Front Office: Two entrances, one on either side of the main building, both unlocked, neither one visible from any permanently-stationed staff (e.g., receptionist).
Gym: Four entrances, at least two of which are kept unlocked at most times, two of which are not visible from the main room of the gym. The gym has doors that connect to the cafeteria and to the main office, but these doors are little-used.
Cafeteria: Two entrances, both kept unlocked. This isn’t counting the staff entrance out back; I don’t know whether that’s normally unlocked. The cafeteria connects to the gym and, via a hallway, to the library.
Library: Seven entrances from various rooms, only two of which are visible from the main library (and therefore a permanently-stationed staff member. Two of these entrances are unlocked at most times and neither is visible from a staff station.
Primary (K-2) building: Four entrances, plus an entrance for every classroom. Classroom entrances are normally kept locked, but if a single teacher has a door propped open for a breeze, there you go. The two unlocked entrances are not visible from a permanent staff member.
Upper grade (3-5) building: Two entrances, both normally kept unlocked, neither visible from a permanent staff member’s position.
So I’m counting 21 entrances, not counting individual classroom entrances. Twelve of them are unlocked at most times during the school day. None of the unlocked ones are directly visible from a permanent staff member.
True, the most obvious approach to many of them (at least four) means going by the front office windows, so administration might see someone coming. But if someone had nefarious purposes, they’ve got three buildings to choose from, and several approaches to the building that would not be very visible.
Locking more doors wouldn’t necessarily be feasible: the way we move through the building necessitates keeping a lot of these entrances unlocked. Our building was built half a century ago by someone less concerned with security than with getting kids moving outdoors as much as possible.
Security is going to be a very difficult problem to solve at the individual facility level.
You know, I am one of those gun nuts, and I don’t have any issue with a 14 day wait period, nor the background check or letting them photocopy my CC permit. Those are perfectly reasonable gun laws.
It is not the fault of the law abiding gun owners who have complied with those laws, the problem is in the idiots who sell guns at gun shows and privately that don’t have licenses to sell, nor follow any sort of legal requirements other than be over 18 and have the money in hand.
Instead of ranting about me, how abut trying to figure out how to stop gun show and private sales? How about not whinging about the taxes needed to make the money to support good mental health programs - so many programs have closed that people with mental illnesses are on the streets or at home, undiagnosed or untreated. How about stopping demonizing those of us who are law abiding, and demonizing a hunk of metal and wood/plastic that in itself does not break any laws, it is the person holding it that breaks the laws.
Our idiot governor has already proposed arming more school personnel. Yeah, handguns & a few hours at a shooting range would surely have given those ladies in Connecticut the skillset needed to fend off a heavily armed nutcase. Speaking after the massacre, he did put in a good word for mental health care. However, health care (& education) are underfunded. Some Texas communities can’t afford police, either.
Maybe Perry will raise taxes to pay for all this stuff. Oh, he’s considering a run for the Presidency again in 2016!
I think these assholes have finally picked a fight they can’t win, and I say that as someone who is generally supportive of gun rights. I mean honestly, can these guys be any more tone deaf. They would have been better off keeping quiet.
Security guards aren’t a bad idea for a number of reasons, not just guns. My HS had about 2,000 students, and I think it makes sense to have a security guard for anyplace with that many people.
Not sure about elementary schools, though, so let’s not forget that this latest shooting was at one of those.
So, let’s see… we have an incident at a school maybe once, twice a year? That means that it would be decades between incidents at each school. What are the odds that the school’s guard is going to be at peak readiness when the moment comes? After five or six years of sitting in a school corridor watching the clocks tick, odds are that when shit went down, the guard would be off taking a nap in the janitor’s closet, chatting up the school nurse, or just plain caught flat-footed.
The chances of an armed guard actually being there at the right spot in time is pretty low. The probability is much, much greater that one of these volunteers would eventually excitedly pop a cap in the ass of some parent trying to bring their kid a forgotten lacrosse stick or baseball bat or would over-react to a scuffle between kids.
Confirms that cinderblock does resist pistol rounds. Heavy rifle rounds went through it. No surprise there.
I was surprised that the Sandy Hook shooter managed to shoot out the school’s door glass, unlock it, and get in. I recall that the door glass in our school (1970’s) had a square wire mesh inside it. You’d have to break the glass and spend 10 minutes with wire snips to make a hole for your arm. That wire mesh glass should be standard in any school door.
We shouldn’t forget that kids are in more danger on school buses than they’ll ever be from a deranged shooter. We’ve had a dozen or so kids hurt or killed in just one school bus wreck. Statistically that’s a bigger concern than a 1 in a million deranged shooter stopping by again.
