The pros and cons of armed guards in schools.

[Luddly Neddite]

A monumentally bad idea.

This is the type of society conservatives are looking for..wild west for everyone!

No thanks.

This is indeed a reactive and hysterical reaction. After the theater shooting, the rw's were screeching for armed guards every theater.

Surely, even the gun nutters know this would make the school/theater/mall/church/restaurant a hell of a lot more unsafe than they currently are.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

On the news just now, a 6th grader arrested for taking a gun to school for "protection".

Anybody wanna bet his parents are hysterical rw gun nuts?

 

[Ravi]

The ones with PTSD or without?

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Sure nuff - the 6th grader was "encouraged by his parents to use the gun for protection".

The nutters really do need to GET A GRIP.

 

[AmyNation]

I tried calculating the cost of having two police officers in every school. I figured somewhere in the range of $13 billion per year. How many kids are killed in schools every year? If we estimate the number to be 100, which I believe is high, then the cost equates to $130 million per saved life, if we stop the killings completely.

Now lets look at some problems with this. If I'm a raging lunatic hell bent on killing as many kids and teachers as possible, and I know there are a couple of cops hanging out eating donuts and drinking coffee all day long, I will plan to first take out the two cops. That is first on my agenda; kill the cops or guards and confiscate their guns. Now I can go on my rampage and kill at will. As you can see, having armed guards or police in the schools isn't a full guarantee that we could avoid a mass killing like Sandy Hook or Columbine or any other school shooting.

So what are some better alternatives? As much as I'm not crazy about arming teachers, I think we could train a number of willing teachers in each school to have access to some high powered weapons for situations such as this. Not all teachers would be capable or should be asked to be involved, but most every school has enough teachers or administrators who could have access to the right weapons to at least attempt to thwart such an attack. Also, if the shooter was clueless as to who the teachers were that might be armed, it gives them less of an advantage.

Looking at the events at Sandy Hook, the principal lunged at the shooter trying to take him down. She was killed because she had nothing to defend herself with or to attack with, yet she went after him with no weapon. Just imagine if she had had a gun and was trained. Even if the shooter was wearing a vest, a few good shots would have knocked him down and he could have been detained. I'm not a big fan of having guns in our schools, but I think if we did it the right way, it might be workable. I also think it would be much less costly and probably more effective than having armed guards in every school.

I would be more open to something like this. A gun, secured in a safe in the office or teachers lounge, and a few trusted teachers trained on it.

How would the school guarantee that one or more of those teachers would be in the same place as the gun at the very moment a shooter arrived at the school?

This is not a Hollywood movie. There are no perfect solutions, no guarantees to this problem. We can only take steps that may save lives.

The teachers at sandy hook tried to stop the shooter, but had no way to fight back. He used the guns at his disposal to blast away the locked door that stood between him and those children.

That is why I say it's not just one thing we need to do. Changing the set up of schools, changing the exit doors, and yes, maybe keeping a loaded gun on the premise can help.

 

[KiariCerda0914]

I'm a kid in high school doing a peursuasive speech about whether or not schools in America need armed guards. I would really apprecitate help. I'm looking up the pros and cons right now