, it’s all made up for the single purpose of inducing fear. If you want to persist in this direction then all your doing is participating in the delusions of lunatics.

    • Agree. The “violence” is criminal violence.

      A “gun” is a piece of steel and plastic, like a toaster. Both can be used by a criminal to commit a crime. The problem is the human, not the tool.

      Nobody talks about “toaster violence” or “assault toasters.”

      Criminals are 100% correlated with crimes with firearms. The lawful citizens are 0% correlated.

  11. “we elders know a thing or two”

    I read the article. According to her, the problem is gunz, and the solution is gunm bans and civil rights violations. How original. The degradation of our culture wasn’t mentioned. She’s either clueless or just another propagandist. The Left in a nutshell: ignorant, low IQ, and/or evil.

    • less religion equates to less morality…it’s the reason it exists in the first place…

  12. “I believe grandparents would be more useful, and would be better able to get the attention of lawmakers, if we did more than just guard the door.

    We could write letters and make phone calls in support of red flag laws, talk with people who own guns, educate ourselves and others about extreme risk protection, and insist on universal background checks before a gun purchase, because in my home state and many others across the country, we have none of that.

    I know that there is a lively discussion about older people in public life, but we elders know a thing or two. We have tools that life has afforded us. We might be civic, neighborhood or church leaders.”

    I believe and know that, overall, these overall revered Gandparents would form a vast majority to tell you that you are full of s**t because they know something that you evidently don’t know and that is the left-wing ‘centers of power’ geographically are very small and surrounded and isolated by the right-wing and can cut off your food and water and electricity and transportation and even exceeds (on a collectively basis geographically) your hold on technology and finances in your ‘power centers’.

    Here is what the United States looks like geographically in terms of left-wing vs right-wing when all other ‘politically based’ divisions are removed.

    https://i.imgur.com/OpoLWXT.png

    You left-wing guys are surrounded. You left-wing idiots might win an election here and there with your wording deceptions and exploiting peoples emotions, and counting only those who voted, and your slanted biased polls and surveys, but despite you trying to present the idea that you are powerful in numbers you really aren’t especially in terms of power centers. So don’t make the mistake that grandparents would be on your side especially since over 70% of grandparents are armed and willing thanks to their kids wanting to take care of them and providing to them firearms to do that when that criminal threat the left-wing enjoys so much in letting run free to prey on the elderly with violence comes calling. Ya see, when we count gun owners we do it in terms of ‘purchase’…but in terms of legal possession there are a lot more ‘gun possessors’ than you imagine. And also, you left-wing idiots need to realize that simply because someone doesn’t vote it does not mean you actually won.

    • most mass shooters buy their guns legally…UBC would serve no purpose except to restrict the law-abiding…and red flag laws..which deny due process …are clearly unconstitutional…punishing someone for what they might do runs contrary to everything in our legal system…

  13. We have 10 grandkids and 5 great grandkids and I totally disagree with red flag laws because there is no due process or rule of law. Government would abuse this law just to disarm us. The best quick fix is to GET RID OF “GUN FREE ZONES”. Does anybody realize how many lives could have been saved if there was an armed presence at all these shooting locations?? Sure we have to work on the morality and lack of discipline in our society that is causing this wacko culture of today. First we have to turn back to GOD from our GODLESS society that we now have. I agree totally with Marsha Blackburn’s idea of having an armed presence everywhere you go because all it takes is one time of not being armed and tragedy could strike. As former USMC I believe in being prepared for any situation that is possible to occur, it is better to be prepared and not use it than not being prepared and being injured or dead from any type of occurrence. For instance everyone that lives in the south should have a safe room or tornado shelter to go to, that is the first thing we did when we moved here is to build a safe room, everyone should have one. All these things in life can be figured out with GOD and common sense, two vital entity’s that are lacking in our society today.

    • a house without a basement is probably a death sentence in a place like Oklahoma….

