Unarmed schools invite armed fools
December 14th, 2012 is a date sure to life in infamy. Twenty elementary school children were killed by a suspect not much more than a child himself.
December 14th, 2012 is a date sure to life in infamy. Twenty elementary school children were killed by a suspect not much more than a child himself.
Here in Australia we have far stricter gun laws than the US and gun crime rates here are significantly lower than in the US. Following the Port Arthur Massacre, arguably the biggest mass killing in Australian history, controls on automatic and semi-automatic gun ownership were greatly increased by the then conservative Liberal Party/National Party governing coalition. Having high rates of private gun ownership feeds the illegal gun market because there are lots of guns around for criminals to obtain by stealing from homes which they will then sell on to other criminals. Here criminals have to smuggle illegal guns into the country via the ports which has made it much harder for criminals to access them. It would be rare for there to be more than one gun related homicide in the whole of Australia in a week and such a crime would be so exceptional as to make national headlines. A crime involving any sort of hand held machine gun or assault rife would happen less often than once a year in the whole country. I know you’ve anticipated this, but I don’t think the situation in Israel is analogous to that in the US as Israel has a direct land neighbour that uses terror tactics against it and is in a constant on-and-off state of war with it. If you were going to have armed persons on site to protect schools then a security guard is who you’d want in charge of them. I have a lot of close friends who are teachers and it can be a highly stressful and emotionally draining profession. Put guns in schools in the hands of teachers and it’s only a matter of time until one of them, somewhere, has a bad day and cracks and we see another massacre, but this time from within the school. Arming more people after a situation like this looks like a good idea on the surface but so does pouring water on an oil fire. A few weeks ago a mentally unstable man tried to beat me into the pavement for no reason just a few blocks from my home. Thankfully I take kung fu classes and was able to fight him off and escape but I’m sure glad he didn’t have easy access to a gun.
Saber
My thoughts and opinions around this shooting will seem fragmented because whenever I read updates about it, see news clips or even think of it… tears start pouring out… and simply typing those words is making my vision blurry with tears welling up.
The elementary school shooting is an astronomical tragedy. Columbine didn’t effect me like this. No other shooting EVER has effected me like this. These were TINY KIDS. I have a major soft spot in my heart for little children, and there have been times when volunteering with children felt like all I had to live for.
Arming school staff… perhaps. Maybe having 2 or 3 VERY VERY secure boxes (more like vaults built into the building) would be acceptable with a very complex method of opening it. Sure that complexity would make it take longer to get it in an emergency… but it would be a necessary precaution in my opinion… and at least they would be available, whereas even this wasn’t available to the staff involved in this shooting.
That scenario is kind of an IF they will arm staff, how they should do it. SHOULD they arm teachers/staff… I have mixed emotions.
There is a massive amount of people petitioning for better gun control and/or outlawing guns, the way some countries have. I don’t feel either of those options would have prevented this, or many other tragedies. If you outlaw guns… criminals will still get them… and good people will not have them for self defense.