Arming Teachers 2

Should Our Teachers Be Packing?

How Do We Deal With the Grief?

Whatever we do, we must never lay this at the feet of the grieving people of Newton, MA.  Socially, this is a national disaster.  However, we must solve this disaster locally in every community.  The facts seem to be that our neighbor cried out for help and we did very little about it.  How do we do that without accusing the grieving people of Newton, MA?  Newton’s grief is our grief, so at square one, we need to buy into it.  We need to man-up and woman-up and accept our responsibility.  This is my problem, and I need to take ownership of it.  We need to talk.  We need to solve this together.  This is a Biblical, Spiritual problem and, we’re not doing a very good job, either Biblically or Spiritually.  We deal with grief by sharing its burden.

Is More Law Enforcement the Solution?

More law enforcement won't necessarily keep evil perpetrators out of the hallways.  This particular perpetrator was known and identified well ahead of time.  Nobody dealt with him sufficiently.  We the people allowed this evil person in the door.  We set up the social conditions that permitted this perpetrator to act.  We permitted, by our attitudes and lack of actions, the slaughter of twenty-six innocent people.  This is not Newton’s problem.  This is our problem.  More law enforcement won’t necessarily do the job that needs to be done.

Is There Biblical Wisdom On This Topic?

Moses suggests that it is perfectly possible for devoted, God fearing, spiritual parents, to get in over their heads parenting.  In such a case Moses requires the town elders to handle the problem.  We might not want to apply the solution exactly the way that Moses applied it, but we ignore Moses’ wisdom and principles to our own peril (Exodus 21:15, 17; Deuteronomy 21:18-21).  This parent was clearly in over the head parenting.  There is something about our society that prevents the necessary help from arriving.  The (repeated) outcome is alarming tragedy.  When a parent gets in over their head, society needs to take parenting support action.  That support system failed in Newton, but it also is a failure in Norman, Oklahoma, and everywhere-else-town, USA.  DHS has not proved to be a reliable solution.

How Can We Become More Vigilant?

While it is true that we don’t always see trouble coming, this only indicates that we are not being watchful enough.  Perhaps we don’t need to become hyper-vigilant, but we certainly need to become more vigilant.  Perhaps we fail at the necessary vigilance because our sense of community has been greatly diluted.  We need to find a way to fix our sense of community.  It does take a village.  We cannot become sufficiently vigilant by ourselves, isolated, alone.

What Is The Real Goal?

The bottom line is that we need to keep perpetrators out of our school hallways.  We need to stop them before they get through the doors.  That is the objective.  That is the goal we must accomplish.  Can we agree to stay focused on this?

What Environment Are We Creating?

I don’t really like the idea of cops in every hallway, locks on every door, and bars on every window.  Think about it.  Aren’t we turning our schools into prisons, instead of the fun, exciting, learning places they ought to be?  Maybe the safety zone should be larger than the building walls, maybe it should be the property fence or beyond, and maybe nobody should get inside the fence without being thoroughly vetted.  Maybe then, we can safely take the locks off the doors, the bars off the windows, but install bullet proof glass in every window.

Should Mentally Disturbed People Have Guns?

I’m a hawk, not a dove.  I actively oppose excessive gun control and gun paranoia.  However, I find it difficult to cope with a society that believes that the mentally disturbed and criminals ought to be allowed to be armed, while responsible citizens ought to be disarmed.  It is simply illogical that it is not a felony to sell guns to the mentally disturbed and criminals.

Is Psychological Vetting Possible?

Every citizen should be psychologically vetted before being allowed to buy their first gun.  The problem is that such vetting is expensive, and is easily twisted by those with one particular viewpoint or other.  How would we ever exercise such power reasonably and responsibly?  I don’t know that we are capable of handling such power.  I do know, what everybody else now knows, this kid should have never been allowed near a gun.  Nevertheless, playing Monday morning quarterback will not cure our social problem.  We should recognize when somebody steps over the line repeatedly.  How do we go about doing that?

Is Reliable Citizen Control Possible?

Gun ownership and use is every bit as big a deal as driving a car, buying a drink, or smoking a cigarette: all have serious lethal capability.  No one should be allowed to own a gun without demonstrating the necessary safety knowledge, use skills, and controlled storage capability.  That means licensing.  That means annual firing range testing.  That means mandatory vault ownership.  That means surveillance to prove that the vault is in use.  After all, we do require mandatory auto seat safety belts, and this is much more serious.  The problem is that I don’t want the FBI, or the OSBI, or the sheriff, or the local police chief monitoring such gun regulation or even knowing that I have a gun; but maybe I need a contract with my next-door neighbor or the person who sold me the gun.  I get private furnace inspections every year without police involvement, why not mandated annual gun security inspections ($50)?

Are We Being Realistic?

Unfortunately, if we don't find a way to keep perpetrators out of the hallways, more bullets will fly.  However, teachers are already overloaded with tasks.  They don't need one more duty to juggle, otherwise I could support guns for some teachers under some conditions, but I could never support guns for all teachers under all conditions.  If such legislation were ever passed, we would need some assurance of security other than, “It's locked in the teacher's desk drawer.”  Guns in the classroom is a sort of Band-Aid, as are effective SWAT operations, but neither of these deal with the fundamental problem: namely, the perpetrator got past the school door.  But I’m not willing to give up effective SWAT operations.

Yesterday’s Thoughts

“Well, arming teachers may not do the trick, at least not in every case.

But changing our attitudes is very important.  We have altered police attitudes nationwide so that police now engage school threats immediately.  But ours is a nation built on patriots and patriotism.  “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot” does shrink.  The attitude of the whole town must be turned.  We must all learn immediately to engage threats to children, the weak, and the helpless.  We must cease standing idly by while another human being is being abused.  We must learn and know how to engage threats.

That’s a pretty personal decision for [each of] us.  We must plan ahead and decide what we will do with a given threat.  If you decide to huddle with the children in a safe room, that’s fine with me.  If you vote to have an armed police squad in every school, I’ll support you.  But if you decide that you want either a taser or a 9mm or both locked in a secure place, and are willing to take the training to use whichever you choose, I’m with you all the way.

We need a plan that stops perpetrators from getting into schools to begin with.  If an alert armed teacher on the playground can stop a perpetrator before the perpetrator gets in the building, before the police can possibly get there, I’m all for it.  We need to do something, and we need to do it better, right now.

That does not mean that I should force you to pack a Glock against your will.  But both of us need to be active participants, willing and able to engage any enemy.

Your weapon of choice might be words.

I’ll take the guard job armed with an assault rifle, shotgun, 45, taser, cuffs, club, and uniform, thank you.”

Today’s Conclusions

So, No, I don’t really want my teachers to be forced into packing.  Teacher carry fails to accomplish the basic objective: namely, keep evil perpetrators outside of the building, outside of the school yard, outside of quiet and well-ordered society.  Teacher carry fails to provide a safe and fun learning environment for our kids.  Teachers already have much too much to do, they do not need to tack on one more serious responsibility.  But if we as a society fail to step up, teacher carry may be our only recourse.