Montana's Gun-free zones attract attackers

Billings Gazette ^ | December 6 2024 | John R Lott Jr

[JohnRLott]

Around midmorning on Thursday, parents across Montana started receiving texts from their children that schools were in lockdown.... Fortunately, there was no such gunman.... Many schools in Montana have armed School Resource Officers, but these uniformed, easily identifiable individuals find themselves at a serious disadvantage in an attack.... There’s a good reason air marshals on planes don’t wear uniforms. If you have an armed officer in a school, don’t make him readily identifiable. Give him a staff position in the school so it won’t be obvious that he is the one person with a gun. But designated officers shouldn’t be the only people who can protect students.... In the thousands of schools where teachers are permitted to carry, no one has been wounded or killed in an attack during school hours. Only at schools where guns are banned have people been wounded or killed in school shootings. Despite concerns about students getting a hold of weapons or armed teachers losing their tempers, these scenarios have never actually materialized.

[wbarmy]

Robert A. Heinlein: ‘An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.’

[PROCON]

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[frank ballenger]

Yes.

And fellow Golden Age science fiction writer ——

“The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.”
― A.E. Van Vogt

[PROCON]

Here's a non-subscription version

[Thud]

Columbine High School had a police officer present providing security when the massacre there occurred. The officer was present AT THE SCENE of the first shooting, immediately opened fire at the perpetrators through the crowd of milling, screaming students, didn't hit any of them but did hit the rifle stock of one of the perps. They immediately retreated inside the school.

Estimates at the time were that the officer's immediate action and success saved 10-12 students from being killed or injured.

The author of this story also ignores the deterrent effect of always having a uniformed officer present.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

[FlingWingFlyer]

Are we sure Montana isn’t Spanish for “The Man-Bun State”?

[exnavy]

There should not be just one armed guard.

[ridesthemiles]

IMO-—LIFE ALERT has fertile ground here-—

THEY CAN COME UP WITH an ALERT BUTTON EVERY TEACHER WEARS.

ALERT GOES TO MAIN OFFICES & TO LOCAL POLICE.

[piytar]

Thanks. Original link has so many pop ups I couldn’t even read the article on my iPhone.

[Unrepentant VN Vet]

..“The Man-Bun State”?

Never heard that one as long as I've been here.

Okay, a few facts:

1. Billings Gazette is left-wing to the point that they're in danger of falling off and landing a couple hundred miles off the Left coast and absolutely, positively wouldn't say anything faintly positive about guns/2nd Amendment/people who own guns if their lives depended on it. Still, this article manages to tick off every Big Scare button they could find/make up, so we'll just have to deal with their crap...again.

2. Montana is Constitutional OPEN CARRY, has been since dirt and probably has more guns/capita than any state in the Union. (Along with more veterans/capita which kinda fits with those guns numbers.)

3. While "Gun Free" School Zones exist in the (thankfully) short supply of "Big Towns" in Montana, you don't have to go far beyond Where The Sidewalks End to enter areas where schools are within shouting distance of hosts of gun owners and/or have big signs on the front doors warning that the staff are likely to be packin' as well. (Throw in the number of parents in those "Big Towns" who carry and the whole state may as well post those signs regardless of the dreams of the elite among us.)

4. Finally, there..hasn't..been..a..school..shooting in Montana since well before the Columbine shooting. (Which happened in Colorado, something over 500 miles South.)

I've seen some Man-Buns around the college but otherwise that slur makes as much sense as my old NAVAIR buddies referring to helos as only being able to rise above the dirt because the earth repelled their ugliness. /jk

[metmom]

Despite concerns about students getting a hold of weapons or armed teachers losing their tempers, these scenarios have never actually materialized.

The left doesn't have facts on its side so it has to resort to fear porn.

And sadly, too many useful idiots think that t IS fact.

[marktwain]

My Federal Firearms License name was Isher Enterprises.

[Tacrolimus1mg]

At Anime Central when I staff, “security”, we go over active shooter training. They tell us to take off our vests and con badges and slip into the crowd.

[aquila48]

Montana, the wild west, has gun free zones??

[FlingWingFlyer]

Sorry I hurt your feelings. Yeah. It was a pretty bad joke. But you really didn’t have to trash helicopters for my mistake. Sorry again. I’ve got to remember people’s sensitivity when I open my big mouth. I’ll try but leave the helicopters alone.

[SaxxonWoods]

Anyplace with gun free zones isn’t civilized and shouldn’t be entered in the first place.

[Road Warrior ‘04]

Having grown up in Montana, we would take our guns TO school so we could go hunting after school.

[Paal Gulli]

Gun-free zones in Montana must be scarcer than synagogues in the Vatican.

Montana was the original "Firearms Freedom Act" state, which seven other states since have passed their own version of, and a slurry more are working on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_Firearms_Freedom_Act

https://firearmsfreedomact.com/