Posted on 04/25/2018 5:40:04 AM PDT by Kaslin
What should be done about school shootings?
After the horrible shooting in Parkland, Florida, President Trump suggested that some teachers carry guns. "We need to let people know, you come in to our schools -- you're gonna be dead."
Anti-gun activists were horrified.
But they probably didn't know that many teachers have brought guns to work with them for years.
Some teachers at the Keene Independent School District in Texas carry concealed weapons at school.
"We know our staff and our teachers are gonna go" defend students, Texas' Keene Independent School District superintendent Ricky Stephens told me for this week's online video. "Do we want them to go with a pencil or go with a pistol?"
Stephens acknowledges that an attacker might have heavier weaponry than his teachers' handguns. "It's not much, but it's better than nothing," he argues. "If you go there with nothing, you have no chance of stopping anything."
His teachers saw how in Florida the "school resource officer" simply waited outside during February's school shooting.
"It made me mad," a teacher in Stephens' district told us. She's glad she carries her gun. "We have to have a fighting chance if something should happen." For my video, superintendent Stephens asked us to obscure her identity. He doesn't want potential attackers to know which teachers are armed.
Opponents of armed teachers fear that guns will create new dangers. But even though teachers carry at hundreds of schools, I could find only one instance where one of those guns hurt a student. A California teacher accidentally discharged his weapon at the ceiling. A student was cut by falling debris. That's it. One minor injury.
By contrast, armed school staffers have stopped school shootings. In Pearl, Mississippi, an assistant principal held a boy who killed two classmates at gunpoint until police arrived.
No one knows how often armed teachers deter shootings. The media can't cover crimes that are never attempted.
Of course, the media distort proposals to allow teachers to carry.
One commentator shouted, "Teachers should not be required to protect!"
But no teacher is required to carry. It's voluntary. Those who want to can bring their guns to school.
On MSNBC, pundits criticized President Trump for advocating "arming" teachers, as if he'd proposed a federal program.
He didn't. He just talked about "armed educators." Since lots of teachers already carry guns, all a school has to do is allow some to bring their weapons to work.
The Keene district, however, does go further. "The school purchases the gun, and we register them to (some of) our teachers," says Stephens. Those teachers get 80 hours of firearms training and are paid an extra $50/month.
I gave Stephens grief about creating a "new government program." Why not just let teachers bring their own guns to school? Stephens explained that he wants teachers trained on the same gun "so if a gun is dropped, another teacher will know how to use it."
I pushed back again. "Why create a program at all?" There's no epidemic of school shootings. In fact, non-gang, non-suicide shootings have declined over the past 25 years. It's media hysteria that makes it seem like there's an increase.
I said to Stephens, "School shootings are much less of a threat to students than driving, suicide, drowning, even suffocating!"
"Exactly right," he replied. "But we do train our kids in school how to not suffocate and how not to drown. ... One shooting is more than we would want."
Certainly Stephens' armed teacher program is cheaper than what my town does.
New York City spends millions of dollars stationing police officers in schools. Here, and in most blue states, suggesting that teachers be allowed to bring weapons to school horrifies people.
"They don't understand," says Stephens, "a responsible trained teacher with a firearm is better than having a teacher with nothing."
It's good that America has 50 states and many school districts. That allows for different experiments. Politicians in New York City hire extra police officers, but in Texas, the staff at the Keene school district can serve and protect.
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New York City spends millions of dollars stationing police officers in schools.
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Not true John. Every NYC Public School has uniformed, unarmed School Saftey Officers, who are under the auspices of the NYPD, but are not considered police. Most are quite useless.
NYC under Mayor deCommio has been removing armed police officers from NYC Public Schools.
https://nypost.com/2018/03/11/parents-up-in-arms-after-nypd-removes-cops-from-schools/
And the good liberals of New York are more horrified when a mass shooting is stopped by a citizen with a gun than they are by an extensive mass shooting. Liberals do not see mass murderers attacking schools as any kind of threat to the state whereas sane citizens possessing firearms is a deadly threat to the state. A mass school shooting is a diversion. A teacher with a gun is a threat to the liberal conception of the world.
IMHO I would not trust most of the teachers I have met with a firearm no matter training they had. How many of you really have had to throw down on someone in a life and death situation? I’m no ashamed to say it made me puke when it was over.
I have thousands oh hours of experience with every kind of firearm imaginable including full auto weapons. I was fortunate enough to never to serve in a combat situation. My experience came from defending my home an insane neighbour. I didn’t kill him but often wish I had. Six months later he took a totally innocent life.
I came very close to killing him and would have had he taken six more steps. Fortunately the police arrived in time. I’m no pushover, but I’m damn glad that I didn’t have to kill someone. Next time I won hesitate. But I guarantee you that the average person is ill equipped to face a life or death situation. Don’t believe me, find someone who has really had to do it and see what they have to say. Whose going to pay for several hundred hours training to turn a teacher in an unknown quality of a shooter? By and large I don’t think that many teachers would want the training. What would happen if they killed an innocent student?
Nothing but nightmares.
This issue is not to FORCE teachers to be armed, but to ALLOW the teachers to be armed that want to be.
I think you are a tad squeamish. I think I detect a bit of “hero me” for being brave and prepared but not having the guts to learn how to handle a situation before it actually occurs.
I am also unsure about how much I believe of what you wrote. Over preparation with “every kind of firearm imaginable including full auto weapons” seems overkill even though you may be in an “insane neighborhood”.
Perhaps we’ll hear more from you in the future. Nemaste.
LOL
Agreed.
Military background, competitive shooter for over 40 years. Why am I justifying myself to you?
Have you ever seriously been in a similar situation? I seriously doubt it or you would understand. Most combat vets and law enforcement that have seen the elephant do not like to talk about. Bet you talk a good one. I still thank God that to date I’ve never had to pull the trigger on anyone. If you had half a brain you’d feel the same way. And none of this is to say I would if push came to shove.
Say I wouldn’t...
The solution is clear as a bell. Arm the teachers and the school administration.
I like that thinking.
Better the gun not be dropped at all, but zhit happens when the zhit hits the fan.
I like the idea of having a handgun with a lanyard for such situations.
Having the lanyard attached to your belt at the hip.
If you drop your handgun you sweep your hand past your hip snagging the lanyard and draw the handgun back to your hand.
You’re back in the fight.
The added advantages of it makes it more difficult to disarm you and a dropped handgun in the dark is much more easily recovered.
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