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Arm Teachers To Save Our Children, Now
This article originally appeared on the Daily Capitalist.
I am sure that all of you are as shocked and saddened as I am by the mass murders of little children and their teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It is very difficult to read about this tragedy and the precious young lives that were lost. It is one of those events that stops the whole nation and causes them to mourn the dead yet appreciate the beauty and fragility of life at the same instant.
It is difficult to accept that this is the reality of America. Mass murders are becoming a way of our life. Seemingly one event inspires others to commit further brutal acts. We think that violence on this scale is something that happens elsewhere, yet it happens here with regularity.
We need to protect our children.
Already there are calls for gun control, more intervention with the mentally ill, and greater safety at our schools.
Gun control or gun prohibition will not happen in America. Guns are too prevalent and there is the Second Amendment right to bear arms. (You can argue against the purpose of the Second Amendment, but the Courts have upheld citizens' right to own guns: accept this fact.) Americans won't stand for prohibition anyway. It's a part of our national fabric. And we all know, despite the trite saying, and despite bans on firearms (see New York City), criminals will get guns. It is impossible to keep guns out of the hands of someone who wants one. Thus, bans on assault rifles, for example, won't put a dent in the problem (the shooter at Sandy Hook also has two handguns. Accept the fact that there are guns out there and they are here to stay.
Intervention with mentally disturbed people is an even more difficult task. Would Americans allow a law that permits the detention and treatment of people who haven't committed crimes? There are too many stories of Soviet and Chinese tyrants using such a law to arrest enemies of the state. I was listening to a criminologist who has studied the common factors that these disturbed mass killers have and he said it's easy to add up the symptoms after the fact, but there could be a million people who have similar symptoms who don't go on killing sprees. Accept the fact that functional but mentally disturbed people will get guns and we have no power to stop them. I am not advocating that dangerous maniacs have guns; I am simply pointing out the reality of the situation.
School safety? The killer in the Sandy Hook event broke the door open to get in. It was admirable to hear how the teachers handled this crisis. They were scared but calm and did everything right, carrying out well rehearsed safety plans. Yet 2o children and 6 adults were killed. Would a guard at the door have prevented this? Is one guard enough? My thinking is that this guy would have shot the guard at the beginning of his spree. Forget about metal detectors; he wasn't asking to be let in. And what about safety in other public places, such as the Clackamas shopping center in Oregon, or the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, or a large campus like Virginia Tech. Can you have enough guards? Is total protection feasible much less affordable?
There is no easy answer to this problem. But I suggest two things.
1. All schools should have a video monitoring system with a designated person on campus to monitor it. Can all schools afford this? To protect our children, I would pay whatever it cost for my district. I know that some schools already have such a system installed. But do they have a designated monitor? With well placed video monitors at least staff would have an idea what was happening in such an event and could respond better. The principal of Sandy Hook, Dawn Hochsprun, and the school psychologist, Mary Joy Sherlach, bravely ran toward the shooter when they heard shots and sadly they were killed. Perhaps a control center and a defensive plan would have helped save their lives.
2. Arm some teachers and staff members so they can protect themselves and our children. I know this will get a big reaction from those against firearms, but think it through in light of the reality of the issues that I have outlined. It is not possible to prevent these tragic shootings before they happen, so sh0uld we leave our children unprotected while some maniac walks around and shoots them at will?
I am not talking about handing out pistols at random. Teachers and staff members must volunteer to be in such a program. They must be trained extensively in the use of handguns and be given instructions on how to handle panic situations. This type of training is given to police officers. Police departments could give such instruction and certify that those who pass the course are capable of defending themselves and our children. Annual certification should be required. Weapons should be kept in a gun safe in classrooms with the key in the teacher's physical possession. Supervisory staff would keep them in their offices and some would carry them at all times. Skeptics will say that poor little Miss Smith is not capable of such responsibility, but I disagree after hearing interviews of the brave teachers who protected their students at Sandy Hook: they were willing to risk their lives to save their children. Some gave their lives in doing so.
So what would happen in such an event where teachers and staff are armed? If they act according to their training they will kill or subdue the gunman. They could also be killed or injured, but is their slaughter and the slaughter of children more preferable? I am not suggesting that teachers go Rambo, but with proper training they should act according to a defensive plan that will protect their students. They should fire their weapon as a last resort. If they act with a calm head they will save lives. I am not saying this is a panacea for such a complex problem, but until someone figures out something better we need to protect our children, now.