  14. Same ole Leftist response to a tragedy. Instead of dealing with the problem, they go authoritarian and advocate the confiscation of firearms.
    For the upteenth time, RED FLAG LAWS are UNCONSTITUTIONAL, as the :RED FLAG LAWS deprive people of the right to DUE PROCESS prior to the seizure of personal property.
    The author is either delusional or has no regard for DUE PROCESS.

  15. Since the shooter was trans it is doubtful the authorities would have done anything, as trans persons are a protected class. One also has to ask, what red flags had been raised prior to the attack?

    • we need to reverse that…they’re not deserving of any special protections or enhanced status

    • that’s usually a family decision…the state doesn’t need to enter into it in most cases….

  17. Oh and by the way, Hunter did the crime, but won’t be doing the time. So that gives everyone the feeling that the justice system is not all the serious about enforcing the existing laws.

  18. I’m an armed grandparent fully capable of guarding the door. Until the “powers that be” address the obvious mental health problems of these shooters I see no better solution than armed school officers/teachers to protect the children.

    • a locked door doesn’t need a guard…the shooter doesn’t get in…it doesn’t happen…..

      • Frank Speak:

        Doors are only one segment of protection, an armed “agent” (or more whether police/security/teacher/custodial staff) supplements the door and offers additional obstacle(s) an attacker must overcome to carry out his/her attack.

        Though I agree with you on entrance/exit doors as long as they are constructed of sturdy steel with only a small window (which no one can climb through for viewing) and not surrounded by large glass architectural panels resembling an atrium or greenhouse we must also take into account the actions of Sandy Hook/Newtown shooter Adam Lanza and his “backup plan”.

        At Sandy Hook that mentally ill “Pile of Biden”, Adam Lanza (who was already known to both local police and the FBI), had filled the trunk and backseat of his car with a number of gas cans filled to the brim, had he been unable to gain access to the school building he was intent on burning it to the ground. Additionally thanks to the design of the school’s main entrance Lanza would have had no problem driving up the shallow steps with his mother’s car and crashing through the front of the building. I contend with the number of gas cans involved Lanza planned a large conflagration and intended to target every entrance/exit of the school had he not gained entry on foot.

        Doors may be good but they are incapable of repeling someone like Lanza who desired to massacre students whether by gun or fire.

    • “There is a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the firearm charge for which he agreed to a pretrial diversion program.”

      if it been some one not a member of the ruling class it would be a full trial and prison cell.

      but some good news on this, and I’m sure his crooked dad will take care of him if he can remember who he is.

    • ” Hunter Biden also agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement regarding a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.”

      No prison time… 🙁

  22. If age is the unerring path to wisdom how is it that Biden is the dumbest man to ever occupy the White House?

  23. Sorry Anne – the majority of grandparents I hang with are usually armed. We act as plainclothes security at our churches, volunteer organizations and events. Many of us are combat veterans and retired police officers. We try to shoot weekly to maintain (and hone) our skillls (and to gossip about our children, grandchildren and the political woes of the USA and world).

    …and still no Manifesto, either in full or redacted, on the woman who plotted and planned for years, in excruciating detail, how to become a martyr to her cause. A national Trans activist group tried to make her heinous actions into a heroic resistance gesture…F’ their messed up version of “Justice”.

    Hunter Biden MAY receive some sort of supervised probation administered by his appointed guardian – “Dr.” Jill – That’s funny as 7734, putting the Crime Queen in charge of monitoring one of her wayward “children”…but, as was pointed out above, the DoJ has become a Progressive Enforcement Arm for the advancement of crime and crime families.

    • “and still no Manifesto, either in full or redacted, on…”

      yep, still no manifesto. but they did release the autopsy report and in the report they clearly identified her as female, even using a female diagram to identify where she got shot, which I think gets some of the trans folks po’d

      • Release the manifesto! So we can see how messed up “those people” are. Probably has more logical contradictions than Karl’s manifesto and more inane ramblings than Ted Kazinsky’s.

        Probably not released because of how embarrassingly bad it is.

    • so what was in that “manifesto”?….and why have we chosen to lelevate mentally deranged individuals to such a lofty status?

