Posted on 12/21/2012 9:21:00 AM PST by Obadiah
Poll: Should Schools have armed police officers?
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
At my rural High-School in the late 70’s, it was well known that the Shop Teacher, the Hunter-safety teacher, and the football coach all carried sidearms, OPENLY, on most days.
Add in the two or three dozen rifles/shotguns in the parking lot. And funny, know one was ever shot.
We create unarmed victim zones, and then WONDER why this crap happens?
At my rural High-School in the late 70’s, it was well known that the Shop Teacher, the Hunter-safety teacher, and the football coach all carried sidearms, OPENLY, on most days.
Add in the two or three dozen rifles/shotguns in the parking lot. And funny, know one was ever shot.
We create unarmed victim zones, and then WONDER why this crap happens?
While attending a YMCA youth “Model Legislature” in California in the early 70’s, while Reagan was Governor, I was in the outer Governor’s office when someone accidently tripped the alarm. Even though Governor Reagan was out of town that day, it was amazing how quickly the plainclothes and uniformed officers were there. I was a “committee chair” and our committee room had a button under the table at my position - I was very careful to not bump it.
Personally I see arming a good percentage of the administrative and teaching staff of the school.
They are always there when the students are there. No one other than the staff need know who on the staff is armed. Actually no one other than the school board and the administrative staff need to know who is armed. The fewer the better.
The teachers could be paid a bonus to their salary for taking the training and carrying the weapon similar to the extra pay teaching coaches get.
The panic button would be a good additional measure however the extra cost to the school could be prohibitive. Anything like that designed to school specifications is always going to be much more expensive than the simple civilian package.
There you go! This technology is not even new.
School Marshalls. Much like Air Marshalls.
There is an added benefit to arming teachers that had occurred to me.
The teenage thugs in high school and Jr. high school may be more hesitant to assault their teachers if they must assume that some of them are armed.
Indeed. I think this is one of the reasons that many high schools already have armed, or multiple armed, security on site.
I am willing to bet that every school has a few people who believe in the 2nd amendment and are likely experienced, trained and responsible with firearms, thanks to military and/or civilian training. There may even be a few in every school system who have a CC permit.
Why not encourage those who are already interested in and have experience with firearms, and who are already in positions of trust engaged in teaching our children, why not let those individuals, rather than cops, be given additional training and then the responsibility for carrying at school?
They already know the territory, the people, the students and faculty, and are motivated to protect and to serve far better than an off duty cop or security guard hired for the job.
Let them protect their own. Train them until they are trusted in today's world, insurable, etc., and then let us take care of ourselves rather than farming out the job to government.
I agree. Howeveer, you have to realize that most teachers would not be any good with a gun. It takes a firm spine to actually pull the trigger at someone — even if they are assaulting you; and I don’t think most teachers carry that gene. However, if there are armed personnel available who have the training and the will, the rest of the teachers could alert them with call buttons.
Call buttons are such cheap technology and available anywhere that I don’t know why school boards haven’t utilized them before. They don’t even have to be hard wired these days. RF technology. I spoke to my daughter about this. She is a teacher and (naturally) is brainwashed like most teachers. She said, “I could just use my intercom.” (If she knew how to use it, which wasn’t the case the one time she really needed it.
“Well, no you couldn’t. If you were being held at gunpoint, you wouldn’t last very long if you went over to the intercom and made an announcement,” I said. With a call button, you could press it and summon help without anyone knowing it.
A call button would be useful — not only for an armed invasion — but for any kind of accident, or health problem.
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