Responding To A Comment

Something caught my eye in the comments to this post about the murders in the Minnesota school a few weeks back.

"i can't believe what i'm reading. arm teachers? maybe things are different in the usa but that sound pretty stupid to me
the answer to the problem of school shootings is ban all guns...simple
of course there are so many guns in america now that it wouldnt be cost effective (ie cheap as hell) to implement.
but its simpler (and less insane) than arming teachers.
how about asking what causes a kid to shoot his family and friends..that might be a good start"

Let's take this line by line.

"i can't believe what i'm reading. arm teachers?..."

Not just teachers but any adult in the school. & not "arm" in the sense that they are required to carry but arm in the sense of not prohibiting them & in fact encouraging them to do so.

"maybe things are different in the usa but that sound pretty stupid to me"

I assume Mike is living outside the u.S. & thus it's not surprising that he finds the idea incredulous. But no; it's not a stupid idea. Making a place off limits for people capable of defense is stupid. It's like sending people into lion country without a rifle.

"the answer to the problem of school shootings is ban all guns...simple"

Not simple. Guns are already banned in schools. That doesn't stop people though does it? & assuming we could ban all guns we'd have to deal with other weapons. Kleibold & Harris had firearms & seemed to spend most of their time with those. But they also had planted bombs around the school. I guaran-damn-teeya that if one of those bombs had detonated properly a lot more people would have been killed in Columbine, Colorado & there would have been a good chance they'd have never been caught much less killed themselves. Without guns they'd have just turned to other means.

But even if banning guns was an ideal solution it'd be impossible to implement. It would take literal house to house searches on a regular basis until all the guns were round up. Now the financial burden of that would be heavy, but the cost in human lives would be enormous. Ya see, folks like me (& there are more of us than you'd think) wouldn't turn over our guns without a fight. & we're capable of making a nasty one if we desire.

Banning guns just won't do the trick. Look at any country where they've done so & tell me what protection those people have? There are many socio-economic variables to crime & several more to tyrannical government, but in both one constant is an unarmed or inferiorly armed victim. Defenseless people have a habit of becoming victims.

"of course there are so many guns in america now that it wouldnt be cost effective (ie cheap as hell) to implement."

Expensive as hell as most things that are impossible are. Course the undertakers would be doing good business.

"but its simpler (and less insane) than arming teachers."

No it's not simpler & there's nothin insane about peope having the means to protect themselves & others. In Israel they had a problem with terrorists shooting up schools. Arming the teachers there seems to have nipped that altogether.

What is insane is telling teachers & students to lock themselves in a room while they wait the 5 to 10 minutes for the cops to show up so the cops can wait 10 to 30 minutes for the S.W.A.T. team to show up.

From what I understand 30% of the school shootings have been stopped by armed civilians. Because of the idiotic prohibition they had to leave the school, get their firearm from their cars parked off campus, then return to the school before they could put an end to the murderers antics. Now that's insane when they could have simply reached into their jacket or briefcase. But funny thing - seems the people with no harmful intent obeyed the assinine law whilst the punk with murderous thoughts ignored it.

"how about asking what causes a kid to shoot his family and friends..that might be a good start"

That might be. & it's worth pursuing. But it will only give us an idea (at best) as to what conditions allow a person to believe shooting people at random is acceptable. It won't do a damn thing for the punk who next week decides to emulate one of these assholes. Nor will it do a damn thing if a school becomes the target of a terrorist attack like the one in Russia not too long ago.

Respecting a person's Right to carry arms is the best starting point. Not only will it yield the best results (i.e. schools not being defenseless areas & probaby deterring many an attack) but morally it's the only correct position to take. You would be appalled if we didn't allow fire extinguishers in a school wouldn't ya? So why is it so hard to fathom that the most effective tool for self defense & defense of the children should not be prohibited to those who would carry it?

But tell me Mike (assuming you're reading this) what exactly is so horrible about th e notion of teachers (& other adults) carrying firearms in a school? Don't just leave it at "it's crazy" - tell me why it's crazy.

Posted by Publicola at April 4, 2005 04:41 AM