Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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Question 1

Has the U.S. been plagued by K-12 school shootings since the 1999 massacre at Columbine H.S. when 2 twelfth-grade students murdered 10 classmates and wounded 21 others before committing suicide?

Answer 1

Yes.

And also plagued before 1999 though Columbine was probably the first school massacre that left an indelible memory.

Question 2

Did the U.S. Secret Service discuss 41 K-12 school attacks 2008-2017 in its “Protecting America’s Schools: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence”?

Answer 2

Yes -- more than 4/year!!!

Question 3

Did the 5/24/2022 shooting at Uvalde TX’s Robb Elementary School by an 18-year-old former student result in the murder of 17 students and 2 teachers, while 17 others were wounded before the perp, after more than an hour of unrestricted shooting, was killed by law enforcement?

Answer 3

Yes.

Question 4

BTW, did the 5/24/2023 Washington Post contain a lengthy report with the headline “A year after Uvalde, officers who botched response face few consequences”?

Answer 4

Yes – please see viewtopic.php?f=744&t=2349&sid=a3ea6ed8 ... 602bb36d23.

Question 5

In the immediate aftermath of the Uvalde shooting, was there a typical media firestorm demanding new gun laws?

Answer 5

Yes.

Question 6

However, was this time different because Senate Republicans believed they could not withstand this firestorm while doing nothing?

Answer 6

Yes.

Question 7

Accordingly, did Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell designate Sen. John Cornyn to lead negotiations with Senate Democrats re legislative proposals on which sufficient bi-partisan agreement could be achieved to surmount the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rule?

Answer 7

Yes.

Question 8

Had Sen. Cornyn from Texas, who joined the Senate 2/2/2002, served as Senate Minority Whip 2013-2015 and Senate Majority Whip 2015-2019? Had he previously served as Texas Attorney General 1999-2002 and as a Texas Supreme Court Associate Justice 1991-1997?

Answer 8

Yes and Yes.

Question 9

Did Sen. Cornyn organize a bi-partisan group of 10 Democrat Senators and 10 Republican Senators that, after a week of negotiations, announced on 6/21/2022 a bill described by a Washington Post headline as “A Bipartisan Gun Deal, Breaking 30-Year Logjam”?

Answer 9

Yes – please see viewtopic.php?f=742&t=2341&sid=a3ea6ed8 ... 602bb36d23.

Question 10

Did the WaPo article disclose that the bi-partisan bill did not include Democrat demands for a new assault-weapons ban and restrictions on high-capacity ammunition magazines?

Answer 10

Yes – please see viewtopic.php?f=742&t=2341&sid=a3ea6ed8 ... 602bb36d23.

Question 11

BTW, did the U.S. Supreme Court on 5/17/2023 leave in place Illinois’ new ban on the purchase and sale of AR-15-style rifles and large ammunition magazines while the case makes its leisurely way to the Supreme Court?

Answer 11

Yes.

Demonstrating that the gun-control faction can still get its way with state-by-state legislation subject to Supreme Court restraints based on the Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms.

Question 12

Did our Original Topic Proposal posted 6/22/2022 when the text of the bipartisan bill was publicly disclosed, give it a grade of “Fail-Minus” which was 3 days before it was signed into law?

Answer 12

Yes.

Question 13

Was the “Fail-Minus” grade based on the following failures to “Provide Our Schools The Same Protections As Airports & Office Buildings” –

(A) THERE IS NO REQUIREMENT TO REPORT TO CONGRESS WHETHER ANY “GRANT PROGRAMS” ARE INADEQUATELY FUNDED!!!

(B) STATES WOULD HAVE TO BE INSANE TO UNDERTAKE GRANT PROGRAMS FOR “BEST PRACTICES” IF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS TRULY COMMITTED TO FUNDING THEM!!!

(C) THERE IS NO MENTION OF ANY EXISTING “BEST PRACTICES”!!!

(D) INDEED, THE FIVE (YES, COUNT THEM FIVE) “COMMON SENSE” SCHOOL-SAFETY MEASURES LISTED ABOVE (from Sec. 3 of our Original Proposal) -- single entry-exit (fire-exit doors have one-way locks and alarms that are inspected daily), metal detectors at the single entry-exit, trained armed guards at the single entry-exit, and bullet proof windows -- are, presumably, NOT CURRENTLY “best practices” since America is continually plagued with school shootings!!!

(E) MOREOVER, there is no guarantee that these five “common sense” school-safety measures will ever become “best practices”!!!

Answer 13

(A) Yes.
(B) Yes.
(C) Yes.
(D) Yes.
(E) Yes.

Question 14

Was the list of five criticisms and the “Fail-Minus” grade accompanied by the following Cri de Coeur –

“AS USUAL, our pols are COMPLETE-IDIOTS!!! All they had to do was look at security at airports and office buildings and they could have devised the same list we did and put the items right into the Act for immediate implementation!!!”

Answer 14

Yes!!!

Question 15

Vis-à-vis “Providing Our Schools The Same Protections As Airports & Office Buildings” – does the legislation simply require the Dept of Homeland Security to maintain a “Clearinghouse” of best practices and a list of grant programs that can be used to implement such practices, accompanied by occasional reports to Congress?

Answer 15

Unfortunately!!!

Question 16

Does that “Clearinghouse” currently list only 2 grant programs, neither of which would do anything to “Provide Our Schools The Same Protections As Airports & Office Buildings”?

Answer 16

Unfortunately!!!

[Please see the “Reference Material” entitled “Bleak Progress Report – School Safety and the ‘Safer Communities Act of 2022’” at viewtopic.php?f=744&t=2348&sid=afa9ab6d ... 16e2cc07be – and, in particular, its penultimate section entitled “The 7 Tools and Resources of the Clearinghouse.”]

Question 17

Three days after the 3/27/2023 Covenant School Shooting in Nashville, did Sen. Marsh Blackburn re-introduce in the 118th Congress that convened Jan 2023 her SAFE Schools Act (S.1107)?

Answer 17

Yes.

Question 18

Does her 4-page bill provide $900 million to train veterans and former law-enforcement officers to be K-12 school safety officers and to improve school safety with metal detectors, etc.?

Answer 18

Yes.

Question 19

Would this presumably be a $900 million annual appropriation that could be increased in subsequent years if conditions warrant?

Answer 19

Yes.

Question 20

Does it appear that Sen. Blackburn’s bill will die again in the 118th Congress because it is running into the “buzz saw” of the Debt-Limit Negotiations in which the House Republican Caucus is attempting to cut spending?

Answer 20

Unfortunately.

Question 21

Nonetheless, has John Karls proposed one of our “Six Degrees of Separation” E-mail Campaigns in which we ask our 223 members (1) to send an already-prepared e-mail to their U.S. Senators and Representatives and (2) to request all of their friends and acquaintances in an unending chain to do the same?

Answer 21

Yes.