That signs like this are necessary outside schools is already ridiculous enough.
So you would like to see teachers walking around with assault weapons slung over their shoulders. Your focus is on the idea that those teachers would shoot the killer.
You’re overlooking several aspects of the issue.
What could possible go wrong when we give teachers assault rifles? Because teachers are never disgruntled, never stressed, never frustrated to such a level that they might lose it. Right?
I dare anyone, right here and now, to claim that you have never ever, in your entire adult life, seen red to the point that you’d literally like to shoot someone. Have you never in a public situation like a school, restaurant, workplace or the movies, wherever, yelled at someone, or stormed out, and had that feeling of to hell with the consequences?
Your answer–unless you are a saint–is no. Now imagine yourself in that same situation, but you just happen to have your semi-automatic assault rifle hanging from your shoulder that day.
Okay, maybe you have truly never had one of those to-hell-with-everything moments. Good for you. And sure, everyone–except you–has had murdering thoughts, but most people don’t act on them. I just think that line is a whole lot more easily crossed if you’re wearing a deadly weapon over your shoulder. And even if you fully trust yourself, can you vouch for your colleagues, your fellow students, the other people in the restaurant or movie theater?
I suspect that there were probably several students at the university where I was a teaching assistant for two semesters who would have wanted to kill me because of the grade I gave them. But they didn’t because they didn’t have their guns on them at the time.
Another thing is that it’s easier for someone toting guns to walk into a school unnoticed if armed people are already a normal sight in schools.
In fact, why would a killer even bother to bring his own guns? He could just walk in and tear the semi-assault rifle off the shoulder of an unsuspecting teacher in passing.
And let’s remember that we are talking about institutes of learning. The last few times I was at Schiphol airport, there were security guards standing around with assault rifles. It made me feel like I was in a war zone. Is that the environment you want your children to grow up in? Do you want them to grow up thinking there’s nothing odd about singing the ABC’s with their gun-toting teacher?
And finally, would you want your kids to be taught by the kind of person who doesn’t have a problem walking around with a semi-automatic assault rifle?
Give me your thoughts.
I will have more to say about the civilian arms race in relation to the movie Red Dawn in my next post.
Resident Alien -- Being Dutch in America 
I agree, I would not want any school to have teachers walk around like self appointed ‘freedom fighters’. I agree with people having the right to defend themselves in case of troubled times (like an invasion by another country) or against wild animals (savage wolves or bears around your cabin) but after seeing some American Doomsday preppers on National geographic this week, I think there’s way too many of those automatic assault weapons around! And I don’t even live in the USA, I worry for you folks over there.
Oh and the security guards on Schiphol airport? Might have been an Air Israel plane landing or taking off..That’s the only time I have seen them and that’s in the past 6 years.
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Oh, I’m glad they’re not around anymore at Schiphol. Yes, one of the writers of the Constitution, which includes the second amendment about gun rights, wrote that he was aware that the institution was written for that time,and that it would need to be adapted to the times in the future. I’ll find who it was. Because most Americans don’t have to defend themselves from bears and we pay through the nose to have the best army in the world, so militias aren’t necessary.
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Maybe they should get stricter laws on Movies and Games
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Do you mean laws about violence in movies and games?
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Something like that.. I know it sounds futile, I mean when parents buy a load of guns and the kids get taught how to use them…
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Right on, Barbara. Living in Canada as I do, I think the US obsession with gun ownership is idiotic. If you live in the country or go hunting, fine. But city dwellers don’t need guns. And equipping teachers with guns is beyond crazy.
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Teachers are there to teach, and that is their calling. I thought about this issue, too, thinking is this going to now be a part of a teacher’s application process? Gee, would you mind getting weapons training with an assault rifle? It’s ridiculous and sad. I saw a great quote today. It said something like this: In Preschool, when a kid has a rock we don’t say let’s have everyone pick up a rock, too. Something like that. It would set a terrible example. Our kids would be screwed up!
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That’s a great analogy!
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Now this I can agree with… arming teachers is not the answer because, in fact, teachers are human too and without intensive security training they are as susceptable as the next person to the stresses of life. Regarding the proponants view of the second amendment, protection of home and family from criminals is one common argument. But the other view is directly from our own Declaration Of Independence. The section reads, “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…” thusly implying that we have the right to keep and bear arms as a deterent to wrongful government; or it is a further check against government going too far. This is not a true reason for the Second Amendment but it has become a fundemental reason. I’m not saying I agree with these folks.. I am just attempting to clarify that the proponents of the Second Amendment are not all about folks just wanting to hunt for bear for dinner… or kill zombies.
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I know. but it was written at a time when the population was much smaller, and the British taking over again or a president deciding he wanted to be king was a very real possibility. Now it’s more complicated. Who gets to decide who the good guys are that deserve to carry killing machines? I’m not done about this subject yet.
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When I was in seventh grade, one of my teachers got so angry with a student that he threw an eraser at his head. This was in a Baptist school in an honors-level class. Hardly one of the poorly behaved classes. So yeah, in a public school with large numbers and more aggressive students, I can certainly see someone — teacher or student — losing it and using one of those oh-so-handy guns. It’s ridiculous that they’re talking about adding more guns to solve the problem, rather than taking away or heavily restricting the guns we already have.
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Yes. For a few days I thought that maybe this time things would be different, but no, it’s the same old NRA bull. Shameless.
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The reasons you give why teachers shouldn’t have guns at school are very sound and reasonable.
There are a few reasons you give I didn’t think about, yet!
It is true, in my opinion, that when a gun is available it will be used at one point.
Those situations you mentioned are a very good example.
The American Constitution is for some Americans almost the same as the gospel; including the second amendment.
If you think about it it is strange because the Dutch constitution has been changed several times in its history.
Adapting it at the circumstances, ideas and convictions of that perticular timeperiod.
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Exactly. Of course the institution has to be protected, because it guarantees freedoms that can’t just be taken away. But it does still have to be adapted to a changing society.
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