"Yes it has come to this. It's time to arm teachers.": "Opinion writing is an exercise in restrained bias. But personal experience, along with observation and facts, necessarily...

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

"Opinion writing is an exercise in restrained bias. But personal experience, along with observation and facts, necessarily informs a good column. Writers without some deep life experiences to guide their judgment and form insights don’t usually have much to say.

Thus, my recent suggestion that willing teachers be trained and armed as a deterrence to mass murderers stems in part from a bias formed during my long-ago childhood. My father was both a lawyer and a gun collector, and he made certain through regular tutelage and practice that everyone in our household knew how to properly handle a firearm, how to shoot and, most important, how to keep the safety mechanism locked in place.
“Never point a gun at anyone unless you intend to shoot him,” he often told me. “And never shoot anyone unless you intend to kill him.”

Those were startling words for a girl more inclined toward Barbie dolls, palomino ponies (the plastic kind) and poodle skirts, but I studiously followed directions and learned to shoot as well as anyone in our family. Of course, my brother and I thought Pops was insane, and maybe he was. But as a child of the Great Depression and a World War II pilot, he feared that our generation would be too spoiled and soft to navigate the world he foresaw. Let’s just say, his child-rearing methods — manual labor, harsh discipline and book-reading — ensured the opposite.

I don’t subscribe to everything he said or did, of course. But I’m not inclined to hide under a desk waiting for the Soviets to launch a nuke, as schoolchildren were made to do in the ‘60s — or today, hoping the bullets from an AR-15 won’t find my quivering hide. I’d rather take my chances defending myself — and any children in my care — than die watching my babies being mowed down by a homicidal maniac.
So, there’s my bias. Now let’s talk about yours.

The pros and cons of arming teachers have been bounced around since the Columbine shooting in 1999, and both resurface with each new school massacre. A Rand Corp. report in April 2020 found that as of Jan. 1, 2020, 28 states allowed schools to arm teachers or staff in at least some cases or as part of a specific program. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a law in 2019 following the Parkland slaughter that allows teachers to volunteer as “school guardians," if they meet requirements and are trained by the county sheriff. In the wake of Uvalde, where police didn’t enter the school for an hour after the shooting began, Ohio has passed a similar bill.

Opponents worry that guns in schools will make children less safe and point to the possibility that law enforcement could mistake an armed teacher for the shooter. (Hint: Listen for the AR-15.) Even trained law enforcement officers miss their target roughly 70 percent of the time. In war, soldiers often die from friendly fire. How do we expect teachers to do better?

I don’t know. Everything depends on smarts, strict adherence to protocols and training comparable to what security officers or police receive. I do understand the opposition’s point of view, which I shared until recently. Even though there are more guns than people in this country, most urban dwellers (other than criminals) have little or no experience with guns. To them, the idea of an armed teacher is obscene. I don’t disagree. It is obscene.

But when a Twitter follower wrote to me recently saying that arming teachers would be the end of civilization, I replied, “We’re already there, my friend.” What could be less civilized than a society that tolerates regular massacres of its citizens, especially of its children?
There comes a time when practicality trumps philosophy.
In real life, my kind and gentle husband has had to kill a couple of coyotes in our yard before they got to our pets or even, perhaps, our grandchildren. We both hated it because we love all animals, including coyotes, foxes, bobcats and bears. But they don’t get to eat my family.

And militarized psychos don’t get to kill my children.
I’m not a teacher, but if I were, I’d want to have ready access to a gun. Some teachers, God bless them, aren’t up to such a challenge and shouldn’t be asked to be. Others are willing and able. In the absence of anyone else, why not allow them to defend our children?
None of these policies should be necessary, but, clearly, we’re not doing enough. Until we can figure out broad, societal remedies short of cloning my father — a dicey proposition, I’ll admit — I’d feel better knowing my grandchildren were in a school where someone knows how to stop a killer."

Kathleen Parker

erandolph Loc: La Pine, Oregon USA

Interesting and spot on. I appreciate all you posts.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

erandolph wrote:

Interesting and spot on. I appreciate all you posts.

