Should Teachers Carry Weapons??

johnson601 · #1 04-24-07, 16:46

My wife is a school teacher in rural Nevada, the other night she came home and told me about a meeting they had. Basically what they were talking about is having one or two teachers with ccw permits carry their handgun during school hours in case of an active shooter situation. I told her that I would be in favor of something like that but it will probably never happen. What do you think?

sproc · #2 04-24-07, 17:49

I love teachers. I married a teacher. But I would trust few teachers to carry weapons; most people drawn to teaching are of the opposite mindset as those drawn to armed self defense (in non-rural areas, anyway). I trust even fewer administrators to designate those teachers who should carry. The politics around it would become dysfunctional almost immediately.

I believe that schools simply need to stop prohibiting teachers, staff, and (in higher education) students from carring concealed weapons. Those who are are so inclined will step up and are more likely to train themselves properly than a school-designated teacher.

Second, state legislatures need to pass laws providing a certain degree of criminal and civil protection to anyone attempting to stop a massacre in progress. People shouldn't be afraid to do the obviously right thing.

Pipe dream: society as a whole needs to be stop teaching itself to be irrationally terrified by guns. This panic makes the aggressor's job way too easy.

graffex · #3 04-24-07, 18:41

I think any decent citizen should be able to carry a weapon. Policemen, teachers, or whomever deserve no more right to protect themselves then you or me. If I can't legally carry a weapon to defend myself and the people I care about than neither should they.

Impact · #4 04-24-07, 19:31

as long as they know how to use it, fine with me.

Actually my teacher friend who is very liberal ,anti war/bush...had a blast last time we went to a combat handgun class...he loved the shoot house drills

trio · #5 04-24-07, 20:02

i guess I have a unique perspective on this because I used to be a teacher at an inner city school...

we had a pretty rough population in students so we took former military folks (like me), former cops (like my best friend), and the younger more athletic teachers and formed an emergency response team...I had taught emotionally disturbed children, worked in detention centers and jails as a teacher, etc...and we had probably more incidents in my last year there than any other....stabbings....rattlesnakes....drug raids....near riots, etc.....

at any rate, we had an incident that involved a shooting on campus...not in the school buildings itself...but on the grounds....the school actually responded very well...locked down very quickly, and me and my buddy responded immediately as the closest people after hearing the call on the radio....we got to the door near the closest access point...stopped immediately...and looked at each other like....what in the hell do we do now???? fortunately for us, the shooter had 0 interest in entering the school....it had nothing to really do with the school, and all he wanted to do was try and get away....

I should also add that the city I was teaching in had an ARMED, BOARD OF EDUCATION POLICE FORCE....thats right...the BOE had its own, separate armed force from the City Police...we had armed officers in the school...so all we had to do was hold the door until our armed resource officer arrived....(the BOE force actually has the ability to outfit its officers in riot gear)....so there was an armed person on the campus already there, all the time, to protect the faculty and students....since that was the case, i dont know that an armed faculty was necessarily a must....

anyway....would I have felt better armed in that situation? yeah...do I think it was a must, no....i wouldnt have been there more than a minute or two before the armed police force of the school was there (the same as armed teachers...basically the same amount of time it took for the armed teacher/resource officer to get from where he/she was in the building to the emergency site)....

Now, having said that...a lot of schools dont have armed resource officers in them....having a trained, armed administrator or teacher is a good idea...i dont think that its a good idea for everyone to be armed (they wouldnt know what they were doing)...but having someone on the campus that can respond before it takes the regular armed police to is a great idea...

Joseywales · #6 04-24-07, 22:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by sproc

I love teachers. I married a teacher. But I would trust few teachers to carry weapons; most people drawn to teaching are of the opposite mindset as those drawn to armed self defense (in non-rural areas, anyway). I trust even fewer administrators to designate those teachers who should carry. The politics around it would become dysfunctional almost immediately.

I believe that schools simply need to stop prohibiting teachers, staff, and (in higher education) students from carring concealed weapons. Those who are are so inclined will step up and are more likely to train themselves properly than a school-designated teacher.

Second, state legislatures need to pass laws providing a certain degree of criminal and civil protection to anyone attempting to stop a massacre in progress. People shouldn't be afraid to do the obviously right thing.

Pipe dream: society as a whole needs to be stop teaching itself to be irrationally terrified by guns. This panic makes the aggressor's job way too easy.

I think anyone can be taught to CCW. So I agree with you. All teachers that want to should be armed.

striped1 · #7 04-24-07, 22:36

The key is to get ccw permits the full faith and credit in all 50 states and do away from all gun free zones except courthouses for those who are permitted. For courthouses/federal buildings ccw holders should be able to lock up their weapons.

