Are more guns in schools the answer to mass shootings?

Umm – let me think for a moment. No.

They are one answer, that’s for sure. How good an answer, I have my doubts. I think those guns would be more likely to end up killing school students than mass murderers. Mass murderers are very rare. Forgetting to secure a gun happens much more often. Having a child start playing with a gun and pointing it at some other child and pulling the trigger happens much more often. But gee, it’s one answer to “overpopulation.”

You did know the NRA is a secret off shoot of the ZPG movement, right?

Does anyone know that teachers and school administrators are a jumbled bag of people, some who have no business being around guns? Do you really want some 65 year old school marm handling a gun? Or what about the psycho PE teacher everyone talks about? Give guns to teachers and I guarantee at least one teacher will use that gun on the students. Kids can be real assholes at school.

The LAUSD, the 2nd largest school district in the country, has armed police at certain schools and I cannot remember a mass school shooting in the history of the LAUSD. Isn’t the school police enough?

no

Kids in LAUSD may be armed too – not conducive to lone gunman mass shootings.

@RocketGuy That’s a gross stereotype. I went to a ghetto school and no one I knew even cared about guns, we cared about school. Once a guy with a gun came into school and all I saw was him running and the school police chasing him off school grounds.

I didn’t even go to a big school but we always had at least 1 police officer on duty in the school at all times. Seems like a way better solution to this issue.

I doubt it.
And theoretically, if the teachers were equipped with guns, the next step will be that the schoolchildren will also be carrying guns around….because how else would they protect themselves if the teacher is unable to?
It would lead to many more deaths. And spread more fear.

It’s only going to help if the armed person is highly trained. A dimwit with a gun is just one more hazard.

Well, having an armed police offer didn’t help Columbine. But let’s not hold our breath expecting the NRA to use logic or evidence to form their positions.

There was a shoot out in a police station in Gloucester Twp. NJ this morning. Three officers were injured when a suspect grabbed one of their guns. He was then shot and killed. If this can happen in the police station with highly trained law enforcement officers, it can happen in a school. Besides, the people who choose careers in education chose that and not law enforcement. I don’t think they’d want that additional pressure.

@hearkat I heard about that, Gloucester twp is quite close to where I live, pretty crazy.

Those that live by the sword, die by the sword.

@uberbatman – I know; I was expecting that you would’ve mentioned it when I saw that you’d commented here.

@ETpro
your answer here So logical. So, the answer to your question is OMG!, NO.

No, I do not believe that they are the solution.

There are two ways in which having guns would help: deterring the criminals, or killing them while they are committing the crime.

In terms of killing the gunman while he is committing the crime, I believe that having an armed police officer might be able to save a few lives. The problem with this approach is that the gunman must already be killing people in order for the guards to react. There was an armed guard at Columbine. His actions might of saved several lives, but 13 people were already dead. In terms of saving lives, armed guards might help, but in terms of preventing mass murders, they will simply not be able to stop one from occurring.

The second topic is that of deterrence. Having armed guards are good at deterring criminals who plan on staying alive, or people who value there own lives. It will deter people such as robbers, thieves, rapists, some murderers who are out to kill specific people, etc. However, the people who are the cause of the “insane gunman” scenario do not value their own lives. They do not plan on leaving the scene alive, and they do not want to leave the scene alive. They often commit suicide immediately following the crime. So, I don’t think that they will acknowledge any amount of deterrence.

@ETpro Isn’t that “solution” be good for NRA, the manufacturers of weapons? Wouldn’t mass shootings just grow in proportion to the number of guns out there?

We speak of these answers as if there has to be a good one or one at all. The only way to for sure stop public mass shootings is for there to be zero firearms including the police and military as well as every other country’s police and military. All of them on the planet have to be gone as well as the minds capable of designing new ones. So, now that that is never going to happen all we can do is something that could work.
Most beat cops aren’t proficient with their service pistols, ala Columbine, certainly not where special weapons training is concerned like with SWAT trained experts. And even if they might accidentally clip a kid in a chaotic situation but then one has to ask: even if there is a friendly accidental strike, would that be as bad as nobody to oppose a deranged shooter as long as he is stopped before he continues to kill as many as he can find?
We Got our knickers in a knot when we started seeing armed guards in airports and other public places but nowadays we pass them by without giving them much thought. I think its high time the schools were brought up to speed with the rest of the public. It was only a matter of time before it was going to come to this. And do we think for an instant that religious radicals would not choose a school to attack? It happened in Russia by Chechnyan attackers a few years ago. I seriously do not believe students will be having nightmares upon seeing a cop at school for the first time.

Not how I want to spend my tax dollars. There are more effective ways to reduce the likelihood of violence. Paying a cop to sit on his ass all day long, eating donuts, is not one of those ways. Putting one in every school would no doubt double and triple the police force in most communities. It will be unaffordable.

Just how much money are your kids worth then?

Have someone donate an old bread truck, paint it black and have SWAT in bold letters on the side. Have someone move it around a couple days a week then hide it on weekends. I wonder if a nutjob seeing this will go someplace else. It’s always going to be too expensive to do anything from now on but things can be done if there is the will. This is going to happen sooner or later.

@hearkat I heard about it at like 10–11 am this morning and was still half asleep so I kinda forgot even hearing it until you brought it up here.

I don’t know. Seems to me, though, that they they launched a pretty good campaign against cigarettes. They’ve created such a stigma concerning the use of lighted tobacco products that the only people who smoke are those that really want to smoke.

Imagine the same campaign launched against firearms. They’ll be removed from movies, television, etc.

They’ll only be allowed in “designated areas”.

Treatment centers will open up for people addicted to shooting things.

You’ll read signs in elevators concerning the penalty of carrying loaded firearms in buildings.

They can even tax the hell out of guns…collecting a shlitzload of revenue while pretending to protect the public from it.

Petition “second-hand” murders?