I’m not really looking for a debate – I expect most of you, like me, are pretty much burned out on conflict at this point.
But I have to say my piece, and I believe the SDMB is the best place to reach a lot of reasonable people.
In response to the spate of unspeakable school shootings America has endured, culminating in the horrific murders in Florida last week, some people are advocating having teachers trained in the use of firearms, who would then carry concealed weapons on their person at all times on school campuses. I see several rational problems with this approach.
From what I understand of what happened in Florida, each teacher in their individual classroom was focused on locking the door, figuring out the safest place for everyone to try and take shelter, and keeping the kids as calm and safe as they could.
I doubt for many of them there was much time, if any, to do all this and then somehow get back out of the classroom and go looking for an armed murderer who is familiar with the school grounds, and could be anywhere.
Think about it: Your roomful of students have huddled behind a desk or in a corner, praying that they have chosen a spot in which line of sight, prescience or maybe just dumb luck will grant them some kind of protection from a shooter bent on slaughter. You have dashed over to the door, in fear of your life, and locked it. The one thing keeping the killer from just plain walking in and shooting everybody is that locked door.
Are you then going to open it up again to go out and find the shooter, on the narrow chance that he isn’t two feet away when you do so? Even if he’s ten or twenty feet away down the hall, he will see or hear you first; and seeing as he has assault weapons, that means that in all likelihood you are dead and the door stands open and unlocked.
Maybe you think you can ask one of your students to lock the door behind you. One of the heroic students in Florida was shot five times doing just that; he lies now in the hospital, critically injured. Knowing that, which student will you ask to lock the door for you? Who do you pick? Would you want to make that decision? Any kid a little less tough or lucky than Anthony Borges would simply be dead, and again, the door would be open and unlocked with the killer right there.
Anyone who has ever seen a horror movie knows that you never unlock the door.
Say your murderous student has not yet been expelled, as the Florida shooter was, and instead sits day after day in your classroom, watching you, paying careful attention to where you carry your gun and when your hands will be occupied long enough for him to grab the gun and shoot you. Will these teachers be trained in karate too?
Furthermore, I would like to remind you that the kind of people who become teachers are, not infrequently, the kind of people who may in fact be uncomfortable with shooting and killing another human being. I’m not trying to imply anything about either the courage of teachers or the character of gun enthusiasts – I’m just saying that teachers spend their days doing their best to understand and get through to kids; to empathize with them, to teach them to rise above hate and violence. They are trying to teach ideals. To expect these same people to go from zero to sixty on a moment’s notice, to go from humanitarian to enforcer in a heartbeat… well, I expect it, with sincere regret, from police officers. I expect it from government agents. I suppose I might expect it from James Bond.
It’s the last thing I would expect, or even want to expect, from a schoolteacher. God knows they have enough on their plate already.
Though I would never expect James Bond to know the difference between a gerund and a prepositional phrase.