Pakistan attack raises tough question: should teachers shoot back?

[dhoobler]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakis ... SKCN0UZ232

Stuck with 15 of his students on a third floor balcony of a campus building as gunmen came up the stairs, university director Mohammad Shakil urged Pakistani police arriving at the scene to toss him up a gun so he could shoot back.

"We were hiding ... but were unarmed," Shakil told Reuters, speaking after four Islamist militants attacked Bacha Khan University in Pakistan's troubled northwest on Wednesday, killing more than 20 people.

"I was worried about the students, and then one of the militants came after us," Shakil added. "After repeated requests, the police threw me a pistol and I fired some shots at the terrorists."

As more details of Wednesday's assault emerged, attention focused on at least two members of staff who took up arms to resist attackers bent on killing them and their students.

[baldeagle]

In what universe is this a tough question? Should I cower in the corner until I'm killed or should I shoot back? How is that even a question? Man our world is screwed up.

[Unocat]

It is another version of when seconds count, the ____ are minutes away. The idea that anyone would castigate this teacher-hero's desire to defend himself and his students from certain death is deplorable.

The one teacher who was quoted as saying guns are against the teaching profession's morals needs to reconsider his position, books don't stop bullets unless you line up quite a lot of them and the have many pages each.

[Pawpaw]

Having the means to protect the students but not following through is immoral.

[brokedown48]

Just another incident that proves the Good Guys need to be armed and willing to protect themselves and others, against these terrorists on foreign an US soil. The gun grabbers need to realize that, trying to take our guns & "sweet talking" these terrorists isn't working. Instead of spending all the money they do, trying to tie our hands, they need to be buying guns and ammo for the individual's in the U.S.A. that cant afford em.
Just my thoughts

[Middle Age Russ]

The recognition of basic human rights -- particularly the right to life -- should not be limited for any subset of humanity. Therefore, teachers should not be disallowed the tools to protect themselves adequately except in circumstances where due process has made them a prohibited person. Whether it is a good idea for a person prohibited from owning a firearm to be a teacher or not is, of course, another philosophical question. Each person must make the very personal choice to fight, flee or faint in defense of life, but none should be unarmed (by law or policy) who would fight.

[mojo84]

The only dilemma I see in this is, the teachers were unarmed. Same dilemma I see in our schools.

Shooting back is a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned.

[RoyGBiv]

In what universe is this a tough question? Should I cower in the corner until I'm killed or should I shoot back? How is that even a question? Man our world is screwed up.

+ Bazillion.

[MeMelYup]

This person has a problem.
"Arms are against the norms of my profession," he said. "I am teaching principles and morality in the class. How I can carry a gun?"
I think he looks at it wrong.

[Redneck_Buddha]

It is another version of when seconds count, the ____ are minutes away. The idea that anyone would castigate this teacher-hero's desire to defend himself and his students from certain death is deplorable.

The one teacher who was quoted as saying guns are against the teaching profession's morals needs to reconsider his position, books don't stop bullets unless you line up quite a lot of them and the have many pages each.

OR...day's away if you're under siege at the Woodland Mall in Nairobi.

[stroo]

Sounds like a lot more students would have been killed if these teachers and the security guards had not fought back. Well done in my opinion.

[VMI77]

In what universe is this a tough question? Should I cower in the corner until I'm killed or should I shoot back? How is that even a question? Man our world is screwed up.

You stole my thunder. In the universe of liberal cowards. Cowering in the corner until you're killed is exactly what you're supposed to do in that universe. Resisting, especially if your resistance is successful, makes liberals uncomfortable by forcing some tiny part of them to confront their own cowardice. And everyone knows uncomfortable feelz are more serious to a liberal than murder.

I haven't seen it so much lately, but remember when the moral posturing in movies and tv shows would have the "good guys" refusing to pick up a gun to defend themselves because they didn't want to "sink to the bad guy's level?" There are some honest pacifists but most pacifism and all moral posturing by liberals is nothing more than a rationalization of cowardice.

[VMI77]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakis ... SKCN0UZ232

Stuck with 15 of his students on a third floor balcony of a campus building as gunmen came up the stairs, university director Mohammad Shakil urged Pakistani police arriving at the scene to toss him up a gun so he could shoot back.

"We were hiding ... but were unarmed," Shakil told Reuters, speaking after four Islamist militants attacked Bacha Khan University in Pakistan's troubled northwest on Wednesday, killing more than 20 people.

"I was worried about the students, and then one of the militants came after us," Shakil added. "After repeated requests, the police threw me a pistol and I fired some shots at the terrorists."

As more details of Wednesday's assault emerged, attention focused on at least two members of staff who took up arms to resist attackers bent on killing them and their students.

Unsurprisingly, this article is what I can only classify as intentionally dishonest. Apparently teachers have been authorized to carry guns and the despicable Reuters decided to focus on a professor that was unarmed in order to mislead readers. By contrast, this ARMED professor got scant mention, and even the anti-gun Daily Mail is more honest in its coverage:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... chers.html

A chemistry lecturer known as 'The Protector' died saving his students by firing back at Taliban militants during a deadly attack on their university that left 30 dead and dozens injured today.

As militants stalked the campus, executing targets one by one, assistant chemistry professor Syed Hamid Husain, 32, ordered his pupils to stay inside as he confronted the attackers.

The father-of-two opened fire, giving them time to flee before he was cut down by gunfire as male and female students ran for their lives.

He was known to his pupils as 'The Protector' because he was a keen hunter and kept a 9mm pistol at school, possibly in light of previous militant attacks.

http://zelmanpartisans.com/?p=2758

Teachers in that region of Pakistan were given permission to carry firearms in the classroom after Taliban militants massacred more than 150 people, the majority of them children, at a school in the city of Peshawar in 2014, according to the report.

[Abraham]

In response to the title of this thread: You're kidding, right?

Of freaking course, you shoot back.

Please, don't try the wimp approach, that is, relying on the killers to spare you, because they might turn out to be reasonable - WRONG!