Posted on 05/21/2018 9:42:39 AM PDT by Kaslin
As the horrific events at Santa Fe High school unfolded, all the usual experts popped up on TV panels and interviews once again recycling their “never again” and “we’ve-gotta-do-something” solutions. These are respected authorities like former DOJ special agents, sheriffs, former NYPD detectives, and parents of children killed in previous school shootings. And not one single thing they recommended to stop school massacres will work.
His schoolmates knew he was nuts. Yet over a year ago the 19-year-old somehow passed “background checks” and legally purchased the rifle he used to kill 15 students, a teacher and a coach at the school from which he had been expelled. In response to their failure, the FBI has promised to “take corrective actions.” And the Florida legislature passed a law that you must be 21 to buy a firearm. Yeah that’ll help.
In a larger context, most of the privacy laws in the nation would need to be erased in order to access an individual’s medical or psychological records. And, honestly, is there a teenager who doesn’t have mental health problems? These are young people in the emotional maelstrom years. Exacerbating their immaturity, confusion and psycho drama, they often smoke weed which is six or seven times as strong as their parents’ weed and hardly conducive to metal stability. These kids eat Tide detergent pods and steal their parents’ meds. They are tossed and tormented by their chaos-inciting hormones. They play video games that give them instructive practical target practice in annihilating enemies – rehearsal for real life school massacres. And good luck with the entertainment industry scaling back video or film violence out of the goodness of their hearts.
None of these fixes have worked in the past, and none of them will work in the future. It takes but a minimum of common sense to realize the only way to stop a murderer shooting school-kids is another shooter who threatens or kills the murder. The timeline is quick; most often the killing is over before law enforcement can respond. It takes only moments to kill lots of people. The average time of these lethal events is 3 to 4 minutes – it took the Parkland shooter under seven minutes to take 17 human lives. And since the killing takes place inside the school, it only makes sense that’s where the defenders must be.
The only intelligent, sane voice was Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick who said on the Friday of the shooting he and Governor Abbott visited the wounded and their parents and classmates who “all to a person said ‘our teachers should be armed.’” Patrick speculated that an ex-Marine who taught in the classroom adjacent to the one the killer shot up may have been able to stop the shooter had he been armed. Though there were two armed officers on the campus, Patrick pointed out “four or five guns to one” is preferable to one or two.
Leftists who refuse to allow willing and well-trained teachers to protect their students reveal to all that their compassion is nothing but hollow hypocrisy. What parent in the world wouldn’t rather their child have a chance against a killer instead of being shot dead cowering in a closet, like those poor kids in Texas.
Teachers are already protecting their kids with their bodies and dying along with them – two at Santa Fe High School, two at Parkland, and six at Sandy Hook. Yet their union leaders like American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten are more than willing to sacrifice the lives of the 1.7 million educators the AFT represents to gun-hating liberal mythology.
Following President Trump’s proposal to arm teachers after Parkland, this woman said she spoke to 60,000 educators in a telephone town hall. “The response was universal,” she insisted, “even from educators who are gun owners. Teachers don’t want to be armed…we would never have the expertise to be sharp shooters…” And her preposterous drivel continues: “would kindergarten teachers be carrying guns in holsters? When you have seconds to act...is a teacher supposed to use those seconds getting her gun instead of getting her students to safety?”
But when a school suddenly becomes a war zone, there is no safety except behind a teacher or staff member with a gun. And Weingarten is wrong about teachers being unwilling to defend their students and themselves; they’re not nearly as suicidal as their union boss thinks. In a March 5-8 poll Gallup found that about one in five teachers would take their school district’s required training and carry a firearm in their schools. One-quarter of all the teachers currently own a gun, and unsurprisingly they were four times more likely than those who don’t to volunteer to be trained to carry in school. While the left promotes the lie that teachers just are too incompetent to defend their charges, two-thirds of those who want to carry said they are very confident they would be effective in a shooter situation, while one-quarter are somewhat confident. Since they already own guns, some for many years, they’re not self-defense newbies nor are they likely to believe leftist anti-gun propaganda and prejudice. Think: If one in five classrooms has an armed teacher, the odds for students’ survival dramatically improve.
In another March Gallup poll, the number of people who thought arming teachers and other school officials would be effective in stopping school shootings (47%) were exactly even with those who didn’t (53%) when accounting for the 3% margin of error.
Despite the media’s mocking and belittling arming teachers as dangerous and foolhardy, those who have actually dealt with these tragedies rejected leftist irrationality when the Parkland victims’ family members all signed a statement supporting the Florida bill that, among other things, provides millions for training and arming teachers.
The terrible irony is that since 2012 Texas has been one of the 30 states allowing trained and willing teachers to carry firearms in their schools. Yet only about 170 school districts out of the over 1,000 in the state have authorized these programs. And Santa Fe isn’t one of them.
Much like they did in the 1960s and 70s when plane hijackings were happening. They wanted new laws to prevent it, but NO GUNS! NO ARMED PILOTS! NO ARMED GUARDS!
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And what did we get? 9/11 and almost 3,000 dead Americans. Same thing is what’s been happening in schools.
Now THAT is funny.