  24. The murderer had no previous record and bought the guns legally after passing a background check, so a universal background check would have done nothing. There’s no indication of anybody being concerned about the murderer’s state of mind, so red flag would have done nothing. It’s more of using a tragedy to push an agenda that does nothing to address the issue.

    • Had the female been classified/diagnosed as “mentally ill” like all people who believe they are the opposite sex/member of the animal kingdom should be and entered into the database she would’ve been denied when she attempted to make her first purchase of firearms.

      What we have here is another Garbly Giffords/Aurora Theater shooter just like Jared “OWS” Loughner and James “Joker” Holmes, someone who had undergone psychological counseling for years but was never “flagged” and reported to authorities as required by law (something I believe is intentional by members of that “medical profession” as the majority of them are committed Leftists who see no problem in facilitating/increasing firearm deaths to advance their anti-gun agenda and at the same time avoid “stigmatizing” the severely mentally disturbed.

    • just a charade…the real goal is something else…we all know it…why play their game and add validity to their incremental aims.?..

  26. What could the State of TN do about guns? Nothing. They must act on those who misuse them. Kamikazes must be shot down before they strike.

  27. quote————And a few weeks back, Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee suggested that grandparents arm themselves to help protect schools. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the notion. It seemed farcical and yet sadly tragic, too, that she had no better solutions.———quote

    Yep the typical stingy nonsensical Far Right, i.e. we will pass no common sense gun control and of course spend no money and we don’t give a damn how many kids get massacred.

    • dacian the demented dips**t,

      If you ever manage to engage an actual thought, feel free to come back and tell us about it. As it is, your only function appears to be cluttering up these threads with STUPID irrelevancies and lies. You really are, objectively, a completely ignorant, uneducated, STOOPID, lying @$$clown. Take a seat – in fact, take ALL the seats.

      No one on this thread would give a flying f**k what you say, even if you actually had an original thought (and the Second Coming will occur before that). F**K OFF, you worthless turd. You are stupid, ignorant, uneducated, and no one likes you. Sucks to be you.

      Your mother was a hamster andy your father smelt of elderberries. Go away, or I shall taunt you again.

    • Petty cost cutting is not only a sign of “the stingy far right”.

      A quote from Chernobyl (2019) about why a shoddy reactor design was mass produced.

      “It was cheap.”

    • dacian, the DUNDERHEAD, Give it a rest, “Far right” folks are far from stringy. It seems we on the RIGHT give far more to charity than you Leftists ever dared. You people “think” that the government should do it all for you.

  29. If I were asked to, YES, I would “arm up” and monitor one of our schools to protect the children and adults inside. (74-year-old great-grandfather)

  30. I normally lurk and read, I did post once a few years ago. Even though I normally do not post, I’d like to this time.

    What ever drugs Anne Byrne is taking she should stop.

    I’m 68 years old. I have grand children in school. We have armed teachers and staff and school resource officers in the schools. It isn’t a law, but rather a determination by the state that it can be done and its left up to each school district and all school districts allow armed teachers and staff, although there is law for the school resource officers. For the teachers and staff is completely voluntary, no one forces them to do it.

    Some of those armed teachers and staff are also grandparents.

    Myself, I go armed just about everywhere I go and so does my wife and out of around 30 other people around our age or older that have grand kids that we know all of them own guns and almost all of them EDC. And, without a doubt, all of them endorse the use of armed teachers and staff in the schools and its paid off too.

    In addition to the armed school staff and school resource officers, there is a dedicated group of military veterans, of which I am one, that in our district (and I know its happened in other districts too) form a response team ready to respond to a school shooting if it were to happen and some of those are grand parents.

    But before anyone says “hey, this is an old man so how will he react, will he be fast enough or fall down and break a hip and can’t get up?”

    Ok, well that’s a kind of a fair question. But don’t discount age. I’m fit and lean and mean just like I was in my 30 years in the military, as are the rest on the team. I can still take out targets on the move or stationary before most of the younger guys can chamber a round and still do a five mile run just fine. So its not like I’m overweight and huff and puff reaching for the next donut like some of the cops I see.