Gun Free zones = free crime zones.

rhino · #8 04-24-07, 23:00

All law-abiding adults should have the option, including any teachers in that group as well as visitors to the school.

Leonidas · #9 04-25-07, 01:49

It is my belief that the government has no place in education. The free market combined with private property rights will deal with security issues in educational facilities much better than anything the government can hope to accomplish.

Rock-N-Ruin · #10 04-25-07, 11:16

Everyone who is able to obtain a CCW should be able to carry on school property...bottom line!!!! I don't wan't my daughter (she's only 5 yrs old) to attend colllege without a CCW, I hope and pray the laws change..

Business_Casual · #11 04-25-07, 12:00

Yes they should and without caveats about "qualified" etc. The individual should make the determination, just as our founding fathers intended.

M_P

baffle Stack · #12 04-25-07, 13:55

It would put a smile on my face to see my Physics professor with a gun on his hip

NickB · #13 04-25-07, 14:36

I know of at least one, perhaps two college professors who carry on campus legally under Colorado law, "illegally" under University "law of the Regents".

I have no doubt that the University will terminate their employment and press trespassing charges if they ever stop a massacre on campus.

rayray · #14 04-25-07, 15:59

I work at a University and there are times that I feel like bringing My gun on Campus. Yesterday We had a Professor that works in My bldg threatened by a student. I have since applied for My CCW. The only problem, My workplace is gun free. I guess I could always jump out the window.

rhino · #15 04-25-07, 20:45

The State of Utah is on the forefront of this whole thing. Not only is it not illegal to carry on school grounds (with a valid license, of course), the universities can't stop you from carrying there. The Utah supreme court made a ruling on it just last year.

It was awesome.

All other states need to jump on THAT bandwagon. Here in Indiana, the law invalidating our License to Carry Handgun does not apply to colleges (contrary to what some claim), but the almost all of the colleges and universities have their own "no weapons" rules, which could result in expulsion for a student or loss of employment for an employee. If Indiana would cowboy up and do the right thing (like UTAH) and enforce our Constitution, we'd be golden.

TBone · #16 05-03-07, 17:59

of course.

TBone

Barry in IN · #17 05-03-07, 19:09

If they want to, sure, let them.

But if one should ever use their gun, we'll probably all feel pity on them.
Here is why I think that:

When I lived just outside Chicago, one of our gun club's officers was a teacher. This happened to him-
He was in the halls between classes and spotted a student pointing a flare gun at another student. After the student refused to drop the flare gun as ordered, my teacher friend slapped it out of his hand.

At the hearing, when the teacher got to that point in the story he was stopped with: "You HIT him?!?!"
And it all shifted onto him.
Forget the fact that a kid was maybe going to shoot flaming balls into another kid's body, we can't have a teacher slap his hand in the process of disarming him.

I don't recall how far it went, but he had quite a battle on his hands, and at least considered retirement because of it.
This was about 1992, and I doubt it's any better there now.

Whenever the subject of arming teachers comes up, I can't help but think about that episode. It's fine with me if they carry guns, but I'd sure feel sorry for any who ever used it.

Rock-N-Ruin · #18 05-03-07, 23:46

Looks like the rest of the states should follow Utah's example... that's a no brainer...

9301 · #19 05-16-07, 23:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmdugan84

Policemen, teachers, or whomever deserve no more right to protect themselves then you or me. If I can't legally carry a weapon to defend myself and the people I care about than neither should they.

I don't know about where you live, but here you have the right to defend yourself and those you care about, the problem is you don't have the right to defend anyone you don't know or care about, I do. Personally I want you to defend yourself; however, as long as 99% of the sheep in this country call 911 as soon as they are afraid something bad is going to happen to them and I have to go defend them, than I do have the right to carry a gun while I take care of their responsibility to defend themselves.

I think everyone has the God given right to defend themselves and without a bunch of rules to go with that right. Nebraska finally passed a law allowing concealed weapons, but there are so many places that are restricted or have posted signs restricting guns that its almost not worth carrying one.

I doubt arming teachers is going to stop anyone determined to kill a bunch of people on their way to their own death, especially since my vision of teachers doesn't exactly conjure up thoughts of the type of people capable of violence, but you never know.........look at the heroic efforts of a couple of the teachers at Virginia Tech. If they'd had a gun there's a good chance that the shooter would have been stopped earlier.

RD62 · #20 05-17-07, 17:08

There is a bill in the state legislature right now that would allow CCW holders to carry in schools. My wife is a teacher and has said that if it passes she would like to get her CCW.

An article on the local news stations web site said that college police chiefs spoke against the bill, saying that it would make I.D.ing the shooter more difficult.

Uhhh... The CWP holder woud be the one NOT randomly shooting innocent people.

-RD62