Opuscula Does political office Make politicians Deaf to all opinons?

FLORIDA IS ABOUT TO GIVE TRAINED teachers the option of volunteering to carry weapons to work.

Teachers in school districts that permit TRAINED teachers to be armed require that these volunteers undergo TRAINING before bringing a gun into a classroom and to continue ongoing TRAINING.

WHY AM I HARPING ON TRAINED AND TRAINING?

Because I read a local sheriff’s statement that he is against armed teachers since they will lack training.

"There is no evidence that supports the notion that arming teachers would deter a shooter, while the threat posed by untrained individuals with guns in crisis situations is widely recognized."¹

This sheriff, a former small-town police department sergeant, holds an opinion different than other sheriffs with substantially more experience.

To be fair to the new sheriff, he also is concerned that Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) responding to a school shooting won’t know WHO is the bad guy and who is the person protecting the students.

Anyone who has a concealed carry permit and any training knows that when LEOs arrive on the scene, to put down the weapon and raise their hands. THAT, assuredly, would be part of the TRAINING the sergeant-to-sheriff contends school personnel will lack, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, chairman of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, said he will ask the panel to recommend state law be changed so teachers who undergo background checks and extensive training will be allowed to have guns on campus as a last line of defense. (My son is LEO in Pinellas County although he is not a deputy.)

Gualtieri told The Associated Press he long believed only law enforcement personnel should carry guns at school, but his position "morphed" after studying other shootings and watching security video of the Feb. 14 Stoneman Douglas attack, which left 14 students and three staff members dead. ²

Hendry County Sheriff Steve Whidden is a proponent of armed school personnel.

The plan that Whidden said he developed is to identify multiple, capable volunteers at each school and allow them to carry concealed firearms at school.

"Now, we're not simply going to hand out a firearm to school staff and place them in schools," he said.

Those who volunteer would be given extensive background checks, psychological testing, and drug testing. Those who successfully pass the barrage of testing would also be put through a tactical active shooter course that Whidden said is more intense than required for active law enforcement personnel.³

Biographies of the two sheriffs at

Gualtieri, http://tinyurl.com/y4zct6sg
Whidden, http://tinyurl.com/y2lmemu2

The Dade County and Broward County school district superintendents have decided to opt out of the option to allow school personnel to carry weapons.

Parents of students murdered in the Stoneman Douglas shooting are of mixed emotions.

Manuel Oliver, who lost his son, Joaquin, said that

"I never thought that was a good idea when I heard it the first time," he said. "We keep bringing solutions that will protect our kids from the next shooter, so we assume there will be a next shooter and we don’t do anything about that." ¹

At the risk of being insensitive, it seems to this scrivener that allowing school personnel to carry weapons — AFTER testing and training, IS doing something about it.

Andrew Pollack, who lost his daughter, Meadow, in the shooting believes differently. He applauds the measure and told Local 10 News that it's an additional layer of security.

"Anyone that can go through it — like I said — a lunch lady, a crossing guard, any teacher, a gym teacher — anyone that wants to volunteer and go through that intense training and actually pass would be an asset to have at a school.¹

Both Dade County and Broward County have suffered too many school shootings. Fortunately the number injured or killed is low, unlike Stoneman Douglas in Parkland (Broward County) Florida.

Having LEOs at the gates apparently fails to prevent attacks on students. There was at least one sheriff’s deputy on duty at Stoneman Douglas when the shooter walked into the school with a rifle. (The deputy was fired and the sheriff removed from office by the state’s new governor.)

Based on personal experience, a person never knows how he or she will react when put into a position where they might take a life. Will the person hesitate and lose his or her own life? Will others escape in the interim? Will someone else who is armed “take out” the attacker?

Will a person who was in a military combat unit be more inclined to shoot than a person who has no combat experience? Even LEOs can hesitate; sometimes at the cost of their lives.

On the other hand, will a potential attacker avoid a school where the attacker knows it is likely the attacker will die before he or she is finished?

Knowing there are armed and trained personnel around, but not knowing WHO is armed might give a potential attacker second thoughts.

Have “Sky Marshals” on planes reduced the number of high jacking attempts?

There is no way to provide 100% protection for anyone at any place. The best for which we can hope is to reduce the probability of an attack by making the probability of success minimal.

Trained and armed school personnel may be part of the answer to making schools safer.

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Sources

1. http://tinyurl.com/y4yxdt4u

2. http://tinyurl.com/yxwjbwjw

3. http://tinyurl.com/yy4twgjc

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

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