From an answer on Quora...
There is little doubt that armed teachers could have possibly saved lives in the Newtown shooting.
There is also little doubt in my mind that widespread arming of teachers would at some point result in an accidental shooting of a child, access to a firearm by a child, and a tragic deliberate shooting of an innocent adult due to a misunderstanding or overreaction.
The fundamental problem with most positions on firearm legislation is that they are myopic. The average gun advocate is a responsible, law abiding person with legitimate and justifiable arguments for people like them to possess firearms, and they are no danger to themselves or others. Yet they fail to understand that not everyone is like them. Not everyone can handle the responsibility of a firearm. When the law supports their right to bear arms, it also supports the rights of almost every other citizen to bear arms; many of whom are not responsible enough to do so safely.
As a former soldier I have been trained in the use of a number of firearms from pistols to machine guns. I teach my son and daughter to use an archery bow, and I impress upon them the gravity and responsibility of wielding a deadly weapon. I owned a hunting rifle and later a hunting shotgun, which were surrendered in the Australian buyback following the Port Arthur massacre. There are times, especially in the dead of night, when I wonder how I would defend my family against an armed intruder and I miss having that shotgun - after all, criminals still have access to guns in this country. But I understand that for me to have the right to own firearms for home defence, my neighbour and millions of my fellow citizens must also have that right. I know that most of those people have not had my training and do not have my respect for weapons, and on balance I feel safer with them not having them. And that's just the stable, law abiding ones.
On balance, I feel that arming teachers would cause more harm, when viewed on a national scale, than good. Rather than a knee jerk reaction to militarise schools, I believe that the US would be better served by reviewing firearm laws to make the ownership of guns a revokable privilege rather than a universal right; by putting in place restrictions on automatic firearms and large capacity magazines; by verifying the character, mental state and training of gun purchasers; by licensing guns to owners and making unlicensed transfers a felony; by improving their mental health services and by ending the glorification of gun violence and perpetrators in the news media.
Well balanced...thoughtful...intelligent...and, most importantly, highly illustrative of the complexities of the gun issue.
3 comments:
Thoughtful? Considering he gave no thought to the legalities of what he suggested...not so much.
I don't think it is necessary to arm teachers.
These incidents are rare enough that we shouldn't go off half-cocked about them.
These incidents are rare enough that we shouldn't go off half-cocked about them.
Ah, yes.
Therein lies the rub doesn't it?
The incidents are relatively rare. But if a gun rights proponent were to shrug such incident off as being rare, well then one such as Mark would blow a bowel over the uncaring.
Since one's such as Mark continuously blow bowels EVERY time one of these incidents happen. Demanding that something must be done....
Well, the most effective somethings usually consist of, at some point, the idea of arming teachers.
Then one's such as Mark blow a bowel over the mere suggestion of such.
Ya just can't win when one's such as Mark move the goalposts.
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