Let's be Blunt
In other words, let's be idiots. I mean like Matt Blunt, the governor of Missouri. I rarely disparage places back in the midwest, but this is retarded. There was a school shooting down in Joplin yesterday; fortunately no one was hurt. Unfortunately, it came to the governor's attention and he suggested that teachers should be armed. No shit. That's embarassingly stupid. He even commented on TV that many soldiers are returning home from Iraq to become schoolteachers and that they have firearms experience, so it could be a good fit. Glad to see the governor comparing his state's schools to the anarchy and chaos of Fallujah.
Let's take this one step at a time, shall we? First, we have the idea of bringing guns into schools. I think we all know where I stand on the right to bear arms, so this is not coming from a gun-control advocate, but this is perhaps the worst idea on how to stop school shootings. In my opinion, there are several venues where firearms should not be allowed, and there should be ample security in place to prevent firearms from entering. These venues include, but are not necessairly limited to:
Of all these, churches would be the hardest to control. The others are easier: search everyone who comes in. Sorry if that invades your privacy, but tough shit. Do random searches so you never know if you're going to be popped in order to keep throughput high. Most places you won't even need a search if you have a uniformed police officer at the door to the building scoping for people with problems. These assholes who shoot up schools come right up to the front door with their guns ready to roll; they don't sneak shit inside a backpack. These areas should be highly controlled. We can't control the world, the country, or even a county, but we sure as hell can control a building, and we should.
Which brings me to my second point: have an armed cop at the door. Not a fucking rent-a-cop or pussy ass security guard, get a real fucking cop who is trained and armed. He or she can serve as a lookout for suspicious activity. Have all the kids come in through one door past this guard so they all pass muster. It may not be perfect, but it will diminish the crazy shooters by a large percentage.
On average, 30 people a year die from shooting sprees, both in schools and out. This is a very, very low number. While it is terrible that these instances occur, it is statistically insignificant compared to the 270 million people in the US. The fucking world trade center disaster is statistically insignificant when you look at it. If you arm teachers, you have brought the number of firearms in schools up to a significant level--there will be firearms-related incidents based soley on statistics. What if a teacher leaves a gun someplace, like in a desk drawer? What if a teacher accidentally sets it off, injuring or killing himself or a student? What if the teacher's gun is taken from him? (It even happens to trained cops. Really.) Ever wonder why cops don't carry guns in large mobs of people, like in prisons or stadiums? It's because the gun is more likely to be used against them after it's taken away. I'm not saying that the whole school is going to mob an armed teacher, but a teacher is going to be a lot easier target for one or two students to take down than a cop.
The most likely firearm to be issued to a teacher would be a handgun. This is perhaps the worst type of gun to carry around a school. Handguns are inherently less accurate than rifles or shotguns due to their smaller sight radius, plus they are a single projectile which can penetrate targets or richochet with killing force remaining. Rifles, while more accurate, are even worse with penetration and ricocheting. The real gun of choice would be a shotgun--and what kind of teacher is going to carry around a 12 gauge in class? In order to control the gun, it would have to be in their hands at all times, thus handicapping them from writing on the board, or really doing anything other than speaking. Besides this, if you hit someone with a shotgun at close range, they're dead. What if your teacher misses? Very easy to miss when you're firing under pressure. A cop only hits 4 in 10 targets, 1 in 10 if the target is moving. (Check out these chilling stories). How do you think an untrained or undertrained teacher would do?
Next, we have the real crux of the problem: incompetent teachers. Not that they teach incompetently (which may be arguable in many cases), but rather that they are incompetent marksmen. They are trained to teach, not shoot. Sure, if we hired ex-Navy SEALs and SWAT team members, fine, but there's only so many ROTC and gym classes to be taught. Those people are professionals with hundreds of hours firing in combat situations and training. They know when to fire, they know to hold their fire, they know how to protect their weapon, they know what to do under fire, and they can shoot accurately. Think about your 9th grade foreign language teacher. Think about your 11th grade english teacher? Think any of them would survive Army Ranger school? Doubt it. Those people are trained to kill. When some jerkoff in black face paint is charging you with a gun, it's not very hard to cap them a few times if you're trained for it. It's a hell of a lot harder when you're Mr. Smith the history teacher having Jake Roberts, that kid with the bad essay on Napoleon but with so much promise, pointing his dad's bolt-action .22 at your head. The training needed would be expensive both monetarily and time wise and the washout rate would be phenomenal, but that would be the standard you would have to hold anyone in a public building full of children to in order to feel safe about them wielding a gun there.
