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Biden: Putting armed guards in schools would be a “terrible mistake”
redalertpolitics.com ^ | January 24, 2013 | Kelsey Osterman

Posted on 01/24/2013 7:48:07 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe

Vice President Joe Biden figuratively slapped the National Rifle Association in the face on Thursday, indirectly slamming its suggestion to put armed guards in every school in the nation.

“We are not calling for armed guards in schools…we think that would be a terrible mistake,” the VP said during a PBS “Fireside Hangout” on Thursday.

“The last thing we need to do is be arming school teachers and administrators,” he added.

The Vice President did talk about allowing schools to hire more mental health professionals and ‘resource officers.’ Biden said the current proposal — some $40 million for schools to hire these individuals — will not fully cover the cost of implementing these strategies nationwide, but it is a “way to begin the process.”

Biden’s backhanded insult came just minutes before he mentioned that he had met with the NRA during his gun safety task force meetings earlier this month.

But Biden’s position on armed guards isn’t one the administration has been pushing. During an interview with David Gregory on “Meet the Press,” Obama said he was “skeptical” of putting armed guards in schools, but refused to rule it out. And the federal government used to pay for a program to put armed guards in schools, something that Obama discontinued in 2012.

During the live chat, Biden also contradicted a questioner who asked about “gun control.”

“I don’t view it as gun control,” he said. “I view it as gun safety.”

The Vice President also mentioned he doesn’t care what semi-automatic weapons are called.

“I’m much less concerned quite frankly about what you call an assault weapon than I am about magazines and the number of rounds that can be held in a magazine,” he said.


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: banglist; guncontrol; secondamendment
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1 posted on 01/24/2013 7:48:11 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe

President Clinton funded the COPS program to put armed security in (some) schools. I would love to see Biden and Billy discuss this matter.
Nah,,nevermind. It would require a level of honesty that neither ‘man’ are capable of.


2 posted on 01/24/2013 7:52:25 PM PST by austinaero
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To: Tailgunner Joe
“We are not calling for armed guards in schools…we think that would be a terrible mistake”

Yeah, it might work to keep kids safe. We can't have that.

3 posted on 01/24/2013 7:52:52 PM PST by tpmintx (Gun free zones are hunting preserves for unarmed people.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

And the diff between armed guards in the Obamadork’s offspring schools and those in a plebeian school is?

Biden defines the baseline from which all IQ is measured.


4 posted on 01/24/2013 7:54:05 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: Tailgunner Joe

It’s NO wonder we have so many LOW INFORMATION VOTERS....look at the LOW INFORMATION “leaders” they have!


5 posted on 01/24/2013 7:54:58 PM PST by goodnesswins (R.I.P. Doherty, Smith, Stevens, Woods.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Most High Schools I’ve seen have “Resource Officers” - cops assigned that basically fill this niche. How is it a mistake to extend this to Middle and Elementary Schools - EXCEPT that it doesn’t fit in with the kenyan’s un grab plans.


6 posted on 01/24/2013 7:55:04 PM PST by 21st Century Crusader (August 26, 1191)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Y’know ... all we have to do to these stupid statements is ask, “Why?” and demand an answer.


7 posted on 01/24/2013 7:55:34 PM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

There are 26 dead people in Newtown Connecticut that might disagree ... Oh wait, they can’t.


8 posted on 01/24/2013 7:56:20 PM PST by doc1019
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To: Tailgunner Joe
The Vice President did talk about allowing schools to hire more mental health professionals and ‘resource officers.’

Why the devil aren't ANY politicians talking about abolishing the Department of Education? What business is it of the Federal government to ALLOW schools to have guards or not have guards. What the HELL is a resource officer? Some kind of public union money grubber?

We have a massive deficit. Why not kill two birds with one stone--cut spending and cut oppressive meddling--and abolish the Department of Education?

That's just for starters. But I don't hear ANYBODY saying this. What a bunch of corrupt rats our politicians are.

9 posted on 01/24/2013 7:57:31 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
“The last thing we need to do is be arming school teachers and administrators,”

Judging by some of the flakes I know who work in schools, this is probably the proper notion. They might shoot any kid who made a drawing of a gun.

10 posted on 01/24/2013 7:58:04 PM PST by GingisK
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To: Tailgunner Joe

No offense to mental health professionals,lots of great people in the field, but ever since the libs made it next to impossible to institutionalize these wackos they just keep being put back on the street. And what good will a mental health professional do against a armed assailant. Biden bloviates again. All I really see happening with the emphasis on students mental stability is little girls being suspended and scared to death for having a bubble blowing toy gun or having a piece of paper torn into a shape barely resembling a gun.


