In December of 2022, an Amazon employee was shot and wounded in the parking lot of an Amazon warehouse. The shooter was not working for Amazon. I say ‘was’ because the shooter is dead.

He was killed by another Amazon employee who was carrying a gun that day. How could this happen?

After all, the signs at every entry to the facility clearly state that it’s a gun free zone and no weapons are allowed.

As we have clearly experienced in the past few decades, there is nothing safe about gun free zones. In fact, they are some of the most unsafe places.

Signs are adhered to by law abiding people. Criminals only see such places as an opportunity because there is little to no resistance. At least not with the same level of force.

It took a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun and prevent further loss of life at the Amazon facility.

In 2023, a mentally ill transgender female walked into a Nashville church school and committed the murder of children and faculty before being gunned down by police. That was not her initially intended target. Her primary target was another school.

However, she changed plans because the other school had much tighter security measures and therefore a hard target.

In 2022, a so-called white supremacist drove up to a supermarket in Buffalo, New York frequented by mostly black folk and opened fire, killing quite a few and wounding a few others.

In an interview with the police, he admitted to shooting this location because New York State’s gun control laws are so strict that armed resistance wouldn’t be an issue.

Also in 2022, a young man enters an Indiana mall and kills three people and wounds two before a 21-year-old bystander shoots him dead within 15 seconds of the killer’s first shot.

The mall posted signs prohibiting firearms on premises. Did the killer comply? Would any criminal hellbent on causing mayhem?

The hero, Elijah Dickens, was 21, carrying a concealed firearm merely days after Indiana passed its permitless carry law.

He didn’t comply either. Thank goodness he didn’t.

Five victims in 15 seconds. How many more would die had he not taken this selfless action?

This is not the first time and will not be the last such tragedy.

Yet, the only thing our governments, federal and some local ones, can come up with for solutions are universal background checks, assault weapon bans, magazine capacity restrictions, and a few other kakamame restrictions they think will prevent criminals, the mentally ill and unhappy people looking for fame from committing the same crimes.

Ask any of the still living perpetrators of any of these crimes if having any of these restrictions in place would have helped change their minds, turn them from criminals to model citizens, or cure their mental illness and distorted self-image.

Restrictions only impede the law abiding. PERIOD!

I am sick and tired of seeing innocent people die by the hands of people whose names aren’t worth mentioning.

And instead of empowering law-abiding citizens to be equally equipped and prepared to stand up to those who mean harm by making every space more secure and the people empowered, they play on our emotional strings with the same useless tune that has no truly positive impact on the safety of the innocent.

Aren’t you sick of that tune too?

Gun free zones are not the safe havens they are intended to be. In fact, they provide a false sense of security that invites more crime. Is it any wonder that schools and universities, the quintessential gun free zones, are the prime target?

Instead of rallying around the premise that securing schools and protecting children is a better use of their budgets than building bigger football arenas and fancier libraries, they waste money and time on gender identity studies and calling parents domestic terrorists for trying to protect their kids when their educators should.

This notion that schools should be a Garden of Eden with serene and beautiful surroundings for children is all good and well, but is it more important than keeping your children safe and seeing them come home every day?

Do you think children care if there is tighter security, taller fences, and bulletproof classroom doors? They just want to learn and play and can tune out all these measures as soon as the bell rings and the playground is open for recess.

Is a well-trained teacher with access to a secure firearm your children don’t even know is there more apprehensive an idea than a shooter having free reign in the school hallways while your kids cower behind desks that couldn’t stop a BB gun?

Fortunately, several states, notably Ohio, are implementing armed teachers programs and making it publicly known with a direct message to those contemplating harming children that they will be killed if they try. That is the bold stance needed in the world we live in today. The children deserve that.

What would the parents of the victims of Uvalde, Texas, Sandy Hook, Connecticut, Douglas Stoneman, Florida, Columbine, Colorado, and many others pay to turn back the clock and have adequate and well-trained armed resistance to neutralize the shooters before their world crumbled for life?

Suing the gun manufacturer and landing a nice settlement will not bring their kids back or prevent future gun free zone shootings, no matter how many anti-gun foundations they create in honor of their dead children, or the millions they raise for the cause.

My intention is not to be insensitive. Heck, if my frustration and heartbreak for all innocent victims aren’t evident by now, I don’t know what to tell you.

But sugarcoating it, preaching world peace and forgiveness isn’t an approach I can stand behind. It doesn’t work, and our children and loved ones shouldn’t be the currency we trade to appease those who insist on living in La-La Land.

How many more innocent people have to die in gun free zones by the hands of people who are not law abiding, consumed with hate, or mentally unstable, before you recognize that gun free zones are death zones. The people they are meant to deter are far more likely to hit there than anywhere else because it’s far easier.

Laws against such people possessing guns already exist, but are inadequately enforced.

How can you tell me that over 300 federal gun laws and over 20,000 state and local gun laws aren’t enough? No law enforcement officer of any branch can possibly know them all, let alone enforce them.

Do you honestly believe that adding more will make it better? You honestly believe criminals will make sure to buy the latest edition so they can stay current on the new regulations?

So going on an emotional tantrum, crying out for more of the same, and expecting that things will improve, is not common sense! It’s insanity. The Second Amendment states that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

With so many laws already in place, I’d say it’s quite an infringement already. However,

I’ll be the first to say that some laws are sensible and necessary even among law abiding citizens. Gun free zones, in my humble opinion, is not one of them.

Train Hard, Often, and SAFELY!