Bill Leeper Nassau County Sheriff
May 25, 2022
A message from Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper:
We are deeply saddened by the horrific shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Our heart aches for all those who lost loved ones in this senseless act. We want to personally assure parents that we are committed to providing a safe environment for all students here in Nassau County.
As a grandfather of two beautiful little girls, I can’t imagine the thought of someone taking their lives in such an evil way.
We are so grateful that we have School Resource Deputies stationed at our schools, sworn to protect our children and the entire community they serve. Please keep the community impacted by the Texas school shooting in your prayers.
Thank you, Nassau Sheriff for your service. You have a difficult job.
I want to add my own comments and further the discussion I am sick and tired of violence. I believe we can provide an even safer environment for our citizens. We need to protect our citizens by passing commonsense gun legislation. Let’s get serious about public safety – regulate guns. The increase in murders, accidental shootings, suicides, and mass shootings show the necessity of changing course. We can’t afford to ignore the huge death toll from unregulated guns
Regulation should not punish responsible gun owners, There are lawful uses for guns. Commonsense regulation is not a burden if it prevents a person from committing violent acts. The constitution uses the words “well regulated” when referring to gun rights. Reasonable regulation should strike a proper balance between the individual right to bear arms and the interest of the state in protecting the public.
We have car safety laws. We require operators to be licensed and trained. We register all vehicles and re-register them when transferring to new owners. We require car insurance.
It is not too much to ask that gun owners be required to be licensed, require background checks and have training and insurance. There are lawful uses for both cars and guns.
People have the right not to be shot.
Mary Janicke, Fernandina Beach
Wayne La Pierre after, Sandy Hook, coined the phrase “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Nice theory, but it does not hold up in the face of empiracal evidence.
After Buffalo and Uvalde, the more accurate theory is, “The only thing that stops a good guy with a gun (i.e. the security guard at Topps or the resource office at Robb Elementary) is a bad guy with an assault weapon.”
In 1994, Congress passed an assault weapon ban. During the ten years in which it was in effect, there was ONE mass shooting resulting in more than 10 deaths. That was Columbine and it took two gunmen. After it expired in 2004, there has been an average of two a year, all of which involved a semiautomatic rifle or pistol.
No we cannot totally eliminate murders in schools, churches, synagogues, movie theaters, etc. But without assault weapons, the data say the adjetctive “MASS” would not be as prevalent. And parents would not have to give first responders DNA samples so they can indentify FACELESS 10 years year olds.
For what it’s worth.
“Saddened” by a mass killing does nothing to prevent another one. We have been “saddened” for decades. It’s (past) time to take on the NRA and toughen gun laws. Guns kill people, and in the wrong hands they murder children and others.
The issue is not about gun control, we had a lot less mass shootings before 1990’s and a lot less gun control. The issue is our public school system and hyper media political biased popular culture…they are making young people insane. Very Sad. Also, Before 1970 there were classes at public schools for gun safety and no school shootings, when everyone was armed with knowledge about guns a lot less innocent people got hurt. Peace thru Strength otherwise you have FEAR thru political/media theater!
Hello missyjean,
Thank you for your comments and there is more to the story.
I am not sure that additional curriculum mandates for the public schools will cure this issue. Teachers are busy teaching the basics and assume that they will work with children in a protected workplace. This is essential so that children can concentrate on their academics, rather than worrying about guns.
Despite heavy police protection, Presidents and other political leaders have been shot.
Every since 1966 there have been a number of mass shootings. Mass shootings decreased from 1994- 2004 with the passage of The Federal Assault Weapons ban. We had less to fear with this commonsense regulation.
When a concerned group of people tried to stop the explosion of violence and pornography in media (video games, movies, etc.), the Supreme Court ruled against them because it violated the right to free speech.
One path towards Peace through Strength, would be to provide some basic regulations to protect each other.
Mary
Am I the only one who noticed the only person who continued to justify the sale of weapons of war to civilians in America hides behind a pseudonym. She did not respond the facts. And she lies to you. Got to Wikipedia. There is a listing of the mass shooting in the USA. And there were plenty of mass shootings before 1990. The only time the number went down was when there was a BAN on the sale of assault weapons (1994-2004)
She lies to you when she says before 1970 everyone was armed. The percentage of households with gun owners has been constant at around 40 percent since 1970 (Source: Statistica). Today it is 42 percent.
But she is not alone. Governor Abbott lied to the people of Texas on Tuesdays. His first statement said the shooter had a gun and possibly a rifle. The governor had been briefed by local law enforcement and had to know the assault involved an AR-15. So he is either a liar, a coward or both.
Yesterday he lied at the press conference when he said 18 year olds have been able to buy a gun in Texas for 60 years. A Texan has to be 21 to buy a handgun. The law does allow an 18 to buy a long gun. Why? Because hunting is a legitimate part of Texas culture and a long gun was presumed to be sporting equipment, not a weapon of war.
