I bookmark 100 times the number of other writers’ posts than what I can ever comment on. Sometimes, I “find them” again – like this one. If I was on “the other side”, I might put up as a Notable Quote – but sadly, I consider it to be an ignoble one. American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, on gun control and school safety:
Firearms have absolutely no place in our schools—the Dec. 14, 2012, tragic massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., is a chilling and heartbreaking reminder of this. Permitting firearms in schools—visible or concealed—enables a dangerous set of circumstances that can result in similar tragic outcomes. We should be doing everything we can to reduce the possibility of any gunfire in schools, and concentrate on ways to keep all guns off school property and ensure the safety of children and school employees.
The school had upgraded its facilities in the name of safety – glass, door, buzzer, cameras. They had practiced the drills for lockdown. The police had done their part with drills on active shooters. They arrived 20 minutes after Adam Lanza killed his mother (breaking the law), stole her AR (breaking the law), stole her Sig handgun (breaking the law), stole another handgun (breaking the law), stole a shotgun (breaking the law), stole her car (breaking the law), illegally entered the building (breaking the law), and began his murderous rampage of revenge ( (breaking the law multiple times).
I read Weingarten’s words then and just read them again. And I think of Victoria Soto, the first grade teacher that put locked her door, put her students into a closet….and then waited. Hearing the screams. Hearing the gunfire. And scared to think that she and her charges would be next. Helpless.
Helpless. Unable to defend herself. Unable to defend the children in her charge. Helpless, unable to do anything at all. Except die – defenseless. The overriding issue to me is the shameless shucking away of the foundational Right to self-defense of oneself (and those she loved) and the absolute outsourcing of that defense to the State (which, again and duly noted, took 20 minutes).
I read her words and wonder about the terror each of the adults must have felt knowing that their policies (or those set for them) rendered them incapable of doing anything at all for themselves or their students. Weingarten and others like her, are worried that if school personal were armed and then went rogue, another tragedy would happen. This is the same argument we have heard, over and over, as to why concealed or open carry should never be extended in areas that do not currently allow them. Yet, in every case where it is allowed, the crime and “streets red with blood” never happen.
Weingarten’s continued resolve of defenselessness must have been of cold comfort that day as the teachers that were murdered in cold blood by a deranged mental / emotional defective, looked up at Lanza…
…Empty handed.
(H/T: Britbart)
