This column first appeared at Complete Colorado.
Enough. Damn it, enough!
Enough virtue signaling instead of preventing school shootings. Enough of elected school boards denying reality.
It is time for all of Colorado’s 178 school districts to join the 50 that currently have volunteer, trained, concealed armed staff to stop a shooter the moment he begins — because when seconds count, the police are only minutes away
The difference is wanting to feel safe versus wanting to be safe.
By constantly making it harder and more expensive for law-abiding people (i.e. the good guys) to purchase, practice and legally carry firearms, our lawmakers think we will feel safer. Maybe some will even fall for it and feel safer. But none of it makes us any safer.
Reality check
Actually being safe, making our schools safe, requires us to accept realities many simply cannot stomach:
The reality is unicorns are not invading the United States to confiscate the more than 400 million firearms here — more than one gun per person. Guns are and will be omni-present in America. The more gun-phobes restrict them, the more people buy them. It’s why former President Barack Obama is considered the greatest gun salesman in history.
The reality is there is no way to afford having 20 armed police officers wandering the halls of every school, all day, every day, just waiting for the moment a shooter starts firing.
The reality is the safeguards most schools implement are for us, not the shooter, to show they are doing “something.” They need enough to prove in court, after our children are massacred, that they did what they reasonably could.
Lockdown drills and fortified front doors do not, have not and will not deter school shootings or stop a shooter once he started.
The reality is nearly 30% of Colorado’s 178 school districts have trained arms staff who volunteered to take on the extra responsibility to protect our children.
The reality is Jefferson County schools do not allow their school staff that option.
The reality is “gun-free zones” kill children.
Let me be blunt: School boards that do not allow willing, qualified staff members to protect our kids have the blood of the dead on their hands. They did not do all they reasonably could protect our children. They should legally be held responsible.
Arming school staff
There has not been a hijacking of an American airliner plane since Sept. 11, 2001. One major factor — pilots who volunteer to carry concealed guns. Just like how schools can’t afford to put a cop in every hallway, the TSA can’t afford to put an undercover air marshal on every flight. About one in 10 flights has an armed pilot, trained by the air marshals for only one situation — a hijacking.
If our lives are worth protecting this way, why aren’t our children’s lives worth it at school?
Nine years ago, the organization I run, Independence Institute, created a similar training program not for pilots, but for teachers. Under the leadership of the indefatigable Laura Carno, the idea was to work with law enforcement to train willing, capable and qualified school staff to conceal a gun just in case the worst happens.
Our FASTER program, which is now its own separate 501(c)(3) organization, has trained more than 500 school staff members from some 50 school districts across the state. Many of these schools have signs on the door, “Our students are protected by armed staff.”
We now have written proof of what we’ve been saying for decades. The written manifestos of the Minneapolis and Nashville shooters made clear they chose their targets because they knew there’d be no armed resistance.
Unless you can afford a private school or homeschooling, you are required by law to surrender your children to a government schools for six hours a day. The state says their first priority is their safety. Do you believe it?
We need to get over our phobia of guns and realize 15% of all Colorado adults have concealed carry permits and have used them to stop mass shooting including in Colorado Springs and Arvada.
When a school shooter is pointing a gun at your child, do you prefer both child and teacher cowering under their desks, praying for the police to come in time. Or would you feel safer with an armed, police-trained adult next to your child ready to end the threat
Be loud. Demand your school board vote on trained, armed staff.
Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.
This is actually the most realistic answer to protecting our children. No one is talking about forcing staff to carry. Every time you hear of a school shooting, you hear of brave staff “shielding the children with their own bodies”. Instead, lets give them an option. Put the kids in the corner out of sight, get out your firearm and cover the door. All the teachers do is cover their kids while armed staff members (again, all trained volunteers) locate and if possible engage the shooter).
One idea I’ve seen is that the gun stays in a locked safe in the teachers desk. They put the gun in there before school starts, and lock it. It only unlocks with their thumb print, and if it’s every unlocked during class, it immediately starts a camera and send an alarm and video to the office admin area.
