Our own Lloyd Lofthouse explained in detail why it was absurd to arm teachers. He wrote as a Marine who became a teacher. Trump is unlikely to read this blog, but perhaps he saw this article which was published in the New York Times.
Anthony Swofford, now a college professor in West Virginia, said “I Was a Marine. I Don’t Want a Gun in My Classroom.”
He writes that as a Marine, he received “hundreds of hours” of training to use his assault rifle.
By contrast, the shooter at Stoneman Douglas High School had zero hours of training.
Swofford writes:
“There is no reason that any civilian, of any age, should possess this rifle.”
He scoffed at Trump’s proposal to arm teachers. Trump said that coach Aaron Feis could have shot the killer and saved his life and the lives of students.
Swofford responds:
“This is absurd. More likely, had Mr. Feis been armed, he would not have been able to draw his weapon (a side arm, presumably) quickly enough to stop the shooter, who with an AR-15 would have had the coach outgunned. Even if the coach had been able to draw his weapon — from where? his athletic shorts? — any shots he managed to fire would have risked being errant, possibly injuring or killing additional students. As some studies have shown, even police officers have missed their targets more than 50 percent of the time. In firing a weapon, Mr. Feis would have only added to the carnage and confusion.
“What if a history teacher had also been armed? And an English teacher, and a math teacher, and the janitorial staff members? In this National Rifle Association fever dream, a high school would concentrate so much firepower in the hands of its employees that no deranged individual with a weapon would dare enter the premises.
“This sort of thinking also has no grounding in reality. People attack heavily armed institutions all too often, as with the mass shootings in 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas and in 2013 at the Washington Navy Yard. Assailants in such cases aren’t typically worried about losing their lives in the process. Usually, losing their lives is part of the plan.“
Arming teachers, he says, is “lunacy.”
”President Trump on Thursday specified that he wants only certain teachers — “highly adept people, people that understand weaponry” — to be armed. I will immodestly state that among professors in the United States, I am almost certainly one of the best shooters. But I would never bring a weapon into a classroom. The presence of a firearm is always an invitation to violence. Weapons have no place in a learning environment.
“Last month, the State Legislature in West Virginia, where my university is located, introduced the Campus Self-Defense Act. This would prohibit colleges and universities from designating their campuses as gun-free zones. If this act becomes law, I will resign my professorship. I will not work in an environment where professors and students pack heat.”

What about students who are now carrying guns on college campuses? We’ve read about how in several states professors accidentally shot themselves. How dangerous is it going to be to go to college when a mass killer has a gun and students pull out theirs and begin shooting? It is looneys on the R who believe students carrying guns will provide protection. It does, however, discourage some professors from engaging in deep meaningful discussions. Some retired rather than have a student with a gun in his/her class. This whole thing is WAY out of control. It is one more disaster waiting to happen. More guns equals more killings. Statistics prove that but it makes no difference. The thing that matters is ‘Sell more guns’….$$$$ for gun manufacturers.
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What University of Texas Campus Is Saying About Concealed Guns…NYT
By DAVE PHILIPPSAUG. 27, 2016
While many professors and students worry that guns in classrooms will frighten people and discourage free expression, supporters of a new state law counter that the right to bear arms must not be restricted.
…“The Second Amendment allows for a well-regulated militia,” Professor Moore said. “What we have is not a well-regulated militia. It’s a 21-year-old with a backpack.”
She sighed and then said, “I’m worried about accidents.”
She is also worried that the presence of guns might impinge free speech by making some students too fearful to speak their minds in class. Some professors have resigned rather than teach in the environment.
“I’m a lesbian who teaches gay and lesbian studies,” Professor Moore said. “I know how vulnerable some students can feel. Having a weaponized campus is going to make it feel that much less welcoming.”
Already, she said, the law has interfered with teaching. During her first class after the law took effect, she said, her English literature students discussed the rules and she explained how she could not legally prohibit guns in class, or even ask who had them.
“Three of them started crying,” she said. “We did not talk about Jane Austen that day.”…
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The shooter was trained at club sponsored by the NRA at his school.
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The NRA has its own TV broadcasting program NRATV and it provides entertainment, news concerning gun culture and has used it as an early-warning system to alert its followers to gun control efforts. [Add Rush L, Breitbart, Fox and Alex Jones and this country is in deep doo-doo. I don’t have the words to say how frightening this is to actually have these fear mongers peddling hatred 24 hours a day.]
Again, videos are watchable even if you don’t subscribe to NYT.
Watch What’s on the N.R.A. Video Channel on Times Video: https://nyti.ms/2BHVq3O
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This is so sick, my country has been hijacked by right wing ideologues whose brains are cast in stone. Trying to debate with them about guns is like arguing with a brick. Arming teachers or school personnel is just a deflection from the more sensible discussion of banning AR-15s, all semi-automatic rifles and those big ammunition magazines. The GOP won’t even allow a discussion of banning these weapons of mass destruction.
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There are so many ways this could go horribly wrong. School halls would become shooting galleries.
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Reblogged this on The Soulful Veteran's Blog.
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IMHO there’s a simple explanation for the NRA wanting to arm teachers, a thing that will do little to make schools safer. America has millions of guns, but they are by no means evenly distributed. Most sales are to existing gun owners. Market saturation is occurring. Even gun hoarders have limits to what they can do, guns ain’t cheap! Basically, arming teachers opens up a new, virgin market for the gun industry, not just for gun sales but for all the training, certification, ammo, accessories and whatever else they can pile on. And even if they succeed, it will not stop any but the most foolish of school shooters. Anyone with anger management issues, which is the primary cause of this latest horror, will simply not go into the school they target but open fire from a distance on crowds going into or out of the school. After all those guns in the classroom, or even just on a few of the staff fail to stop that type of attack, will the terrorists at the NRA then demand schools be issued rocket launchers to take out the shooters with? Make no mistake, this is all about market share for the gun industry and political power for the NRA, not one thing else.
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Just to be very clear about arming teachers or school staff, a rather large time commitment is REQUIRED to develope and then maintain proficiency, and that time must be spent at a combat shooting facility, a simple shooting range with paper targets is woefully insufficient. To be truly proficient, armed staff would have to practice in their schools when the buildings are empty to be able to gain the upper hand against an assailant. And if that assailant has decided to spend the money on body armor, especially a full body set, only a heavy caliber weapon will stop them, not some pea shooter handgun. It’s all good for the bottom line of the gun industry and the terrorist NRA though, they will be smiling all the way to the bank.
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So teachers should be armed with AR 15s, and everybody, including the kids, should wear kevlars. I think Walmart is already working on research and ads for kevlar fashion projects for every occasion: woolly winter weather kevlars, moisture-wicking and stench-proof kevlar for warm weather, restricted gray and blue kevlars for regular school-day use, patriotic kevlar for sport events, elegant but but cool looking kevlar for prom, kevlar-bra for aerobic classes and for cheerleaders, heavily padded kevlars to protect footbal players’ crucial body parts, inventive light weight kevlar-shorts for basketball players.
The possibilities and profit are endless and millions of new jobs will be created. Win-win. Let’s do it!
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“This sort of thinking also has no grounding in reality. People attack heavily armed institutions all too often, as with the mass shootings in 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas and in 2013 at the Washington Navy Yard. ”
NRA and Trump think, these events wouldn’t happen if military bases were not gun-free zones, hence they are working on reversing the Clinton-era law.
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