<p>
</p>
<p>[Texas</a> Lt. Gov. calls for gun training for teachers | khou.com Houston](<a href=“http://www.khou.com/news/texas-news/Texas-Lt-Gov-calls-for-gun-training-for-teachers--186516301.html]Texas”>http://www.khou.com/news/texas-news/Texas-Lt-Gov-calls-for-gun-training-for-teachers--186516301.html)</p>
<p>Doubt we can discuss this without veering into politics…</p>
<p>I think the discussion of which teachers get to tote could avoid politics. I wouldn’t want the health-ed teacher to tote since some student might mention sex and get shot.</p>
<p>Also, if firearm proficiency becomes a marketable skill for future employment as school administrators should we add that to the high school cirriculum?</p>
<p>Dumbest idea I ever heard. Note that the school where there was a shooting yesterday has an armed person on campus, but he wasn’t in the right place at the right time. This is not a workable solution. Period. (Yup, I’m being political… sorry, but this just IS a political topic).</p>
<p>Columbine had an armed guard. </p>
<p>That’s all I can say without politics.</p>
<p>dittoing intparent. </p>
<p>And correct me if I am wrong but I believe there were armed officers on campus at Columbine and that didn’t help either. </p>
<p>There was another shooting yesterday??? Big SIGH.</p>
<p>I don’t see how this is political. It all about resource allocation.</p>
<p>I doubt that there will be a problem having enough armed teachers/admins and massive fire power cause Texas has a present $8+ billion buget surplus which is projected to increase to closer to $20 billion in the next two years.</p>
<p>[State</a> leaders urge spending restraint as revenues increase | <a href=“http://www.statesman.com%5B/url%5D”>www.statesman.com](<a href=“http://www.statesman.com/news/news/texas-revenues-up-124-percent-to-101-billion/nTpRS/]State”>http://www.statesman.com/news/news/texas-revenues-up-124-percent-to-101-billion/nTpRS/)</a></p>
<p>“I doubt that there will be a problem having enough armed teachers/admins and massive fire power…”</p>
<p>Well, I suppose if one doesn’t mind their kids going to school in a prison…</p>
<p>
But you know, if you read the timeline of Columbine, the armed deputy saved the lives of at least 15 students. That’s not nothing. He also tied up Harris and Kliebold for a significant chunk of time. Only God knows how many lives he really saved.</p>
<p>[NARRATIVE</a> TIME LINE](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/columbine.cd/Pages/NARRATIVE.Time.Line.htm]NARRATIVE”>http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/columbine.cd/Pages/NARRATIVE.Time.Line.htm)</p>
<p>ZM, I really, truly don’t know my stance on this. I really don’t. I’m not against it actually, I just think there are so many other things and I fear that this is going to be the end of their attempts to really tackle the problem. I also just get sick of hearing people say “well, if the teachers at Sandyhook…” because I don’t think that’s something those teachers EVER need to hear or contemplate. </p>
<p>I think there are so many other solutions and I just hope those trying to make changes don’t have tunnel vision.</p>
<p>Romani, it’s fine to hold whatever view and to be conflicted, but I think the record should be clear. I don’t know what could have happened at Sandy Hook with an armed guard. No one does. But the Columbine argument is just not true. ANd there have been multiple instances recently of armed citizens stopping shooting sprees, including one in a movie theater. I am not the right person to have a gun, but I know it’s better to have trained, law-abiding citizens able to have guns, as opposed to just gangsters. Interesting that gun control legislation would do nothing to save the lives of children in Chicago, whose lives seem pretty cheaply held.</p>
<p>That said, my kids went to NYC public schools which had armed police and metal detectors. Not such a big deal.</p>
<p>We have armed police in each of our HS’s, and in many of our middle schools. I love them. Not because they are armed, but because of the resource they are to the school, and they knowledge they bring to the school. They are provided through a grant, and paid through the local police force. They are not school employees, but police department employees. They must have all of the requirements/standards of any police officer that carries a gun. All of them have years of experience on the street, in real life situations where guns were used/required. </p>
<p>“training” teachers and admins…not possible to train that type of experience into them. And I would not want anyone without that type of experience to be toting guns around any children. </p>
<p>However, I do believe that preventing these things are part of the schools responsibility. Through education. Not just about what to do in a shooter situation, but about mental health, gun safety, and whatever else would provide for an educated student population. </p>
<p>Will any of that prevent all deaths? No, but it may prevent some. There is not a “one bullet” * answer to the deaths caused by firearms in this country. </p>
<ul>
<li>sorry, could not resist!</li>
</ul>
<p>
</p>
<p>She was an armed off duty officer, not joe schmo citizen with a gun. There is a huge difference.</p>
<p>Prison??</p>
<p>I traveled by air on numerous occasions starting 3 days after 9-11. There were heavily armed National Guardsmen everywhere.</p>
<p>At my S’s private school there was a discussion of how to handle security. The solution included one grandfather paying for armed off duty police on campus. I don’t recall any complaints.</p>
<p>As (and assuming if) we wind down our military presence around the world, we will have plenty of battle tested ex-miltary to hire.</p>
<p>The NYPD hit quite a few bystanders at the shooting last year near the ESB. If these extremely qualified shooters can’t avoid not hitting innocent bystanders, I can’t imagine armed teachers doing better. And, what if there is more than one shooter? They’ll be bullets from the shooters and teachers flying all over the place!</p>
<p>And vlines, what’s your point? The person who stopped the last theater shooting was also an off duty officer. The mom who protected her kids last week wasn’t a professional. The point remains. Without a gun in the hands of someone who knew what he was doing, a lot more people would have been dead. The other point remains: having an armed presence at Columbine High School saved lives.</p>
<p>
There is still incredible firepower at certain times in certain places. Whenever there is a credible threat, the radiation detectors come out on 42nd and every vehicle gets checked by very scary looking officers. Happens more often than one might think.</p>
<p>I guess I’m confused. The suggestion is that don’t have anyone armed in the school trying to take out the shooter because there might be casualties from “friendly fire?”</p>
<p>“Prison??”</p>
<p>Yes. </p>
<p>“I traveled by air on numerous occasions starting 3 days after 9-11. There were heavily armed National Guardsmen everywhere.”</p>
<p>True, but that doesn’t make it a good thing. I hate that we live in a society now were we have to fear going any place and there needs to be security all over.</p>
<p>I think it would be more likely that a student or parent would get their hands on the teacher’s gun and kill people with it than that the teacher would save lives with their gun. Is the NRA offering to pay for qualified police/resource officers in all of our schools? (I thought not.)</p>