How much are these guards going to get paid? Minimum wage? OK, but why should we expect a minimum wage employee to put his life at risk and have the guts to shoot someone?
$50,000? OK, that’s a pretty good salary for sitting on your ass all day and doing absolutely nothing but flirting with the married secretary and trying not to doze off between class changes. And good luck explaining the salary differential to the underpaid teaching staff.
One guard per school is like one square of toilet paper for an elephant’s behind. Even if you set the building up like it’s Fort Knox, you still have the playground and the portables. Hell, my middle school had an upper field and a lower field (we called them “uptown” and “downtown”). High school had the main building, the annex building, the detached gymnasium, and the theater–where the drama kids would hang out. One guard per school is window dressing, and crappy window dressing at that.
Aurora didn’t happen at a school. Gabby Giffords was not shot in a school. Unless we’re going to be posting guards on every street corner, snipers on every roof top, our society is still going to be dodging psycho killers.
What about mess like the Virginia Tech shooting? Should universities post armed guards in all of their buildings?
I guess that’s why firemen are so ineffective. This is a potential problem, for sure, but there are ways to mitigate it. Every place with a security guard has to deal with it.
And yet that doesn’t happen with security guards at malls. And, as noted, many schools already have guards, so how often has this been a problem?
I think volunteer guards are a great idea! A gun enthusiast willing to volunteer his time, kind of like a Neighborhood Watch thing. You know, nice people like George Zimmerman.
I agree that volunteers are a bad idea, but let’s keep in mind that the folks attracted to an identical paying job aren’t going to be all that different.
Most places with a security guard are trying to protect merchandise, not human lives.
And firefighters aren’t trying to prevent fires. Firefighters aren’t expected to stop arsonists before they light that first match. So there is no need for them to be especially vigilant. If they fall asleep while on call, no worries. The alarm will wake them up. And if one of them is taking a whiz when that bell goes off, well, he’s got his buddies. He’s not the only one manning the station.
If I’m Psycho Killer looking to shoot up a school, all I have to do is wait for Armed Guard to leave his post for his daily late morning dump. And it’s on like Donky Kong.
Come on don’t you all see, if you implement gun control you sell less guns! You can’t have that! :rolleyes:
As a Canadian looking south of the border I just can’t understand the whole “culture” America has built around guns?
I am a gun owner, I have 2 registered rifles and 1 registered shot gun. They are always locked in my gun safe and always have trigger locks on them. The keys for the locks are well hidden in my garage. My wife knows where they are, and the location is in my will (just in case).
I have a 7 year old daughter who I don’t think even knows there are 3 guns in the house, or where they are.
The rifles are .22’s that I basically inherited and I own the shot gun for bear protection when visit a fly-in only cabin in northern BC.
The thought of using these guns for “home protection” has never crossed my mind. Why? Because what “threat” should I expect at my home? A home-invasion?Seriously?
What are the odds of a home-invasion actually occurring at any given address? Next what are the chances this would occur when someone is home?
Also make hand-guns restricted weapons in all states. This is how they are in Canada. Pretty much anyone can own a hand gun in Canada (once you pass a criminal record check AND you pass a restricted firearms course), but it’s a huge PITA. The law basically states if you have a hand gun, you are only allowed to discharge it at a registered firing range. You are also only allowed to transport it from your home address directly to the range and back. Technically you’re not even allowed to stop for gas with a hand gun in your vehicle.
And if you are ever stopped by the police and you are in possession of a hand gun outside of these guide lines there are charges laid and I’m pretty sure you won’t be allowed to continue owing a hand gun.
Now I understand this won’t eliminate gun crime, but it should decrease it significantly.
This isn’t messing with any one’s constitutional right, there are just more checks and balances in the process.
The NRA’s solution is the epitome of reactionary; that was the first word that came to my mind too.
The glaring problem with NRA’s “solution” is that it leaves unaddressed all the public spaces where mass shootings can occur. Last time I checked, mass shootings were not limited to schools. A whole bus load of people got mowed down at a theater this summer. Most recently a guy in PA was picking people off the highway. How is assigning cops to schools going to address this recurring insanity?
As tragic as it is that little kids were killed this time, it’s just as tragic when adults are killed by crazy gun nuts too. Rather than taking a systems approach to this problem, NRA is trying to sell politically correct bandaid solutions. And it’s a little surprising to me that so many people are nodding their head as if this solution has any chance of hell stopping these crimes.
Lanza knew he was a dead man as soon as he decided to open fire on that school that day. Most if not all of these guys either plan to kill themselves or plan suicide-by-cop. To them it’s just a question of how many people they can take out before they run out of ammo or get shot. So what kind of deterrent is a security guard going to be? It only takes a few minutes to kill a room full of people if you have enough gun power.
