The National Rifle Association wants an armed guard at every one of the nation’s 100,000 schools. Some legislators want teachers and principals to carry weapons.
Why should policy be reactive? Better to limit all weaponry to officers of the law, except for single-shot rifles for hunters.
Guns should be available only to those authorized to use lethal force.
In this link, with tweets on the subject, someone points out that Columbine High School had armed security at the time of the tragedy there.
Questions: how many assault weapons should be allocated to each school, who should be authorized to use them, where should they be stored, should they be at the front desk or locked up? if locked up can they be readily available when needed?
And: who will pay for the personnel, the weapons and the training?
Here is a terrific cartoon on the subject, called, “Yesterday they called me a union thug, today…”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Hard to fathom the stupidity here. Should these armed guards assume all visitors are hostile and frisk them? Someone intended to do harm to children could easily conceal a weapon and take out an armed guard who is accustomed to dealing with moms dropping of lunches.
Wayne’s world is not the one I prefer for my grand kids.
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That is nuts. I find it interesting how the greedy uses a tragedy to promote selling something. We are being held hostage by the $$$ of the top 0.01%.
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This is the account of the armed guard, JeffCo Deputy Sheriff Neil Gardner, at Columbine HS on that terrible day. It demonstrates the complexities about why it is such an utter fantasy that thinking armed personnel in schools would do any good.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/columbine.cd/Pages/DEPUTIES_TEXT.htm
Here are just a few of the problems an armed school staff member might encounter: not being able to get a clear shot of the perpetrator, having to deal with physical and human obstacles, not knowing if there are multiple perpetrators and not being sure about where they are, being outgunned by perpetrators who are armed with assault-type weapons, simultaneously needing to assist panicked &/or injured students and staff, etc. etc. etc.
The NRA’s ridiculous solution reminds me of the stupid solutions proposed to “improve” public schools which are fabricated by people who have ZERO insight into, and experience with, the realities of what goes on in those schools. They do not have the slightest grasp of the vast challenges that students often bring with them from their homes into the classroom (inadequate food, inadequate sleep, no quite study area, severe family stress, PTSD, chaotic home circumstances, transient living situations, etc. etc. etc.)
Bill Gates and Eli Broad, et al, are you reading?!
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What LaPierre of the NRA really wanted to call for was arming all the kids in schools, too. (Not so sure about what he thinks about arming teachers because he didn’t do very well in school, and my guess is that he’d classify as some of the ‘bad guys.’) But the gun manufacturers for whom he is an abject shill figured that was too much, even for them.
On the serious side, big shout out to the Retirement Investment Fund of California teachers (and others) for shaming the private equity firm that owned the company that made the assault rifle that Lanza used to kill at Sandy Hook. The firm, Cerebrus, sold the gun group last week.
Say, can we use our pension funds to do this to ALL the capitalist who are trying to destroy teachers and students?
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As my own experience with troubled children, and as pointed out in the PBS ‘After Newtown’ program of 12/21/2012 pointed out: (1) the shooters tend to be young males who largely fantasize about the shooting long before they act, (2) they strongly tend to do active research of their act before doing so, (3) they see this as a way to end their misery and gain a huge place in the theater of the public mind, and (4) they know they die knowing the media will have to cover their shocking crimes. So here are the consequences of putting armed guards in schools: (1) the young assisins will only see the armed guard as the first thing to take out, (2) this crime will only add to their search for infamous glory, and (3) the school is no more safe from the shooter progressing into greater carnage. The number of youth actively and progressively fantasizing about such things is relatively small, and can be identified. We would be remiss in just thinking that all we have to do is make sure all can get some mental health counseling. We actually have to treat our whole society’s basic mental disease of accepting high levels of alienation, mental narratives that exuse and allow alienation to grow, and not doing the work of community building that naturally curbs alienation. That would be school guard with the equivalent firepower of our recent shooter would be better serving the memory of Newton by joining Big Brothers, Big Sisters, starting community centers, getting scout units that willing accept anyone, getting the lonely and alienated in on lots and lots of social activities, and other such ideas. Trying to end a gun culture will not happen, but it is possible to work with our gun culture to start selling the wisdom of the gun safe, and the need for a bigger vision of community than those that like shooting ranges.
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Let’s pretend. 100,000 schools would need 100,000 guards, preferably active police officers, who would by a conservative estimate cost at least $100,000 per year apiece in salary and benefits. That’s $10,000,000,000 to start, plus who knows how much more for the added costs of liability insurance, training, equipment, etc. Is this making any sense? Even if it did, how could we afford it? But wait, it may just be another golden opportunity for free-markets and privatization cloaked as public service to step in and save the day. The NRA could follow the TFA model to create GFA, Guards For America. Why, with just a few short weeks of specialized training, newly minted nonunion rookie guards would be ready to serve at half the cost for two years before moving on to that next rung on the career ladder. And just think of the profits that would flow to investors and those at the very top of the pyramid. Imagine that.