Capn_Dave

You make a good observation and a common sense approach to a sad suitatution. The government puts Air Marshals on planes as passengers. Which plane who the air marshal is is not known to anybody. Why for God's sake can't they do the same in schools? Perhaps they don't want to and keep pushing until the 2nd Amendment in theBill of Rights is nullified

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Kmgw9v wrote:

"Opinion writing is an exercise in restrained bias. But personal experience, along with observation and facts, necessarily informs a good column. Writers without some deep life experiences to guide their judgment and form insights don’t usually have much to say.

Thus, my recent suggestion that willing teachers be trained and armed as a deterrence to mass murderers stems in part from a bias formed during my long-ago childhood. My father was both a lawyer and a gun collector, and he made certain through regular tutelage and practice that everyone in our household knew how to properly handle a firearm, how to shoot and, most important, how to keep the safety mechanism locked in place.
“Never point a gun at anyone unless you intend to shoot him,” he often told me. “And never shoot anyone unless you intend to kill him.”

Those were startling words for a girl more inclined toward Barbie dolls, palomino ponies (the plastic kind) and poodle skirts, but I studiously followed directions and learned to shoot as well as anyone in our family. Of course, my brother and I thought Pops was insane, and maybe he was. But as a child of the Great Depression and a World War II pilot, he feared that our generation would be too spoiled and soft to navigate the world he foresaw. Let’s just say, his child-rearing methods — manual labor, harsh discipline and book-reading — ensured the opposite.

I don’t subscribe to everything he said or did, of course. But I’m not inclined to hide under a desk waiting for the Soviets to launch a nuke, as schoolchildren were made to do in the ‘60s — or today, hoping the bullets from an AR-15 won’t find my quivering hide. I’d rather take my chances defending myself — and any children in my care — than die watching my babies being mowed down by a homicidal maniac.
So, there’s my bias. Now let’s talk about yours.

The pros and cons of arming teachers have been bounced around since the Columbine shooting in 1999, and both resurface with each new school massacre. A Rand Corp. report in April 2020 found that as of Jan. 1, 2020, 28 states allowed schools to arm teachers or staff in at least some cases or as part of a specific program. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a law in 2019 following the Parkland slaughter that allows teachers to volunteer as “school guardians," if they meet requirements and are trained by the county sheriff. In the wake of Uvalde, where police didn’t enter the school for an hour after the shooting began, Ohio has passed a similar bill.

Opponents worry that guns in schools will make children less safe and point to the possibility that law enforcement could mistake an armed teacher for the shooter. (Hint: Listen for the AR-15.) Even trained law enforcement officers miss their target roughly 70 percent of the time. In war, soldiers often die from friendly fire. How do we expect teachers to do better?

I don’t know. Everything depends on smarts, strict adherence to protocols and training comparable to what security officers or police receive. I do understand the opposition’s point of view, which I shared until recently. Even though there are more guns than people in this country, most urban dwellers (other than criminals) have little or no experience with guns. To them, the idea of an armed teacher is obscene. I don’t disagree. It is obscene.

But when a Twitter follower wrote to me recently saying that arming teachers would be the end of civilization, I replied, “We’re already there, my friend.” What could be less civilized than a society that tolerates regular massacres of its citizens, especially of its children?
There comes a time when practicality trumps philosophy.
In real life, my kind and gentle husband has had to kill a couple of coyotes in our yard before they got to our pets or even, perhaps, our grandchildren. We both hated it because we love all animals, including coyotes, foxes, bobcats and bears. But they don’t get to eat my family.

And militarized psychos don’t get to kill my children.
I’m not a teacher, but if I were, I’d want to have ready access to a gun. Some teachers, God bless them, aren’t up to such a challenge and shouldn’t be asked to be. Others are willing and able. In the absence of anyone else, why not allow them to defend our children?
None of these policies should be necessary, but, clearly, we’re not doing enough. Until we can figure out broad, societal remedies short of cloning my father — a dicey proposition, I’ll admit — I’d feel better knowing my grandchildren were in a school where someone knows how to stop a killer."

