Why We Must Arm Teachers Now!
In a minimum of back
to back legislative terms, then state House of Representative Greg Steube
introduced legislation in 2014 and 2015 to allow teachers to be armed on school
campuses in the State of Florida. The successful measures in the state House then
died in the state Senate where both the teachers’ unions and the PTA brought
political pressure to bear to kill the bills.
So blame—at least in
part—the carnage this week at Parkland, Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas high
school—on the lobbying efforts of those two groups as well.
Steube has not given
up the fight. The former state House representative is now a state Senator and
for 2018 plans on introducing at least two gun bills that would allow expanded
capacity for gun owners to be able to carry and in some cases conceal their
guns on their person.
These bills are
expected to receive the same pushback of the previous efforts. Florida state
Senators should re-evaluate their positions though. Florida after all is home
to two of the top ten worst mass shootings in American history.
The shooting at
Stoneman Douglas may not have been completely preventable but it might have very
much been stopped long before 17 victims were killed and another 14 sent to
area hospitals.
The almost identical
observation should be made of the shooting at Sandy Hook school in Newtown
Connecticut.
In both instances from
the amount of time it took the first shots to ring out, to the time it took
campus authorities to dial 911, to the time police actually arrived, and by the
time the incident concluded just gave entirely too much time for evil to be
done.
In both incidents the
estimates are that it took police only a minimum of 5-6 minutes to arrive once
the initial calls for help were placed.
Who could complain
that police arriving on the scene of an active shooter in such an immediate
timeframe was anything but attentive and prompt? In the Sandy Hook episode
electronic locks, reinforced doors, and other security upgrades had been
installed and appeared to function properly. In Florida the Stoneman Douglas
campus had at minimum two squads of armed “resource officers” present—as do all
public high school campuses in Florida.
In other words all of
the safety precautions that the anti-gun lobbies have conned everyone into
believing would work in the event of the worst case—didn’t—when the worst case
presented itself.
Almost immediately in
reaction to the unfolding of the news as it was happening Shepherd Smith on Fox
News Channel asked Florida Senator Ben Nelson “What could be done?”
The Senator mumbled
something back about how because of the division in Congress “we’re not even
able to pass legislation that would prevent terrorists from buying an automatic
weapon.”
But neither shooter in
either case were members of Al Qaeda or ISIS. Both were former students of the
districts they attacked. The Sandy Hook shooter killed family members to steal
their weapons to go on his shooting spree. The shooter in Parkland had long had
a reputation for loving to shoot guns even while maintaining a belligerence
against the school. He also evidently expressed that animus around the campus
enough that many students immediately assumed this attack was carried out by
him even while the attack was on going.
Steube’s last attempt
at arming teachers was also extremely reasonable. It required that the only
teachers who would be allowed to be armed on campus would be those who had
former law enforcement or military service background. It also required that
said teachers showed a proficiency in the handling and safety of their
sidearms.
Sadly the
smug-left-of-center news media for the next many days will make long sad
pronouncements about how all of this could’ve been avoided and should have
already been addressed.
Floridian and State
Senator Greg Steube agrees.
Sadly that same media
will point to the ownership of guns by law abiding people and believe that
taking them away is the only ultimate answer.
But the only real
thing that gun confiscation has proven is that the increase of gun free zones
in our society is also an increase in targets for people who never abide by
laws on guns or anything else.
If the Broward Sheriff
and the Parkland police were able to respond in 5-6 minutes yesterday....
If two squads of armed
resource officers are on campus but not in the building where the shooter
begins firing...
If electronic locks,
and reinforced doors do not prevent the penetration of a committed killer into
a school where innocent children wait like sheep to be slaughtered...
Then it is time for
teachers to be armed, locked, loaded, and ready to end a killing spree before
dozens more die.
So arm the teachers.
Arm them so that the mere knowledge of such firepower potentially raining back
down on the perp dissuades him from ever attempting an attack. Or at the very
least ends his attacks before maximum potential carnage has been created.
Save children, arm the
teachers, arm them now!
No more excuses!
https://townhall.com/columnists/kevinmccullough/2018/02/15/why-we-must-arm-teachers-now-n2449611
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