The School 'Guardian Plan'....Yay or Nay?

[The_Outlaw]

Lawmakers and educators in Texas say the way to guard against school shootings like last Friday's at a Connecticut elementary school is to make sure teachers can shoot back.
While the rampage that left 20 young children and six adults dead in a small Northeastern community has sparked a national debate on gun control, assault weapons and a culture of violence, David Thweatt, superintendent of the 103-student Harrold Independent School District in Wilbarger County Texas, said his teachers are armed and ready to protect their students.

Stop school shootings by letting teachers fire back, say Texas officials | Fox News

 

[Boonecollard]

I believe the US Marshall service should be expanded to provide armed protection to all public schools. Teachers that want to be armed should have to go through extensive training,background checks,mental evaluations,and the list goes on. Annually! Also a uniformed police officer or deputy at every school every day.

 

[Cowbilly32]

I love Texas!!
Couldn't hurt to help with classroom discipline either - lol.

 

[Sir Diealotz]

Read about this at lunch
I approve

 

[vernsimpson]

Asking teachers to carry and be trained to protect children could be a very good thing. It could weed out all the Liberal teachers who teach our kids all the Lib crap! I know it would not get rid of all of them but it may keep most of the real wackos out of our classrooms.

 

[HoJo]

How many would still be alive if someone in that school had had a gun to protect those kids?

 

[r1derbike]

I voted yes, but there is a caveat. Many, many teachers are anti-gun, liability issues enormous, and while I'm sure a few districts nationwide will embrace the policy, and allow their teachers to get training for concealed carry if they want, it will be a nogo for the vast majority of schools in the U.S. In those cases, I vote armed officers in the schools.

Not dissing the idea, but it just will not happen nationwide. It may be a non-issue in a few years or less anyway, if the antis in the beltway try, and maybe successfully abolish concealed carry in this country. Just something thrown out there to think about.

If a school teacher/guardian receives the proper LEO training and firearms qualifications, I would embrace that as well, to stop murderers dead, from using no gun zones as killing fields. Anything, to save these kids/adults lives. I'm betting one or more of the schools' administrative personnel (principals, vice-principals) could be pressed into service, if they choose, as well. Anybody who may get and embrace advanced training.

 

[The_Outlaw]

How many would still be alive if someone in that school had had a gun to protect those kids?

My thoughts exactly!

Sadly, some innocent kids & staff would probably still have been killed by the psychopath, but the number of victims would have been far less with some armed staff members on site that would have been able to fight back imvho.

 

[Firefighterchen]

I've read facilities like front sight are offering free training for school teachers and faculty members. I hope some of these schools take advantage of this offer.

 

[tricolordad]

I voted yes, but we know that the teachers unions will never let it happen.

 

[UATKP]

Chen, the Founder of Front Sight Firearms Training Institute did offer every teacher from Harold ISD free four day handgun course. I have no idea if any of them took him up on the offer.

Boone, as far as getting armed Marshalls, or Police Officers to protect each school... there ain't enough money in the system to pay for such.
I say train the teachers, Principals, and janitors that want to conceal carry, and let them carry. Or, get a volunteer Minuteman system going as the article from Policeone.com suggested.
I'm retired military, have my CHL, and I would volunteer to spend my time protecting a school in my town. Just so the schools are not gun-free zones anymore.

 

[The_Outlaw]

Chen, the Founder of Front Sight Firearms Training Institute did offer every teacher from Harold ISD free four day handgun course. I have no idea if any of them took him up on the offer.

Boone, as far as getting armed Marshalls, or Police Officers to protect each school... there ain't enough money in the system to pay for such.
I say train the teachers, Principals, and janitors that want to conceal carry, and let them carry. Or, get a volunteer Minuteman system going as the article from Policeone.com suggested.
I'm retired military, have my CHL, and I would volunteer to spend my time protecting a school in my town. Just so the schools are not gun-free zones anymore.

I cannot agree with your post more!
As a fellow CHL holder, I would also be willing to freely volunteer my spare time at our local public schools as a school guardian.
But sadly the gubbament would never allow that.
It's sad & pathetic when the gubbament prevents good people from being able to help within their own communities.

