As of August 25, elementary and high school teachers in the Harrold school district in Texas will have the right to carry concealed handguns in the classroom.
From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
Superintendent David Thweatt said a main concern was that the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff’s office, leaving students and teachers without protection.
[…] “When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that’s when all of these shootings started,” Thweatt said. “Why would you put it out there that a group of people can’t defend themselves? That’s like saying ’sic ’em’ to a dog.”
[…] “The naysayers think [a shooting] won’t happen here,” he said. “If something were to happen here, I’d much rather be calling a parent to tell them that their child is OK because we were able to protect them.”
To be fair, in a nod to safety concerns, the teachers can only load their handguns with “ammunition that is designed to minimize the risk of ricochet in school halls.” Otherwise, it might be dangerous to shoot a gun in an elementary school.
But what happens if a teacher has his gun stolen by a student? Or what about a teacher who tries to break up a fight and his his gun taken away in the scrum? Maybe instead of focusing on whether or not guns should be in schools, the discussion should be about why the closest police department is a half hour away from this community.
And even if we accept the argument that we need guns in schools to protect against Columbine-type nutbars, it still seems to me that hiring trained armed guards or off-duty cops would make more sense than handing guns to every high school teacher who can pass a test. More than likely, the reason the school isn’t hiring professionals is that it’s infinitely cheaper to just let teachers bring their guns to school. Free, actually.
Back in April, I posted about a group of 25,000 university students lobbying hard for a law allowing concealed handguns on college campuses across America. Judging from the 19 lively comments that resulted, it seems like gun control is still a hot topic. Who knew?
Let’s see what happens this time.
6 responses so far ↓
1 hall monitor // Aug 16, 2008 at 4:10 pm
This story made http://detentionslip.org! It’s #1 for crazy school news like this.
2 Chris Trudeau // Aug 16, 2008 at 6:39 pm
This is unreal! I’m not even entirely sure how to feel about this… disbelief? sadness? dispair? anger?
I can only hope that this policy doesn’t backfire.
3 Asher Vijay // Aug 16, 2008 at 8:39 pm
I… I… I… I can’t… understand…
Why do people think that an offense is a defense? Why don’t they care about making sure that people don’t go on shooting sprees in the first place? What and where is the dog that’s being told, “’sic ‘em”?
Did the shootings really start with making schools gun-free? This sounds like something out of the Springsteen song, “Galveston Bay,” where a bunch of people get drunk and then start talking about “burning the Vietnamese boats into the bay.” It’s so back-asswards to think that MORE guns is the answer.
4 B // Aug 16, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Hmmm… How about a safety nuke? That way any concerned by-standers can just wipe everyone out at once, thereby eliminating the threat completely. Of course, those annoying cockroaches will still be around. Then again no one would be around to be bothered by them. Yup, so that checks out. No problems that I can see. Weaponization is the way to go! If there’s anything History and Psychology has taught us it’s that escalating weaponization solves every problem.
5 Rawda // Aug 20, 2008 at 12:22 am
Couldn’t they start with tasers first??? They only kill SOMEtimes
(I wish I can describe my facial expression to this article)
6 maya // Aug 21, 2008 at 3:48 pm
i am shocked and appalled.
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