How so?texanjoker wrote:It is a sad day when teachers need to carry guns to protect children
Let's consider:
- many schools are quite spread out. While general public access is usually limited to one central door area, illegal access for purposes of mayhem can be much greater. One uniformed officer, even making rounds continuously during the school day may be hard pressed to be at the point of entry of a determined attacker. On the flip side, the teachers are there with their students.
- the restriction for gun free zones is an artificial one imposed by a government that knows that it does not work but is more interested in ideology than results. Left to their own devices, I suspect that teachers with CHLs may carry for their own protection. Some of the schools can be pretty rough. In almost every school shooting, at least one teacher is shot. The most recent Nevada shooting is a great example. The teacher killed was a Marine and deserved the right to protect himself as much as you and I do. It is a separate debate whether or not he would have.
- The Holmes creep passed a number of movie theaters to got to one which prohibited self defense. I truly believe that if every school in the US had a big sign outside that said that the faculty was armed and it was a reasonable expectation among the general public that the sign was true, the number of school shootings would drop. I acknowledge that the most recent shooting may have been the result of a student wanting to extract revenge for perceived bullying and that nothing but a more tolerant society is going to fix the cause of that problem. But since most of the recent shooters took their own lives when confronted with resistance, I have confidence in the deterrent effect of firearms. I believe that criminals and perhaps even some with mental issues are more concerned about firearms in the hands of citizens than they are of the police. The more the target is perceived to be soft, the greater the attraction.
- The Virginia Tech massacre was many times worse than it could have been. That creep had extended free access to the students and simply and methodically killed them. A single teacher with a concealed handgun may have saved many lives. While nothing may deter the intent of a shooter to start shooting, offering them an environment in which there is no resistance gives them the chance to make the carnage worse.