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They are obviously unrealistic and out of touch with children and education. Weapons should never be in a school. An accident could occur where a student takes it away and uses it.
Don’t forget that these people, N.R.A., are Cheney people. Remember our ex V.P. who shot his best friend in the face on a hunting trip, at a fenced-in site, for quail? These are men who believe that arms are necessary to kill a helpless animal smaller than a chicken!
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LaPierre was actually stoking and exploiting the public fear of being outgunned by the NRA’s own army of lunatic monsters. It’s a marketing strategy! He demanded we buy more of their guns in a helpless arms race to protect our babies. Here is his actual rant:
““The truth is that our society is populated by an unknown number of genuine monsters — people so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons that no sane person can possibly ever comprehend them. They walk among us every day. And does anybody really believe that the next Adam Lanza isn’t planning his attack on a school he’s already identified at this very moment?
“How many more copycats are waiting in the wings for their moment of fame — from a national media machine that rewards them with the wall-to-wall attention and sense of identity that they crave — while provoking others to try to make their mark?”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/america-mad-gunman-article-1.1225123#ixzz2FohrqfZJ
Any measure to deny assault weapons to the crazed zombie hordes he claims are stalking our children is somehow off the table.
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As one high school School Resource Officer said, he’d be the highest paid kickball player in the state if assigned to an elementary school.
These are terrorist attacks. And, the NRA (New Record for Arrogance) is has their heads in the sand to admit that.
There was an SRO in Columbine. And, the guns were planted days in advance. In Jonesboro one teen pulled the fire alarm to get kids out of the school and his teen friends were waiting with rifles. Our chief attests that if an armed officer with a flak jacket on had been in front of the Connecticut school, s/he would have been mowed down in seconds given the assault rifle and continued damage done. Not safe inside – not safe outside – no stopping it 100%
As another chief attested, the only way to secure a school 100% is Israeli Airport Security.
And, where do you draw the line. Bell to Bell? What about buses? Recess? Football games with a 1,000 people? Field trip to the museum?
The point? THERE IS RISK and always will be. And the deterrent thing – no one intent to do harm at a targeted location with that amount of fire power is going to turn around at the sight of a police car or policeman/woman.
So – what message, what feeling, what culture are we admitting to to five and six year olds walking by an armed officer every day. I want kids to see, be with, have stories read to them by our high school SRO. That’s different. A permanent assignment says, “YOU ARE NOT SAFE HERE SO WE HAVE THE POLICE HERE EVERY DAY” – oh, and it won’t help anyway.
We have security (buzzers, panic buttons, etc.) to stop domestic violence revenge, restraining ordered adults from kidnapping kids, etc. etc.
I want to hear from psychologists, pediatricians, psychiatrists, and security experts. Terrorism experts are great and we can’t afford emotionally or economically what they would advise.
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A commenter several threads back nailed it: on one hand, teachers are all greedy, selfish union thugs who are only in it for themselves. On the other hand, they should all be armed. Some people clearly need to work on their critical thinking skills.
Sorry for lack of specific attribution, as I can’t remember who originally posted that (please speak up!), but it needed to be repeated.
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I think that was me, but I was merely lifting the basic sentiment from a Facebook meme that I saw.
I am perfectly comfortable with and competent at handling guns, but I am uncomfortable with the notion of guns in schools. There is a far greater potential for disastrous accidents than for thwarting attacks if they were permitted in schools.
More importantly, a school transformed into a hardened, armed citadel is no school but rather a monument to a failed civilization.
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The only reason we hear about these shootings in schools is because they are extremely rare. Schools are one of the safest places for students to be, if not the safest place, and certainly far safer for many of them than their own homes.
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It is interesting that the first and best defense against a school attack is to arm the teachers. Please hear me out. I understand your concerns. Please examine the following examples.
Example 1:
You and 20 other teachers are not armed as you obey the law. Guns are not allowed in schools. A criminal, who does not obey the law, comes into the school and with the power of the gun, commits any crime he or she wants. You and your students are sacrifices, victims to the criminal’s whims. The police are to far away or on the other side of the school to be a means of protection.
Example 2:
You and 20 other teachers are armed and there is a sign out in front of the school that advises any person bent on misbehavior that they are out gunned be people who know and practice on how ot effectively deal with the criminal. Those in the school are VERY intent on protecting themselves and their students.
Only fools bent on their own immediate death would enter such a place. Protection achieved.
A gun has no interest in harming a person. The problem is the intent of the ones that are armed. The criminal has the intent to harm, without remorse. He has no interest in the intrinsic value of human beings or obeying any law banning citizens from having a fair means of protecting themselves. In fact, the criminal counts on it. When guns are not legal his targets are law biding people. He has as much power as he has bullets.
There are not enough guards of human life to effectively protect anyone.
There is no model for personal protection more effective than personal protection.
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susannunes – yes. Safest way to travel? Fly – but what makes headlines?
Ok – this is tough to read but…
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there were 98,817 public schools during the 2009-2010 school year.
