Guns in school: Ark. district arming more than 20 teachers,

[The Annoyed Man]

Guns in school: Ark. district arming more than 20 teachers, staff
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07 ... staff?lite
By Andrew DeMillio, The Associated Press

CLARKSVILLE, Ark. - As Cheyne Dougan rounded the corner at Clarksville High School, he saw three students on the floor moaning and crying. In a split-second, two more ran out of a nearby classroom.

"He's got a gun," one of them shouted as Dougan approached with his pistol drawn. Inside, he found one student holding another at gunpoint. Dougan aimed and fired three rounds at the gunman.

Preparing for such scenarios has become common for police after a school shooting in Connecticut last December left 20 children and six teachers dead. But Dougan is no policeman. He's the assistant principal of this school in Arkansas, and when classes resume in August, he will walk the halls with a 9 mm handgun.

Interesting article. I'd like to see more of this in Texas. One of the institutionalized biases of journalism creeps in 3 or 4 paragraphs further down the page when the writer says: "In strongly conservative Arkansas, where gun ownership is common and gun laws are permissive....." (emphasis mine). A far more accurate statement would have been: "In strongly conservative Arkansas, where gun ownership is common and gun laws are less restrictive...." The 2nd Amendment doesn't require permission to exercise, and all laws which restrict that exercise are restrictive. Another word for "restricted" is "infringed," which the 2nd Amendment categorically prohibits.

Journalists don't seem to like that. I privately suspect that is because they want the right to piss you off without facing the kind of consequences that Andrew Jackson would have considered his manly duty.

[JJVP]

"The plan we've been given in the past is 'Well, lock your doors, turn off your lights and hope for the best,'" Superintendent David Hopkins said. But as deadly incidents continued to happen in schools, he explained, the district decided, "That's not a plan."

Old Plan

New Plan

[MeMelYup]

This is the part of the article that I don't like. "Preparing for such scenarios has become common for police after a school shooting in Connecticut last December left 20 children and six teachers dead. But Dougan is no policeman. He's the assistant principal of this school in Arkansas, and when classes resume in August, he will walk the halls with a 9 mm handgun."

He has just set himself up for problems. He should have done the interview as a spokesman, not as a participant.

[gthaustex]

Very interesting. Glad to see that they are doing something to help instead of wringing their hands. After all, it is for the children.

[gthaustex]

They were just discussing this on the TV. Commentator doing the interview...

But why? Is it safe? Is it necessary? Not enough training. You aren't the cops. You can't hit a target. You might shoot someone.... And on and on...

The guy doing the interview answered the questions and comments pretty well. They didn't have an anti-gun person from the education association, just a statement of no guns in school. No way to have a debate or make them explain their point of view...

[Dadtodabone]

Since the scum that commit these atrocities haven't yet chosen a police station, or a donut shop for that matter, for their stage, I believe informing the public that there are multiple folks ready to put these vermin down will have a deterrent effect at the schools.
Malls, Theatres, Libraries that don't have armed security and ban concealed carry, not so much.

[JJVP]

Ark. AG: School must name teachers in gun program

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas school district that trained more than 20 teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on campus through a program that faces questions over its legality was wrong to make secret the names of the employees, the state's top attorney said Monday.

David Hopkins, Clarksville's superintendent, said he wanted to discuss the opinion with the district's attorney before deciding whether to release the names. The district approved the program to arm teachers and staff in response to the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 children and six teachers dead in December.

Hopkins said the district had decided to withhold the names because of fears that participants in the program would be targeted.

"If someone were trying to put together some sort of plan, they would have a lot of information available to them if they knew who it was and where it was in the building," Hopkins said.

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/A ... 708450.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Maxwell]

The Arkansas AG stated the school district could not do this:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08 ... ers-staff/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[psijac]

Disband every public school and Mame every child do classes online

[CHLLady]

My greatest fear is that there will be a copycat of the Beslan tragedy in Russia.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/01 ... -in-texas/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This makes me wonder if there have been threats similar and we just don't know about them.

I would be glad to know there are armed teachers, if they get proper on going training. Training in tactical scenarios should be mandatory. I think it would deter some from targeting that school.

[DarbyGloss]

We've heard so many shooting incidents, especially in schools. Government should pay more attention to this and measures needed to be taken. Maybe install metal detectors at the entrance and have security guards.

[EEllis]

We've heard so many shooting incidents, especially in schools. Government should pay more attention to this and measures needed to be taken. Maybe install metal detectors at the entrance and have security guards.

"Government? " What Government? The feds the state, the local school board. Each is the "government" so who do you refer to? There have been measures taken, just walk into any school and compare it to 20 years ago, but how does anyone make that many targets safe all at the same time? Kids are still more likely to die in their cars then in a school shooting so lets not get to crazy.

[Beiruty]

Maybe Ark should change the law on the books.

[Purplehood]

We've heard so many shooting incidents, especially in schools. Government should pay more attention to this and measures needed to be taken. Maybe install metal detectors at the entrance and have security guards.

Welcome to the forum on your very first post DarbyGloss.

[chasfm11]

We've heard so many shooting incidents, especially in schools. Government should pay more attention to this and measures needed to be taken. Maybe install metal detectors at the entrance and have security guards.

"Government? " What Government? The feds the state, the local school board. Each is the "government" so who do you refer to? There have been measures taken, just walk into any school and compare it to 20 years ago, but how does anyone make that many targets safe all at the same time? Kids are still more likely to die in their cars then in a school shooting so lets not get to crazy.

I'm one who believes that the Federal government, by declaring schools gun free zones, is responsible for most if not all of the tragic school shooting situations that have occurred in the past 20 years. Others can deny the logic of why the Batman shooter passed up a number of closer theaters to attack one that denied patrons the right to protect themselves but I don't. I see absolutely no difference in the mindset of disarming the citizens of Chicago and the disarming of the schools.

Following your logic, I shouldn't carry a gun either. I, too, am much more likely to die in a car accident than to killed by a BG.

I fully appreciate, from a risk analysis stand point, that we don't want to go overboard but lets look at this situation from a slightly different angle. Almost all businesses follow current legal verdicts. If a business gets sued and looses, other businesses or their insurance companies implement rules to prevent a similar verdict from being rendered against them. One could easily follow the logic that a similar lawsuit is unlikely but everyone is afraid of the copycats who also saw the verdict and work to create a similar situation where they can profit. For me, if threat avoidance logic is good enough to protect businesses, it is good enough to protect our kids. It won't matter to me if a school shooting at our granddaughter's school was statistically relevant or not.