This whole idea stinks from top to bottom. There need to be social programs in place to help people who are having mental problems. School counselors should have a better idea what's going on and used more by the administration for students who are acting up. The entire populace should be given mandatory firearms training at the end of elementary school--so that they don't see guns as a pathway to power, but rather as a tool. If there's a serious problem, then post armed police officers at the door to the school and perform random searches. But guns in schools? Dumbest idea I've heard since erasing our second amendment right.
But let me be Blunt and offer a band-aid solution: instead of arming teachers, armor them. Issue body armor to teachers. Doesn't take much training to wear a BPV properly, and it might just save a life, which is more than I can say for the arming of teachers.
Let's take this one step at a time, shall we? First, we have the idea of bringing guns into schools. I think we all know where I stand on the right to bear arms, so this is not coming from a gun-control advocate, but this is perhaps the worst idea on how to stop school shootings. In my opinion, there are several venues where firearms should not be allowed, and there should be ample security in place to prevent firearms from entering. These venues include, but are not necessairly limited to:
- Schools
- Stadiums
- Courthouses
- Classified government facilities
- Churches
- Aircraft
Of all these, churches would be the hardest to control. The others are easier: search everyone who comes in. Sorry if that invades your privacy, but tough shit. Do random searches so you never know if you're going to be popped in order to keep throughput high. Most places you won't even need a search if you have a uniformed police officer at the door to the building scoping for people with problems. These assholes who shoot up schools come right up to the front door with their guns ready to roll; they don't sneak shit inside a backpack. These areas should be highly controlled. We can't control the world, the country, or even a county, but we sure as hell can control a building, and we should.
Which brings me to my second point: have an armed cop at the door. Not a fucking rent-a-cop or pussy ass security guard, get a real fucking cop who is trained and armed. He or she can serve as a lookout for suspicious activity. Have all the kids come in through one door past this guard so they all pass muster. It may not be perfect, but it will diminish the crazy shooters by a large percentage.
On average, 30 people a year die from shooting sprees, both in schools and out. This is a very, very low number. While it is terrible that these instances occur, it is statistically insignificant compared to the 270 million people in the US. The fucking world trade center disaster is statistically insignificant when you look at it. If you arm teachers, you have brought the number of firearms in schools up to a significant level--there will be firearms-related incidents based soley on statistics. What if a teacher leaves a gun someplace, like in a desk drawer? What if a teacher accidentally sets it off, injuring or killing himself or a student? What if the teacher's gun is taken from him? (It even happens to trained cops. Really.) Ever wonder why cops don't carry guns in large mobs of people, like in prisons or stadiums? It's because the gun is more likely to be used against them after it's taken away. I'm not saying that the whole school is going to mob an armed teacher, but a teacher is going to be a lot easier target for one or two students to take down than a cop.
The most likely firearm to be issued to a teacher would be a handgun. This is perhaps the worst type of gun to carry around a school. Handguns are inherently less accurate than rifles or shotguns due to their smaller sight radius, plus they are a single projectile which can penetrate targets or richochet with killing force remaining. Rifles, while more accurate, are even worse with penetration and ricocheting. The real gun of choice would be a shotgun--and what kind of teacher is going to carry around a 12 gauge in class? In order to control the gun, it would have to be in their hands at all times, thus handicapping them from writing on the board, or really doing anything other than speaking. Besides this, if you hit someone with a shotgun at close range, they're dead. What if your teacher misses? Very easy to miss when you're firing under pressure. A cop only hits 4 in 10 targets, 1 in 10 if the target is moving. (Check out these chilling stories). How do you think an untrained or undertrained teacher would do?
