How many defensive gun uses are there annually? We can only estimate the number of successful self-defense scenarios, and that number, on the conservative side, is about one million times a year. It’s near impossible to put our fingers on it because we’d have to analyze every single person’s thoughts all the time. Of those million plus uses annually, a gross majority of them don’t even require the trigger to be pulled. Contrast this with the approximate average number of 13,000 +/- homicides committed with firearms annually. Some statistical genius can crunch those numbers and tell us the specifics, but we don’t need to have a big pile of gray matter to figure this one out. I’d take a million dollars over tens of thousands, all day every day. These facts and statistics seem to be lost on New Jersey Progressives and they’re lashing out over a call for increased police presence.

The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, the ACLU of New Jersey and the Education Law Center today responded to Gov. Murphy’s decision to increase police presence in schools in response to Tuesday’s tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.  

Governor Phil Murphy, who does not get a lot right all too often, called for an increased police presence in the wake of the horrific Texas school shooting. While an increased police presence may not be the end-all answer to mitigating these types of events, it sure is a giant leap in the right direction. An increase in armed, yes, armed security, would be beneficial to our schools and aid in protecting our children. The logical steps beyond that would be specialized training, and creating site specific teams that’s sole purpose is to keep the bad people out, good people in, and those that wish to do harm stopped in their tracks. The FASTER Saves Lives program comes to mind, as well as the NRA School Shield program.

It’s not like Murphy had an actual epiphany and said we should train and arm the teachers and staff members that wish to be armed. Or start issuing carry permits to the peasants. The Murph called for extra police.

What were these statements? Where do the priorities lie with these organizations?

“In the wake of back-to-back senseless mass shootings that have targeted communities of color in New York and Texas, families are shaken and scared. But at this moment, we need clarity in our response to these tragedies,” said Yannick Wood, Director of the Criminal Justice Reform Program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. “We need to focus and act on the causes of these tragedies, like the availability, on demand, of guns across our country, as well as the lack of access to mental health services…”

There’s not much to disagree with in that statement. Then Yannick takes a wild turn:

“…Adding more school security on the backend is not the solution to this problem. It will also have a particularly negative impact on students of color who are often introduced into the school-to-prison pipeline through school security, which is why we recently joined other advocates to petition the State Board of Education to prohibit the use of security aid on ineffective expenditures like school resource officers.” 

Yannick’s statements are parroted by the other organizations included in the release.

“Increased police presence in schools does only one thing: subject children and families of Color to multiple traumas and violence, whether by individual actors or institutions plagued with systemic racism. Further, due to Uvalde’s location within the 100-mile border zone, ICE and CBP officers responded to the crisis, forcing many immigrant parents to make the impossible choice between checking on the survival of their child or having their identifying information shared with deportation agents. As an immigrant rights coalition in New Jersey, a state that falls within this same 100-mile border zone and where over 40% of children come from an immigrant family, this is troubling. A secure New Jersey is one where all families feel safe – regardless of their immigration status or the color of their skin.” – Amy Torres with New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.

“It is imperative that New Jersey take action to ensure the safety of students but adding more police to our schools in the wake of this horrific tragedy is not the solution. Increased police presence in schools will lead to more students being introduced to the criminal legal system, especially students of color and students with disabilities. We need a comprehensive plan for student safety that provides real support to our students, including restorative justice practices and access to trained mental health professionals,” – Joe Johnson, Policy Counsel at the ACLU of New Jersey.

“More police will not make schools safe. We join the Governor in calling for stronger gun control. But what’s needed in schools is a holistic approach based on research and proven strategies that include sufficient counselors, social workers, and nurses to provide students with a supportive environment. It’s time for the State Department of Education to lead that effort in response to our recently filed rulemaking petition on security aid,” – David Sciarra, Education Law Center Executive Director.

We’re talking about security to protect our children. We’re not talking about adding more discipline officers. We’re not talking about these people harassing or giving trouble to students. We’re talking about if an armed person, or person otherwise outfitted to inflict harm on our kids, were to be a threat to the occupants of the school’s property, they can be stopped immediately and effectively.

One report really takes a far left turn and quotes Amy Torres from the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.

Increased policing, like that Murphy and Platkin are now calling for, often comes with increased document checks for people entering schools.

And that safety is “usually at the expense of immigrant parents, Black parents, brown parents,” Torres said — parents “who face barriers to either possessing those documents or face additional scrutiny just because of systemic racism.”

Johnson noted that bringing law enforcement into schools more likely addresses school shootings after they become an issue, instead of preventing one from happening.

These groups are too busy playing partisan progressive politics, and trying to take an actual positive and turn it into a negative. I have a few choice words for the people that are complicit with not protecting our children with ALL the resources available, in addition to any salient solutions involving counseling, kumbaya, drum circles, safe spaces, emotional support peacocks, tampons in the boy’s room (why not if it would keep our kids safe?), or any other good and sound, or crazy and outlandish idea someone could come up with. Personally, I’m open to every solution available, but these people want to cut the legs from under our children by leaving them subject to being preyed upon by criminal deviants and psychopaths.

The Murph and I don’t see eye to eye. I’d happily sit down and chat with him if he ever wanted to meet up for coffee or a meal. I’ll even have a drink with ole Murph, if that’s what he’d want, in order for us to chew the fat or have an interview. Just because he’s an awful, rich, progressive, anti-freedom, socialist, does not mean that every idea he has is bad. Again, I don’t think his proposal goes far enough, but was a good starting point.

This is 2022 New Jersey. Where the “civil rights” organizations are more worried about feelings than they are about our children being murdered. Talk about priorities. This is the uphill battle our children and the law abiding citizen in the Garden State has to deal with.