“A far better way is to allow all school staff to pack heat”.
I am afraid that I disagree with the “all” statement. I personally feel a person must be trained not only when/how to shoot but be confident in those skills. Meaning that they won’t freeze. There are a lot of teachers I experienced through the years that are either on medication or just not “with it” enough to handle this responsibility. However, if a teacher was willing to take a gun class and everything else checked out.. I’d have no problem with it.
considering that most teachers are a few sandwiches short of a picnic, I would prefer that teachers not pack anything except their lunch.
My mom is a former teacher. She’s been married to an avid hunter for almost 60 years and raised two boys who hunt. She has always had a weak stomach when it comes to guns - scared to death of them, even though we all handle them responsibly and are extremely safey conscious. She is against teachers having guns in school - I was pretty shocked. It boils down to her personal feelings (i.e. she is too afraid of guns to want to carry one & projecting her feelings to the entire situation) .... I explained to her that it would have to be *voluntary* - only teachers that wanted to carry and were willing to be trained would be doing it. That helped a little, but she still told my niece last night that she opposes teachers having guns in the schools.
Personally, if I had a child in public school, I would be on the phone with the school administration & county school board telling them my child would not be back in school unless there was someone there who could shoot back. The odds of it happening in a school where my kid would be? Probably very slim; however, it IS going to happen again - could I live with myself if I let my child go to a place where they are sitting ducks with no chance ... and then something DID happen when it is MY responsibility to protect my kid? No. I could easily have lost a niece during the VT shooting - she was in the building next door & on another day, she would have been in those classrooms or the shooter could have chose her building instead. We weren’t quite sure which building she was in that morning so I know the feeling of waiting to find out if someone you dearly love has been killed and it is horrific .... that’s where I’m coming from.
Allow, not force.
I'm sure there are enough retired cops who wouldn't mind having a 7 to 4 job during the school year. And I don't have a problem with teachers or administrative staff with licenses to carry concealed on school grounds.
Heck, I'm sure that Willy the Janitor would love to carry while on the job.
True. Armed combat is not easy, I am sure a teacher can step forward and take the training and have one at the school.
Still we are talking remote odds here. A shooter coming in to a school is super unlikely. Swimming pools kill more children than guns. Are we filling them in?
Allow, not force...