49.8 Million public school students in Fall 2012
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372
School shooting death statistics include attacks in schools, shootings at dances and events, inside schools, lured outside schools…
Approx 150 school shooting deaths in 2000-2010; Approx 200 school shooting deaths 1990-2000
http://www.k12academics.com/school-shootings/history-school-shootings-united-states
A terrorist attack is a terrorist attack and that’s what these are. Metal detectors, armed officers, and certainly armed teachers are not going to stop them or even slow them down. Again, the only way to make schools 100% safe from these attacks is Israeli airport security.
Shootings where students bring guns to school might – might – be stopped by a metal detector or armed officer is s/he is nearby but for decades we haven’t gone that far. But once there are detectors (in suburban schools, they are already in many urban schools) those with intent to kill like the school shootings for decades, well, they’ll get the guns in.
One death is too many, so please, please, pleeeeeeassse don’t take this wrong but, we could add 98,817 officers and metal detectors and we still won’t exterminate the problem.
And, arming teachers is absolutely not the way to address this.
Why not get serious about budget cuts in social services? Why not get serious about budget cuts to diagnostic services? Why not add departments to local and state governments that increase school/community partnerships to address mental illness and kids and families in stress.
Just like addressing achievement with standardized testing, we’ll spend billions on the wrong solution to the problem just so some politicians (and others) can feel good.
(there – whole response without mentioning the NRA once)
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Thank you, Diane, for being clear, explicit, and honest about your position on this issue. We can agree that guns in schools should be limited to police officers, but we should have such an officer in every school, as the NRA recommends. An officer with a pistol is sufficient. No need to arm the officers with automatics. No one is advocating that, at least that I have seen, so I wonder where you get your idea that anyone is proposing equipping schools with assault weapons in storage. A guard in every school is the quickest and simplest safety measure to implement. Volunteers might even be used, though that might raise insurance questions. A licensed police officer would be best, and it doesn’t require a massive gun confiscation program, which isn’t going to work anyway, what with 300,000,000 guns in the country. We need to be simple, proactive, and local.
If a principal also wanted to concealed carry she should be permitted to do so. If other teachers wanted to, they should too, but the identity of the teachers who are carrying should be hidden so any intruder could never know from whence he might be shot down. If the principal at Newtown had had a weapon she might have been able to stop Adam Lanza before he got to any classroom. There is a chance that he would not even have targeted the school if he thought he might be killed before he made a name for himself. At Columbine Klebold and his partner were shunted into a dining room by a guard with a gun. They would have done much more damage if the guard had not been there. At the Oregon mall shooting it has not been widely reported that the shooter was stopped by a man who was concealed carrying (in violation of the mall’s gun free zone policy).
If you are against putting a police person in every school, they you are obligated to show how what you DO advocate is quicker, cheaper, and more effective. A guard in every school could be implemented by the time school opens again January 7th.
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It’s obvious you are one of these people who have never fired a weapon in your life. Therefore you shouldn’t have an opinion about such things. I love it when people become experts overnight on subjects they have no experience in. I am a teacher in a middle school and I have hunted and fired guns / archery since the age of 8 and I am no expert even with that background.
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I am certainly no expert, but I was trained to fire a weapon many years ago when my husband was in public office and his life was threatened. That experience does not change my opinion. Do you need to be an expert to hate the proliferation of guns in our society? Do you hunt with an assault weapon?
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To my dismay, the first time I heard automatic gun fire from hunters was in the Cockaponsett (sp?) Forest, which is not far from Newtown. I was working on a project for Harper and Row at the time. That was in 1983. I was dismayed. Later, I saw a limping weasel with an arrow in his hind quarters. I was raised shooting single automatic rifles. I own an air rifle that shoots as fast as 22. It is well-secured. I have never seen what weapons of mass fire have to do with hunting. I have never seen the point. I also do not see the point of wasting precious metals like titanium. A bolt action is just fine.
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Harlan is right. Of course, we have to let good people in schools defend themselves. I think a teacher could argue that he or she has the right to carry a weapon and protect themselves. This liberal gun-control talk is crap. Most of these massacres have taken place with a Glock. Banning automatics sounds great, but it is also just “fluff.” Every school should have at least one armed policeman who eats lunch at school, etc. The administrators should be allowed to carry, as should teachers who complete training,etc. The guns are already out there. There is no going back. Doesn’t a person have the human right to protect themselves and their students and families? This is just liberal nonsense about keeping all the law-abiding people unarmed. Yes, there should be metal detectors in all schools, of course. The threat is out there. Sorry, if it doesn’t send the right message. I agree with Dr. Ravitch about everything except guns. Telling teachers to hide under desks is just weak. If you aren’t the heroic type, then let the teachers and other personnel who are mentally capable of defending themselves do the job. The other teachers can continue to hide under their desks or whatever. How dare the government tell me that I can’t defend myself. Dr. Ravitch keeps talking about keeping automatics. She is using exaggeration to make the idea of arming teachers seem absurd. You only need a revolver or pistol. That’s all.
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