NB. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a gun enthusiast. I don't hunt or spend my spare time cleaning my arsenal.
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He's got to be joking. Nobody could be that stupid.
Oh, there's a few, I'm sure.....
I was raised in an anti-gun/pro gun control house. When I grew up, I changed my mind, for a couple of reasons:
(1) I learned about the reason for the Second Amendment - resisting tyranny.
(2) I realized that RESPONSIBLE people who are armed help to protect our safety.
I'm afraid the idea that light fire arms are going to repel Big Drone Brother and Mrs DHS Santa Claus is a symbolic anachronism in this day and age. And it is only going to get exponentially worse. Robot sharpshooters are just around Moore's Law bend.
I wonder why no one is asking why schools are not armed with tazers. You can take down one tazer, but not three coming at you simultaneously. Less controversial, not as effective as a firearm. However, if that principal, who acted selflessly, had a tazer, she might have actually stopped him.
I just think the idea of arming schools is an endless debate that will lead nowhere.
And BTW, there are plenty of instances in China, which does not allow firearm ownership, of maniacs attacking schools with knives and cleavers.
George Orwell – author of 1984 – pointed out in the Tribune (October 19, 1945),
the effectiveness of arms in preventing tyranny partly depends on
whether the average citizen can afford the current weapon of choice
possessed by the government:
George, thanks for this comment. J
Remote controlled killing seems to be the pinnacle of uncontrollable state oppression. It subtracts substantantially the risk of insubordination by conscientious objectors. No wonder they are rolling out drones domestically.
the truth is in the label, remote control.
both of the victim, and the victimiser.
True, WB7.
But turnabout is fair play.
Target "the people" with drones---and the people will target you. (Watch "The Patriot" for a simple, movie-style explination of the "American" response to King George).
The "Government" can target "enemies" but an armed populace can easily and cheaply create an "acquisition list" of Congressional, GE, GM or Berkshire board members (or their families) to be acted upone discriminately or indiscriminately; organized or ad-hoc.
A trip to Communist China and one quickly understands "watching" dissidents is, financially/numerically, almost an impossibility.
.
I realise this won't be a popular question, but it is sincere - have you noticed in Chinese media anyone asking questions about the reasoning/motivations behind the men attacking children in schools?
I found a few articles considering the patterns, such as this
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/05/07/china-school-killings-and-socia...
. . .but would welcome your observations, which are usually well considered.
I don't pay much attention to the PRC media which is propaganda in its purest form.
With all the social upheaval caused by the moderization of China and the disparity of opportunity and living conditions, there are many reasons why a mentally unstable individual might chose a soft target like a school. And sharp weapons and implements are part of the Chinese culture.
Remember, as well, that China still limits the offspring per family to one.
thanks for your reply WilliamB.
and yes, it's difficult to wade through the obvious propaganda of "news" speak, both here and there, was just curious if you'd found alternative sources that were considering the events.
the patterns in amrka are shooting up the workplace/boss/co-workers when the job is lost, shooting up the workplace of an ex- when the relationship is lost, etc. - the school/mall killings do have families/children in common as targets, and the shooters are portrayed as loners, or mentally disturbed, etc.
which the knifers appear to share as a demographic. just wondering if targeting family/children is a common theme for the "loner" - a social target.
and I am in NO WAY implying this is a cause, merely positing correlations.
This took place the same day....
Knife attack at Chinese school wounds 22 children By CNN Staff updated 9:35 AM EST, Fri December 14, 2012 Wei Jingru, a primary school student injured in a knife attack, receives medical treatment in a hospital.STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Beijing (CNN) -- Twenty-two primary school children were wounded in a knife attack Friday in central China, authorities said.
The attack took place at the entrance to the Chenpeng Village Primary School in Henan province, according to the public information department of Guangshan county, the area where the school is located. An adult was also wounded, it said.
Several of the children are in critical condition, the state-run website Chinanews.com said, citing local authorities.
Read more: Malala is face of global attacks on schools
Police say they have detained a suspect, a 36-year-old man from the village, state media reported.
Initial assessments suggest the man is mentally ill, Chinanews.com said, citing Guangshan authorities.
China was hit by a spate of knife and cleaver attacks that targeted school children in 2010.
