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Bill Would Let School Chiefs Carry Firearms
The Oklahoman ^ | Sunday, January 8, 2006

Posted on 01/08/2006 8:23:26 PM PST by WestTexasWend

Superintendents and principals would be allowed to carry firearms in school to protect students and teachers if a proposed bill passes in the upcoming legislative session.

School boards would have to approve principals and superintendents taking firearms on campus, according to House Bill 2075 filed by Rep. Glen Bud Smithson, D-Sallisaw. Superintendents and principals would be required to have a conceal-carry permit.

The proposal allows school administrators to carry weapons only on school property where they are employed, he said.

Smithson, a firearms safety instructor and retired police officer, said he wrote the bill at the request of rural school superintendents and principals.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: Oklahoma
KEYWORDS: 2ndamendment; banglist; concealedcarry; righttobeararms; schoolviolence

1 posted on 01/08/2006 8:23:28 PM PST by WestTexasWend
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To: WestTexasWend

Sad that it's come to this...but an excellent idea. I hope this passes.


2 posted on 01/08/2006 8:24:29 PM PST by Brad's Gramma
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To: WestTexasWend

Needs to be expanded to include teachers.


3 posted on 01/08/2006 8:26:41 PM PST by umgud (uncompassionate conservative)
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To: WestTexasWend

So lemme get this straight. We won't let the principal whoop the a$$e$ of the kids who need it but we will let them shoot them if they get really out of control ?


4 posted on 01/08/2006 8:26:41 PM PST by festus (The constitution may be flawed but its a whole lot better than what we have now.)
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To: umgud

The gym teacher I had in grade school got transfered to an inner city school and the rumor was he kept a 45 in his desk.


5 posted on 01/08/2006 8:30:55 PM PST by MarkeyD (Cowards cut and run. Marines finish the job. I really, really loathe liberals.)
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To: WestTexasWend

I'm not necessarily against this but good luck getting past the federal laws.


6 posted on 01/08/2006 8:31:22 PM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity ("Sharpei diem - Seize the wrinkled dog.")
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To: WestTexasWend

It will never pass. Not PC.


7 posted on 01/08/2006 8:32:04 PM PST by Supernatural (All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie! bob dylan)
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To: WestTexasWend
Yeah right....95% of school principals are liberals probably 75% are liberal women...

And they are going to protect who?....

Bwahahahaha.....let the male teachers with military experience carry concealed and then you will have the protection you need...not until...

Of course that probably means the school district will have to drop their discriminatory hiring practices in order to find qualified male teachers with prior service...

imo

8 posted on 01/08/2006 8:33:44 PM PST by joesnuffy (A camel once bit our sister.. but we knew what to do.. we gathered rocks and squashed her!)
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To: festus
We won't let the principal whoop the a$$e$ of the kids who need it but we will let them shoot them if they get really out of control ?

No, they can only be shot if they do not take their ritalin.

Anyway, this is a crazy idea, I can't imagine giving the school PRINCIPAL the responsibility of armed response.

9 posted on 01/08/2006 8:41:14 PM PST by Fido969 ("And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).)
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To: WestTexasWend

Well, Oklahoma beat Texas again! I think this is a wonderful, sensible thing to do--and should be repeated in schools everywhere! I hope it passes.


10 posted on 01/08/2006 8:51:43 PM PST by basil (Exercise your Second Amendment--buy another gun today!)
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To: WestTexasWend

11 posted on 01/08/2006 8:54:29 PM PST by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

> I'm not necessarily against this but good luck
> getting past the federal laws.

Deputize 'em.

But what you end up with is still a career civil serpent
desk jockey who's more likely to misplace the weapon,
leace it at home, or not be able to unlock it, than
successfully use it to protect students.


12 posted on 01/08/2006 8:57:07 PM PST by Boundless
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To: Fido969
Anyway, this is a crazy idea, I can't imagine giving the school PRINCIPAL the responsibility of armed response.

