Remember when the idea of having teachers and administrators armed and carrying concealed on campus was too scary to consider? As scary as unarmed teachers leading active shooter drills? Unions, Teachers, parents, and students all agree the drills are bad.
“Everywhere I travel, I hear from parents and educators about active shooter drills terrifying students, leaving them unable to concentrate in the classroom and unable to sleep at night,” Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the NEA, said. “So traumatizing students as we work to keep students safe from gun violence is not the answer. That is why if schools are going to do drills, they need to take steps to ensure the drills do more good than harm.”
I know teachers who have to endure them. I also know a teacher whose husband is a swat commander. He thinks the drill should look something like this. Get the F**k, out of the building. Don’t lock down and hide, leave. Or, ideally, have people on site who is armed.
That’s a better plan. Take down all those gun-free (please shoot my kids) zone signs and replace them with these.
And while you’re at it, add gun safety courses to the curriculum. Students who know how they work and how to handle them are not only less afraid they are more aware and more capable of dealing with an active shooter situation if someone is dumb enough to wander into a school full of armed staff carrying concealed all over the campus.
Criminals don’t obey the law. Criminals who can expect to die before they get a chance to shoot anyone are less likely to even try.
And then there’s the government. Parkland showed us just how easy it is to spot a potential problem and how when given the chance, the government will choose to do nothing about it. Repeatedly. Even when they have dozens of chances.
Problems that need to be addressed, certainly, but if you are vetted, armed, trained and allowed to carry, the only problem you have to worry about is clearing your holster. And if you are trained well, that won’t be a problem.
| Examiner