A number of measures were introduced at the time, including increased security at schools across the country and a regulation requiring people to register with their national ID cards when buying large knives.
CNN's Shao Tian in Beijing and journalist Pan Xinlei in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/14/world/asia/china-knife-attack/index.html
I can remember public school principals that though in many ways were dicks, would have had no problem picking off someone killing kids down the hall.
WB7, don't go to a gun fight with a tazer.
Don't hold your breath waiting for school principals to be armed with handguns.
In most rural areas where guns are deep in the culture, many if not most school principals are armed and nobody knows nuthin'. Sometimes it's a pistol in the desk drawer, others have a AK hidden in the closet behind the boxes of copy paper.
They may go down fighting, but they will not become the asswipe of an autistic nut on drugs - no matter what the whining "gun free zone" liberals bleet for.
This is true.
And I can tell you with absolute certainty that when the school bell rings and all those kids come pouring out the door and are greeted by their smiling parents waiting for them in those parked cars...many of those parents didn't leave their guns at home just to go pick up their kids.
Now I know this probably sends a chill of panic & terror down every gun grabbers spine, to now realize they've been around all these smiling, happily armed parents all this time and not know it but it is a fact of life.
The gun grabbers have made all those parents potential felons through their zealotry.
It is not just being armed, but it's the training and judgement that is the issue. If you don't have the training and judgement, your perception of safety, by carrying, is an illusion and may be a net determent. It doesn't really matter how responsible you think you are....... just Google police accidental firearm discharges...
I remember coming across a hog in the woods and shooting the damn thing 5 times with a 9mm pistol I use to carry (I was very close, scared the shit out of me ,,,) and it took a while for him to fall down, and he was running away from me, now imagine a human being with the adrenalin kicked into high gear coming at you.... (being a smaller older female in a very rural area I have given this subject matter some thought), you had better be proficient in your aim and get a clean head shot.
I now carry the The Judge, a pistol that takes a 410 shotgun shells.
As a carry-permit holder, I am more sober and wary than before I went through my training.
There is nothing glib about a loaded weapon. It's not a "theory." It's not a "ideology." It's not "cute."
It's dead serious shit, and it changed my family dynamic. That is, I trust my life to my gun-toating wife! (copyright 2012/13)!.
When I was a kid who lived in a middle class neighborhood on the edge of town, we always had access to guns that the adults didn't know about. We had a Winchester Pump 22 that we broke down and hid in a gunnysack, and kept it stached somewhere around the house. We used to take it out to the nearby grape vinyards and shoot at running jackrabbits. One morning before anyone else was awake I took the gun out on the railroad tracks and was walking with it loaded and my hand on the trigger. On a slight stumble I pulled the trigger and the bullet grazed the edge of my shoe. I was just lucky. I could have shot my foot.
Soon after my father put me in a hunter safety class where I learned proper gun safety. After training I was allowed to get a license and hunt. In my early teens I was allowed to hunt with a shot gun by myself. My father, who kept the household guns locked in his closet, would take me out into the country and drop me off so I could spend the afternoon dove hunting. Never had another gun safety issue in my life. I give my father credit for perceiving that I had a proper attiitude towards guns and their usage.
With the proper knowledge, the near miss above would never have happened. Teaching gun safety and respect is a basic survival skill. My kids will never let some other kid point a "unloaded" gun at someone in playfullness. Kids are going to come across guns. It is better to prepare them how to act around them. I have drilled it into them, "Police don't play around and point guns at each other, Soldiers don't play around and point guns at each other. Hunters don't play around and point guns at each other. If you never point a gun at someone you won't accidently shoot someone."
I would be willing to wager that the Sandy Hook shooter never took a Hunter Safety class.
Mmm, pork tenderloin ;-)
+10 for The Judge! (and killing a wild hog).
"(1) I learned about the reason for the Second Amendment - resisting tyranny.
(2) I realized that RESPONSIBLE people who are armed help to protect our safety."
+1 to both. Ditto!
Whenenver anyone proposes trying to keep guns out of the hands of the IRRESPONSIBLE people, everyone screams that they are taking away their guns and it's end of discussion.
There are EXISTING LAWS on the books that prohibit selling guns to known IRRESPONSIBLE people.
Irresponsible people also steal guns. So the repsonsible people have to sacrifice their liberty because of the irresponsible people?
