A security guard at a charter school in Michigan left his gun in a student bathroom.
He forgot it.
Fortunately, the weapon was unloaded.
What kind of security does he provide with an unloaded weapon?
What would he do if an intruder had an assault weapon?
A new thought experiment among teachers and principals: Which staff member do you NOT want to see armed?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wow, unloaded. How does this make sense in protection? And how long does it take to load a gun? I don’t really know, but it would be one second too long if there was shooter. Also, that he took it off his person in the bathroom? Eek, that security guard and his security company should be reviewed.
I am wondering though if this story would be more mass media hyped if it was loaded left in the bathroom. A spin on the story in another direction,
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The principal. Hands down.
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Oh, this is the amazing story of the worst and the unbelievable. What is not suggested is that: What if a student had taken the gun if it had been loaded? Would there have been an action of curiosity, big-man syndrome, or some other unimaginable catastrophe? To have a security guard be this reckless in the first place is unthinkable, but is shows that it is a major risk of having guns in the school by anyone. Guns and education do not mix. We saw that at Sandy Hook by pure example. As a former teacher, I could never have imagined myself wearing a sidearm. I think situations like the one mentioned set up situations that make disasters happen we don’t want.
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I don’t want any of my staff armed, including myself. I don’t mind a trained police officer visiting our campus as a service to monitor and show a presence on our campus. The day teachers are armed is the day I resign.
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“A new thought experiment among teachers and principals: Which staff member do you NOT want to see armed?”
Been there and done that, along with many others. The scenarios went from hilarious to boo scary.
I would be first on my list and probably other staff members’ as well. My super hero identity could spring forth with a barrage of book hurling (think batting cage) and I’d go for a fuil on tackle but no guns, no way, not ever.
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Click on the link in Diane’s posting.
For all the those who think the NRA must be given some credence because they know what guns are and how to handle them safely and what to teach people so weapons are properly used and stored: the security guard was a retired county sheriff. That is, in the eyes of the NRA the very epitome of the kinds of gun-toting experts they want flooding our nation’s schools.
Note also the casual way in which this breach of sanity was treated as a trivial matter.
Not unique. It’s the same mindset that creates a VAMentality that casually dismisses the misuse of suspect data in order to punish teachers, students, parents and schools. Got it wrong over and over again? No matter. The problem isn’t in the strategy or tactics but bad execution by lazy school staff and hapless students [and by extension, their parents].
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People make mistakes and do stupid stuff on a regular basis. I do, I assume you do, and we have confirmation that school security officers do. A policy that puts guns in every school means hundreds or thousands of mistakes that result in loaded guns lying around God knows where.
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You assume correctly!
🙂
I am just waiting to hear the NRA’s equivalent of a VAManiac declare that after crunching the numbers, consulting with VeryImportantPsychometricians, and doing test runs in Iraq and Afghanistan, they have come up with a rigorously objective formula that will enable every school in every school district to find, test, train and manage the pistoleers with a mathematical precision that excludes the possibility of mistakes.
The only thing the formula isn’t designed to do is find the funds to pay for all this. Stay tuned.
🙂
Mistakes? Naw, that’s just for mere mortals like you and me. And if you don’t believe them, they would like to bring their Glocks along for a private discussion to work out our differences…
😦
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People leave things in bathrooms all the time. He can’t hold a gun and hold “it” at the same time. A gun simply isn’t the place for a gun.
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If a student touched the gun that was left, even to turn it in, would they be expelled? Will we have a culture where people aren’t allowed to bring a damn cough drop to school without it being treated like heroin, but the staff are packing loaded weapons? Insanity.
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Reblogged this on The Modern Pencil and commented:
Oy. After proponents kept saying this wouldn’t happen. Well, it already did. In less than a month. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but why do we want to even risk it??
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When dangerous things are around expect bad things to happen at some time.
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Assuming a meaningful number of schools start using armed guards, how long until a misplaced gun results in a shooting? And I wonder what the NRA’s spin on that event will be. Bad training, probably.
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Nope, flerper, their answer to everything is “more guns”. The solution to this and every problem they encounter is more guns.
They’ll take the offending security guard out, use him or her for target practice, say “That’ll learn ‘im” and put two armed security guards in the school to keep the peace and monitor each other.
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I would not want any teachers in my school to be armed.
How many times over the years have you heard about teachers who left purses, wallets or other valuables in a locker. drawer or closet; and forgotten to secure the items. I have heard numerous frantic calls to the dean’s office over the years by teachers who have heard their valuables stolen. Imagine if armed educators forgot to lock up their firearms every once in a while. Kids would be running around the school with these stolen weapons.
Even if teachers are super careful in securing their guns, it only has to happen once to end in tragedy.
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Yes, I guess teachers are not responsible enough to be trusted with guns. Does it follow that a teacher who cannot be trusted with a gun shouldn’t be trusted to teach either? Hmmmmm.
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Harlan,
No, that does not necessarily follow. I’m a gun rights person. I own guns, albeit hunting weapons. Those who hunt know the damage that is wrought by the bullet and honorable sportsmen and women do not “fling lead around” just to kill something. My ethos: One shot one dead animal. You don’t pull the trigger unless you are certain that it’s a clean kill shot.
I wouldn’t trust the vast majority of people (including some police officers and/or those with military training) with a handgun to know how to, but more importantly, actually use said weapon in a hyper emotional scene that occurs in a mass shooting. If you’ve ever been confronted with someone who is threatening you with a weapon (yes, I have been there) you viscerally know what I am talking about.
So no, teachers are not a special group to not be trusted with a gun. It’s the situation and the amount of training involved would be long, time consuming and expensive. If one has a handgun (as that would be the weapon of choice which the folks that propose this idiotic solution of teachers carrying weapons) they had better be prepared psychologically, mentally, emotionally and rationally because more likely than not if they have to pull that trigger another human being is dying. Not many who would pull the trigger can live and cope with that aspect. I don’t think I could.
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A marvelous, sensible reply. Thank you.
J. H. Underhill
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Brillant “logic” there, Einstein…
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http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/20/va-lawmaker-who-brandished-ak-47-during-legislative-session-was-disbarred-following-assault-death-threat/
Government law enforcement at local, state, and fed level do stuff like that all of the time including discharing their firearms. The link above however, is something that really can’t be made up. This Virginia politician who brandished an AK on the house floor while keeping his finger on the trigger the whole time had been disbarred for attempting to beat a man to death. In a lot of ways, he is the perfect face for the anti-gun movement and civilian disarmament considering that he states the same arguments that people on this site do, but is just honest enough to show what a fascist thug he is with the sort of violence that is routine for a government enforcer. After all, is what he is doing really worse than Obama’s drone strikes? NDAA Nobel Peace Prize for the win!
BTW, I was also glad to see bastions of freedom North Korea, China, and Iran all come out in favor of stricter gun laws and for banning self loading rifles. That is all that needs to be said.
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