School Shootings and Registration Politics – Evidence-Based or Political Power-Based?
(Weekly Update #210)
Dear Members and Advocates,
Sadly, this past week our country experienced another tragedy that has become all too common over the past several decades. Another school massacre took place in Texas. 21 people were killed, including 19 elementary school students.
Now I understand that gun control is a very divisive topic and I’m not looking to go there in this week’s update. I just want to ask why certain tragedies evoke such an immediate and radical legislative response while others seem not as important. I also want to know why this country can’t seem to get its policies right. Are politicians in the United States basing decisions on evidenced-based practices or are they acting on what will bring them the most money and power?
Compare last week’s massacre in Texas (or the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting) to the 2013 abduction of Cherish Perrywinkle. Cherish was an 8-year-old girl from Jacksonville, Florida who was abducted from a Walmart on June 21, 2013. Eventually authorities found her, raped and murdered. Her kidnapper was appropriately sentenced to death. The year after the Cherish Perrywinkle tragedy, the Florida Legislature declared they were going to make this state “scorched earth” for registrants. In 2014, Florida lawmakers added thirteen (13) requirements to the registration statute. More offenses required registration, Internet Identifiers needed to be registered, vehicle information for everyone in the household including anyone who visits for 5 or more days needed to be registered, transients now needed to register every 30 days, and more. The 2014 amendment to statute 943.0435 saw the most increases in registration requirements ever.
We can’t say that any of the 13 requirements added to the registry in 2014 would have saved Cherish. Clearly the dozens of requirements already part of the registry prior didn’t. Similarly, we can’t say what measures would have saved the lives of the 21 people killed in Texas last week. We can only comment on the legislative response to two separate tragedies. One Florida girl is killed in 2013 and we get “scorched earth”. 17 Florida children are killed in 2018 and we get nothing. What happened to “if it saves one child…?”
I’m not a fan of knee-jerk reactions when it comes to anything, least of which is creating laws that jeopardize individual’s rights and freedoms. What I am a fan of is the scientific method. Lets identify the problems we are trying to solve, test the different theories to address the problems, identify which ones work and which ones don’t, and then apply the ones that work and scrap the ones that don’t. Oh, and while we are at it, lets let social scientists who have no concern about re-election, who are not being influenced by lobbyists and who are not reliant on financial backing from outsiders perform the testing!
This country is a nation of failed policies. Despite the “war on drugs” that began in the 80’s, the United States has the highest share of substance use disorder according to the World Health Organization. The U.S. also accounts for the vast majority of firearm deaths among children (across the 29 countries in this study, the U.S. accounted for almost 97% of the firearm deaths among children 4 years old or younger, and 92% of firearm deaths for those between the ages of 5 and 14). We already know that the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world at 716 per 100,000 of the national population.
Why can’t politicians accept that they got some things wrong? Why are they so reluctant to undo some of the things they got wrong? And, most importantly, why can’t they get it right in the first place?
Sincerely,
The Florida Action Committee
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SOME HEADLINES FROM THIS WEEK
A sex offender kept his trailer park. Now his victim wants to limit where perpetrators live in Maine.
[FAC NOTE: This is actually a very balanced article. Might want to thank the journalist] “It’s common sense. Why would you have a sex offender own a trailer park with kids?” Daggett said. “It’s all about opportunity and power, and they gave him both.” So Daggett has…read more
Bill to stop “de platforming” declared unconstitutional
A recent Florida Bill signed into law (SB 7072) was declared by Governor Ron DeSantis to prevent “big tech” from silencing conservatives. The bill’s sponsor (and the lawmakers that voted to pass it) felt that the large social media giants, such as Twitter and Facebook…read more
Member Submission: Scams Continue
I wanted to make you and the other members aware that the scam calls to those of us on the registry continue and they sound so damn real! For the record I live in Monroe County. I got a call earlier that I knew/figured out was a scam telling me there is a warrant out…read more
LA: Member Submission: Bill creates commission to study best practices for deterring sex offenses against children.
A few days ago a bill was presented in the Louisiana legislature that “Creates a commission to study best practices for deterring sex offenses against children”. I am attaching a pdf copy of the bill, along with the link to the Louisiana legislature website where it…read more
Being labeled a “sex offender” is not a punishment?
