OPINION | ARKANSAS SPORTSMAN: Tools available to stop mass shooters before they kill


In high school, my late son Daniel's name was found on a "hit" list compiled by a classmate who is now serving a 25-year sentence in the Arkansas prison system for second-degree murder.

It is jolting to be told by school officials to keep your child out of school until the threat has been located and neutralized. I can only imagine what it's like to be told that your child was killed by such a person. I can imagine it because I've gotten that visit, the only difference being cause of death.

Remember the 2018 shooting at Heath High School in Paducah, Ky.? A 14-year old student killed three classmates and injured five. Rebecca Sealock, a teacher at Heath High School, was 20 feet away from the shooter when he cut loose. Rebecca and Jason Sealock are from Springdale. Jason is my friend. He used to write freelance outdoor articles for the Morning News and is now editor for wired2fish.com.

In 1975, one of our state's most prominent businessmen and philanthropists, then an all-state linebacker for the Parkview Patriots, was taken to safety after school officials received a tip that a fellow student intended to kill him. A handgun was found in the perpetrator's locker. That was a huge deal because things like that simply did not happen back then, and especially not in Little Rock, Arkansas.

These incidents aren't abstractions. They happened to loved ones, friends and neighbors. I suspect that as these incidents mount, many of us will know somebody that has been directly or indirectly affected by a mass shooter.

This matters to me as a hunter and a gun owner, but especially as a human. I treasure my right to own and use firearms. I use them responsibly and legally, and I have no sympathy or tolerance for anyone whose selfishness and inner darkness violate a code of honor and responsibility that I hold dear.

More important, I despise anyone that projects his darkness on the world in that manner.

The 1975 incident at Parkview was shocking because it was so unusual. Now it is equally shocking because it not unusual anymore. It can happen anywhere, anytime, with no apparent provocation.

Time doesn't change. People change. Conduits like social media that enable self-absorbed malingerers to fester their rage are like centrifuges that enrich weapons grade uranium. You start with benign ore and end up with something that's utterly devastating.

Conversely, social media also provides a convenient means to identify and isolate unstable people before they weaponize their hate.

Gun owners must get over the idea that an attack on one gun owner is an attack on us all. That attitude threatens us all. One cannot argue rationally that using common-sense means to prevent a maliciously unstable person from obtaining a firearm, or to neutralize that person before he misuses that firearm, threatens our Second Amendment rights at large.

On the other hand, a massive and burgeoning compilation of atrocities that frightens and appalls the electorate certainly does threaten our collective rights. At best, it might provoke lawmakers to enact legislation that restricts our access to products that the overwhelming majority of gun owners use responsibly and recreationally.

At worst, it might engender legislation that curtails the rights of many for the misdeeds of a few.

The hunting club to which I belong operates on an honor system based on a fairly short list of bylaws that can be summarized in four sentences: Respect other club members. Respect the landowner. Respect the law. Don't be an ass.

We don't mess around. A scofflaw or a malcontent threatens our collective and individual reputations. He threatens our club's stability, and he might even threaten our relationship with our landowner. If he disrespects the club, he's out.

Mass shooters often leave wide trails of evidence that foreshadow violence. Employers use social media to screen job applicants. It could also be used to screen some people from at least obtaining certain types of firearms.

People bent on doing maximum harm are drawn to certain firearms because of their greater capacity to do harm. I will not defend a person's right to have that type of firearm at the expense of my own rights, and at the expense of my children's, friend's and neighbor's lives and safety.

Kept them out of the club.


Upcoming Events