We Must Arm Our Teachers -- Right Wing Solution to Gun Violence in Schools
Sparked by the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, our nation is searching for answers.
While the NRA has yet stayed silent, until Friday we are told, and as they are wont to do following this type of event wrought with bad publicity - we cannot say the same for some GOP lawmakers;
On Monday December 18, four days after the slaughter of 20 six & seven year-old children in Connecticut, Texas Governor Rick Perry said at a Northeast Tarrant Tea Party gathering in North Richland Hills, Texas - a Forth Worth suburb - that he supports allowing teachers and administrators to carry concealed handguns in the classroom. "You should be able to carry your handgun anywhere in this state.", Perry clarified.
Oregon State Rep. Dennis Richardson, also on Monday in an e-mail obtained by Gawker, proclaimed that, "Most of the murdered children would still be alive", if he were a teacher there at the time and, "the school district did not preclude me from having access to a firearm." He later said on CNN that every school should have "two or three" armed and continually trained, coordinated and administrated through local law enforcement, volunteers to roam school campuses. Rep Richardson added that this could all be done at zero cost.
On a Sunday news show, nearly two whole days after the massacre, Texas Representative Louie Gohmert lamented, "I wish to god the principal would have had an M4 in her hands..."
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell -- of forced vaginal probe fame -- suggested Tuesday in an "Ask the Governor" appearance that, "if people were armed, not just a police officer but other school officials that were trained and chose to have a weapon, certainly there would be an opportunity to stop an individual trying to get into the school.
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam said that he would "consider" a proposal by State Sen. Frank Nicely to secretly arm and train some teachers. Nicely, in a phone call with Talking Points Memo, reasoned of a potential gunman "(I)f he doesn't know which teacher has training, the he wouldn't know which one had (a gun)."
Oklahoma State Rep. Mark McCullough plans to file legislation in an effort to bring guns into schools, explaining that "(I)t is incredibly irresponsible to leave our school undefended".
Oklahoma State Senator Ralph Shortey told the Tulsa World that, "Allowing teachers and administrators with concealed-carry permits the ability to have weapons at school events would provide both a measure of security for students and a deterrent against attackers."
Problems
So let's just pretend for a moment that this idea isn't repulsive to the majority of the country.
Let's pretend this is a reasonable conversation to be had.
What an slap in the face to law enforcement! These people are extensively trained, with ongoing proficiency and fitness standards. They are heroes who put their lives on the line daily.
The thought that a single gun safety course can adequately prepare an educator...
Perish the thought, of the aged librarian, with spectacles and hair in a bun; or the 22 year old, 100 pound girl fresh out of community college -- that is who you want responsible for the safety of our children?
Even worse, that's who you expect to be able to defend that firearm from a group of knuckleheads who want to take that gun away and turn it on the teachers?
Imagine how some teachers, you remember the ones, some of the coaches, some would walk around so hard with that Desert Eagle in the holster.
We already have instances of certain abhorrent teachers raping students all over the country, now do we really want the potential for teachers shooting up classrooms all over the country?
Imagine the cost of liability insurance to cover each and every school in every town. Cities would be forced to dissolve or face lawsuits for lack of insurance on their employees. Counties would have to eat the cost of newly unincorporated towns, destroying budgets across the land.
How is the solution to gun violence to inject more tools of violence?
What's next? Shall we arm cashiers in the malls after the Oregon mall shooting? Shall we arm the teenage popcorn kids in the movie theaters after the Dark Knight massacre? Shall we arm our religious leaders after the Sihk temple shooting? Shall we arm the bikini-baristas after the cafe shooting in Seattle? Shall we are the abortion doctors, who are assassinated with frightening regularity?
Will we lock down all of our schools until they prisons... of learning? Is that where we are headed?
Will we lock down all of our children for all hours they are out of our sight, all in an effort to protect the "rights" of crazy people running around with assault rifles?
Really? Reasonable gun safety is so munch anathema that we will put our children at such a great risk?
Is that really the kind of country we have become?
12/20/12
