Posted on 12/22/2012 6:18:20 AM PST by Tailgunner Joe
California educators and Democratic politicians are rebuking the National Rifle Association for suggesting that more guns in schools would keep students, teachers and staff safer. The NRA broke its silence about the massacre of children and teachers last week at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School, holding a news conference Friday in Washington, D.C.
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” said NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre in a quote heard around the country. He called on Congress to put armed police officers in every school in the country.
“In the wake of last week’s tragedy, it’s disheartening that anyone would think the answer is to have more guns in and around our schools,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson in an email.
California Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg echoed the sentiment in a statement on his website saying, “The NRA’s suggestion that we militarize our schools is not the solution.”
But many California schools already have resource officers and armed police officers stationed on campus. A survey of about 300 school districts by EdSource last July found that 52 percent of the state’s high schools, 16 percent of middle schools and 5 percent of elementary schools already have police or resource officers. In high schools 83 percent of those officers are armed. That drops to 75 percent in middle schools and 59 percent in elementary schools.
In the San Francisco Unified School District, which has police or resource officers in all its high schools and middle schools, they aren’t really there for violence prevention, said longtime school board member Jill Wynns.
“The real purpose of having the resource officers is to connect the police to the students and the school,” she explained. “We think it’s important for students to know the police in their neighborhood, and we think we need relationships with them for that to be effective.”
Wynns said the San Francisco Police Department pays for the officers posted in schools, but regardless of who foots the bill – the district, the police, the federal or state government – the price tag is high. The National Association of School Resource Officers estimates it would cost between $80,000 and $100,000 per officer. With about 8,300 schools, the conservative estimate for California is about $668 million a year. The organization is also in general agreement with the NRA about the benefits of armed officers in schools. “A well-trained, armed, school-based police officer is one of the best defenses against an active shooter in a school,” wrote executive director Mo Canady in comments on the group’s home page.
Decisions on how to spend the limited funds available for education shouldn’t be made by the NRA, said Wynns. “In my personal view, we should be concerned that someone outside of school districts would say, ‘Oh yes, we should make a major investment in armed guards in our schools,’ but not in making sure that we have enough money for instruction.”
Schools also are generally safe places for children; despite the unimaginable horror of mass murders like those at Sandy Hook and Columbine. In cities, the streets are the most dangerous place. “Gun violence has haunted me my entire life,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told PBS NewsHour reporter Gwen Ifill in an interview that aired Friday night. “I had a lot of mentors, good friends I grew up with, shot dead when I was growing up,” said Duncan, choking back tears.
More recently, when he was superintendent of Chicago Public Schools, Duncan said “we buried a child killed by gun violence every two weeks.” They weren’t shot in school, they were shot walking to school or, in one case, by a stray bullet fired by an automatic rifle that tore through a house one morning and killed a girl as she was getting ready for school.
When Ifill cited some elected officials, including governors, who said if teachers at Sandy Hook had been armed they might have been able to protect themselves and their students, Duncan disagreed. “We can’t fight evil with evil. We need less guns not more; we need schools gun free,” he said. America needs to have the conversation, said Duncan, adding, “I promise you, very very few teachers are asking for more guns in school.”
Liberalism is a mental disease; the Democrat party spreads it.
Why do people hire armed guards? Why do law enforcement officers carry guns? But our “educators” advocate what’s counter intuitive, and say our children are better off unprotected.
We don’t need armed guards in all schools but we do need the option of armed personnel in all schools. Let the people in the individual school districts decide what hey want to do.
After all of the hundred thousand + schools in America, only the tiniest fraction of a percent have experienced a shooting and the number that have experienced mass shootings is only a fraction of that. There are probably 2 or 3 dozen schools in my county and not one has had a shooting that I can find.
” Let the people in the individual school districts decide what hey want to do.”
They already are...my local HS has had one local cop and two State Troopers walking the halls since last Friday.
It would cost nothing to allow CCW licensed adults to carry concealed at school and to let carefully screened community volunteers “visit” the school for a few hours each week to keep the peace.
Liberals would rather let more kids be murdered so that they can have an excuse to seize legal guns from honest, law-abiding people and deliberately leave them in the hands of criminals.
Dang. There you go using facts. Eli Wallach paraphrase: “Facts? We don’t need no stinkin’ facts!” I actually heard some lib clown condemn the NRA for putting inanimate objects above children’s lives. Uh, hello. Aren’t you the same ones laying the responsibility on an inanimate object? Again, “driver” kills family of 4 in head on crash. Not the SUV. Man kills girlfriend with nail gun. Hmm, not the nail guns fault. Two killed by man with samurai sword. Not the swords fault. Man strangles baby and girlfriend in vicious attack. Not the ropes fault. But, sadly, this never enters their train of thought. Probably because they are so much more enlightened than us rubes.
Gotta get ready to go to the gun show. See ya later!!!
Helping keep mankind warm for 65 years.
The tax payers are paying for them anyway, I have no problem with them frequenting school grounds. In fact, patrolling school parking lots would be a fine way of seeing who is coming and going. I know of no shooting at the school and hope to keep it that way.
I have also spoken to several retired corrections officers who said they’d be glad to spend a few hours a week at a school in the interest of security. Not sure if they would even have to be paid at all.
Of course these “educators” rejected the NRA’s plan.
These so-called educators are liberals. Their god is liberalism.
If another Newtown happens, God forbid, these “educators” will be to blame.
I agree, but this is CA and CCW's are nearly impossible to get in most of the state. The county I live in hands them out in great numbers, but most don't.
California educators and Democratic politicians are rebuking the National Rifle Association for suggesting that more guns in schools would keep students, teachers and staff safer.
Did they rebuke President Clinton when he actually did it??.
You know darn well if yesterday that had been Obama that said this they would be falling all over themselves praising such a daring and bold move that was sure to solve the problem. What a bunch of hypocrite dumb asses..
In the San Francisco Unified School District, which has police or resource officers in all its high schools and middle schools, they aren’t really there for violence prevention, said longtime school board member Jill Wynns.
HUH???? So if some evil nut bag comes in with a gun and starts shooting kids they are what? Going to stand around and watch..
Guess intelligence is not required to be on the school board
The neat thing about the liberal creed is that nobody is accountable for anything. The educators could very well be directly responsible for another school security failure, but they would never shoulder any blame.
Then don’t call 911 the next time there’s a school shooting. Police coming with GUNS will obviously only make the situation worse.
“”they aren’t really there for violence prevention, said longtime school board member Jill Wynns.””
Seeing as how it’s San Francisco, they probably have to check their weapons before entering school grounds or buildings.
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