The Shooting Is Tragic, But The Lockdown Procedure May Lead To Greater Tragedy

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We listened to the accounts of the tragedy in a state of disbelief and sadness. The vulnerability of our children to psychopaths is obvious, but can we do more to protect our most innocent?

I listened to a local administrator describe the standard procedure under lockdown conditions and I had an ill-feeling of dread. The safety measures the schools are advised to take are now well-known to the potential homicidal maniacs who walk our streets, and now, there is the opportunity to capitalize on information that should be classified.

Lockdown procedures include locking the classroom doors and gathering the children in a corner. Fine, but are the doors still made of wood? If a shooter wants into a classroom, it is simple procedure to fire a few rounds into the wood around the handle and kick the door open.

Once access is attained, a few more rounds will obliterate a teacher and the children gathered into a corner. Remember, a psychopath is not necessarily stupid or a poor marksman; however, a poor marksman will appreciate the convenance of target opportunity (the herding of children into a corner).

If we are really interested in the welfare of our children, let’s think more about steel doors and access to the outside rather than teacher pensions. Recent mass killings provided the shooters with a semi-contained shooting gallery. Do we really want to make the perfect killing field for a more methodical and efficient killer?

There will be many vets using the GI Bill to become teachers, is it practical to have these particular teachers, who are familiar with weaponry and emergency procedures, to be armed with special Concealed Carry weapons and training? I am thinking of the children, and herding them into a corner like sheep in an abattoir is a disaster waiting to happen.

There is a period of time before authorities will arrive, assess the situation, and take appropriate measures to capture or kill the shooter. During this interval, the number of classrooms that can be oped and the number of children that can be murdered is too horrible to comprehend. It is important to remember, the psychopathic killer is not necessarily a blithering idiot; some of them are capable of being well-prepared and efficient in their savagery.

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A vast majority of commercial pilots from the USA are also veterans but the consensus among post-9-11-01 policy makers was to leave them unarmed while having random flights with plain-clothed armed agents.

School teachers who are proficient with firearms will probably never be allowed to carry in class…..either.

I have to say I was thinking the same thing. While the idiots are blathering on about taking guns away from everyone I’m wondering if we wouldn’t be better served by actually arming those who are protecting our children. Surely it’s no coincidence that many of these mass shootings are taking place in so called “gun free” zones. Well, maybe they should be gun free as far as students are concerned but why couldn’t trained teachers and administrators have access to weapons to protect the children? You made a good point when you said that all they’re really doing now is rounding them up and making them an easy target for the shooters.

@Skook:

The killer yesterday also took his own life. Good riddence. Saves the taxpayer the cost of trying him in a court where he would just be declared crazy and put in some nice, tony mental hospital for the rest of his life. I guess you have to try to kill a president in order to be eventually deemed sane enough to walk the streets freely after a few years.

Why can’t teachers, or at least some of them, be taught police tactics during a shooting? No, they don’t need to be trained on how to give out traffic tickets, but they do need to be instructed in crisis management, and perhaps that means that the U.S., like Israel, arm certain teachers or have other appropriately trained people stationed at public schools.

For me, as a parent, my answer would be to take my kids out of public schools where the mentality is “duck and cover” and not “respond.”

@retire05: For me, as a parent, my answer would be to take my kids out of public schools where the mentality is “duck and cover” and not “respond.”

I’m glad you added this point, retir05.
So often I hear parents talk like they are stuck with the public schools.
They are not.
There are options.
Private schools can be scrimped and saved for.
There are even programs to assist parents with tuition to some private schools.
Home schooling can be done after jumping through whatever hoops your state sets up.

@Nan G:

I chose to not send my kids to public schools. It was a decision I did not regret. Yes, it was hard, but the tiution was well worth it. My kids got a better education in a smaller school.

All private, and parachial, schools have tuition assistance. There are even charity organizations that will help with that problem. And from what I have seen of kids that are home-schooled, they are happy, well adjusted kids mainly because they have so much interaction with parents who care about them. Most of the boys play Little Leaque, or are in the Boy Scouts, so they do have interaction with their peers. The girls are in the Girl Scouts, as well.

In this nation we have this mindset that only university educated teachers are qualified to teach our kids. Nevermind that most of us managed to get out of high school, and would not be teaching our kids anything we didn’t already learn. Perhaps it is because the Teacher’s Union doesn’t want the competition, thinking they have a captive audience to be able to indoctrinate in their liberal view points. Personally, I think every university professor needs to make public their social/polical view points so if a parent doesn’t want to pay for their classes of indoctrination, they don’t have to. Few professors, like Robert Jensen, are known for the Marxists they are. It is a parent’s right to know who is teaching their young adults when the parents are paying for that priviledge.