Yeah, that's what the police are for. Can't have civilians walking around with firearms. They'll start shooting each other every time there is an argument.

13 posted on 01/08/2006 8:59:22 PM PST by paul51 (11 September 2001 - Never forget)
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To: WestTexasWend

Well, it's about time. Doesn't go far enough IMO. Any teacher w/ ccw permit ought to be allowed. More Guns=Less Crime


14 posted on 01/08/2006 9:02:08 PM PST by kerryusama04 (The Bill of Rights is not occupation specific.)
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To: WestTexasWend
What is this? Oklahoma needs a law to allow special privileges for a select group of government employees?

If there are school administrators that see the value of having guns in schools they can come to Oregon, where no special privileges are needed.

When Oregon passed shall issue carry back in the first wave (by a Democrat legislature and Governor at that), it also provided that the legislature (or by default, the voters through initiative) was the sole authority in the state for determining where and in what manner firearms may be regulated. Courtrooms and airports are about the only places carry is prohibited. No bans are allowed by local jurisdictions, and that includes school boards. Fish & wildlife can't even require plugs in shotguns, I don't think. Adding to that, there is a state Supreme Court ruling that would seem to be a precedent negating laws against certain TYPES of weapons (this has not been tested for anything beyond switchblades, blackjacks, brass knuckles, etc, but if the legislature were to attempt a ban on any type of firearm - which so far is totally unregulated - you can bet it will be), and things are much better than average here.

We have the constitutionally questionable requirement to have a government license (which it is required to issue) to carry concealed, and darn little else in the way of regulation.

So Oklahomans, when the opponents of carrying in schools show up for the debate on your proposed legislation, ask them to come to Oregon and gather the list of names of the law abiding permit holders who are running around here shooting up all the schools - or shut up.
15 posted on 01/08/2006 9:11:09 PM PST by Dave in Eugene of all places (Oregon - a pro-militia and firearms state that looks just like Afghanistan .)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
The federal law already exempts permit holders from the ban on carrying in schools, so no change is needed in that (though an invalidation of the ban itself on 2nd and 10th amendment grounds would be highly desirable).
16 posted on 01/08/2006 9:15:13 PM PST by Dave in Eugene of all places (Oregon - a pro-militia and firearms state that looks just like Afghanistan .)
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To: joesnuffy
Bwahahahaha.....let the male teachers with military experience carry concealed and then you will have the protection you need...not until...

Exactly. I have been a high school teacher for 17 years. The last nine split between two inner city schools. In my last school, there were four prior service teachers. Two of those were former SpecOps. After Colombine, we all got together and said NOT HERE! If we go into a "Code Red" situation (like Colombine) we were going to meet at a pre-arranged area, form up and go take care of the problem.....IF that problem was punks shooting or otherwise causing mass disruption. If the trouble is something else, we sit tight. Really don't want to mix into a gang war, you know. It's not that difficult, you know. Lots of close, tight and blind corners in these older schools. Most idiots who do those kinds of things would never dream that they in fact might wind up being hunted, even as they themselves imagine they're the "hunters...." In my current school, I'm the only ex-military and I'm durn near the only conservative. At my other school there were about a Baker's Dozen of conservatives and four ex-military, as I've said.

17 posted on 01/08/2006 9:17:08 PM PST by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: umgud
Needs to be expanded to include teachers.

Maybe in Oklahoma....but I doubt it. I've been a teacher for over seventeen years. From my observations 99.9% of teachers in my area....heck, even in the state of Florida (a very pro-gun state) are virulently anti-gun. I ALWAYS start each school year off with a statement..well a definition....of an agenda. There are subject, issues and agendas. A subject is anything....any topic. It becomes an issue when all sides are discussed reasonably....in balance. When only one side of a subject is covered, it becomes an AGENDA. I then ask all my students two questions:

#1 Has anybody in all your 12 years of school in this district...EVER spoken of firearms in a favorable light?

