Reflecting back on your school years, how many teachers do you remember who you would trust to handle deadly force, especially in one of today’s disorderly schools full of semi-ferals? I could come up with 1 or 2 out of every 100. Most would be an absolute menace, and much more likely to drop or loose their firearm.
If the concept is arming numerous teachers, I see that as a very bad idea. Stationing a few, highly trained defenders, sort of like “air marshals”, in schools might work. Even at that, there would be massive second-guessing, hand-wringing, and lawsuits if a student were to be shot. Even if the real facts showed it to be justified, I doubt the concept would survive very long.
re: “Reflecting back on your school years, how many teachers do you remember who you would trust to handle deadly force”
Several.
One junior HS teacher was a part time cop out in our township ...
I’ll grant you that in areas of the country without traditions of private gun ownership that you could easily hit 75%, it’s not so hard a task that it hits 98-99%.
If you can’t find 5-6 members of the staff who can be trusted with a firearm, then there are far worse problems going on.
After a little reflecting, while I was teaching high school, I could have been an armed teacher except that my dress was not well designed for concealment. (and a student took a calculator that was in my briefcase so that is not a good place either.) The best I could come up with would have been a safe in the Math office which was not far from my classroom and might have worked.
However later in my career when I had breathing problems and classes at the University that ended after dark, I would have welcomed a “friend” in my belt for those walks to the parking lot. Again, I believe the classroom should have a concealed safe unless the concealed hand gun on my person was hidden well enough. (My college prof outfit was more covering than my high school teaching days where I also wore a coaches top on many days.)
As to the issue of whether I would have been “appropriate” in the role of defender of my school, Damn right I was, with training and attitude I was a better choice than a patrolling off duty cop who roamed the school somewhere.
Being as I was schooled in the 40's and 50's, pretty much most of 'em.