    We have had threats to shoot up schools, most have been hoaxes. The one that did happen almost. It got stopped cold by an armed teacher using her firearm while the shooter was still outside the school and had not fired a shot yet. All I can say to that is thank God for armed teachers, my grandson was in that school in a room one door away from where the shooter was planning to enter. The teacher was a grandparent too, her own grand child was in the school as well.

    Its been 10 years now with armed teachers and staff. Not one accident. The general thing of “if it saves just one life” the gun control idiots like to say, well how about if having that gun saves 10, 20, 40 or more like it has in several mass shootings, are those lives with something?

    Anne Byrne, do not ever assume you know what grandparents, or parents, will do to protect the ones they love.

  31. As always the idiots solution is to disarm the law abiding and continue to do nothing about the criminals.
    Bans, Background checks, registration and licensing schemes/taxes, red Flag orders, or any thing else the idiots can dream up fail because they never address the real issue.
    Hold those who commit the violent acts accountable. Keep those who are adjudicated to be a danger to the general public off the streets either in jail or in some sort of mental hospital if they have such issues. And ensure those who wish to do so have the tools available to protect themselves and their communities from both criminals and overbearing tyrannical, dictatorial politicians.

  32. BACK GROUND CHECKS OK , THINK GOOD IDEA WAY SOCIETY IS NOW ADAYS . GUESS REALLY NO DIFF FROM PASS , JUST THEY DIDN’T HAVE SSA #’S , FINGER PRINT DATA BASE , OR DNA , NOR COMPUTERS TO TRACK THE DRUG LORDS OR CRIMINALS .

    BACK GROUND CHECK DID NOT BOTHER ME , I’M HONEST CITIZEN NO CRIMINAL RECORDED TO HIDE .

    • You’re ok with your civil rights being violated. I am not. You go ahead and stay in the back of the bus. You belong there.

  33. Grannie Annie,ut dOWN that KoolAde cup, NOW. Back away from the table.

    The problem is NOT a “gun problem” as you mindlessly prattle about. Or at least not in the way YOU think it is.

    Yes, the problem DID invilve guns, that day, at the Covenan School. But the problem with the guns there is two-fold:

    first THERE WAS ONLY ONE GUN. Get a clue!! And the WRONG PERSON had it.

    And that person WAS known as having mental issues, the most balatant one being the, being a SHE, she thought she was a HE. Perhaps it would have been better if she had thought she was a canary. Just as deluded.

    But the REAL problem was that NO ONE ELSE had a gun there that day.
    What if that school custodian chap, the 61 year old man, a Grandpa, had been “allowed” to flex his iwn rights as guaranteed by the Secnd Article of Ammendment, and been armed and skilled? When the barmy female showed up to shoot her way through the main entrance door, ONE ROUND from his (not carried because of school [olicy) nine mm handgun would hve dropped her and her weapons deadright there. No dead teachers, janorit or children. only one dead confused female.

    Go and learn about the FASTER Saves Lives programme, started in Ohio right after the Sandy Hook school shootemup. In the 2000 or so school districts where this programme is in place, there has not been ONE INCIDENT at any school in those districts involving firearms. ALL the school and other public incidents unfolding the putatuve perps just MIGHT reconsider their odds of success and notoriety. Imagine the press had Grandpa been armed there and done his job. Gramos would be the hero, not she. Gramps would be alive to tell HS side of the story, no manifesto ever discovered. SHE, the murderess, would be the abject failure she really was. And NO SCHOOLCHILDREN WERE HARMED by Grandpa’s “nasty” gunm.
    Amd Ammie te Grannie wouldn’t have much to wrote about besides her boring knitting grouo meeting last week. And five otherinnocents besides Grandpa would yet be alive.

    No, Annie. The problem was not GUNS. The problemwas WHO HAD THEM, and WHO DID NOT. The correct roles were switched that day.

  34. HANDS OFF MY CONSTITUTIONAL 2ND AMENDMENT RIGHTS. A disarmed people are slaves.

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