Random Thoughts     
About Random Shootings    

   There are numerous ways to acquire guns: privately, online, gun shows, retail stores, robbery... This calls for - if not more laws - more people to follow and apply the laws we already have.  

   Countless souls among our 330,000 could be the next news makers: loners, misfits, the bullied, those easily angered, illegal immigrants, jealous types, jihadist wannabees, kids from dysfunctional homes, and losers who "win" as antiheroes. 

   Data sharing is a challenge. Why do all "tips" to the FBI now go to Washington, instead of regional offices or local police departments? Do responsible officials have heart, or are tips just routine items on their to-do list? 

  Today, they're talking $$$ millions for armed non-teachers, each of whom must receive competitive pay to keep them in the schools.

   Lying on background-check forms is a felony, but 120,000 did it in 2016, failing to pass. How many others got away with it?

   Here's a PROMISE: Our prior administration was concerned about a certain county with zero tolerance for "minor infractions," which had negative effects on young people, such as "disrupting their learning process."

   Education Secretary Arnie Dunkin, Attorney General Eric Holder, and the superintendent of a large school district, Robert Runcie, developed a program with the acronym PROMISE. The district was awarded $54 million in federal grants to handle most discipline in-house, rather than calling police. 

   If "disparate impact" on minority kids continued, the district could face charges. It worked. In four years, arrests fell from 1,056 to 392 per year. 

   But not because troubled kids behaved. Many acts were misdemeanors, not minor. What county is this? Broward County, Florida, where Runcie is superintendent. Could this explain in part why Nikolas Cruz was expelled but not stopped? And a recent report that first responders were ordered not to enter the building? 

   Dunkin and Runcie may have known each other when both were in Chicago's school system.

      Jimmy