Readin', writin', 'rithmetic, revolvers. The media emotion minders are busy as can be trying to keep the emotions and interest in news stories about the Newtown shooting high.
And as is typical, someone has to say, "There oughta be a law," and the groups who want to disarm the populace are demanding just that.
One of the important lessons we learned from 9/11 was that we, the average citizens, are our first and sometimes only line of defense. And subsequently we've heard numerous instances in which quick thinking airline passengers have thwarted terrorists. It happens on the ground, too. But an armed madman in a gun free zone makes that difficult.
And so what seems like a common sense proposal has been tossed in the mix. It comes from our neighbor in Odessa, Derek New, who is circulating a petition for signatures to persuade the local school districts to get them to allow school district employees with concealed carry licenses to take their guns to school. See OAOA.com; KWES.com; MyWestTexas.com and Chron.com.
One would assume that the crazy gunman intent on killing would just stay home knowing the odds have been shifted against him by the possibility there may be bullets coming his way from anyone and any direction. The art of deterrence is creating in the potential killer's mind the fear of consequences of an attack. Not knowing who is armed would seem to be serve as a deterrence. On the other hand, knowing that all the law abiding citizens have dutifully turned in their firearms to be smashed would serve as encouragement, not deterrence.
---
The subject of guns in schools brings to mind an incident a few years ago in which a junior high school principal in Odessa accidentally fired off a round in the school. See The Two Recent Accidental Glock Discharges, detailed. In happened in 2006, two years after the school had been locked down when two youths escaped from a nearby detention facility. The principal surely knew that guns were prohibited in the school, but he may very well have calculated that protecting the children was more important than anti-gun the rules.
He could have been a hero. But there was that accidental/negligent discharge in the school. The gun in question was a Glock which has a light trigger pull and no manual safety. And apparently the gun discharged when the principal reached into the bag where it was kept. If the gun had a manual safety that may not have happened.
I'm not going to get on a high horse about Glocks here. But let me just add that teachers are smart. And any teacher or other school district employee who ultimately ends up carrying a gun to school will surely choose an appropriate gun for the circumstance.
My concern is that if, in the line of defending his/her classroom, a teacher's friendly fire were to hit (fatally or otherwise) a student, that teacher would be absolutely crucified. The fallout from that innocent mistake would make Zimmerman look like a picnic in the park.
So, it's not enough that teachers are supposed to be educators of children and have to practically assume the role of a parent (tho they're affording no actual authority) for a great many of their students, but now we may also ask them to be armed security personnel - with all of the inherent risk, responsibility, and potential liability of that role?
The teacher shortage we have now could become little more than a drop in the bucket and we will have lost a lot of irreplaceable, caring educators.
Posted by: Rob O. | January 14, 2013 at 09:15 PM
Rob O, only those teachers who feel confident about their shooting ability should volunteer to carry a gun to school.
Posted by: Geo | January 15, 2013 at 05:07 AM