An interesting case was filed in Massachusetts, where a man sued a background check company for incorrectly labeling him as a sex offender. The man, who was single and used dating sites to meet woman, was one day kicked off a couple of popular dating sites. When he…read more
The whole school “mass shooting“ topic raises some interesting things not necessarily associated with gun control, but with hysteria. In the wake of this tragedy, we have heard the press trumpet about how this is a “national epidemic“ and they say that over the last 10 years there have been X number of school shootings that have resulted in the death of something like 350 people. That is horrible, but how horrible. If you consider the number of homicides over that same period of time it’s probably in the neighborhood of at least 160,000, it’s a pretty insignificant proportion. It’s kind of in the same range or less than the other “epidemic “ which are the 40 to 50 police officers that are killed by criminals every year in the line of duty. But we are familiar with such hysteria. Stranger danger. The “fact“ that sex offenders are highly likely to reoffend. The fact remains that even with the craziness caused by the Covid “cabin fever“ and such, the percentage of murder victims who have had, well, let’s call it previous contact with a criminal justice system, MIGHT have dropped from over 90% to perhaps as low as 85% in some jurisdictions. The numbers for perpetrators Ravenna Gentefied is more like a 95% “contact with the criminal justice system“ rate. That lower number for victims is what was reported in Baltimore last year. Lots of people like to make arguments about how their favorite rights are actual real rights and the ones they don’t like or not rates at all and cannot be found in the constitution, etc. Unfortunately, folks like us are quite familiar with these arguments. The restrictions that are imposed on us are in no way punishment, right? At least that’s what the courts have said. There’s a long winded post, but the point being that folks like us should be very wary ANY time That we hear hysterical masses of people screaming “their ought to be a law. “That’s kind of how we got where we are today.
There is another comparison I see in the mass shooting debate. As to who should be allowed to have AR 15 assault rifles and other fire arms. Sure some people are responsible, we’re not worried about them. But the few that are not can cause a lot of misery pain heartache and death. The registry is like the AR15 assault rifle that has been handed out free to whomever wants one without reserve. Sure some are responsible , it’s not those we are concerned about but just because some are responsible does that justify making it ok to hand out assault rifles to everyone. But that is exactly what government has done. For what reason ? Especially since it has been proven over and over that it protect s nobody.
Your weekly update brought up the same questions as I also had. To add sex offenses thou terrible are just one of many crimes that leave there victims traumatized most even for life. Think of the survivors of the Texas incident. Also for individuals who have been bullied or robbed or raised in a violent environment. Many of us have had to deal with one or several of these things. Which will scar us for the rest of our lives . But for some unknown reason sex crimes are the only ones that bother the public enough to get a universal response. Why??? Not only a response but a continuous on and on and on pilling on more and more punishment on top of punishment . Not for new crimes but for things that happened decades ago. Legislators seem stuck in a rut they can’t get out of or see beyond.
All the legal debate about sex offense constitutional limitations all boils down to one problem , the public registry and what it’s called. Get rid of that and all the other add on punishments would go away.
As far people like Daggett we feel for her and her anguish and wish the best for her. But most of the people who she is going after are not the ones who caused her problems nor have they caused anyone else trauma but yet she is attempting to punish people she knows nothing about. Most politicians have no conscience as to whether they punish innocent people or if the punishment meets the crime. They think there job is just to pass laws. After that it’s out of their hands. They go on to something else. They get in their fancy car and relax in their fancy house with no care as to how many lives they have destroyed today.
I’m in Jacksonville and the worst part of the Cherish Perrywinkle case is that it was COMPLETELY preventable. This happened at a Walmart. The killer conned the idiot/gullible(?) mother into letting him take the child to get something to eat with the promise of spending more money on her when he got back. Who does that??
What law can you enact that would have stopped that? These laws keep getting worse with no end in sight, and with zero effect on the actual problem. And for us and families like us, the nightmare continues….
Once Again…Empirical Data that has been Verified and Validated……
Everything else is Hogwash and Everyones Wasted TIME!
So which would scar a child for life more? Being touched or solicited inappropriately, or almost losing your life to a gunman? Sexting or having been shot? Having sex wilfully or watching a friend’s brains shot out? Molested or losing a teacher or friend due to death, while in fear for your own? While actual rape can definitely be devastating, so to can be watching a fellow classmate gunned down, and waiting for it to happen to you as well! So who’s the real monster? Which has the most life changing trauma? Which do you fear more? Losing your life, or any of the above?
I think we can all agree that either type of crime can damage a child for life.