[AmiableLabs]

In fact, in January 2006 the Virginia General Assembly rejected a bill that would have allowed students with concealed weapons permits to carry their guns on campus. The bill was pushed by the Virginia Citizens Defense League after a Virginia Tech student with a concealed weapons permit was disciplined in 2005 for bringing a gun on campus. The bill, opposed by Virginia police chiefs and the university itself, never made it out of committee. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus," Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hinckner told the Roanoke Times.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1611939,00.html?xid=site-cnn-partner

(Of course, when mentioning students with concealed weapons permits, realize, by federal statutes, we're talking about adults of 21 years of age or older. As it is now, school zones are "gun free" zones. Also known as "unarmed victim" zones.)

 

[MRGD]

Wow, that could have changed the whole story. I don't want every idiot carrying a gun, but if people get the proper training

 

[dreamer2385]

But what if, the teachers ,if they wanted,, took handgun lessons, and a few were permitted to carry a firearm?? Just think, if one of the teacher at Columbine carried a firearm?? would all those deaths still be? or one of the professors at Virginia Tech has a firearm.?? I am pro hand gun, and still wonder what if????

i am surprised that the amount of security guards at the prisons are unarmed. We have one near us, and the security people can't carry a firearm?? I dont know where the answer is,but we have to keep our students secure. The police can't be at our school in a hurry, and our only police are over half hour or more from my home. they could never get here in a hurry.... scary, Maria

 

[dixidawg]

This guy has some very strong opinions on the subject:

http://olegvolk.net/gallery/technology/arms/

 

[HuntinDawg]

But what if, the teachers ,if they wanted,, took handgun lessons, and a few were permitted to carry a firearm?? Just think, if one of the teacher at Columbine carried a firearm?? would all those deaths still be? or one of the professors at Virginia Tech has a firearm.?? I am pro hand gun, and still wonder what if????

i am surprised that the amount of security guards at the prisons are unarmed. We have one near us, and the security people can't carry a firearm?? I dont know where the answer is,but we have to keep our students secure. The police can't be at our school in a hurry, and our only police are over half hour or more from my home. they could never get here in a hurry.... scary, Maria

You'll have a hard time finding a more pro-gun person than myself, but if teachers were allowed to carry then anyone who enters a school armed (with bad intentions) would be well served to shoot the teachers first (assuming that any teacher is potentially armed). I don't know if I would want to put that kind of bullseye on every teacher. On the other hand if they thought a good % of the teachers were armed and trained, maybe schools wouldn't seem as attractive to these nutjobs.

 

[badbullgator]

Florida shot down a similar law the day following the VT shootings. The law was aimed at allowing gun owners to carry a weapon (legal of course) in your car at work. Many employers prohibit having a weapon in your car on their property. Voting with their emotions, instead of their heads the bill was defeated. The reasoning I heard from several reps after the vote was “Following yesterdays events at VT, I could not vote for this bill because it would allow someone more opportunity to repeat the massacre elsewhere”.
What a crock of crap. Apparently nobody every thought that someone having a gun might have saved a few lives.
Disney World was the biggest opponent to the passage of this bill. They hold an annual queer week at the park and are very anti gun. They are located n their own county and do whatever they please without regard to what is good for our state. You might guess Disney gets very little of my money.

BTW- HD sooo are you saying shoot the children first and save the teachers. We have armed school reasorce officers in our schools.

 

[HuntinDawg]

BTW- HD sooo are you saying shoot the children first and save the teachers. We have armed school reasorce officers in our schools.

No of course not. It is good that you have armed school resource officers in your schools. I don't think we have that in Georgia. Just take this scenario: A law is passed allowing school teachers to carry a gun with specific stipulations (training, etc.). This would create quite a public uproar as news media outlets would make a big deal of it. Lets say only 1% of teachers actually opt for it. However, when a bad guy breaks into the school he is aware that teachers have the opportunity to carry, so where in the past a madman may have relied on the teachers to keep the kids calm (and some of these situations have been resolved with minimal or no loss of life) instead the first thing he does is shoot every teacher he encounters right in the head. I just think it might put an unneccessary bullseye on each teacher. Kind of like robbing a bank. The first thing you do is shoot the security guard (or incapacitate him) because he is probably the only one there who is armed. The difference is the security guard signed up for that, the teachers didn't. The flipside to my scenario is that, thinking many teachers to be armed, schools would not seem such an easy target to nutjobs. The reality is that the NEA is sooooo freaking liberal and most teachers vote very liberal and there is no way they are going to want to be armed. The NEA would fight it tooth and nail and they have a lot of resources.

My wife (an exception to my previous statement about liberal teachers) taught elementary school for 10 years. If she had been allowed to carry she probably wouldn't have (she has a concealed carry permit, which of course is no good on school grounds). How could she conceal on her person? As an elementary school teacher she was always moving around the classroom squatting beside students desks, kids hanging all over her, etc. It would have been very impractical to try to carry on her person. If the gun was in her purse or her desk it would be a huge security risk of some kid getting his/her hands on the gun if she turned her attention from her purse/desk for a moment. Her attention needed to be on her students, not on her purse/desk. BTW, I am very much in favor of arming pilots on commercial airlines (optional to the pilot, and I believe they can now apply to do so)...we already trust the pilots with the lives of everyone on board and many are ex-military anyway, so many are not unfamiliar with firearms already.

Personally, I attended night school (grad school) in downtown Atlanta for a while and I carried a pistol even though I knew it to be highly illegal (although I have a concealed carry license, it isn't any good in a publicly owned building and specifically not in a school). I didn't want to get mugged walking from the parking deck to one of the classroom buildings after dark. I carried it in one manner while on the street. Once I was in the building I carried it in a more secure manner which was less likely to be detected accidentally. If someone had been doing something like that at VT it could have saved a lot of lives.

 

[badbullgator]

I think there is a big difference between elementary, middle, and high school teachers carrying guns and college professors carrying gun. One being that 90% or more of the college students are adults (over18). Most college professors spend far more time out of class than in class. I think having guns in teachers hands with children around them all day is a huge liability, especially if it were carried in a purse or briefcase, just too much opportunity for an unsupervised kid to gain access to a firearm. Teachers are just that and are not paid to be police. They already have many situations that are not trained to deal with, fights, gang activity, drugs… I have no problem with anyone legally carrying a gun including teachers, but I think as a plan to curb incidents like VT it is not the solution. We have probably reached the point in time where all schools need on campus police (speaking of schools, not colleges or universities). Most schools are made up of very few buildings and the students are contained within those buildings for the entire day for the most part. A college/university campus is a different matter as they are usually similar to a small town with numerous buildings, people coming and going, multiple roads…
In all honesty I don’t think this is a problem that need to be fixed by arming teachers. It is a rare occurrence that something like this happens. I do think that any place where it is known, or at least though, that a lot of people are armed is much less likely to be involved in anything like this.

 

[HuntinDawg]

BBG, I think I agree with every word of that.

 

[dreamer2385]

Another thought from a ex college professor,,, why not have security guards armed with german shephards. He said many people are far more afraid of the dog attack than the firearm!! ?? Maria

 

[TxFig]

(Of course, when mentioning students with concealed weapons permits, realize, by federal statutes, we're talking about adults of 21 years of age or older. As it is now, school zones are "gun free" zones. Also known as "unarmed victim" zones.)

Compare and contrast:

The difference between Appalachian School or Law and Virginia Tech
http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2007/04/when-mass-killers-meet-armed-resistance.html