Parkland Massacre - Investigating Panel recommends arming teachers. Heads exploding in 3...2...1... - Granite Grok

Parkland Massacre – Investigating Panel recommends arming teachers. Heads exploding in 3…2…1…

Majory Stoneman Douglas High School gun free zone

Wow!  Just wow! What is Parkland kiddie David Hogg going to do about this? A breath of fresh reality (reformmated, emphasis mine):

Florida school massacre panel recommends arming teachers

The panel investigating the Florida high school massacre recommended Wednesday that teachers who volunteer and undergo extensive background checks and training be allowed to carry concealed guns on campus to stop future shootings. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission voted 13-1 to recommend the Legislature allow the arming of teachers, saying it’s not enough to have one or two police officers or armed guards on campus. Florida law adopted after the Feb. 14 shooting that left 17 dead allows districts to arm non-teaching staff members such as principals, librarians and custodians — and 13 of the 67 districts do, mostly in rural parts of the state.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, the commission’s chairman, pushed the measure at the Tallahassee meeting. He said most deaths in school shootings happen within the first few minutes, before officers on and off campus can respond. He said suspect Nikolas Cruz stopped to reload his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle five times, all of which would have been opportunities for an armed teacher to shoot him.

It continues on (below) but let’s unpack what has just been presented:

  • The police take too much time to just get there – the action may be over before they arrive
  • The police / school resource officers already on site may be enough (in fact, we know they were cowards that refused to enter the building, allowing Cruz to do more mayhem and murdering).
  • Teachers should be able to
  • 13-1 vote – they realized that arming teachers are a necessary need
  • Armed staff serve as a legitimate deterrent to opportunistic killers

The biggest (but unstated) findings?

  • Gun free zones are beacons for those willing to turn the into free-fire zones.
  • An active shooter event requires a shoot-back defense

This event has taken over the national conversation and fed an anti-gun atmosphere where those demanding Safety and Security are all too willing to dispense with Constitutional Rights which should be inviolate.  This, is going to inject some level headedness back into that atmosphere although I wish this next part was worded a bit differently:

“We have to give people a fighting chance, we have to give them an opportunity to protect themselves,” Gualtieri said. He said there aren’t enough officers or money to hire one for every school, but even then, officers need backup. “One good guy with a gun on campus is not enough.”

No, it isn’t a case of “giving them a chance” – it really is getting out of their way of peoples’ exercising their Second Amendment Right.  As well, that “One good guy with a gun…is not enough” put in that context must really grate on the nerves of billionaire Mikey Bloomburg’s gun-grabbing lackey groups, Moms Demand Action and Everytown who literally hate that phrase.

The state teachers union and PTA have previously expressed opposition, saying teachers are hired to educate, not be police officers. Commissioner Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son, Alex, died in the massacre, cast the lone vote against the motion. He said the state should focus on hiring more police officers for campuses and allowing non-teaching staff to carry guns.

“We do need more good guys with a gun on campus — nobody understands that and wishes we had more at Marjory Stoneman Douglas than myself,” Schachter said. But arming teachers “creates a host of problems.” The father and wife of other victims, who are not on the commission, also spoke against arming teachers.

Funny, I think that having dead students and staff (of any kind) is sorta the worst kind of problem to have in the first place.  TANSTAFFL – so which of those “host of problems” would be worse?  Frankly the piece doesn’t say what they are but I can’t think of a single one worse than a dead kid laying on tiled / concrete floor.  Especially when someone, right there, right then, has the ability to have stopped, or mitigated in part, an active shooter.

After the shooting, Florida law was changed to allow school districts to train and arm employees other than teachers except those who are former or current police officers, current members of the military or Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps instructors.

…The 15-member commission, which has been meeting periodically since April, will present a report to Gov. Rick Scott, incoming Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature by Jan. 1.  The commission includes law enforcement, education and mental health professionals, a legislator and the fathers of two slain students.

(H/T: NY Post)

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