Haven’t belonged since I was a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things (with apologies to Corinthians).
Well you made statements like you had the pulse of the membership who in turn were unhappy with their representative organization. The NRA gained membership in response to recent events. And in Utah there were 200 teachers who showed up for instructions in response to recent events. This is not new to this state. They’ve had this program in place for over 10 years.
So while you don’t like the idea there are teachers out there who do and would rather have some means of defense in the event of such an attack.
According to an unnamed source from the NRA, NRA memberships have gone up.
Gee, I’m convinced.
You’re not convinced of what? The information? Cite your source that it’s wrong because Feinstein has already posted a proposed bill going after all kinds of guns.
I don’t have to provide a source that it is wrong, because no one has yet to provide a source that it is right. An unnamed source from the NRA made a claim-is that all you need to know to accept it as fact that NRA membership is rising after the shooting?
Yes, that’s how it works. Newspapers use unnamed sources all the time.
but given the Senate is about to propose bans on a variety of weapons you should recognize the probability of increased membership.
Beyond that you should understand that gun owners are more likely to see the recent shootings as an example of a need for defense against criminals who will use guns regardless of the law.
Jus’ keep sending those checks, friend. And gun manufacturers will continue to do product placement in video games and on gaming sites. Who do you suppose they’re targeting?
Well that’s certainly a change in direction from the NRA topic.
So you think there might be a connection between violent games/videos and violent crimes?
I think he was pointing out that the NRA is blaming video games, while at the same time taking oodles of moolah from gun manufacturors that pay for product placement in those same games. Ain’t that a hoot!
Do the people who suggest arming teachers (or administrators, or volunteers, or whoever) believe that accidents don’t happen? How about theft? If there’s a loaded gun in every classroom, how long will it take before a student - or a teacher - gets injured or killed accidentally? If there are loaded guns in every classroom, how long will it be before a teacher snaps and uses it on a kid who’s pushed him just a little bit too far? How long will it be before a student gets a gun away from a teacher and shoots someone, accidentally or not? Teachers are trained to teach, not to be police officers.
As for putting a police officer in every school, if that were a cost-effective strategy for reducing crime, communities would have already done it. Armed police officers are far more likely to be useful in high-crime areas than in elementary schools. Fully funding educational early intervention programs would be a much more effective long-term crime reduction strategy if you want to spend money on it at the primary school level.
Mass shootings aren’t nearly as common as accidental shootings, and it frustrates me that so many people are perfectly willing to increase the incidence of the latter in a frantic attempt to reduce the incidence of the former.
Thank you for restating. The NRA is part and parcel of all these topics. They are supported by gun manufacturers, which means they have no problem with ad campaigns that target teenagers. Gun manufacturers tell the NRA what to lobby for, and they do it or risk having donations cut off. But I can see why he would rather have this thread stick to the OP, and will leave it alone from here on out.
Yep.
Well more than 11 years at least. That’s how long teachers have carried in Utah. I imagine armed officers have been carrying guns longer around the country.
what makes you think a concealed weapon is going to be stolen or an accident will occur?
Again, that’s how long teachers have been allowed to carry. How many guns are actually in Utah classrooms? You can’t measure accurately whether or not there has actually been a risk of a gun being stolen or used against an innocent person until you can say whether or not there are any or even more than a couple guns being carried in schools. According to Terr, that statistic is unknowable.
Yes, teachers have been told they can carry guns in school. If none of them are doing it, then of course there haven’t been any accidents. If there are two teachers in Utah who are carrying guns, then the chances of an accident are very, very small compared to what they would be if hundreds of teachers were carrying. If a decent number of teachers are armed (say, 30% - I’m just pulling out a random number), then yay, guns in school can probably be called reasonably safe. If there is one teacher who is armed out in one lonely, rural school in Utah and he’s managed to never shoot a kid, then that’s not really proving your point.
Fear no more, Sheriff Joe has things under control: Sheriff Joe Arpaio Sending Armed Volunteer Posse to Protect Schools.
Somehow, an “armed volunteer posse” that passes muster with Sheriff Joe wouldn’t exactly fill me with confidence. I can’t escape the feeling that they’d spend the bulk of their time harassing students who “look suspicious.”
Utah isn’t the only state and there are armed guards in schools all over the country.
Again, what makes you think a concealed weapon is going to be stolen or an accident will occur?
I think it because I work in a middle school and I know the teachers and students there. I realize that a responsible teacher with a concealed carry permit is likely to be more careful with his or her weapon than with, say, a cellphone or a laptop, but given the number of cellphones and laptops that are stolen at our school every year, I’d be concerned about just how secure a firearm in a classroom would be. I’ve heard people who are advocating teachers carrying firearms say that no one would know which teachers were carrying - I can tell you that there’s next to nothing that our students don’t know about interesting things their teachers are doing, and they’d find this interesting.
In my school, exactly two people have expressed interest in carrying weapons at school. They are, perhaps predictably, just about the last two people I’d trust to do so.
I would be interested in knowing how many Utah teachers are carrying guns into their schools and what, if any, complications there have been. As a side note, New Mexico, along with many other states with concealed-carry laws, stopped recognizing Utah’s concealed-carry licenses because its training requirements are more lax than ours.
do you have a lot of teachers who lose their bra’s or skivvies? concealed means concealed. it’s in a holster that is inside the outer clothing. I don’t own a gun but I did go to a gun show a couple of years ago and was shown a holster by a dealer who was packing a 50 caliber revolver. You couldn’t tell he had it on him. He pulled it out a friggin cannon to demonstrate the holster.
This guy was a security officer at my sister’s high school. He was also a police lieutenant. He beat the crap out of some 15-year-old kids who shot at his car with a slingshot. Because the police department covered it up for several years, the statute of limitations ran out and he is now back on the force.