Kathleen Parker

"Opinion writing is an exercise in restrained... (show quote)

Congratulations. For maybe the very first time I pretty much agree with this writer. It is a shame that people are not the same as when I was in school during the 50’s and 60’s. Back then guns were owned by millions of people just as today but respect for life in general was much greater. Firearms were openly advertised as sporting tools for hunting in popular magazines and movie stars endorsed one firearm or another.

But today, respect for life in America has gone by the wayside. Oh, people jump up and down when there is a school shooting because it is children being shot. They also want to jump on the bandwagon to be against a certain firearm or even specific ammunition. For some reason even though other firearms have been used in mass shootings it is ONLY the AR and AK rifles that are jumped on, that are inherently EVIL as opposed to NICE other guns. For ammunition it is ONLY the 223 and 9mm calibers that carry EVIL genes. Amazing as well as ridiculous.

It is a shame that teachers or anybody in a school should be required to protect students and staff but that is where America stands today. It sounds ridiculous to think our schools should have to be fortified like courthouses to protect occupants but it is necessary. You notice I mentioned courthouses. How sad that is. Courthouses of my youth never needed security at the door. These days they do. Wasn’t it the Black Panthers who killed a judge in Oakland with a shotgun taped to his head when he was taken hostage? Is that correct?

Our society has changed and not in a good way. We need to get back to what is valuable, our Values.

Dennis

Triple G

dennis2146 wrote:

Congratulations. For maybe the very first time I ... (show quote)

That’s a 100 years proposition. How do you recommend getting there (it’s certainly not the churches we see today) and what do you recommend to do in the meantime? Doing nothing in the meantime means many more senseless brutal deaths.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Triple G wrote:

That’s a 100 years proposition. How do you recommend getting there (it’s certainly not the churches we see today) and what do you recommend to do in the meantime? Doing nothing in the meantime means many more senseless brutal deaths.

Hmmm now that is a tough question. You are correct that it took some doing to get here. It also was people who got us where we are, not guns. As for churches, it used to be that while not everyone believed in God, people did not attack churches, Christians or Christianity. They are attacked today by the Left.

I find it amusing, stupid, ridiculous and idiotic that Christianity is attacked today as being violent while the Muslim religion that truly is violent and has sworn to dominate America is never mentioned by the Left in a negative manner. Odd.

I suspect the change will have to come from all of us. For too long violent riots, murder and arson have been termed Peaceful Protests by the Left. Let’s start by holding those people responsible for their actions. Hell, how about holding criminals responsible for their actions too. What a concept, huh?

Dennis

Triple G

dennis2146 wrote:

Hmmm now that is a tough question. You are correc... (show quote)

Those are also fixes needing a long time horizon; what do you have in the way of near and shorter term solutions?

I wasn’t attacking Christianity; just some of the churches I’m aware of have become way too political. The preachers are doing more to divide us than unite us.

https://baptistnews.com/article/theres-a-double-standard-on-pastors-and-politics/#.Ypu6TC8pBOk

https://www.nae.org/pastors-shouldnt-endorse-politicians/

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Triple G wrote:

Those are also fixes needing a long time horizon; what do you have in the way of near and shorter term solutions?

I wasn’t attacking Christianity; just some of the churches I’m aware of have become way too political. The preachers are doing more to divide us than unite us.

https://baptistnews.com/article/theres-a-double-standard-on-pastors-and-politics/#.Ypu6TC8pBOk

https://www.nae.org/pastors-shouldnt-endorse-politicians/

Sorry if I took your meaning wrong concerning Christianity. But there certainly is a number of attacks on Christians in general now. I recall a Catholic priest from years ago, Father Fleger (sp) I THINK who openly wanted violence on the part of the Left. The great majority of Christians do act in good faith.

You asked for solutions for the near and short term solutions to school violence.

In my opinion schools should develop a list of staff volunteers to carry concealed firearms. This would include all staff members, teachers, maintenance staff, office staff and kitchen staff. Nobody can predict where an armed intruder will enter a school or start shooting. Volunteers would be trained by law enforcement members not only in shooting skills but also in some tactical skills as well. There would be regular scheduled training.

