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Texas school district to let teachers carry guns
I've never really understood the idea that carrying guns makes people safer. I TRULY don't understand the idea that teachers carrying guns makes students safer.
It's just possible that a rural district in Texas with fewer than 150 students will be able to have such a policy without disastrous unintended consequences (I'm thinking accidental shootings or unlicensed operators getting their hands on the guns). But I doubt it will help the district improve student safety in any meaningful way, either.
I also imagine a devastating effect on school culture. This is the first school in the United States to permit this, and nobody knows how it will play out. But I imagine that the presence of firearms will change the timbre of the basic social calculus of schools dramatically.
I don't know a lot about firearm safety, other than the many safety concerns raised by firearms. I'm prepared to eat crow if a teacher saves a classroom full of students with the help of her trusty 9, or even if such a move gives the school a long-term boost in public confidence and students' sense of safety. These outcomes are ridiculously unlikely, though, and compared with the potential hazards, I would call this a case of good intentions spawning bad policy.
Edited to include more effective ways of getting to other blog posts.
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1 comment:
I am fully behind the second amendment and what I believe it states. I grew up around firearms. We had over fifty rifles, shotguns, and pistols in our house and we used them for hunting and target practice. I spent 10 years in the military and am a strong proponent of strength through firepower. But I truly believe putting guns in teachers or administrators hands in the school building will be a disaster. How as a society can we even think this is a safe for weapons be brought in a school. What is the message we are sending to our youth when we tell them to win the battle of school violence is to be violent as well. I to agree with Mr. Cosby that it will be interesting to watch and see what happens in Texas.
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