Posted 8:27 pm Friday, December 28, 2012
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Explore ideas, even guards at our school
The National Rifle Association is under fire for saying armed security guards should be placed in schools. The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, says NRA head Wayne LaPierre, is a good guy with a gun.
Why is that a controversial statement?
David Gregory of NBC’s “Meet the Press” was openly outraged at the suggestion.
“You proposed armed guards in school,” Gregory responded. “We’ll talk about that in some detail in a moment. You confronted the news media. You blamed Hollywood and the gaming industry. But never once did you concede that guns could actually be part of the problem. Is that a meaningful contribution, Mr. LaPierre, or a dodge?”
Of course, Gregory never came back to the issue of armed guards in schools — nor should he have; he’s no one to talk. As the Weekly Standard pointed out, Gregory’s own children attend the exclusive Washington D.C.
Sidwell Friends school, which has armed guards (and with the Obama children there, a full contingent of Secret Service agents).
Tyler, of course, has armed guards at several of its schools. They’re called campus police. Both John Tyler and Robert E. Lee high schools have full-time, armed, TCLOSE-certified peace officers on-site. The Tyler school district has more than a dozen officers, who patrol other campuses.
The truth is many schools have armed security guards already. Most every college and university does; like TISD they have their own police departments.
“A Department of Education survey conducted during the 2009-2010 school year found that 23,200 of the nation’s public schools, or 28 percent of those surveyed, reported already having security officers who carry firearms on campus at least once a week,” the Washington Post notes.
So why is LaPierre’s suggestion so outrageous to the left?
Why is that a controversial statement?
David Gregory of NBC’s “Meet the Press” was openly outraged at the suggestion.
“You proposed armed guards in school,” Gregory responded. “We’ll talk about that in some detail in a moment. You confronted the news media. You blamed Hollywood and the gaming industry. But never once did you concede that guns could actually be part of the problem. Is that a meaningful contribution, Mr. LaPierre, or a dodge?”
Of course, Gregory never came back to the issue of armed guards in schools — nor should he have; he’s no one to talk. As the Weekly Standard pointed out, Gregory’s own children attend the exclusive Washington D.C.
Sidwell Friends school, which has armed guards (and with the Obama children there, a full contingent of Secret Service agents).
Tyler, of course, has armed guards at several of its schools. They’re called campus police. Both John Tyler and Robert E. Lee high schools have full-time, armed, TCLOSE-certified peace officers on-site. The Tyler school district has more than a dozen officers, who patrol other campuses.
The truth is many schools have armed security guards already. Most every college and university does; like TISD they have their own police departments.
“A Department of Education survey conducted during the 2009-2010 school year found that 23,200 of the nation’s public schools, or 28 percent of those surveyed, reported already having security officers who carry firearms on campus at least once a week,” the Washington Post notes.
So why is LaPierre’s suggestion so outrageous to the left?
The Post reports “Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, called the idea ‘irresponsible and dangerous’ and said in a statement that ‘schools must be safe sanctuaries, not armed fortresses.’”
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “Instead of offering solutions to a problem they have helped create, they offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe. Today the NRA’s lobbyists blamed everyone but themselves for the crisis of gun violence…Enough.”
How would armed security guards at all schools — when we already have them at many schools — create this Bloombergian dystopia?
The average cost of an armed campus police officer is about $55,000 a year — that’s not an outrageous expense. It’s less than the cost of most teachers and administrators, and in my places, less than the cost of a lunch lady.
But opponents say even if it could be done (and it can, easily), it wouldn’t work.
“How effective an expanded armed-security program might be also isn’t certain,” the Post goes on. “Some advocates say assailants may avoid places that they know to be armed.”
Yes. That’s the point, isn’t it?
Newtown, Conn. has started a national conversation on horrific school shootings.
That conversation should include all rational voices and every reasonable idea.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “Instead of offering solutions to a problem they have helped create, they offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe. Today the NRA’s lobbyists blamed everyone but themselves for the crisis of gun violence…Enough.”
How would armed security guards at all schools — when we already have them at many schools — create this Bloombergian dystopia?
The average cost of an armed campus police officer is about $55,000 a year — that’s not an outrageous expense. It’s less than the cost of most teachers and administrators, and in my places, less than the cost of a lunch lady.
But opponents say even if it could be done (and it can, easily), it wouldn’t work.
“How effective an expanded armed-security program might be also isn’t certain,” the Post goes on. “Some advocates say assailants may avoid places that they know to be armed.”
Yes. That’s the point, isn’t it?
Newtown, Conn. has started a national conversation on horrific school shootings.
That conversation should include all rational voices and every reasonable idea.
