
There have been 11 US school shootings this year. Is it time to arm teachers? - spraak
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42804741
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makecheck
Proponents of guns as “defense” are always _so sure_ that, if only they had a
weapon, they’d take care of a shooter. The fundamental problem with this is
that it is likely to do a lot more damage from added chaos.

You probably _will not_ be in a focused frame of mind in a crisis, and you
probably _will not_ have the best aim (despite your normal skill). And, if
you’re obviously armed, there is a better chance that _you’ll look like the
perpetrator_ to any bystander or police trying to make sense of the situation.
This will divide resources as people try to figure out exactly who it is
they’re trying to take down.

And guess what, if your dream comes true and you’re allowed to be an armed
civilian, then you probably won’t be the _only_ armed bystander in the next
crisis. If there are 3 or more people all pulling out weapons and all looking
like The Shooter, what then; will these people become confused and try to
shoot each other? And when they miss, will there be even more casualties? And
will the police actually figure out who the real shooter is, or just shoot all
the armed people to make sure they have control of the situation?

There are _so many problems kids have_ that could be addressed before we make
society even more militaristic. Poverty? Racism? Bullying? Domestic abuse?
Poor investment in education, making schools worse places than they ought to
be?

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curtis
In the 2011 Tuscon shooting [1] (the one where Gabby Giffords was badly
injured), Joe Zamudio, one of the people who helped subdue the shooter, was
carrying a concealed weapon and nearly shot the wrong guy. [2] Ultimately the
shooter was completely subdued without the use of firearms.

The conclusion that I draw from this incident and many others is that it would
be more effective to train people to take down shooters by hand, and there
would be considerably less chance of serious collateral damage because an
armed bystander didn't know what he or she was doing.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tucson_shooting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tucson_shooting)

[2]
[http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_natur...](http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2011/01/friendly_firearms.html)

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ams6110
Asking a teacher to shoot a kid, even a kid who is shooting others, is asking
too much in my book. And I say that as someone pretty firmly opposed to gun
control.

We need to stop shoehorning kids into high schools that assume that kids are
either college-bound, or losers destined for welfare (if they even graduate).
There is nothing worse for a kids' self esteem than forcing him to participate
in something that he's systematically excluded from.

At my high school, if you were not college bound, you got no attention from
career or guidance counselors, and were pretty much written off unless you
were gifted athletically.

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abusoufiyan
Strange how the policies posited by conservatives to stop "terrorism" never
apply to school shootings.

Racial profiling (most of these school shooters are white!!), extreme
unfettered surveillance of children, running sting operations to offer
mentally disabled children $250,000 to agree to commit school shootings and
then arresting them (as in the Newburgh Sting Operation:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Newburgh_Sting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Newburgh_Sting)).
These should all work just as well, right?

Why does the US, particularly, have a problem with suicide attacks like this?
No other place in the world has a problem like this with the kind of political
and economic stability that the US has (regrettably, in countries that are
constantly in war or political flux, these kinds of attacks are more common,
see Ireland during the height of the IRA for example).

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King-Aaron
You know, while correlation doesn't necessarily equate to causation, it has to
be said... There hasn't been a gun-related massacre here in Australia since we
took away semi automatic and automatic firearms. I don't know when the last
time a child here even accidentally shot someone else with their parents
firearm either, I don't recall hearing of it in recent times.

Arming teachers _will not solve anything_ while there is a culture of gun
violence in the country. In fact, I see this as making it worse. They're
talking about actively desensitising adults to shoot at a child. Even seasoned
soldiers have problems in that scenario.

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shams93
Instead of arming teachers how about using webrtc to bring the classroom into
the home? Its less money to give every kid a chromebook than to buy guns, ammo
and weapons training for every teacher.

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sopooneo
It seems to me that the actual benefit of good teachers is not usually
conveying information, but rather motivating students. And proximity plays a
big part in that.

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dovdovdov
Yep, anything but gun control!! /s

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King-Aaron
I know that it's policy to downvote sarcastic/non-constructive comments, but
this is fairly poignant I feel. How on earth can someone come to the
conclusion to arm teachers and effectively train an adult to shoot a child,
instead of just controlling the supply of high-powered and semi automatic
firearms.

