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Ohio teachers to receive gun training
Pro-gun lobby group to send 24 Ohio teachers, administrators to tactical training course
More than 700 teachers, administrators volunteered
SHARONVILLE, Ohio - A new program created by the Buckeye Firearms Association, a member of the pro-gun lobby, will send 24 Ohio teachers and administrators to a tactical training course this spring.
The course would instruct a teacher, licensed to carry a concealed handgun, how to confront and potentially neutralize a would-be mass shooter.
"You look at the situation in Sandy Hook, the principal, she walked up and confronted this guy with nothing except for hope," said Joe Eaton, a spokesperson for the BFA.
"She still went ahead and did that. We need to give our teachers and administrators any tools they need to keep our children alive out there. They should be able to do something besides walking up and dying," continued Eaton.
The BFA says more than 700 teachers and administrators have volunteered to be one of the first 24 students to attend the training course.
According to the BFA, more than 40 percent of those teachers already have licenses to carry concealed firearms.
"We are not asking these teachers to do any more than they already do to protect themselves and their family," Eaton said. "We think they should be able to do the same thing while on the job."
Eaton argues that the reason mass shooters target malls, schools and movie theaters is that they are generally "gun free" zones and that the shooters are confident they won't face armed resistance.
The foundation has agreed to completely cover the cost of training the first class of 24 participants. That will include tuition, ammunition and lodging, totaling about $1,000 per participant.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said he believes the decision to arm teachers should be left to local school boards. Ohio law gives those boards the authority to allow individuals to bring weapons on school campuses.
?The truth is that, while we train first responders, the real first responders in these tragedies are teachers,? DeWine said. ?They?re the ones who are there. They?re the ones who are going to make the life-and-death decisions. They?re the ones that are doing to do what they can do to save lives.?
Patricia Frost-Brooks, president of the Ohio Education Association is strongly opposed to the idea.
?Instead of arming educators, they can enhance school safety with more counselors, better mental health services and partnering with local police to deter violence in schools,? said Frost-Brooks.
The BFA says roughly two dozen of these 700 or more volunteers have the blessing and support of their local school boards.
Eaton declined to disclose the names of those districts.
Re: Ohio teachers to receive gun training
Oh so they want to tell us that teachers are doing this but not where. No problem. We will find out when a kid shots another kid with the teacher's gun. They know its not right. That is why there is a lack of Information. I would not allow my kid in a classroom where a gun is kept. That is crazy.
I was going to say when a teacher ends up shooting and killing a kid who brings a toy gun to school, but yeah. Or tries to shoot at a perceived threat and hits a kid instead.
Price we pay in Amur'ka!
Totally agree. There is no way in hell I would allow my child to be in a classroom with a gun. Oh, a trained teacher? Hell no. Not happening. Are they insane?
Once the lawsuits start rolling, this idea is gonna get shut the *** down. I pray.
I had some crazy azz teachers when I was in school, the thought
that they could be armed is beyond frightening
Great point.
I would be more in favor of 8' high chain link fences around all school properties with one access driveway point that had an automatic gate lift that would be controlled from the school's office via a video and audio system.
This way crazy people couldn't get onto the property AT ALL unless they had a pass in through the sliding chain-link fence from a preapproved office staff person.
So our schools become compounds. I'd be fine with that.
Edited to add: The TSA and Federal Government can already see a good outline of my naked bod at the airport if I do one of those flying naked arms up stances in the twirly radiation thingy...having my kids inside steel while at school to protect them is along the same lines...sometimes we give up openess and privacy to be safe.
wouldnt that fence just trap people inside. Especially if the shooter is from within (ex. Chardon High school. And Columbine). It's easier for one person to get over than 400 to get out.
totally agree.
1. One access point into the building for students. Go through metal dectors. NOt full-proof, but woudl work.
2. The fence would outline the perimeter of the property/grounds, not the building, so if kids needed to escape a building they'd still have places to go once outside.
There isn't a perfect solution. Either you don't want teachers armed and a fence or you want them armed and no fence, or some combination or both, or neither. There aren't very many options and like all stuff in life, there just isn't one best answer. Pick one. We cannot have it all.
I'll take NEITHER for $1,000, Alex. I refuse to let my child go to school as if she lives in a war zone. Is that really what you want for this country, MommyLiberty? I'll take better gun control, better mental health care, and a number of other measures before, I will submit to your view that my child should go to school in a prison.
THIS. You need to look at school from the viewpoint of a 6-year-old. Would walking into a cold building with high fences and armed guards make you feel safe if you were a 1st grader? When Sandy Hook students returned, they didn't return to a building that looked like a prison. They returned to a school that looked like their old school with snowflakes on the wall, signs that said welcome back, and familiar faces.
The only thing that would be different is the exterior, RE: a fence and gate. All the same decor and fun things inside would apply.
You can have all the gun control and mental health care you want in this nation but that will NOT solve the fundamental underlying problem. We are a culture of death. We celebrate death. It's not a ra ra ra thing...it's an allowance of symbols of death and images of death to become prolifically available. It desensitizes people to the actual horrors of death.
It's common for kids' clothing to have cutesy skulls on it. For toddlers. My son ran into a little girl his age on the playground this summer decked out in skulls and crossbones. She was 2!!!
There was once a day when skulls were associated with...death...poison...dying...caution...the Nazis in the death camps wore them on their caps, little silver skulls. Now they are fashionable.
Lots of people think I overreact, but when you take the sensivity to death away (cartoonize it, make it glorifying on super violent video games, make it "sexy" on TV) - it becomes a monster of a whole new type.