That's where the discussion ends.
Getting a gun legally means answering questions about both criminal convictions and mental fitness.....
This is not Israel, where men and women are mandated to serve in the army, US will never ever require teachers to handle firearms. Will not walk..
The tool was confronted in an office before going to his mother's classroom. If even a single person were armed in that office, all of the children would still be alive.
Exactly! I was wondering and I answered my own question, and that was:
"If all these people are so concerned about these child deaths at the hands of madman freak why do they cry for the loss and blame the gun?"
Then it hit me.... the child's lives apparently are not important enough for the gun haters to give up their political agenda. If the Child's lives are important (and to me they are) FUCKING DEFEND THEM, PROTECT THEM WITH ALL AVAILABLE MEANS. If that means conceal carry, then do it, if it means having an "emergency" gun like a fire extinguisher "Break Glass In Case of Emergency". Hell we have fucking fire extinguishers, but we don't have crazy person extingusihers????????
WTF!!!?????!!!????
lol...well stated and animated. The leaps of logic involved by gun grabbers is a sight to behold.
The problem is clearly an inanimate object (a hunk of metal) sitting over in the corner not bothering anybody...kill it!!!
Are the New Generation of Anti-Depressant Medications Contributing to School Shootings?
Affirmative, but bought media won't touch this one.
We all look for easy answers and straight forward explanations, because most of us seek some sort of ordered existence (as opposed to a universe of "shit happens"). This drive for order prompts us to build cause and effect relationships that might not exist. Notice I say "might". Frankly, I don't know.
In China, where TCAs and SSRIs are not so readily available nor easily prescribed, there has been a rash of school stabbings over the last few years. Before that, we probably just did not hear. In Japan there has been a series of horrific crimes for decades, and an honest study of its war time aggression or even its Gang Heritage (they like to dress the Crypts and Bloods better and call them "Samurai") says this sort of madness has always been a part of its culture.
I'm not a fan of the drugs the US now so quickly prescribes, but I do not have an alternative. Unless God's quality control picks up considerably and He begins to live by the "intelligent design" meme so many of His followers attribute to Him, we are going to be stuck with a certain percentage of poorly "constructed" brains---by far the most wildly complex piece of machinery in our bodies---and many of these defective entities will represent a threat to society.
These sorts of horrific incidents happen everywhere, though we---and most of the world---like to pretend it is largely an American problem. It is not. It is a human problem, and it occurs in heavily drugged societies and minimally drugged societies. It has been with us since "Eden", long before Big Pharma existed, long before pesticides or GMO foods or any of the easy explanations we like to throw at random happenstance to make us feel the possibility for control exists. When someone with a machete slaughters a handful of his fellows in some Third World hellhole, it doesn't make the news, except locally. It happens, and it happens regularly. It always has. The cause is a bad or overly complex design coupled with quality control issues.
What is the solution? Is there a solution?
Absotively.
Yes.
Possibly, but just like the London Subway Bombings, they might have set up the 20 year old as a patsy, bringing him on the scene with others that were the real shooters. Replace gun in patsy's dead hand and flee.
I find it very disturbing there were so many conflicting reports of mulitple gunmen-including one from a 6 year old.
Patsy ... under mind control
Very good YT video about the US government hoax in a major earlier mass-shooting cass, the DC 'snipers', for which they put to death an alleged 'Muslim', 'John Muhammad'.
Video even includes a clip of a US police spokesman going on TV talking gibberish that is clearly the mind-control 'trigger' for the guy to surrender and stop, and indeed the 'Muslim shooter' was picked up a few hours later.
Everything about that story from the US government and media is shite and fraud, and there are already some of the classic US gov't hallmarks in the Connecticut case.
One is the shooter has a deep psychological or psychiatric profile, often taking medication etc., and many US psychiatrists are in fact government goons.
Secondly the shooter often has US gov't connections hidden in the media stories.
Thirdly various 'facts' the media reports turn out to be entirely wrong.
In short, the shooters and the mass-murders are often the creations of the mind-control projects the US and Israel have been running for decades. They are very practiced at this, tho most people simply won't believe it is true if they hear about MK-Ultra etc.
But you can see it in the concrete cases. Already in the Connecticut shooting, the shooter was 'autistic', heavy psychiatric profile, and claims are already popping up his mom whom he killed was working for US intel, and some media 'facts' have been wrong. Doubtless more will come out later.
