Friday, August 15, 2008

School District To Allow Concealed Carry For Staff

It’s good to see some common sense.

A tiny Texas school district may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes begin later this month, a newspaper reported.

Trustees at the Harrold Independent School District approved a district policy change last October so employees can carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting teachers follow certain requirements.

In order for teachers and staff to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; must be authorized to carry by the district; must receive training in crisis management and hostile situations and have to use ammunition that is designed to minimize the risk of ricochet in school halls.

Superintendent David Thweatt said the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff’s office, leaving students and teachers without protection. He said the district’s lone campus sits 500 feet from heavily trafficked U.S. 287, which could make it a target.

“When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that’s when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can’t defend themselves? That’s like saying ‘sic ‘em’ to a dog,” Thweatt said in Friday’s online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

(8) Comments
Posted by Owen at 0614 hrs
Firearms + Law + Politics + Politics - Texas

  1. And my right wing colleagues were always saying the trouble started when “G-d was taken out of school”.

    But wait!

    The trouble started when the feds started ‘makin’ skools’ gun-free zones.

    Now we know why those kids can’t learn nothin’.

    The teachers need target practice first!

    YEE-HAW!

    What about them Sunday skools? It’s only common sense.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 15, 2008 at 1631 hrs


  2. I don’t have a problem with this.  I’ve always supported the right of school board members to make these determinations of their own will.  School board members are elected officials, and so in some capacity represent the interests of the community (or at least those members of the community who bother to vote).

    If they decide they don’t want guns on campus, that’s fine with me.  If they decide they want to allow them with certain conditions, I’m fine with that as well.

    As best I can tell, most research is at worst neutral on the matter - that concealed carry makes a society neither safer nor more dangerous.  Much of it seems to point in the direction of reducing violent crime.

    It’s unsurprising, then, that many of the loudest in the anti-gun crowd are compelled to make baseless, emotional arguments grounded in fear.  You know, the same kind of arguments they’ve bitched about the Bush campaign making all these years.

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on August 15, 2008 at 1643 hrs


  3. “non-ricochet ammo”

    Howitzers?

    Posted by dad29 on August 15, 2008 at 1714 hrs


  4. Well… you can reduce ricochet by using non-jacketed hollow points.  I’m all for that!

    Posted by Owen on August 15, 2008 at 1826 hrs


  5. Good for them.  Clear-thinking Texans reminding us of our responsibility to protect ourselves and not to rely on law enforcement.  Hopefully other schools throughout the country follow their lead.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 15, 2008 at 2214 hrs


  6. Just to keep it fair, arm all the kiddies too.  Then the smart ones will leave, and the dumb ones will chant NRA! while they kill each other.

    Posted by capper on August 15, 2008 at 2248 hrs


  7. I want fewer bullets flying through the halls of American schools.  I appreciate this district’s attempt to make such a proposition (I’m thinking here of WI state sentor Lassee’s recent crackpot proposition) sane, I’m just not convinced by the logic.

    It’s unsurprising, then, that many of the loudest in the anti-gun crowd are compelled to make baseless, emotional arguments grounded in fear.

    While I’m not amongst the loudest in the anti-gun crowd, I have no experience with school shootings, I am afraid of such an event happening at my (or my children’s) school, and the topic rises emotional with me.  I guess that makes all my propositions baseless, emotional, and grounded in fear.  I still get a vote. And if I lived in Harrold, TX it would be against the board members who enacted this policy in the next election.

    Posted by Mike on August 17, 2008 at 1051 hrs


  8. I also have a problem, Owen, with the term common sense.  I understand th logic of this argument (the deterrent effect of armed teachers).  But we all know that the logic is, at its most basic, counter-intuitive.  The elitism implied in the term “common sense” as it pertains to this issue is also counter-intuitive it seems.  It is still elitism. And you are guilty of it.

    Posted by Mike on August 17, 2008 at 1055 hrs


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