The writer here hit the nail on the head. Removing guns from American society is a non-starter, plain and simple, and forcing staff to ignore the best option is just plain dumb. As he says, it’s already working in many places, and the potential shooters who are out there egging each other on have learned this, they know which schools to avoid.
This is a natural outgrowth of the gun craziness in this country. If we weren’t so damned insane, we could solve this problem. Instead, the danger grows geometrically.
We can largely thank the NRA and the gun industry for this. We can also blame the Supreme Court, which has so twisted the Constitution as to turn it into a suicide pact.
The NRA, and some of its membership, abetted by justices like the late Antonin Scalia, created a homocidal culture unlike virtually any other in history via a twisting of the Second Amendment. That amendment was enacted to preserve the civilian institution of the militia (now, the National Guard) as a state-run emergency force that also served as a backup for the regular army.
How’s that working out for us? Four hundred million firearms out there in private hands. And the killing goes on, and on, and on…
We are indeed insane.
As a retired SWAT supervisor, I read a national paper produced in reference to school shootings. There were many suggestions that were good. An overall approach is necessary. There is no one single answer. However, as one with extensive experience in violent encounters, I have been amazed at the failure to realistically assess the situation that will be encountered. Even after seeing the dismal tactical approach in Uvalde, few lessons were learned. At Uvalde, the officers waited for equipment before entering the room. They approached but retreated when fired upon. When your mortality flashes before your face, it is easy to hesitate. It is important that we give officers or teachers who would rescue kids a fighting chance. There should be a rifle shield available in every school for the use of the SRO or responding officers. You cannot wait for someone to bring you one. I have used shields extensively in police operations and I know that they can greatly speed up the response by officers. My SWAT officers were macho guys who laughed at the idea of shields when I proposed their use. We did a number of exercises where I demonstrated to them how easily they were killed without the shields. They could not argue the difference. A shield should be in each school. I know that a police chief can come up with excuses for why the shields aren’t in the schools. I know from experience that police chiefs know little about tactics. A shield costs a few thousand dollars. Children’s lives should not be left to the ignorance of those who are responsible for their safety. I realize that this will be ignored by those in power. Imagine if officers could have advanced immediately at Uvalde with some protection. They could have been far more aggressive. Police administrator’s abilities and lack of knowledge were painfully demonstrated at Uvalde. Don’t let that ignorance leave your child at risk.
Austin American-Statesman
https://www.statesman.com › News
May 26, 2022 — The AR-15 rifle, the gun used to kill 21 people in Uvalde, often used in mass shootings.
It was purchased legitimately. Along with some 3000 rounds (which might have been a clue). But gun nuts don’t want to limit ammo purchases or limit purchases of rapid fire weapons….yes even a auto 12 gauge can do aweful damage. Reduce that to a single shot and now victims at least have a chance. Your shields sure, I can agree with that. Imagine if officers could have advanced immediately at Uvalde with some protection. Yep, but they were afraid of the AR-15 capabilities (maybe with or without shields)
SRO’s…..first to be looked for with these new age young aggressive shooters. Arming teachers is just plain stupid. Just like carrying firearms into grocery stores or fast food joints. It makes the carrier feel like he’s ‘clint eastwood’ when the fact is these things happen so quickly one has very little time to respond. Go ahead with this fantasy and arm everybody…sure….then the perps will just shoot from a distance. Now what you gonna do? Answer? maybe spend the money on bullet proof doors and glass? Proper screening at the doors. Mental health that works. Right now you think someone is a threat? Not much you can do about it until they do something violent. Usually nobody is paying attention. Kirk’s assassin? “According to the messages released by prosecutors, when asked by his roommate how long he’d taken to plan the attack, Robinson responded: “A bit over a week.” He made it known and no one bothered to call. And i figure if they did the LEO would have said “can’t do anything until he does something”. let’s be pragmatic about this issue and make gun ownership more difficult for the masses. You can’t shoot from 300 yards with a shotgun…