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CCW instructor offers free training to teachers
A Utah CCW instructor is giving free courses to teachers.
"The concealed-weapons instructor's offer was met with opposition from some teachers and union representatives at the Utah Education Association's conference in Salt Lake City.
"We've always resisted the idea of arming school employees," said Susan Kuziak, executive director of the 18,000-member teachers union. "Though the intentions may be good, ultimately, the potential for harm is too great.""
Well, I suppose they knew their members better than I do. Although I might be a bit reluctant to have my kids taught by someone I can't trust not to start shooting at them.
(I was taught by the Old Nuns. 5 foot high women who'd taught 4th grade boys for decades. They didn't need guns. If anyone had tried to attack their classroom, they'd just have torn off his arm, beaten him to death with it, and then asked Mary to make sure St. Peter repeated the thrashing when the battered miscreant arrived. They made Marine DOs look like Kumbaya-singing wussies. No way you could stop one with a conventional weapon).
6 Comments
This is truly wonderful news--I hope many CCW instructors across the country will also step up. I'd even be willing to contribute something to such an effort in my community. Think I'll call my CCW instructors. While it's true that teachers are generally a pretty liberal, pseudo-pacifist, non-commonsense bunch in my experience, those willing and able to take a CCW course would, almost certainly, be of hardier stock. Every teacher doesn't need to be armed or even able to be armed (though that could be a litmus test for who should be a teacher--ah, dreaming). Even if CCW trained teachers don't get to carry on school property, they're trained about firearms as too many folks aren't these days. They'll know something about how they work and how to stop them from working (shotgun and auto pistol slides can sometimes be manipulated to prevent firing long enough to gain an advantage over an armed attacker; reloads are a great time to resist, particularly if you can knock a mag away with a chair or something). They'll also have knowledge and experience to convey to students. This is great news.
I like that. "They know their members better then we do", and if there is a likelihood their members may start shooting the students if they are armed in the classroom, that should probably be reported to the parents. I think the parents should know this. There are so many other lethal weapons in the classroom; Staplers, books, shoes, chairs, table legs, window blind cords, all things that I'm sure a someone was murdered with in the past 10 years. I'm also sure that the number of people murderd with those items is more non-trivial than the number of people murdered in school invasions in the same period (but I lack the proof).
Dave Kople has an article on preventing massacres at NRO. One thing he discusses and very few cover, is the copycat effect. I wrote an article on its role in creating the Port Arthur Massacre in Tasmania; in fact, activists and journalists went far out of their way to make a copycat certain, based on what was known about the effect at that time.
Here it is:
http://www.c-l-a-s-s.net/Ideas%20Kill%20-%20Science%20and%20the%20Massacre%203.pdf
I don't believe ALL teachers should be armed. Some of those teachers are very nervous, timid, and too left-wing to be of much help. However, I feel the principal, vice principal, and maybe the custodian should be armed. Many custodians are retired military and they won't cringe when the excrement his the rotary wheel.
Actually, I don't know why the heck they don't have armed security guards, maybe even with a dog. The have them on college campuses, why not other schools? I would think that would quiet the question of arming teachers. However, many teachrs, especially the male teachers, are ex-military, maybe picking and choosing that type of teacher along with the principal,VP etc. would be a good plan.
Please, please submit to COC #77 :-)
"Hope springs eternal." When our public school officials cannot be trusted to make rational decisions about what is a dangerous weapon and what is a plastic knife to spread cream cheese on a muffin, what hope can there be for arming teachers?