Next I would select a MAIN door where students/everyone would enter with possibly another door for truck deliveries. At each door would be an armed staff member to allow entry. The staff member would be in a secure area. All other doors would be open from the inside only for emergency use.

I really do not mean our schools should be armed fortresses but instead, use common sense at least to law enforcement people to keep intruders out.

It shouldn’t need to be said that all staff selected would have a strong background check. Also, ONLY selected volunteer staff would be allowed to carry inside the school.

Dennis

Texcaster Loc: Queensland

Kathleen Parker is a *reluctant gun-nut hysteria participant.

" ... I do understand the opposition’s point of view, which I shared until recently. Even though there are more guns than people in this country, most urban dwellers (other than criminals) have little or no experience with guns. To them, the idea of an armed teacher is obscene. I don’t disagree. It is obscene.

But when a Twitter follower wrote to me recently saying that arming teachers would be the end of civilization, I replied, “We’re already there, my friend.” What could be less civilized than a society that tolerates regular massacres of its citizens, especially of its children? ... and militarized psychos don’t get to kill my children. "

* I'll only visit the US if I have awesome semi-auto firepower waiting for me. You know it makes sense.

Rose42

Kmgw9v wrote:

"Opinion writing is an exercise in restrained bias. But personal experience, along with observation and facts, necessarily informs a good column. Writers without some deep life experiences to guide their judgment and form insights don’t usually have much to say.

Thus, my recent suggestion that willing teachers be trained and armed as a deterrence to mass murderers stems in part from a bias formed during my long-ago childhood. My father was both a lawyer and a gun collector, and he made certain through regular tutelage and practice that everyone in our household knew how to properly handle a firearm, how to shoot and, most important, how to keep the safety mechanism locked in place.
“Never point a gun at anyone unless you intend to shoot him,” he often told me. “And never shoot anyone unless you intend to kill him.”

Those were startling words for a girl more inclined toward Barbie dolls, palomino ponies (the plastic kind) and poodle skirts, but I studiously followed directions and learned to shoot as well as anyone in our family. Of course, my brother and I thought Pops was insane, and maybe he was. But as a child of the Great Depression and a World War II pilot, he feared that our generation would be too spoiled and soft to navigate the world he foresaw. Let’s just say, his child-rearing methods — manual labor, harsh discipline and book-reading — ensured the opposite.

I don’t subscribe to everything he said or did, of course. But I’m not inclined to hide under a desk waiting for the Soviets to launch a nuke, as schoolchildren were made to do in the ‘60s — or today, hoping the bullets from an AR-15 won’t find my quivering hide. I’d rather take my chances defending myself — and any children in my care — than die watching my babies being mowed down by a homicidal maniac.
So, there’s my bias. Now let’s talk about yours.

The pros and cons of arming teachers have been bounced around since the Columbine shooting in 1999, and both resurface with each new school massacre. A Rand Corp. report in April 2020 found that as of Jan. 1, 2020, 28 states allowed schools to arm teachers or staff in at least some cases or as part of a specific program. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a law in 2019 following the Parkland slaughter that allows teachers to volunteer as “school guardians," if they meet requirements and are trained by the county sheriff. In the wake of Uvalde, where police didn’t enter the school for an hour after the shooting began, Ohio has passed a similar bill.

Opponents worry that guns in schools will make children less safe and point to the possibility that law enforcement could mistake an armed teacher for the shooter. (Hint: Listen for the AR-15.) Even trained law enforcement officers miss their target roughly 70 percent of the time. In war, soldiers often die from friendly fire. How do we expect teachers to do better?

I don’t know. Everything depends on smarts, strict adherence to protocols and training comparable to what security officers or police receive. I do understand the opposition’s point of view, which I shared until recently. Even though there are more guns than people in this country, most urban dwellers (other than criminals) have little or no experience with guns. To them, the idea of an armed teacher is obscene. I don’t disagree. It is obscene.