I know religion/faith and God, etc. aren't for everyone (respectfully, I disagree with this viewpoint, but that's another topic entirely), but the major societal benefit to religion, is that it CURBS poor behavior, skewed choices, and otherwise unacceptable behaviors are taken out of the mainstream (of course they still exist but in a more subverted place). In addition organized religion promotes the familial unit - which is the most fundamental, support of a society - a healthy society. Back away from religion - a movement away from family life and all the benfits of family provide begin to disappear over time.
The greatest assults on religion in this nation have occurred over the past two decades. Interestingly, these are the decades in which pretty much ALL the mass killing shooters grew up and developed. Coincidence? I think not.
Anything else is a band-aid on a problem. These shootings will continue.
Chicago is lighting up the news right now, has some of the strictest gun control in the nation, yet in 2012, it had well over 506 homicides. On Memorial Day ALONE there were 40 people shot...10 died.
So far THIS YEAR in that city there have been homicides occurring faster than one per day. So, we are 5 days into 2013...there have been more than 5 homicides so far (as a minimum).
So restrict ARs, semi-automatics, large magazines, have longer waiting periods, more background checks, more frequent and stricter training...throw tons of money at it. It will probably help some. Key word: some.
But as long as the nation glorifies death and has moved away en masse from a defined set of moral guidelines (presented pretty effectively by religion) we will continue to see harm done to innocent people in mass shootings.
Clearly, this is a fundamental point on which the majority of the posters here (maybe not the readers) disagree. Fine. But, do you want a quick fix or a true solution?
tl;dr, anyone??? haha.
First, I want to say that I had a good hearty laugh at your horror over the little girl with skulls on her outfit. Thanks for that. While it's not a fashion choice I make, parents have been dressing their children in a reflection of the parents own personal style for decades. Which would you prefer - skulls on a 2 year old, or the word "juicy" written across her butt? Parents get it wrong all.the.time.
Second, I'm truly confused by your argument. A fence would be a quick fix, hon. Like you, I want true solutions. Are you, perhaps, changing your tune?
Oh, and forcing your choice religion down other people's throats will not curb this problem. I'm sorry.
The biggest thing that I don't understand is the use of religion to tell us that society is "out of control" or "immoral". However, when it came time to talk about healthcare, it wasn't a moral issue or a religious issue. Letting people die from treatable diseases is worse than a kid wearing a skull on the playground, IMO. Also, there is no difference to me a society that lets people die of treatable diseases based on a lack of healthcare and a society that glorifies death. Preventable death is preventable death IMO. I also hate when people hijack religion when it fits their world view but when it doesn't it is no where to be found. I firmly believe as a Christian you cannot support the second amendment and the lack of health care for those who cannot afford it. As the Bible teaches us, what we do for the least of us is what we do for God. Being religious, I always have to ask myself if Jesus would build a fence around the school or limit guns, increase mental health services, etc.
Also, from a practical standpoint. A fence would do nothing but increase deaths. Actually, the best thing for one of these people to do would be to wait until everyone is in line trying to get through these metal detectors and open up fire then. Everyone is right there and a big fence is surrounding them. Also, I am curious where the money would come from to build all these fences and metal dectectors. Would that be my tax dollars? How would this be funded since we can't increase the debt and we can't raise taxes?
The things you are talking about are so subjective, ML. How can you not see that? I see a LOT of bad behavior coming from religion - everything from priests raping children and an entire religious hierarchy covering for them, to people using their religious beliefs to persecute and spread bias against people different from them. Also, there are SO many religions - are you talking about everyone in the nation basing their moral code on Christianity...or perhaps on Islam?
This nation never had a "defined set of moral guidelines". If we did, those standards started incredibly low. Slavery, anyone? Women as chattel? Native Americans having their land stolen, hands chopped off, people murdered?
I just can't make any sense of your argument.
So these elitist, money-sucking union thugs, aka teachers, are being given guns and gun training. Little hypocritical, don't you think?
How quickly we forget that just last year Republicans were blaming our financial woes on teachers' unions. Now we want to dump money into them by training and arming them. But let's just forget about actually paying them what they're worth, or, god forbid, upgrading schools and classrooms.
I'm so glad that this country has it's priorities in order. /sarcasm
very good point. Lets not forget that Ohio was in the middle of this battle with senate bill 5 two years ago. I wonder if AB is getting the training. Lol
FTFY.
And ML once again falls into the ignorance of the causation/correlation trap. Same shiz, different day I guess.
*wonders once again what role the fetishizing of guns in our culture has to do with our love of guns and violence... no, that couldn't be relevant.*
You know the unibomber was a christian, right? So was the Norwegian killer. The Westboro Baptist Church is also christian. And catholic priests are also religious.
Yes, the crimes in this country are totally because of the non-religious. Riiiiight.
...I forgot a few...
Burma
The first September 11 tragedy - the mass killing of Indians by a group of mormons
The Spanish Inquisition
The Salem Witch Trials
The Aztec sacrifices
The Roman persecution of christians
Islamic jihads
And here's a fun statistic -
75% of America is Christian.
75% of prisoners are Christian.
10% of America is Atheist.
00.2% of prisoners are Atheist.
So, MommyLiberty, please tell me again how the lack of religion is any worse than crimes committed because of religion or by religious people?
And as someone that practices the most common religion in this country, it's quite humorous and ironic that you believe there's a war on your religion when you come out and say that atheists are the ones with issues. LOL.
I don't think that arming anybody on any type of premises -- school, work or anywhere there are large groups of people gathering --- will work.