Since the Sandy Hook tragedy issues of Gun control and how to protect our schools have been hotly debated. Yesterday, I posted my issues with tighter gun control. The fact of the matter is that gun control laws will just put the weapons into the hands of the criminals and create, yet another, avenue for them to fund their criminal activity. Gun control will not protect our children or our schools.

Our country needs to learn from the failed attempts of Prohibition and “The war on drugs”. As I stated in my post “Gun Control: A Criminal Coup”, both Prohibition and the War on Drugs have been dismal and expensive failures for American’s Law Abiding Citizen and the US Government. In fact, the only individual’s who have benefited have been Gangs, and other criminal syndicates. In fact, the mafia and Al Capone made millions from Prohibition. Gangs and other criminal organizations have gotten filthy rich off of the War on Drugs. The bottom line is that tighter Gun Control will only make the Criminal Richer and more dangerous, the US Government more financially broke, and the law abiding citizens less protected.

Another thing to consider is that laws can not be implemented retroactively. The estimated total number of assault rifles owned by private citizens is approximately 4 million. That means that even with a future ban on assault rifles the 4 million all ready out there will remain legal to own and they will remain in circulation.You can also bet that with all of the debate about banning assault rifles we will see an increase in assault rifle sales  before the ban is enacted.  As such, I fail to see how banning assault rifles or tighter gun control is going to make our public, our schools, and our children safer.

Now there is some talk about arming teachers with weapons. Kindergarten teachers with weapons? Any teacher with a fire arm?  To me that is just absolutely insane. I don’t want my child’s teacher “packing heat” in the class room. Do we really want our kids to have that many weapons in there general vicinity during the school day? How about the unstable children who gain access to a teachers fire arm? This will only achieve in a rise  in school shootings as the result of a student getting a hold of a teachers fire arm. Furthermore, in order for arming teachers to have any form of real safty element teachers would, at the very least, have to keep their fire arm under lock and key so that their students didn’t gain acess to it during the school day.

One of the key elements of mass shootings is their unexpected and swift element of attack. Meaning people are totally caught off guard when they occur.  A teacher isn’t going to have much or any time at all to retrieve a firm arm that is under lock and key, take off the safety, load it, and protect themselves and their students from a crazed gun man who has just unexpectedly burst into their class room with a few assault rifles. Are we going to army our teachers with assault rifles? Because a regular gun/pistol is no match for a Bushmaster. The teacher and students would be riddled with bullets before the teacher got any where near their little hand gun. As such the whole Idea of arming our teachers will only serve to make the schools even more dangerous for our children.

OPTIONS

Fortification of our School Buildings

1. Instead of wasting billions on “tighter gun control”, our Government should spend that money fortifying our schools buildings.

A. Bullet proof glass.

B. Electronic security systems with panic buttons in each class room, in all faculty offices and areas, that will automatically and immediately lock down each individual room in the schools.

Security and/or Law Enforcement

Create greater safety for our children, jobs for the economy, and crime deterrence among students by posting a Law Enforcement/Security Officer at each and every school.

A. Provide said Officer with a full time and regular beat at every public school and provide them a “station” with in the school.

B. Each officers office would have a gun room that carry’s the necessary weaponry to protect the school in the event of an attack and at the same time limit the circulation of guns with in the school itself.

C. Equip the security office with video camera of all area’s of the school so that security individual can keep a watch out for suspicious activity. (After all, our department stores and businesses all have “loss prevention officers” who spend their work day watching cameras, apprehending shop lifters, and protecting the store merchandise. Shouldn’t we be doing the same to protect and insure the safety and security of our nations children?)

D. Instead of having individuals sign in at the office in order to come into the school they would have them sign in at the security office. (Of course, any and all individuals would be subject to a pat down and a search of their belongings before being allowed access to the school. )

Considerations

If our Government was to take the millions and billions they will waste  on tighter gun control and use it to fortify our schools and post an officer at every school just think about how many jobs that would create. Retired police officers and disabled veterans would be perfect for this type of job.

Give consideration to how this would benefit our children by having a law enforcement officer stationed at their school. It would certainly assist with building a re-pour of trust between children and law enforcement beginning when the children are young. This would be community policing at it’s best and finest.

Law enforcement on the premises would act as a determinant for criminal activity among students. For instance, knowing a cop is on the premises and able to search their person, their locker, and their belonging at any time will certainly cut down on weapon and gun circulation. At the very least, a kid will think twice.

Law Enforcement at the school will also provide rapid response by law enforcement in the event of an in school situation. For instance, gang activity, drug activity, physical altercations, sexual assaults, or out of control students making threats with in the class room to teachers and students.

Law Enforcement with in the school could also be in charge of Anti Bullying, DARE, Gang Deterrent, and other similar programs with in our schools, thus reaching our kids from kindergarten and educating them through out their school aged years.

As a parent, I think it is absolutely dangerous and insane to have teachers and school staff “packing” a concealed weapon around in public schools. I would much rather see fortified schools with on duty and trained law enforcement personnel than my son’s English teacher sporting a concealed weapon at the chalk board. What about you?

Articles

The Role of Law Enforcement in Public School Safety: A National Survey. US Department Of Justice

Nervous Parents Ask For Police Presence In Berkeley Township Elementary Schools

Arming Teachers, School Cops Could Cause More Harm Than Good, Experts Say(opposing opinion)

Tensions High After Mass Shooting, CT Schools Open With Police Presence

 Va. bill would order schools to arm teachers

2 western Pa. districts arming police at schools