But when a Twitter follower wrote to me recently saying that arming teachers would be the end of civilization, I replied, “We’re already there, my friend.” What could be less civilized than a society that tolerates regular massacres of its citizens, especially of its children?
There comes a time when practicality trumps philosophy.
In real life, my kind and gentle husband has had to kill a couple of coyotes in our yard before they got to our pets or even, perhaps, our grandchildren. We both hated it because we love all animals, including coyotes, foxes, bobcats and bears. But they don’t get to eat my family.

And militarized psychos don’t get to kill my children.
I’m not a teacher, but if I were, I’d want to have ready access to a gun. Some teachers, God bless them, aren’t up to such a challenge and shouldn’t be asked to be. Others are willing and able. In the absence of anyone else, why not allow them to defend our children?
None of these policies should be necessary, but, clearly, we’re not doing enough. Until we can figure out broad, societal remedies short of cloning my father — a dicey proposition, I’ll admit — I’d feel better knowing my grandchildren were in a school where someone knows how to stop a killer."

Kathleen Parker

"Opinion writing is an exercise in restrained... (show quote)

Good article. I don’t agree with all the ones you post but they are worth reading.

Rose42

Texcaster wrote:

Kathleen Parker is a *reluctant gun-nut hysteria participant.

There’s no ‘gun nut hysteria’ in her article.

Texcaster Loc: Queensland

Rose42 wrote:

There’s no ‘gun nut hysteria’ in her article.

So? Who said there was?

I would have thought ‘gun nut hysteria’ should be in common usage by now.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

Rose42 wrote:

Good article. I don’t agree with all the ones you post but they are worth reading.

I don’t agree with ALL that I post. But the articles do seem to generate discussion-sometimes adolescent name-calling, and insults, misunderstandings, and inappropriate hatred; but that is what this country has become.
Is America too far gone, to stupid to continue?

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

dennis2146 wrote:

Congratulations. For maybe the very first time I ... (show quote)

It is the culture. No respect for anybody.
During those Four Bad Years, we were indoctrinated in fake freedoms.
You have the freedom to not wear a mask. Disobey the law. Get what you want. Be a ahole.
Be all the ahole you want to be. And get in other peoples faces about.
The problem with the AR is that it seems to be the weapon of choice amongst these gunmen.
Remington got hit because of their advertising. It looks like that, and doesn't need to.
The "dogooders" wanted a scapegoat, and Remington had a lot of money,

People are jumping up and down because the police, and the right wing government, is evil.
Wasn't the police that killed George Floyd?
And then harassed the school girl who took the video- for two weeks?
Remember the black man killed for selling smokes? And they stalled the judgment for 5 years-
And there were national celebrations! No justice, bonuses abounded, family got nada but bills.
Wasn't the police that killed Breoona- a naked black female? And made up excuses with a 2 year old warrant?
Wasn't the police who tried to kill a black pregnant women trying to protect her (killed) unborn baby?
Didn't we just have that cop arrested for rapes- for over 20 years?
He finally got caught because a rape kit was run before the clerk was told not to.
In Philly. 1 out of 7 cops is on permanent disability. Most have 2nd jobs. Same doctor.
Also in Philly. a cop was arresting for beating a raping as a tool to encourage confessions.
It didn't take long before cases were dropping- he pled the 5th- or negotiated waay down.
Including the all past cases where they knew they convicted the wrong person.
Want respect?
We the people respect that a cop's basic job is to write tickets and arrest us.
We the people respect that a cop can and will shoot at us, for any reason. With immunity and impunity.
We the people respect that the government can send a cop after us for any reason.
We the people don't respect that a cop can't "serve and protect" we the people. Not their job.

Were the police A) waiting for the gunman to run out of bullets, or
B) waiting for the taco truck to show up in Texas?
It was actually a Border Patrol; who finally made it thru the police and shot the guy.
Tho the police did tase a man for talking to his son on the bus,

Want respect? Earn it. Other than your willingness to imprison harm or kill us.
Cause right now, that's all you got.