And this morning we learned Abbott lied when he said it could have been worse if not for heroics of responding local law enforcement. NO! Eyewitnesses report local police stood outside the school from 30-40 minutes waiting for a border patrol SWAT team. Why? Because they believed an entire police department was outgunned by one18 year old with an AR-15. (Echoes of Parkland)
Missyjean, I too am saddened. Saddened at your willingness to spout platitudes like “peace through strength” and ignore the facts. Saddened that you do not realize Ted Cruz cooking bacon on the muzzle of an AR-15 is the REAL political theater. Saddened that folks like you talk about “cancel culture” when the only culture that is cancelling the lives of children is America’s “GUN CULTURE.” Saddened that you feel you have to hide behind a pseudonym, something that is more appropriate for Twitter than a serious community dialog. And most of all, saddened by the lack of empathy. If you are a mother of small children or ever have been, heed the words of Fred Guttenbuerg whose daughter Jaime was murdered at Parkland, “Every day I live with the guilt I did not use my voice until it was my daughter.”
Missyjean or whoever you are, much of what you said has been disputed and in fact debunked in another post. I would like to say that it’s gotten much worse since candidate Trump and then President Trump openly advocated violence against anyone who disagreed with him. Ever since Trump was a candidate he’s given a voice to people who feel that it’s OK to kill as a way of voicing their displeasure. Many Republican legislators have followed suit. It gives the crazy ones the green light to shoot people up.
We are all saddened by the violence we see every day in our society. Despite the best of intentions, there is no evidence that having deputies at schools stop school violence, including mass shootings. There are many common sense measures that we can implement that o not take away any rights to own guns but are well known to stop mass shootings. However, these are vehemently opposed by the NRA. Some politicians would rather appease some of their constituents rather than the majority of those who support reasonable gun control measures.; we need to vote those politicians out. Also, the bulk of the NRA’s funding comes from gun manufacturers, not citizen memberships. The gun manufacturers have hijacked the conversation regarding sensible gun and owner control measures. People need to stop hiding behind politeness and start discussing openly with family, friends, and neighbors the need for common sense regulations. My suggestion is to counter the “slippery slope“ argument, the one that says if we implement more gun control measures, they will want to take all our guns away. That is bull honky and designed to shut down the entire conversation. Get past that and continue to talk about common sense regulation.
A Texas Republican legislator says now is not the time. The families need to be comforted, not approached with political talk. But what could be more comforting than telling a parent that we will change these laws so that this will not happen again to other families.
Thank you, Mary. Prevention=Protection=Peacefulness
Open Letter to Nassau County Bill Leeper.
I accept that your heart aches for the victims of KINDERCIDE at Robb Elementary School. But does it ache in anticipation of the next one and the next one and the next one. The International Association of Chiefs of Police has long been an advocate of renewing the 1994 ban on assault weapons as evidenced by the following policy statement.
The IACP has been a strong supporter of the assault weapons ban since 1992, and our membership has approved several reauthorizations of support in the years since. The membership took this action because we, as law enforcement executives, understand that the criminal use of semiautomatic assault weapons pose a grave risk to our officers and the communities they are sworn to protect.
An assault weapon ban will not stop every act of violence directed at children or schools. But it will, as it did for 10 years, limit the number of victims and protect the lives of law enforcement officials who respond to the situation.
Respectfully,
Joseph A. Kayne
Anybody who wants to end gun, and all other violence, should answer these questions first:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/05/douglas-young/twelve-questions-to-consider-regarding-mass-shootings/
Who is willing to???
Mr. Miller
I did read your website referral, lewrockwell. Respectfully, I believe that the questions only address part of the issue and leave out other important points. I would welcome the opportunity to address questions posed in this article if there were enough space in this comment space. The author poses questions, but where are the answers?
Those questions are for us, at large to answer. However, people who think they can stop violence by making guns illegal are sadly mistaken.
Name one thing made illegal which is not immediately available today to those who seek it? So then only law abiding citizens would be unarmed?
It is now coming out that law enforcement was on scene in Tx and refused to go in, even while parents demanded it. They even prevented parents who wanted to go in from doing it. A police spokesman stated that cops went in and took their own kids out, without confronting the shooter.
So those who think the police will protect us are in for a surprise.
Mr. Miller, I too read the article you recommended. And it made perfect sense if you are a self-admitted Ayn Rand, anarchist as the author and the sponsor of the web site claim to be. So may I suggest, since you want government to get out of your life, please build your own roads, don’t expect the fire department to save your house if it catches on fire or any other service provided or any other public service.
And BTW, did you even listen to the representative from the Texas Department of Public Safety say the policy did not go in when they realized they were outgunned by ONE 18 YEAR OLD WITH A WEAPON OF WAR. And why did he have it. Because people like you don’t give a damn what happens to anyone else as long as you your are free to do whatever you want.
All of the deluded people who oppose the right to self defense, and believe that the police will protect them will be silenced, (I hope) when they see that “law enforcement officers” were on the scene and refused to go in in spite of begging parents. Not only that, they prevented parents who tried to go to the kid’s defense, tackling and holding them down. This isn’t the first time that police have abdicated.
read it for yourself:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/go-there-distraught-parents-begged-texas-cops-enter-school-gunman-inside-hour
Mr. Miller,
The police officers did not kill the children.
The open door at the school did not kill the children.
A young adult with a war-type assault weapon killed the children.
We can not scapegoat the police officers or other adults. If the young man did not have an assault weapon to begin with, this horrific massacre would not have have happened. His war weapon is designed to kill as many people as possible in the least amount of time.
Enough of this discussion for me. It seems that there is always talk, and no action to make us safe.
Mary Gravier Janicke