Texan Teachers Packing Heat! :-)

Well, I've been watching the tragedy unfold in New England with regards to the school shooting. While I feel absolutely horrible that so many young lives were lost at such a young age, with adults being lost as well, I cannot get past the underlying issue that's being debated heavily by the MSM and local news outlets that are local to the area; and that issue is gun control.

Well, my great home state of Texas can hang it's hat on this one:

We entrust schools with our children's minds bodies for 8 hours a day. Now, in this district, their lives are protected by the people we entrust them to. I personally fully support this initiative and would like to see it statewide in a heartbeat. No one is going to go into this school and attempt anything...now it's a fortress of education for our little ones.

"I can lead them from a fire, tornado and toxic spill; we have plans in place for that. I cannot lead them from an active shooter," Thweatt said. "There are people who are going to think this is extreme, but it [the approval of this policy] is easy to defend."

"Look how long it takes the police or anybody else to get here," she told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for a story in its Monday online edition. "If someone wants to come here and harm someone, at least we would have sort of defense."

MSNBC Source

reply to post by Xterrain


Now THAT's what I'm talking about. This is the correct answer--not banning potential protectors from having guns. As many like to point out, myself included: Banning law-abiding citizens (especially potential protectors) the right to arms does absolutely NOTHING to deter the mentally deficient or brainwashed from shooting up a place. There is no magic number of "Gun-Free Zone" signs that will accomplish that. Now, a sign that reads "Protected by Smith & Wesson" might....

reply to post by Ex_CT2


I actually support this as well... The comment about leading the kids from differing scenarios except and active shooter I think hits the nail on the head.

As a law enforcement officer I can say responding to majpor incidents may only take minutes for us, but to people on the inside waiting for us those 3 minutes will seem like an eternity, and the amount of damage done can be massive.

The Columbine shooting was a major factor in changing how police respond to active shooters. We no longer wait for a swat / srt team response. The training ive received, in 2 states now, says the moment we arrive on scene and there is more than one officer present, regardless of agency / jurisdiction, we can take action.

My only concern about arming teachers is the issue of friendly fire. An active shooter and a teacher are going to be dressed the same, which is to say they wont be in uniform, and making a distinction on who is friendly and who is foe in a situation like this can result in unintentional friendly fire deaths.

If schools adopt this type of policy I would like to see something that would allows teachers to carry and protect their students, but restrict them to a classroom and only allow force when its optimal. Having armed teachers in the building hunting an active shooter with no way to identify them as teachers could cause more problems.

The above does not even cover the stress the body goes through in a situation like an active shooter. The Adrennaline dump alone is enough to shut a person down who is not prepared for the reduction in hearing / sight / fine motor control / ability to identify a threat prior to shooting etc...