Next, we have the real crux of the problem: incompetent teachers. Not that they teach incompetently (which may be arguable in many cases), but rather that they are incompetent marksmen. They are trained to teach, not shoot. Sure, if we hired ex-Navy SEALs and SWAT team members, fine, but there's only so many ROTC and gym classes to be taught. Those people are professionals with hundreds of hours firing in combat situations and training. They know when to fire, they know to hold their fire, they know how to protect their weapon, they know what to do under fire, and they can shoot accurately. Think about your 9th grade foreign language teacher. Think about your 11th grade english teacher? Think any of them would survive Army Ranger school? Doubt it. Those people are trained to kill. When some jerkoff in black face paint is charging you with a gun, it's not very hard to cap them a few times if you're trained for it. It's a hell of a lot harder when you're Mr. Smith the history teacher having Jake Roberts, that kid with the bad essay on Napoleon but with so much promise, pointing his dad's bolt-action .22 at your head. The training needed would be expensive both monetarily and time wise and the washout rate would be phenomenal, but that would be the standard you would have to hold anyone in a public building full of children to in order to feel safe about them wielding a gun there.
This whole idea stinks from top to bottom. There need to be social programs in place to help people who are having mental problems. School counselors should have a better idea what's going on and used more by the administration for students who are acting up. The entire populace should be given mandatory firearms training at the end of elementary school--so that they don't see guns as a pathway to power, but rather as a tool. If there's a serious problem, then post armed police officers at the door to the school and perform random searches. But guns in schools? Dumbest idea I've heard since erasing our second amendment right.
But let me be Blunt and offer a band-aid solution: instead of arming teachers, armor them. Issue body armor to teachers. Doesn't take much training to wear a BPV properly, and it might just save a life, which is more than I can say for the arming of teachers.
posted by ChemicalJesus at 11:20 PM
3 Comments:
I've actually seen body armor companies that make kid's winter coats (think 5 to 9 year olds) that are rated for sub sonic munition (the jacket just looks like it is overstuffed, which isn't all that different from the jackets I wore out in the midwest blizzards when I was that age). I always wondered how a 5-7 year old is supposed to walk around with it on, as it weighs more than a normal winter coat.
There's also the question of how it's supposed to stop anything, because in order to work, a BPV must be TIGHT on you, not flopping around like a jacket. It's an interesting concept, though.
And for another perspective here is:
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/10/19/school-shootings-part-iii-arming-school-administrators/
One big problem with this guy's argument is that he assumes parents would visit a school. The only reasons I've ever seen a parent in a school is for sporting events or parent/teacher conferenses. A shooter would need to be a bit nuts to show up to the former to go on a shooting spree (as it is unlikly they would even make it to the intended target). And for the latter the students aren't even there.
The second reason is that he assumes those people that choose to walk around armed are going to be the good shooters among gun owners. I know quite a few people who carry hidden (and not so hidden) firearms. The kind of gun that is easily hidden (and that most cops carry concealed) is a 9mm belly gun (a handgun not much bigger than an adult's hand, usually worn by cops around the ankle). My father called them "belly guns" because thier aim was so bad, that's really all you could aim for and expect to hit on someone more then 10 yards away.
This is a horrible weapon to shoot with as much like the derringers of the old west the point of the concealed weapon is to shoot someone who is very close to you, or scare someone away. It would do no good for trying to take down a school shooter (better option there is to call the cops, or hostage rescue, and just use your gun to prevent the shooter from giving chase).
However, if we truly have to spend money on some sort of band-aid legislation, lets spend it on non-leathal weapon research and development. How about a gas grenade that causes extremly rapid oxidation, so the gun the shooter has rusts solid and can't be used. Or how about just putting a big elctro magnet somewhere nearby, so that you can yank a gun away. I mean if you want ideas all you need to do is watch some of the old bugs bunny cartoons, they have tons.
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