HARROLD, Texas — Aug. 15, 2008 —
A tiny Texas school district may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes begin later this month, a newspaper reported.
Trustees at the Harrold Independent School District approved a district policy change last October so employees can carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting teachers follow certain requirements.
In order for teachers and staff to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; must be authorized to carry by the district; must receive training in crisis management and hostile situations and have to use ammunition that is designed to minimize the risk of ricochet in school halls.
Superintendent David Thweatt said the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff’s office, leaving students and teachers without protection. He said the district’s lone campus sits 500 feet from heavily trafficked U.S. 287, which could make it a target.
“When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that’s when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can’t defend themselves? That’s like saying ‘sic ‘em’ to a dog,” Thweatt said in Friday’s online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
I am an unrepentant supporter of gun rights. I am also a realist. Hence, I question the logic that teachers armed up the wazoo will reduce the number of school shootings, or serve to make these tragic events less rather than more bloody.
Arming parents with better parenting skills seems a much less lethal and effective solution to such atrocities.
- Jason
Any school that allows teachers to carry a gun is a school that I won’t be sending my kid to.
“Arming parents with better parenting skills”
What an antiquated notion – I thought we’d moved past that long ago
Take away gun rights and all your other rights will surely follow.
Your (yes, you) two basic keystone rights are freedom of speech and right to bear arms. (I don’t want them to take away my hairy arms;-)
All kidding aside, any private institution can prohibit whatever it wants on it’s property, but for govt to do that is an infringement upon law abiding citizens rights to protect themselves and others. And, I don’t’ even own a gun, but I surely support what holds up all our other rights.
Also, there are examples where students and teachers have reduced casualties on campus and schools by carrying a gun when a shooting occurred, with permit of course.
Any bad or crazed person can carry a gun illegally and that is at the root of all this (OK, part of the root…). To prohibit the good people from packing defensive heat is absurd for more than one reason.
Here’s the best solution yet for stopping violence among youth:
http://www.sossandra.org/2008/07/13/why-are-we-not-asking-the-right-questions/
BTW, this is an awesome website by a true anti-domestic violence advocate and pioneer, very unlike most we see locally or across our nation, maliciously or ignorantly making more problems than they solve.