Bring a gun to school

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080815/ts_nm/texas_guns_dc

Only in Texas.....

I'm torn between "thats awesome" and "that doesn't sound like a good idea".

Actually seems reasonable to me. Seems like a significant number of mass killings occur at schools. Schools regularly have issues with gang problems. There is never anyone on premises able to stop a shooter though.

Seems logical to take the responsible leaders at the schools, have them trained, certified, and properly equipped.

It can't be any worse than a couple of the deputy constables they had patrolling the school my sister taught at.

One of them had to be reassigned to guarding the ag barn because he kept hitting on freshman girls. Another gave my sister grief about how her registration sticker was placed on the car. She had to show him on the sticker where it says it can be placed in that position (beside inspection instead of above).

Well, heck, we can't have teachers doing concealed carry now can we? Might violate some thug's constitutional rights to shoot their fellow students for giving them wedgies.

I think it's a good idea. If I were running the show I would keep the identities of the teachers doing concealed carry a secret, though. Why advertise who to go after first?

An interesting aspect to this is that it would be incredibly self policing. Any teacher who actually drew their gun, let alone used it, would certainly be subject to extreme scrutiny. They would almost certainly lose their job if they fired (even if in the right).

That would guarantee that the only teachers carrying really felt it was in their best interest, and they'd only present/fire if they felt it absolutely necessary and were willing to potentially sacrifice their teaching career.

I do believe there are teachers who would gladly throw away a career to save a student's life. I think that will act as a check/balance to this.

I had a couple of older cousins who went to high school in New Hampshire in the 70's. They used to hunt in the morning before school. At 7:30, kids would come out of the woods with their rifles, go into the school, leave their guns in the principle's office and pick them up at the end of the day.

I don't think they let them do that anymore.

Woodyhfd wrote: I had a couple of older cousins who went to high school in New Hampshire in the 70's. They used to hunt in the morning before school. At 7:30, kids would come out of the woods with their rifles, go into the school, leave their guns in the principle's office and pick them up at the end of the day. I don't think they let them do that anymore.

reminded me of when I found the old rifle club trofies from the '70s that the highschool had. Wish they still had it when i went

Salanis wrote: They would almost certainly lose their job if they fired (even if in the right).

Let me weigh this, job - my life, job - my life, job - my life.

No, life wins every time.

just imagine pulling a DE .50 to break up a class room fight...berkeley

Knives are more dangerous in close quarters combat. I say give them all switchblades.

Can you imagine the bullets richocheting down the hallway? Yikes!

Monkeywrench wrote: Can you imagine the bullets richocheting down the hallway? Yikes!

Yes, I can. I remember Columbine and others and that's the problem. Hopefully this will be a way to stop the bullets from ricocheting down the halls.

These teachers would be the Sky Marshalls of the school

I shot on my high schools rifle team.. And I graduated in 86. One of my teammates would bring his match rifle to school and leave it in the coach's office. The rest of us had to use the rifles in the armory. Of course he wasnt allowed to bring it on the bus. The range and the armory were located on school grounds.

It wasnt unusual to see a shotgun or deer rifle in the back window of a pick-up truck in the parking lot. If the teacher needed to cut something she would ask one of the guys in the front row to borrow his pocket knife. Woe be unto the male of the species who didnt have one either.

I was on our rifle team, and graduated in 93, a few of the kids brought their own in to the school. The range was in the basement of the elementary school until a couple of years ago when they found out the lead levels were through the roof. Ooops. Now they go to the county range.

Woopie. I remember when the teachers brought guns to school, and so did the students. Worked real well, none of us ever fired at each other.

But then I am a scary nut, I think people should be issued guns with their boarding pass for an airplane.

My tech randy, is a really good ole' boy. Grew up on a rice plantation near walterboro sc. Anyway.. He said that when he was a kid the school bus had a shotgun rack up front and you'd bring your gun to school. The principal would keep them all during the day and then after the day you'd get it back and the bus would drop you off where ever you wanted to hunt that day. As long as it was on the way home. That's how the family kept meat in the pot.

carguy123 wrote:

Salanis wrote: They would almost certainly lose their job if they fired (even if in the right).

Let me weigh this, job - my life, job - my life, job - my life. No, life wins every time.

Absolutely. Your own life or someone else's is more valuable than your job. But knowing what you might have to sacrifice to protect yourself, you'd have to be really certain before presenting and you would absolutely not be trigger happy.

"A man who has risked his life knows that careers are worthless, and a man who will not risk his career has a worthless life." Orson Scott Card, Children of the Mind

neon4891 wrote:

Woodyhfd wrote: I had a couple of older cousins who went to high school in New Hampshire in the 70's. They used to hunt in the morning before school. At 7:30, kids would come out of the woods with their rifles, go into the school, leave their guns in the principle's office and pick them up at the end of the day. I don't think they let them do that anymore.

reminded me of when I found the old rifle club trofies from the '70s that the highschool had. Wish they still had it when i went

I graduated in 1976, there was a rifle team and ROTC used to train on my high school campus. IIRC, there were even pictures of them in the yearbook lying in the prone position sighting a weapon.

"We have a lock-down situation,..." A lock-down situation? Really. It's only 110 students, how many of them are likely to get into some trouble no one knows about? Also, aren't these kids in different classes/subjects, it's not like all or even half of them are in one class together at the same time.

"...we have cameras, but the question we had to answer is, 'What if somebody gets in? What are we going to do?" Who?!?! Who the berkeley is going to "get in" and what the berkeley do you think they would do, in some podunk, nowhere texas town?!?! If there's only 110 students, there's what, maybe 1000 people total in that town? Who the berkeley is going to break into a school in the middle of the day and what could there possibly be in that school anyone would want?!?!

"It's just common sense." Oh, that's what it is, right, gotcha, common sense. You're right, it's absolutely neccessary we let teachers arm themselves and take over security responsibilities too, just in case. Until, of course, said armed teacher misinterperates some innocuous action from a child or other person, pulls out the weapon, shoots and kills/wounds said child/person, then anyone within a 10 mile radius is getting sued and the whole thing winds up back in the Supreme Court.

Now I'm all for firearm ownership by the citizens of this country. But letting our teachers carry weapons is a complete affront to the teaching profession. Teachers and the education system as a whole, need to focus on doing their primary responsibility, teaching. And I don't want to hear any "...if classrooms aren't secure then teachers can't to their job..." bs. If a school is so dangerous that people are worried about shootings, then arming the teachers isn't going to solve the problem, period.

f a school is so dangerous that people are worried about shootings, then arming the teachers isn't going to solve the problem, period.

In the inner cities, the ones who you would have to worry about bringing guns to schools, simply don't go to school. They usually just hang around outside when school lets out.

Redhornet wrote: It's only 110 students, how many of them are likely to get into some trouble no one knows about?

'bout 110 of them.

Podunk towns are just as capable of having trouble as big cities. Life isn't all Mayberry in a small town. Plenty of ugly people in them as well.

Being a teacher doesn't mean you have to be a victim. While you may find it an afront to not be a victim, a fair number of folks would disagree with you and prefer to do something other than dialing 911 and dying. Some folks just plain like to defend themselves and resist attacks. It's a..."podunk" thing.

I'll tell you something as the husband of a teacher, the son in law of a teacher, and the brother in law to about 20 teachers. almost to a man/woman, none of them will go to work if teachers are allowed to carry guns. They'll just stop teaching immediately. I have a feeling that if this happened in a large school district that you'd have strikes everywhere.

Nothing like trust in one's fellow teachers.

Factoid: teachers in Florida can't strike.