11 posted on 01/24/2013 7:58:20 PM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
The only terrible mistake America has made is placing dims in office.
12 posted on 01/24/2013 8:00:15 PM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: Tailgunner Joe; Reaganite Republican; Clintons Are White Trash; HerrBlucher; mgist; raptor22; ...
President Obama’s Call For Cops In Schools Echoes Clinton
pResident Obama suggested on Wednesday that the government provide grant money to hire police in schools, prompting cries of hypocrisy on the right after a proposal by the National Rifle Association to hire armed guards to protect children was met with widespread ridicule. But Obama’s plan has more in common with a program enacted by President Bill Clinton and eliminated by President Bush.

According to the White House, Obama plans on “using this year’s COPS program to provide incentives for more police departments to hire school resource officers” in addition to a “new, comprehensive school safety initiative to help local school districts hire up to 1,000 school resource officers and school-based mental health professionals, as well as make other investments in school safety.”

The COPS program was created by the 1994 crime bill, a law signed by Clinton and sponsored by then-Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) with the goal of hiring 100,000 police officers nationwide. Other provisions in the anti-crime package included the Violence Against Women Act and the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, both of which have since lapsed over Democratic objections.

After a wave of school shootings in the late 1990s, Clinton signed a bill funding grants to hire specially trained community officers in schools. The bill was authored by by then-Rep. James Maloney (D-CT), whose district includes Newtown today, and was aimed at least in part at preventing mass shootings. At a press conference in 1998, Clinton argued for passage of Maloney’s proposal by telling the story of a school officer in Richmond, Va., who was hired by the existing COPS program and apprehended a 14-year old shooter after the teenager wounded two students.

Although stopping school shootings was one goal of the effort, which Clinton expanded into the COPS In School Program, officers typically functioned more as guidance counselors and community liaisons. Here, for example, is how a Newtown officer described his work to the Associated Press in 1999:

Chris Vanghele, a school resource officer in Newtown, says law enforcement is only one of many functions performed by school patrols.

“A lot of people have the wrong perception. They think I’m in the schools because of school shootings in other parts of the nation,” Vanghele told the [AP].

“Obviously, if there is a crisis like that, it helps that I’m here,” he said. “But the main reason I’m here is to give kids respect for police officers and to be someone who can listen.”

But the COPS In Schools Program didn’t last: its funding was cut dramatically under Bush until it was eliminated in the 2006 budget over opposition from a number of Democratic lawmakers including Biden.

Conservative commentators in recent days have complained that Obama’s and Clinton’s efforts before him are more or less endorsements of the NRA’s plan to deploy armed guards in schools. But there are key differences: for one thing, Clinton and Obama called for specially trained police officers while LaPierre suggested arming volunteers as well. For another, both Clinton and Obama backed hiring new officers as part of a larger crackdown on gun violence that included restrictions on the design and sale of firearms.

“You know, I am not going to prejudge the recommendations that are given to me,” Obama said on Meet The Press last month when asked about the NRA proposal. “I am skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools. And I think the vast majority of the American people are skeptical that that somehow is going to solve our problem.”


13 posted on 01/24/2013 8:01:04 PM PST by narses
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To: Da Coyote; Tailgunner Joe

Do not attempt to draw a rational line from any perceived problem to suggested solution, if it involves liberals or democrats. To do so is highly frustrating from both a logical and practical perspective.

It is all about the children, if we can save only one life.

Don’t dare mention abortion. They will suddenly wish they had a gun to shoot you with.


14 posted on 01/24/2013 8:01:53 PM PST by One Name (Ultimately, the TRUTH is a razor's edge and no man can sit astride it.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Obama’s children have armed guards.

Why can’t our children have the same?


15 posted on 01/24/2013 8:03:19 PM PST by donna (Pray for revival.)
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To: donna

“Obama’s children have armed guards.

Why can’t our children have the same?”

Because they belong to the ruling class.


16 posted on 01/24/2013 8:11:59 PM PST by Dogbert41
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To: Tailgunner Joe

The “terrible mistake” has been “Weapons prohibited” stickers and the Federal law behind them.


17 posted on 01/24/2013 8:13:55 PM PST by lightman (If the Patriarchate of the East held a state like the Vatican I would apply for political asylum.)
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To: goodnesswins
Truthfully you’re right!...so many of them are past retirement age but wont go home and spend the end yrs with their families...Their intoxication with POWER?...Well..look at the results...one by one..Sad...
18 posted on 01/24/2013 8:22:59 PM PST by M-cubed
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Obama’s children go to a private school where his children are protected by armed guards. In protecting his children he is benefiting from the 2nd amendment rights enjoyed by the men who guard his daughters.

It is a violation of every parents 2nd amendment right not to have armed guards for citizen children in their schools.

( The creative liberal approach to constitutional interpretation.)


19 posted on 01/24/2013 8:24:20 PM PST by Candor7 (Obama fascism article:(http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html))
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Oh, yeah, sure, sure, we can’t trust them with guns, but we’ll trust them with our kids.


20 posted on 01/24/2013 8:24:37 PM PST by Thorliveshere ( Aupono ac da tafor)
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