Arthur Goldstein dissects Trump’s idotic plan to arm teachers and explains why he doesn’t want to be armed. He has his hands full being a teacher. Trump is pandering to the NRA and wants to sell more guns, and they don’t care who buys them.
Trump doesn’t hear you. He doesn’t hear the students. He hears the NRA. He had to bring a crib sheet to his meeting with parents and students. The last written point was “I hear you.” What kind of a person brings a written reminder to say that at a “listening session?” Someone who isn’t listening.
The NYPD stat for hitting the target in a gun fight, he says, is 18%. What would it be for a teacher with a handgun facing a homicidal killer with an AR 15?
“If you’re Donald Trump, you think the classroom will be a safer place with a gun in it. You think that teachers have nothing else to do, and will instantly transform into Vin Diesel and hop into action when killers come in. Evidently, when the criminal enters the classroom with an AR-15, the teacher will pull out a handgun and subdue him. If I were a killer, I’d make it a point to enter the classroom and shoot the teacher first, just in case. I don’t think you need to be a rocket scientist to come to that conclusion.
“But what if I manage to get my gun out in time? What if I miss? What if I miss and hit one of the kids? What if I miss, hit one of the kids, and the gunman puts down seven or twelve more while I deal with my shock? What if I’m in the middle of a really great lesson and don’t want to interrupt it by shooting at the gunman? And what if I have a nervous breakdown, and rather than scream at the kid who made me mad, shoot him dead? Maybe I’m tired of calling his parents.
“I don’t think I’d do anything like that, but who knows? Cops aren’t perfect. They make mistakes, and being cops is their job. It’s not my job. I don’t even want to be dean. Why do I want to deal every single day with the most problematic students in the building? Sorry, but it’s all I can do to deal with the problematic students in my classes. Other people want to be deans. Should they be armed? I think not.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m pretty sure the XLV-GOP-NRA Beast runs these insane flags up the fragpole simply to get people wasting time and breath on anything but the real war they are waging on democracy, civilization, and the Earth.
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Arming teachers is “looney tunes”. There is no support for this, at all. Nevertheless, there is widespread support, from all sides, for having professional security guards in and around schools. There should be a way, to have retired/former military veterans, to volunteer to assist in providing security in schools. Professionally trained security personnel would also serve to dissuade drug dealers from entering schools, and hanging around the parking lots. Security personnel, both uniformed and plain clothes, would serve to make schools safer, and all people should support this concept.
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Charles,
The high school in Florida had armed security guards. They did not carry AR 15s like the killer.
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I am aware that the school had armed security guards. I am also aware of the weapons, which the guards were carrying. Security guards normally carry handguns, which are small and more serviceable in a closed environment like a school.
Here are the Pentagon, for every guard with a rifle, there are ten security guards with handguns. There are also security guards with dogs here. Dogs for sniffing explosives, and dogs for combat, to tear our the throat of any potential attacker.
I maintain, that uniformed security personnel present a visible deterrent to potential school shooters.
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But there IS support for this, Charles. Utah and Idaho already allow it, and there are some in Utah (including state legislators) that ENCOURAGE teachers to be armed.
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Arming teachers is a an extremely short-sighted “solution” to this. Wonder if we’ll be able to get that through to some of these people who sometimes aren’t capable of seeing the most obvious.
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Ohio: Things aren’t so obvious when Congress members are being paid to not see. They make really good money if they support the NRA.
The NRA is a corporation that instills fear. The more fear the more buying of guns. At first the NRA was satisfied with just having hunters carry guns. In those days they supported gun control. When the supply of hunters was filled they had to look at another way to keep purchases continuing, hence, the fear factor was born.
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Posted it!
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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What would Martin Luther King, Jr. say about all this? How about Marjory Stoneman Douglas? I think they would agree that teachers should not be armed. Heck, I would probably shoot my own foot. Ah…maybe that is the real intent here … so the deformers can continue to slam us.
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Here is a professor who did shot himself in the foot. I grew up in Boise. The state is so red I wonder why the trees and grass are green.
…………….
Idaho State University teacher accidentally shoots self in class
AP September 4, 2014, 10:41 AM
POCATELLO, Idaho — An Idaho State University instructor was wounded in the foot after a concealed handgun in the person’s pocket discharged during a chemistry lab session with students in the room, school officials said.