The point is competence. I know several female Marines that are short and as vicious as a Mastiff. Were your wife to be trained and carry concealed, she probably would not have been a target. Would you agree that your wife was so unaware of her surroundings that she would be targeted? I certainly hope not. With proper training, I believe she would be as much a deterrent as one of my Marines.
And that is the ultimate goal of CC, anyone COULD be armed.
While red flagging psychotic students hasn’t worked in the past it is due to complacency by both school and law enforcement authorities. The Parkland shooter could have been removed from the school, commited for mental health treatment or even placed on no admittance list. School shooters going back to Columbine have exhibited warning signs and even telegraphed their intentions on social media days if not weeks before acting and no one picked up on these signals or acted on them. Arming teachers is not unreasonable, but many of these school shooters could have been identified and dealt with before the tragedy occured
Then again, I had a few who I believe would have been fearless protectors and very suitable for carrying firearms.
Best to accept volunteers only, with careful screening for temperament, and many hours of live fire training and scenario training.
If I am not mistaken.If you are in school and still being raised, housed and financed by your parents, then the parents should be held responsible for their children and their actions. This means that every time there is a school shooting and they use their parents guns .They need to be prosecuted as accomplice’s .Parents should know what their kids are into at all times. Start throwing these parents in prison and you cut half the shootings out. Wake up people and raise your children! The TV can not do it for you.
I get your point. Anyone can be properly trained.
I don’t think EVERY teacher needs to be weaponized. But if a teacher wants to be, and shows the initiative to be certified, then let them.
We have tried the idiot liberal approach since Columbine back in 1999. Yet school shootings continue.
Lets try a sane conservative approach and arm those teachers who can and will do something.
Watch and see if school shootings don’t cease.
Absolutely. But at the very least, teachers should receive hostile action training.
Great article. The argument is effectively made that arming teachers is the best solution to prevent public school from remaining the soft targets they are today.
However, there will always be soft targets. Killers will generally go for them.
After 911 and the stupid TSA and invasive body scanning at airports I observed that the lines to reach security at my local airport would be a killer’s dream come true. They could kill far more people now that they are all lined up and disarmed. And someone did follow through with a similar line of thinking by attempting to kill people at baggage claim. He killed 5 and wounded 8 more.
What would stop a kid from getting on a school bus, going to the back and then picking off everyone?
We are not going to get rid of guns, and we are not going to get rid of all soft targets. Best strategy is like this article says though, be prepared.
The safest solution for public schools is to abolish them. Or, at least implement vouchers.
Hire an honorably discharged/retired vet with some arms experience - 2 or 3 at every school on patrol. I wouldn’t trust teachers - mainly because they are at work in a classroom and not on patrol.
The #1 thing that would reduce school shootings is to shut down the Deep State. The MK ULTRA program is probably responsible for at least 90% of these events.
Absolutely. But at the very least, teachers should receive hostile action training.
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Dittoes on that. I work for a bank. In a highly secured office complex requiring ID badges and no one comes in without prior authorization.
I had to watch (required) a video on how to react and respond if there was a active shooter in my building. Then take a 5-10 question test afterward. Standard stuff. No big deal.
But I kept putting it off. I had work to do. No time for a silly video. But I finally took it on the last day possible. And that was Feb. 14. The day of the Parkland shooting.
That video along with the tragedy in Parkland is still with me. It’s all about situational awareness. At home, at work, at school, wherever.
Our kids at school do fire drills all the time. They - or the teachers at least - need to do active shooter drills.
Teachers have plenty of teacher workdays. They all need to spend one day (at least) each year in coordination and prepping for an active shooter. And be sure all staff members know who is and isn’t armed.
That one is debatable. It could be used against someone.
Here’s Real, they need one entrance in the morning with 2 metal detectors and 2 police K9 units standing by while facility monitors the metal detectors. Criminals fear dogs. Any student walking by them each morning would think about that.
If I know teachers, and I do being married to one for 38 years, I know that they will know - soon enough - who is and isn’t armed.
Teachers are a close-knit gossipy bunch.
OH you are SO on point! When i was a student nothing was thought or said about parents monitoring classes at any time. Parents were invited! When my children were in school I made it a point to assert my right and monitor classes from time to time. I had to insist/fight to do it, was not disruptive in classes but not welcome. When my older grandchildren were in school parents were not allowed so older daughter became a volunteer teacher's aide so she could monitor and be abreast of the teaching. The younger grandchildren are awash in a socialist system of leftist learning that must be counteracted at home. (Dad is active military, mom is primary breadwinner due to low enlisted salary so no home school feasible)
IMHO If teachers are so leftist they refuse to carry guns in school they shouldn't be teaching. My grandchildren are worth having their teachers armed. I think a properly trained individual can determine when/where to get kids safe and when to fire. Just my $.02
But then does that bring politics into the event and create workplace tension??
I haven’t seen many middle and lower school shooting except Sandy Hook. Let’s face it folks he was a mental issue long before that incident and I wonder is his Mom or Dad in jail for giving him access to your guns?
Actually if you check things out, you will see all these school shootings are either mental issues or bullying. All of them should have had someone intervene prior to the incidents, especially the parents.
agreed
No argument, just would not want a published list.
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