#2 Has anybody in this system ever said anything to you that is negative concerning the United Nations?

I never get any affirmative responses. Not ever. Then I tell them...those are both AGENDAS. Then we discuss it....for the rest of the school year.

Teachers are always slamming guns and gun owners as inherently evil. But none of them, ever says it to my face.

Except once, a few years ago when an English teacher tried to tell me that a contingent of Haitian volunteers fighting on the side of the Colonial army in the Battle of Savannah, helped win the American Revolution. I checked it out and guess what...those valiant Haitians (about 500 of them) spent the bloodiest hour of the war getting their butts slaughtered then captured. My Principal went along with allowing the Haitian kids in school (70% of the pop) think that they won the Revolution based on their need to feel good about their heritage.

So thereafter when one of those kids who had that English teacher would come to me as their HISTORY teacher to confirm this tidbit...I woulkd always reply: Absolutely! Those Haitians provided the British with so many prisoners that the Brits didn't have enough troops to chase back to Saratoga and Yorktown so the Revolution could be won! LOL It drove the liberals nuts! They stopped that little bit of revisionist history right quick.

18 posted on 01/08/2006 9:40:56 PM PST by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: WestTexasWend

as a teacher I think we should be required to be trained at the local police academy and basically become cops that teach.


19 posted on 01/08/2006 9:42:33 PM PST by Porterville (Keep your communism off my paycheck)
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To: festus

The Second Amendment doesn't cover the preventative measures. I think this is a great idea for all schools.


20 posted on 01/09/2006 5:48:07 AM PST by sine_nomine (Every baby is a blessing from God, from the moment of conception.)
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To: WestTexasWend

Altho I support concealed carry laws, the last two people in this town who I would trust carring a gun would be the school superintenant and the principal of our local public school.


21 posted on 01/09/2006 6:55:12 AM PST by newcthem (9/11- not terrorists - just troubled youths.)
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To: sine_nomine

Funny but good point. I personally don't see anything wrong with arming the principles and the teachers either.

I do think though that if they could use the "board of education" to engage in some "applied psychology" our schools wouldn't be the sorts of places we needed to arm them in the first place as the kids wouldn't be out of control.

Periodically I see these stories where the cops were called by the principal on some gradeschooler. Everyone yells at the principal for being over the line but yet he's not allowed to smack the kid. He's powerless.

I'll shutup now this topic gets me all spun up........


22 posted on 01/09/2006 8:22:14 PM PST by festus (The constitution may be flawed but its a whole lot better than what we have now.)
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To: festus

The parents now think they are the criminal defense lawyers for their kids. They are all over anyone who thinks Muffy or Buffy is anything short of perfect. I have dealt with several parents like that myself. It is disgusting. They have no idea what monsters they are creating. The kids just stand around and watch while the authority figure is attacked by their parents. They know they have a free pass until they reach maturity. My feeling is that they will face the justice system soon after.


23 posted on 01/09/2006 8:41:46 PM PST by sine_nomine (Every baby is a blessing from God, from the moment of conception.)
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To: sine_nomine

You're right. My kid knows if she gets in trouble with the teacher at school she's getting in trouble at home. She behaves real well at school.

Funny how consequences impact behavior aint it ?


24 posted on 01/09/2006 9:00:15 PM PST by festus (The constitution may be flawed but its a whole lot better than what we have now.)
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To: festus

My son said to someone, "I am not worried about the youth counselors. I just don't want to face my dad if I get into trouble." And he didn't.

We had two absolute rules - 1. Never damage or take someone else's property. 2. Be considerate of others.

He is married, has delightful children, and earns a bundle of money. Most guys his age are not responsible toward others or serious about their jobs.


25 posted on 01/09/2006 10:05:25 PM PST by sine_nomine (Every baby is a blessing from God, from the moment of conception.)
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