PA Bill Number: SB945
Title: Consolidating the act of August 9, 1955 (P.L.323, No.130), known as The County Code; and making repeals.
Description: Consolidating the act of August 9, 1955 (P.L.323, No.130), known as The County Code; and making repeals. ...
Last Action: Third consideration and final passage (199-0)
Last Action Date: Apr 17, 2024
Should We Leave Our Schools and Churches Unprotected? :: 12/02/2018
No one ignores the mass murder of children. We all have an opinion about how to protect our kids. Let’s also face facts; we would have solved the problem of dead children in our schools and in our churches if the solution were easy. Unfortunately, lots of the opinions we see in social media are little more than shallow reasons to stop thinking about a hard and unpleasant problem. Let’s get past that.
Let’s open our ears and work past our rationalizations.
What excuses have you heard people use so they don’t have to think deeply about protecting people they love? What fantasies are people clinging to so that they feel safe in an unsafe world? This isn’t a problem of deep thought, but of shallow words. Here are a few of the obvious examples, and I’d like your help with the rest.
-We don’t need guns in our schools because only the police should defend us.
You mean we need people like the School Resource Officer in Florida who walked away while a murderer was killing kids inside his high school? In other attacks, the murderers waited for the uniformed officer to leave campus or they attacked the uniformed officer first. Why do you think that is a good idea?
-Teachers shouldn’t have guns in school because they are not trained like the police.
You are right; teachers and law enforcement officers are not trained the same. Would it change your mind that armed teacher training programs have higher shooting standards for school staff than for the police?
-Police will shoot the bad guys, but teachers will get upset and shoot their students by mistake.
We have over 5 thousand man-years of experience with armed teachers in the classroom. We haven’t seen a trained teacher go crazy. Did you know that civilians are about 5-and-a-half times less likely than the police to shoot the wrong person?
-I still don’t think teachers should have guns in school.
We have thousands of armed school staff today. Are you happy with the results when mass murderers attack unarmed victims?
-Teachers are too volatile to be trusted around children if the teacher has a gun.
Armed teachers have passed an FBI background check. They have also been vetted by the school board and local law enforcement. People with their concealed carry permits are far more law abiding and non-violent than the average person. Are you saying that unarmed teachers are too unstable to be around children and should require more stringent mental health screening?
-There are too many guns in the world so we should confiscate them.
Honest citizens defend themselves with a gun about every thirty seconds. Do you think that criminals and crazy people will give up their guns, or only the law abiding people? Has prohibition worked before?
-Criminals should obey our laws and not bring guns to schools or churches.
Do criminals obey the laws where you live?
-My friend is a school teacher and she doesn’t want to carry a gun.
No one orders teachers to go armed. Teachers are much more likely than the average person to want to get training and go armed at school. Why do you think teachers are so protective?
-Teachers can’t teach if they carry a gun.
Armed teachers have the same rates of student-advancement as teachers who are unarmed. School districts with armed staff have comparable or higher graduation rates when compared with school districts that choose to keep their staff unarmed. Do you have new data?
-A mass murderers will take the teacher’s gun so the school is safer if school staff are disarmed.
Some uniformed security officers have been targeted by mass murderers. I’ve never found an example where a teacher was targeted so the attacker could take the teacher’s gun. How often do you think that has happened?
-If the police can’t stop the attack, then teachers certainly can’t stop it.
People at the scene usually stop mass murderers before police arrive. Do you want these defenders armed or do you want them to face an armed attacker with empty hands?
-I don’t see how armed staff can stop an armed murderer.
Defenders have a huge advantage over an attacker. They protect the children in their classroom. Would you rather that these defenders were unarmed when a murderer is at the classroom door?
-More guns are never the answer.
The people who train police suggested that we train and arm school staff. The first thing we do when there is a threat at a school or a church is call for men and women with guns to come save us. Do you want us to call someone else?
-If you like guns so much, then we should put a police officer in every classroom.
You’re more likely to be struck by lightning than to be killed in school by a mass murderer. A minute ago you didn’t want anyone to have guns in schools. Now you want to make every teacher into an armed police officer and put a gun in every classroom. That means we need 25 times more police officers than we have today. I’m not sure we can afford that, but what changed your mind?
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These are the trite statements that stop a deeper discussion. I’m sure there are more examples and I’d like you to comment with the ones you’ve heard.
I try to finish each example with a question rather than a statement. A closing statement wins debates but a question can change minds. Don’t you agree?
Please comment with the one-liners that were supposed to end discussion.
https://slowfacts.wordpress.com/2018/11/28/should-we-leave-our-schools-and-churches-unprotected/