Glen Reynolds has a great column up at USA Today on the “magical thinking” involved in creating “gun free zones” You can find it at http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2012/12/14/connecticut-school-shooting-gun-control/1770345/ It’s worth the read.

I think its time to start bringing lawsuits whenever possible after slaughters in gun free zones, charging negligence for the forced disarmament of private citizens, making them unable to protect themselves or the others injured and killed. Money damages tend to center the focus of businesses and local governments.

What truly amazes me is the distrust those on the left feel for the arming of responsible, private citizens. They live in bubbles, where they are protected from most obvious harm, and for the very powerful among them, protected by armed guards at their work and possibly in their homes. It is a fantasyland for them, and a dangerous fantasy for the rest of us.

@GW:

GW, you mean like Rosie (the Red) O’Donnell who decries the legal ownership of firearms but has body guards, that are armed to the teeth?

Security checkpoints at the entrance of every school during open hours… just like the courthouse. Arming the teachers not bad but what good did that do for Adam’s Mom? Don’t Retreat… Reload.

@CharlieGee:

So, Lanzo busts through the metal detectors and then . . . . he has several minutes of trigger time before the police show up? Or does he just pop the security guard we are now hiring to stand next to the metal detector, after which Lanzo has several minutes of trigger time . . . ? You can have all the metal detectors in the world in front of a school. They won’t stop a gunman. Another person armed with a gun will.

Your point on the mother involves a scenario so different as to be irrelevant. The mother was a single target and, one can assume, either chose not to arm herself or had no opportunity to do so before her son pulled the trigger. If the reports I have heard are true, she was shot asleep in bed.

At any rate, the point of having one or more people with carry permits spread throughout the school is that they provide a level of instant response that a shooter likely does not have the information to neutralize beforehand.

Case in point – today, a gunman opened fire in a hospital. He wounded three people before a policeman who happened to be at the hospital immediately responded and killed the gunman. That is, pun not intended, the “school solution.”

The United States tells how we won battles and wars, including tricks we used. The police tell how they solved crimes, including tricks they used. It seems only fair that the bad guys should also know how to go after our kids.

I agree with everything said here. Arm the teachers, at least a few of them, and don’t let it be known which ones.

I agree with concealed carry as well GW. The security checkpoint is preventative to reduce the potential of an incident; the random concealed carry is responsive to remedy the problem if it occurs. Kevlar security booths may reduce popping of security guards. At least requiring am ID to purchase ammo and stopping Internet sales of ammo is not something I would object to; would you? The schools in my area are spread out over several acres with multiple modular classrooms so by the time a carrier responds the damage has already started. Of course when these ‘smart but quiet’ individuals start wearing TNT vests the dynamics will change.

how did the shooter enter?
he just had an open door?

A creepy thing to me is the Google ‘streetview’.

They go all the way around the nursing homes, hospitals, daycaares, schools…ect…showing all exits…where to park your car…where the lights, bushes, outbuildings are…

They also post military bases (with a public road nearby) photographing all the pretty tanks, humvees or buildings in a row.
…makes ME feel safe…NOT!

@icecream: #17
I try not to use ANYTHING Google, and haven’t for years. They started taking their Street View car on military bases without permission, and are now banned from them.

They are being sued by several countries for receiving and storing personal info from unsecured WiFi hot spots. They said it was a programming error. How do you ACCIDENTALLY program AND store people’s personal info, include passwords, and any other info people put in while the Street View car was in receiving range.

The USA STARTED looking into it, until a Google executive had a $30,000 a plate fundraiser for the democrats. About 1-2 weeks later, the investigation was closed.

Right after I wrote the above, I deleted everything Google off of my computer, even their home page link. I’m glad you posted what you did so I would take another look to see if any Google stuff was left on my computer. There isn’t now. Thanks.

Hey Smorgasbord….I deleted all Google, as well. …and the ‘fundraiser’…cronyism at it’s best (or worst), huh?

@icecream: #19
The only “fundraiser” google wants, is for their bottom line. Now, they want in North Korea. I just added google to my “Don’t capitalize” list.

http://news.yahoo.com/why-eric-schmidt-going-north-korea-194039009.html