Or like the shooter in Arizona who killed a US federal (national) Judge John Roll after he ruled against Obama ... and even the very fact a US federal judge was shot dead after not following the government line, is well-hidden by the media. Same thing, drugged-up psychological profile alleged shooter 'lone gunman' arrested, briefly showed up in a courtroom to 'confess' and has now disappeared into the US prison hole.
---
Re DC 'sniper' 'John Muhammad' - in the Washington DC area and Virginia in the early 00s, there was a sniper killing people from long distance, very expert. People were panicking, not understanding there is nothing scarier than the US gov't itself.
It was all clearly a mind-control game. Allegedly John became a 'Muslim' and changed his name just before the murders. They said he was homeless and had a bad army career and yet he had this record of travelling internationally, mysterious income, all sorts of stuff
In fact he was clearly a highly trained military - intel guy whose mind was captured and then they set him up as a killer.
Someone I think in the Netherlands made a remarkable short video based on the research of major radical journalist David McGowan, showing just what an utter hoax the official story is.
Good vid ... the US gov't put this guy to death and buried the truth with him
Programmed to Kill Part 57 - Snipers - John Muhammad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9vyAn1F4AA
Yes, because since Olduvai Gorge NOT ONE negative event has occured on Planet Earth for which alphabet agencies within the USG were not responsible, and there are no naturally bad human beings on same said planet, save for those who belong to the Alphabet Club. And you can LINK to it!
Putz. If your moniker is indicative of what you do, I better understand Dexia.
If these Alphabet Agencies didnT get caught red-handed so often ...
... then they wouldnT get blamed so often.
Sounds like a strawman argument cosimo. Who pays your salary?
"So what would happen in such an event where teachers and staff are armed?"
The same as happened at Pearl High School, Appalachian School of Law and others. The overall body count would drop and the ratio of the percieved safety in calling 911 to minutes waiting in a closet while friends and neighbors are slaughtered would be shattered forever.
And the state just can't have that...they're very "needy" people ;-)
You want to turn teachers into SCABS encrouching on good union cops work?
It is interesting to note that there never is any violence at gun shows. And having attended and bought guns and ammo at such venues, I can assure all readers there are mentally unstable people at these events-some even selling weapons. But there are even more well trained and armed NRA members. An armed society is a polite society!
I would also add to this discussion that these mass killing events are extremely rare. Just calculate the number of school children compared to the number killed yearly in such events. Childhood obesity is a much bigger problem. There have always been psychopaths in the world and always will be. Trying to understand and prevent such rare events is a useless exercise.
Who are the idiots junking these posts? Lefties or O's people?
Yup - go to a gun show or a gun store and start some sh*t. See how that works.
Go to YouTube and there is a KGB defector from the early 1980s talking about how to destroy a country. The 4 steps. One of the last one is constant (manufactured) crisises. Mass murder shootings and drilling rigs blowing up after 30,000 wells in the Gulf of Mexico were drilled with never a problem. The only big blowout ever was Pemex.
The other kid of a LIBOR scandal parents mass murder shooting did not move the dial to disarm the public so they need another one. These people had no problem killing millions in various countries to gain power. China, USSR, Cambodia, the list goes one.
Syria is one right now. Under the Arab Spring lie related to the youtube video caused Bengazi lie.
Simple, the body count would drop to zero because the killer would not go to a place where he knew there were armed people.
Must just be coincidence that these mass shootings all happen in gun free zones.
Truth.
Criminals (and the criminally insane) prefer unarmed victims. Some people are having a really REALLY hard time wrapping their heads around that.
And the "criminals" don't necessarily have to be the idiot Goth teen down the street. It can also be idiot congress critters (the real dross of society) passing laws on the "unwashed masses" while surrounding themselves with people carrying guns paid for by these same unwashed masses.
"The overall body count would drop"
+1 !!!
It's unfortunate and sad we have to say it or admit it...but nutcases are among us, in every country.
The least we can do is give the innocents (adults of course) a fighting chance instead of cowering in a closet waiting for other men with guns to come save them.
They ARE the first responders.
In Israel, the teachers are all trained to handle firearms. Arms are hidden in stretgic places on the campus and can be employed quickly by the staff. When seconds count, the police/army are still many minutes away.
Isreal is in a vastly different situation...