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A Missouri School Trains Its Teachers to Carry Guns, and Most Parents Approve
The New York Times ^ | 14 April, 2013 | JOHN ELIGON

Posted on 04/15/2013 5:53:48 AM PDT by marktwain

WEST PLAINS, Mo. — At 8:30 on a cloudy, frigid morning late last month in this folksy Ozark town, the superintendent of an area school strolled through the glass doors of the local newspaper office to deliver a news release.

Hours later, the content of that release produced a front-page headline in The West Plains Daily Quill that caught residents off guard: “At Fairview School Some Employees Now Carry Concealed Weapons.”

That was how most parents of Fairview students learned that the school had trained some of its staff members to carry weapons, and the reaction was loud — and mostly gleeful.

“Sooo very glad to hear this,” a woman whose grandchildren attend Fairview posted on the Facebook page of The Quill, adding, “All schools in America should do this.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Missouri
KEYWORDS: armedteachers; banglist; guncontrol; gunsinschool; mo; secondamendment
Very unexpected article in the New York Times.
1 posted on 04/15/2013 5:53:48 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

I hope it’s only for those that are very interested.

I’d provide FEW incentives, just to make sure those applying are serious about it.


2 posted on 04/15/2013 5:56:06 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: marktwain
and Most Parents Approve

So unfair to those parents who don't approve. Can't they have designated classrooms that they can put their kids in, with signs that they are gun-free?


3 posted on 04/15/2013 6:01:27 AM PDT by C210N (When people fear government there is tyranny; when government fears people there is liberty)
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To: C210N; marktwain

4 posted on 04/15/2013 6:11:54 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: FReepers
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5 posted on 04/15/2013 6:18:31 AM PDT by deoetdoctrinae (The Old White Flag Republicans can go straight to He// and take their pal Obama with them!)
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To: marktwain

I live in Missouri. I own three firearms including a handgun, though I don’t have a concealed carry permit. I am firmly pro-second amendment but I think this is a bad idea. The permit holders aren’t screened. There is no way of knowing how well they are trained. There is no provision for additional training to deal with situations that may arrise. Police spend months training before they hit the streets, and spend hours each month afterwards maintaining their proficiency. Missouri can’t guarantee that a concealed carry holder had any formal training at all, and I don’t see where the school is going to do any training on its own.


6 posted on 04/15/2013 6:23:04 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: DoodleDawg

Plus if the students get unruly the teacher might start waving their .38 around, right?


7 posted on 04/15/2013 6:25:26 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: DoodleDawg

Maybe you should have read the article. These teachers all got at least 40 hours of training.


8 posted on 04/15/2013 6:28:59 AM PDT by P-Marlowe (There can be no Victory without a fight and no battle without wounds.)
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To: DoodleDawg
Didn't even read the article?

Those employees took a 40-hour course during spring break last month through a company called Shield Solutions, whose instructors included local SWAT team members. The training, which was paid for by the school, included firearms and situational drills. The employees, who have furnished their own guns, each also had to pass a background check, a drug test and a mental evaluation — all of which must be repeated annually, as well as additional firearms training and recertification.

9 posted on 04/15/2013 6:37:43 AM PDT by Freeport (The proper application of high explosives will remove all obstacles.)
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To: marktwain

I think my Dad had it right. He said, “You don’t need a gun very often. But when you need a gun, you really, really need a gun.”

If every teacher in America was armed, it is highly likely there would be a steady drumbeat of accidents and “workplace violence” incidents resulting in a steady injury and mortality rate.

That’s due just to the Law of Large Numbers. ~50M students and ~4M teachers, a not insignificant percentage of whom are not overy intelligent and some of whom are no doubt disturbed, means some of those 4M guns will be misused, accidentally or on purpose.

After all, cops accidentally shoot themselves with some frequency, and there aren’t 4M cops in America, only about 800K.

OTOH, the chance of a Newtown or Columbine type mass shooting would be very small.


10 posted on 04/15/2013 6:43:47 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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I spent a couple of hours yesterday driving Highway 7 through north central Arkansas yesterday; it is a beautiful trip through the Ozark Mountains. If you really take a look at the folks that live along that route, you will know very quickly that they do NOT much approve of Obama or his ways. If the feds want to try to grab their guns, then the confiscators will learn a very harsh lesson in mountain law.


11 posted on 04/15/2013 6:55:51 AM PDT by Arkansas Toothpick
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To: Sherman Logan; All
If every teacher in America was armed, it is highly likely there would be a steady drumbeat of accidents and “workplace violence” incidents resulting in a steady injury and mortality rate.

We already have twice that number of CCW holders in the country, and what you predict has not happened. The number of accidents is tiny. I recall about 4 in twenty years. Each one was highly publicized. None were fatal.

Fatal firearms accidents are very rare (about two per million of population), and most of those occur in the very small subset of irresponsible people who do very risky stuff without considering consequences.

12 posted on 04/15/2013 7:00:38 AM PDT by marktwain (The MSM must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)
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To: marktwain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Plains,_Missouri

the county is right on the Arkansas State line, these people are backwoods folks that hate Revenuers. They grow up on guns


13 posted on 04/15/2013 7:04:35 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: marktwain

I hope you will forgive me if I don’t expect the set of all teachers to be as responsible as the set of people who have presently taken steps to become CCW.

Apples and oranges.


14 posted on 04/15/2013 7:08:01 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: marktwain

“..., And Most Parents Approve”

Does this mean that if one Leftist parent complains that they’ll have to take the guns away?


15 posted on 04/15/2013 7:14:40 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (IÂ’m not a Republican, IÂ’m a conservative! Pubbies haven't been conservative since before T.R.)
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To: marktwain
My son teaches at West Plains, Fairview is a k-8 school that feeds into West plains high school. A little context, West Plains dismissed a day earlier this year due to a student making a threat on the school.

I know several teachers and coaches in the district and they all seem like good people...hence the tag line.

16 posted on 04/15/2013 7:35:17 AM PDT by fungoking (Tis a pleasure to live in the Ozarks)
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To: Sherman Logan; All
I hope you will forgive me if I don’t expect the set of all teachers to be as responsible as the set of people who have presently taken steps to become CCW.

You are certainly correct. However, in the real world, the set of teachers who carry will be self selected almost entirely from the set who get CCW permits.

17 posted on 04/15/2013 7:41:09 AM PDT by marktwain (The MSM must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)
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To: marktwain
At Fairview School Some Employees Now Carry Concealed Weapons.”

so, if a NUTCASE like Adam Lanza gets into that school, they will be dead...not the students!!

18 posted on 04/15/2013 8:07:22 AM PDT by ExCTCitizen (Rand Paul/Ben Carson should be the 2016 Ticket!)
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To: DoodleDawg
Uh, you did note that the whole article was about the teachers BEING TRAINED, did you not???? An many (if not most) CCW folks are better trained than police....and their track record of not shooting innocent bystanders is better than the cops.

Methinks I smell "concern troll" emissions.

19 posted on 04/15/2013 8:38:22 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: DoodleDawg
Welcome to FreeRepublic.

Member since January 7, 2013

20 posted on 04/15/2013 10:08:31 AM PDT by TYVets
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