 

[UATKP]

I cannot agree with your post more!
As a fellow CHL holder, I would also be willing to freely volunteer my spare time at our local public schools as a school guardian.
But sadly the gubbament would never allow that.
It's sad & pathetic when the gubbament prevents good people from being able to help within their own communities.

But Outlaw, the rule against guns in schools says that the School Administration can okay it. That's how the Harold School system did it. Its entirely up to the School Administration... i.e., Superintendent, school board, etc... Oh, I suppose that is the skool gubbament, ain't it... oh well never mind... )

 

[fuhr52]

All this talk about defense is great. Why are we not asking the question, Why? What has changed in the last sixty years that has created this defensive discussion? We are quick to throw band-aids on all these wounds all the while ignoring the societal decay that got us to this point. It's time we start offending someone or some special interest and fix the social decay. The second amendment is not the problem.

 

[UATKP]

If a school teacher/guardian receives the proper LEO training and firearms qualifications, I would embrace that as well, to stop murderers dead, from using no gun zones as killing fields. Anything, to save these kids/adults lives. I'm betting one or more of the schools' administrative personnel (principals, vice-principals) could be pressed into service, if they choose, as well. Anybody who may get and embrace advanced training.

Even that infringes on their God-given right to self preservation, aka keep and bear arms... Why should they, as a CHL holder, receive more (LEO) training than I have as a CHL holder just because they will be in schools? I still carry my weapon to protect myself and my family, and I am around kids nearly constantly. I don't believe that they should be required more training than anyone else has to have... in Texas... and common sense.

 

[r1derbike]

Even that infringes on their God-given right to self preservation, aka keep and bear arms... Why should they, as a CHL holder, receive more (LEO) training than I have as a CHL holder just because they will be in schools? I still carry my weapon to protect myself and my family, and I am around kids nearly constantly. I don't believe that they should be required more training than anyone else has to have... in Texas... and common sense.

Because they are around dozens of possible collateral damaged kids, and need tactical training. It's not about teachers' self preservation, when they are charged with keeping kids safe with their firearms. Sure, self preservation is a secondary concern, but mine would be taking-out the shooter, even if I were injured, or lost my life doing it. I also have a CHCL (as most do here) and I wouldn't feel comfortable without advanced tactical training in shooter situations around so many kids. I would feel arrogant, that my present limited tactical training would cover all the bases needed in those shooter scenarios, but hey, that's just me.

 

[UATKP]

Because they are around dozens of possible collateral damaged kids, and need tactical training. It's not about teachers' self preservation, when they are charged with keeping kids safe with their firearms. Sure, self preservation is a secondary concern, but mine would be taking-out the shooter, even if I were injured, or lost my life doing it. I also have a CHCL (as most do here) and I wouldn't feel comfortable without advanced tactical training in shooter situations around so many kids. I would feel arrogant, that my present limited tactical training would cover all the bases needed in those shooter scenarios, but hey, that's just me.

Yep, I do believe you're right. After reading yours, and re-thinking my post, I've changed my mind about the extra training. I believe they should have more training in tactics around the kids...

 

[AMLKing]

Simply put, they should remove the restriction of CHL holders carrying on school campuses. If an administrator or teacher has a CHL, then that is even better.

 

[nogods]

Teachers should be allowed to carry guns for personal protection, but they should not be expected to be professional security.

Trained security should be in our schools to protect our children from the crazy people.

I'm not a fan of the NRA or Luni LaPierre, but to date it is the only proposal that offers an immediate solution.

We can and should continue to explore long range solutions, but in the immediate future we need to protect our children.

 

[Road Toad]

As has been noted, the cost of putting LEOs in schools is too prohibitive, so arming school employees should be looked into. Also the use of volunteers is a great idea. There are a lot of people with CHL that would gladly donate time to protect the children. Yes, more tactical training would be a must, but I'd bet the training could be done at no charge by law enforcement and CHL instructors. Perhaps a new thread could be put up to get numbers of CHL holders who could/would volunteer.