Proposals: practical security improvements

The mission: you're asked to join a "select" committee charged with investigating and proposing a short list of the most-likely practical options for helping to improve security/safety and thwart violence. (Think of R.P. Feynman and his joining the eval team after the Challenger explosion, back in '86.)

The format: Basic element, with a concise statement of purpose, method of achieving it, and how it would be of benefit. Checklist format, with as many basic ideas as you can imagine being practical and effective.

Let's stay focused on practical proposals that have a chance at fairly decent effectiveness if implemented, ideas that have a strong shot at clear benefits, without nasty side effects, ideas that could be done and have a marked impact if only we found the will, money and time to do them. Can be ideas for your neighborhood, local community, key at-risk buildings near you, or widespread enhancements (ie, general infrastructure [bridges, etc], mental health screening, whatever). Can be procedural, infrastructure, weapons, tactics, training, screening, penal code changes, corrections/punishments, whatever.

We've all heard and thought of numerous ideas in a variety of areas of our lives. Some good ones, others not so practical or likely to be effective. Given all that you know at this point, what would you suggest for such a checklist of likely areas to go after?

Propose away.

Great idea for a thread, and hopefully you'll compile the best ideas, and get it to our elected officials, who can then claim it was their idea. What's that saying? "Success has many fathers, but failure is always a ******* child?" I'll start out, and work in, and begin with something I know a lot about.

In order for our nation to be secure, we must take serious and substantive steps to secure our borders. We have thousands of illegal aliens (the correct and legal name for people who enter our country uninvited and illegally). Mixed into this flood are a large number of radical islamists, whose sole purpose is to do harm to America, to include murdering our innocents, in the name of their perverted religious beliefs. Can you imagine the carnage, should these terrorists decide to follow up on the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy? Coordinated attacks on our soft targets are coming, it's just a matter of time. We're already too late in taking these actions, but better late than never.

So, having said that, I'd recommend the following steps:

1. Build the fence, and maintain it. Use our military, if necessary, but stop the flow.

2. National ID for all persons lawfully present in the United States. A national ID, with biometric data that would be overly difficult to counterfeit is necessary. Phase this in over a two year period, so that at the end of the 2 year period, anyone not in possession of said ID will be removed from the U.S. Any employer who hires someone without said ID should be held accountable, with criminal liabilities as well as financial penalties. Illegal aliens who are determined to be radical islamists, should be removed to GITMO, rather than returned to the battlefield. People who are drawn to our country for economic purposes, will soon learn there are no jobs for them, and they'll voluntarily deport in large numbers.

We'll never be truly secure here at home, if we don't take securing our borders seriously. Some sort of immigration reform, which streamlines the process should be implemented, but that's a topic for another day.

Take a serious assessment of our soft targets. Schools, malls, shopping center, sporting venues, etc, and take every possible action to secure them. Consider employing retired law enforcement officers, military personnel, and officers on disability as security teams, who would be onsite, and trained to repel a threat, minimize civilian casualties, and to hold the fort until reinforcements can arrive. These security teams would have a heightened training level, and situational awareness, and most likely be able to thwart evil early, preventing reoccurrence of the recent tragedy.

Eliminate "Gun Free Zones" entirely. Law abiding citizens who carry concealed should be encouraged, not discouraged.

Train and arm volunteer teachers and administrators in our schools. Evil doers are cowards by nature, and are much less likely to attack a hardened target, where they know they'll be met with defensive violence immediately.

If our lawmakers feel the need to legislate, have them pass some meaningful laws providing tax incentives for gun purchases, firearms training, and gun safe purchases, to encourage more good citizens to take up arms, which will make our communities safer. Engage law enforcement trainers to assist in training those people who resolve to not become victims.

I'll likely submit more once my first cup of coffee starts working. LOL

Be safe.

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Quote:

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2. National ID for all persons lawfully present in the United States. A national ID, with biometric data that would be overly difficult to counterfeit is necessary. Phase this in over a two year period, so that at the end of the 2 year period, anyone not in possession of said ID will be removed from the U.S. Any employer who hires someone without said ID should be held accountable, with criminal liabilities as well as financial penalties. Illegal aliens who are determined to be radical islamists, should be removed to GITMO, rather than returned to the battlefield. People who are drawn to our country for economic purposes, will soon learn there are no jobs for them, and they'll voluntarily deport in large numbers.

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Can you say "Got your papers?"