Arriving Pocatello police officers found the instructor on Tuesday in the Physical Science Complex with a non-life threatening injury….
The chemistry lab has 19 registered students, but it wasn’t clear how many were in the lab at the time the gun discharged, King said.
King said the school has an alert system but didn’t use it because police quickly determined the shooting was an isolated incident.
“It’s unfortunate,” ISU President Arthur Vailas told the Idaho State Journal. “I’m sure the incident was scary and embarrassing.”
Despite opposition from every public university college president, lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year allowing retired law enforcement officers and people with concealed-carry permits to take firearms onto public college and university campuses but not into dormitories or stadiums.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/idaho-state-university-teacher-accidentally-shoots-self-in-class/
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Happened in Utah, too:
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865610697/Taylorsville-teacher-injured-after-her-gun-discharges-in-school-bathroom.html
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Bullet-proof glass and doors in our schools might be worth taking a look at.
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I wonder if any glass is bullet proof against an AR 15. I don’t know. Do you?
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Some quick googling shows that, yes, bullet-proof glass can be penetrated. Armor piercing bullets will do the job or just multiple shots will eventually wear it down enough to get through.
It seems the bullet-proof glass will likely slow the rampage down, but it would not solve the problem.
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The bullet-proof glass would offer a little time for the targeted students and staff to move to better cover — if a safer place is available. For instance, a large safe room without windows and with thick, solid concrete walls and sold core, metal clad doors that close against the jamb so they can’t be kicked in.
Once the shooter starts shooting, the police will be notified and on their way. All that bulletproof glass has to do is hold long enough for the police to arrive.
And if the students and staff are inside a safe room, then they have even more safe time while the police secure the school and hunt down the shooter or drive the shooter away.
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It always feels as if the “give everyone a gun” solution very strategically turns its head away from basic, but “too costly” logic: giving massive money to those who produce and sell guns, however, wins out, over and over and over.
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With all of the money that schools just have laying around. What programs/classes/teachers are going to be cut to pay for bullet proof everything?
Solution? Get rid of the guns.
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As I said before, doesn’t do much for protecting playgrounds or the outside of schools.
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Arthur Goldstein speaks the truth. I cannot imagine how I could function armed in my classroom. Teachers do not sit behind their desks all day with one eye on the door.
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I just had a talk with a student. I asked him what he thought about all this shooting stuff. He said he was bothered at the precautions that his church was taking, locking doors and having security guards.
Schools and churches are supposed to be places with the doors open to welcome the peaceful, not keep out the aggressive. Students will not learn in a fortress. So what are we to do?
My plan:
Ban the public sale and possession of weapons and ammunition that have only military use. Organizations might be allowed to use military style weapons in controlled situations to promote literacy concerning them, thus introducing citizens to what the soldiers do and what they have to learn to be soldiers.
Also, make it hard for mentally unstable people to acquire any weapon of considerable power.
Stop punishing schools when they divorce themselves from students they cannot help. We used to put our arm around the kid’s shoulder and tell him he might as well go find a place he likes instead of hanging around and making himself miserable. THat was not good, but it was better than what is going on now.
Create alternative places for education that are not punitive for those who have trouble learning in normal classes. Reduce their frustration, try new approaches, let these kids know they have allies, not enemies.
Address the root causes of the mental distress that lies at the base of these horrendous acts of terror. Promote good jobs and stable lifestyle all across the country.
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I would love to see your plan adopted, but it is doubtful unless we “reform” our government and limit the amount of money in politics. Only then will politicians start considering the issues that impact regular people. We are ruled by wealthy special interest groups that could care less about regular people. We need a much higher level of the voting public to take an interest in changing the system. Then, we might see some significant action for the better.
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The Orange IDIOT has spoken. Why doesn’t he insist that waiters and maids at the Winter White House be trained to handle automatic rifles instead of saying guns aren’t allowed? it’d be much safer if the waiters were armed, wouldn’t it? I’m sure he could afford to pay them all a ‘bit of a bonus’ for the added security.
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From The New York Times:
Trump Promotes Arming Teachers, but Rejects Active Shooter Drills
President Trump promoted arming specially trained teachers to fend off school shooters, but rejected active-shooter drills to survive a rampage.
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday intensified his calls for arming highly trained teachers as part of an effort to fortify schools against shooting massacres like the one that occurred in Parkland, Fla., last week, even as he denounced active shooter drills that try to prepare students to survive a rampage.
“I want certain highly adept people, people who understand weaponry, guns” to have a permit to carry concealed firearms in schools, Mr. Trump said during his second White House meeting in two days to discuss how to respond to the shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Teachers who were qualified to handle a weapon — Mr. Trump estimated between 10 percent and 40 percent — would receive “a little bit of a bonus,” he said, adding that he would devote federal money to training them.
“I want my schools protected just like I want my banks protected,” the president said.
Mr. Trump, who is under intense pressure to embrace stiffer gun restrictions in the wake of the Parkland tragedy, appears to have seized instead upon the idea of giving educators weapons, a proposal backed by the National Rifle Association, which has pressed to expand the right to carry a concealed firearm nationwide.
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“Give the teachers guns”
Give the teachers guns
A give the teachers tanks
Give the teachers funds
To deal with all the cranks
Give the teachers training
To shoot and maim and kill
Stop your DAM complaining
And put it in a bill
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Once again, teachers are not asked whether or not they want to maim and kill. The Great Trump knows that teachers can do the work of security by offering a small bonus. We are easily bought by small trinkets. The federal government is prepared to give those trinkets. How thankful we will be.
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Arming Teachers: Three Reasons Why Teachers Should Not Carry Guns
Arming Teachers Bad Idea …
…Children do not live with the same mental boundaries that we as adults live with. That is why they need us to insure their safety through the work of our minds, not the formative force of a gun. What message does it send if we suggest through armed school personnel that our minds are not enough?
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/10/arming-teachers-thr
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Trump’s loyalty to the NRA was bought when they donated $31 million to his campaign. Does he remember that he changed his mind? Probably not since he changes it regularly and doesn’t remember from one day to the next what he thinks.
“Crooked Hillary said that I want guns brought into the school classroom. Wrong!” he had tweeted in May 2016.
8:31 AM – Feb 22, 2018: “What many people don’t understand, or don’t want to understand, is that Wayne, Chris and the folks who work so hard at the @NRA are Great People and Great American Patriots. They love our Country and will do the right thing. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
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What’s to stop some disturbed student from sucker punching an armed teacher with a baseball bat or squirting the teacher in the face with a readily available fire extinguisher? Once the armed teacher is out, the gun is available for any student to start a shooting spree. The disturbed student wouldn’t have had to buy a gun or pass a background check because the weapon was brought to school for him.
Too many guns is the problem. Adding more guns will only make it worse
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Agreed
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What’s to stop some disturbed student from sucker punching an armed teacher with a baseball bat or squirting the teacher in the face with a readily available fire extinguisher? Once the armed teacher is out, the gun is available for any student to start a shooting spree. The disturbed student wouldn’t have had to buy a gun or pass a background check because the weapon was brought to school for him.
Too many guns is the problem. Adding more guns will only make it worse
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Agree, Dr Phil.
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What’s to stop a disturbed student from sucker punching an armed teacher with a baseball bat or any blunt instrument. How hard would it be to squirt readily available fire extinguisher in a teacher’s face.
Once an armed teacher is out, that gun becomes instantly available for a shooting spree. The disturbed student didn’t have to pass a background check or even buy a gun, it was brought to school for him.
Too many guns is already the problem. Adding more guns will only make it worse.
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Sorry for posting that three times. I didn’t realize the first had posted until now.
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Sorry for posting that three times. I didn’t realize the first had posted until now.
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That’s OK.
It still made sense the third time you posted it.
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Conservatives Attack Parkland Survivors Once Again: The Daily Show
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Published on Feb 21, 2018
As student survivors of the Parkland school shooting speak out about gun control, conservatives question the legitimacy of the Florida teens.
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The NRA nuts say the students are professional actors. There was no shooting. All a hoax. The kids are laughing. David Hogg, student leader, was called a 26-year-old convicted felon from CA. Hogg is a senior at MSD.
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Diane, how sad that these children are learning so young about how deceitful and hurting our political establishment can be. I can’t imagine having to suffer so much at such a young age. Back in my days, in the dark ages, this was unthinkable. Or, at least it didn’t hit me in the face. Of course, the Idaho Daily Statesman was hardly the news that one gets online or on TV now.
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Scary, scary times on so many levels.
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