Some ideas:

1. Design changes to facilities -- Make it tougher for violent assailants to reach critical areas inside the facility. Should apply to all newly-built schools and other such facilities. Banks do this well, by design. So do critical infrastructure facilities (ie, dams, power plants). But other buildings are generally left to Karma, in terms of security. It's high time to change that.
   
   
2. Design changes to segregate publicly-accessible areas from the private/secured areas -- There is no reason, it seems to me, why some "Joe" off the street has any need to casually access the interior "secured" areas of a facility, such as a schools children in their rooms. Casual access by people outside the school needs to be funneled, vetted, monitored. If such people do indeed need legitimate access, then they should be escorted.
   
   
3. Hardening of the entry paths -- Make it tougher for violent assailants to enter the facility. Funnel the entry traffic through a central choke-point that's staffed, monitored, controlled. Close off all other outside-accessible entry points, opening only key ones for the duration each is staffed, monitored, controlled, then lock it up again. Designed right, a building need not have dozens of external entry points, certainly none that are unstaffed, unmonitored, uncontrolled.
   
   
4. Hardening the interior access points in facilities -- Make it tougher for violent assailants to go from room to room within a facility, and tougher to move from the publicly-accessible areas to the "sensitive" areas (that contain the protected people or stuff). Applies to homes, with stout/locking doors at bedrooms or at hallway leading to sleeping quarters, storm/screen outer doors, deadbolts, etc. Applies to schools, with having stout/locked doors at each classroom and major hallway leading from the public to student areas. Certainly applies to infrastructure facilities such as power stations, dams and the like, keeping unauthorized folks away from the “goods.” Certainly applies to facilities like embassies, and certain recent events show how horribly unprotected such places really are.
   
   
5. Easy-out access with doors and key windows -- Needs to be accommodated, in case of fire/emergency. In case of the few doors that have this, ideally these should be staffed and controlled. All doors should be monitored, at least, to notify of exits, being propped open.
   
   
6. Monitored/staffed outer access points to facilities -- At schools, for example, any entry door for students passing from one area to another should be staffed and unlocked for the duration the mass-entry of students is accomplished. During all other times, such access doors should remain locked to the outside. Anyone wanting to come in must come through the funneled, monitored, staffed front access door.
   
   
7. Perimeter defenses – Tougher perimeters around areas containing either many innocents or sensitive areas of a facility. Applies to basic wall, window, door, alarm design. Applies to windows, specifically, making them tougher to easily reach, breach. Applies to having much tougher entry doors, in homes, schools, airplane cockpits, etc. For existing buildings, doors/windows (and their frames/surrounds) can easily be replaced (though at a cost) with far-tougher elements.
   
   
8. Armed/trained citizenry, everywhere -- Decreasing the time during which assailants can commit their crimes with impunity; deterrent factor. Sprays, certainly; firearms, certainly. In facilities, an armed guard or two, if it can be afforded. In schools, armed staff/administration, suitably trained as a group for the role.
   
   
9. Elimination of gun-free zones in publicly-accessible areas – Reducing the number of places where violent assailants can be pretty certain of finding zero resistance. Possible exceptions might include the 'secure' areas of airports.
   
   
10. Shall-issue instead of might-never-issue, for carry licensing – Elimination of the arbitrary may-issue standards requiring “good cause” from the statutes.
    
    
11. Carry licensing, altering to cover concealed and open carry – Assuming a person passes the background checks and minimum qualifications (ie, age over 21yrs, not adjudicated “mentally defective”), a person should be able to carry any valid firearm openly or concealed.
    
    
12. Require safe, effective storage of weapons not actively carried or in-use.
    
    
13. Stiffen the “castle” protections for citizens who engage in use-of-force against criminals.
    
    
14. Improve mental-health screening standards, notification -- While any efforts in this area need to be balanced with guarding against flagrant misjudgement and abuse, improvements need to be made to smooth notification of at-risk persons for (at minimum) further evaluation.
    
    
15. Dramatically stiffen criminal penalties -- For deadly violence committed with deadly weapon (knife, gun, bat or other implement similarly used in deadly manner), segregate from society. For outright first-degree murder conviction, death penalty. For repeat offenses, death penalty via two-strikes / three-strikes type sentencing (but avoiding the ridiculous petty "ding" approach that many states have implemented in practice).
    
    
16. Stiffen the illegal immigrant/alien statutes -- If captured during entry, eject. For services in-country (schooling, medical, state documents/services), disallow. For hiring, disallow; require reporting; heavy fines/incarceration for staff at businesses engaging in such hiring.