
I am a teacher. You are OUT OF Your DAMN MIND if you think I’m arming myself - ColinWright
http://www.thejayfk.com/?p=2808
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SiVal
People who grow up without guns get so freaked out about them. My dad grew up
in a time and place in the American West where lots of the kids and teachers
brought guns to school as their parents and grandparents had. Walking home
from school, they'd shoot potatoes for fun. In the entire history of the town,
nobody ever shot anybody, in anger or by accident. Guns were just tools like
knives, trucks, or farm machinery. You learned to use them carefully, and you
used them all the time.

I agree that arming an untrained hothead like this professor would be a
mistake. He would probably laugh at a fuzzy studies colleague who noticed a
radiation warning on some chemical in his closet and freaked out about
RADIATION! RADIATION! Yet he's just as superstitious about his gun taboo.
Letting him near students at all is probably a mistake.

But allowing some people to go through reasonable training and, if certified
and background checked, be allowed to carry a weapon would probably be fine. I
suspect it just wouldn't make any difference. On rare occasion, an armed staff
member would save or rescue somebody. On other rare occasions, somebody would
grab a teacher's gun, just playing around or seriously, and hurt somebody.
Statistically, it would probably be a wash.

~~~
loceng
The problem is these days much of our society, in 1st world 'developed'
countries, are sick - we aren't healthy; Physically, mentally or emotionally.
You shouldn't view one context without taking the whole picture, the holistic
aspect, into account when analyzing a situation. It's therefore best to
structure societal and cultural rules around not what the 80% of healthy will
do action wise, though what the 20% on the other end of the scale might do in
times of great stress and sickness -- especially because in many countries,
once you're sick it's a downward spiral trying to obtain full health again
(and not just getting bandaids and 'functional enough to be productive to work
a basic job' -- I'm talking about getting back to happiness, being socially
capable and enjoying life).

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dexcs
Whats going on in the US is strange. What a dangerous and way of reacting to
such tragedies... I have friends that are teachers in the school of Winnenden
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnenden_school_shooting>). I know they would
say the same. Nobody here thought about arming the teachers... not at all...
You guys should take down the weapons lobby and help the victims. Not arm the
teachers.

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Tichy
Then again, it could help with more problems than just mass shootings.
Pointing a gun at the students might do wonders for discipline. Also it might
be a useful skill to practice problem solving at gun point. According to
movies those situations seem to arrive surprisingly often where you have to
make complicated decisions while in mortal danger. Just because you can
calculate 6*7 in your head doesn't mean you can still do it with the barrel of
a gun pushed to your forehead.

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knowtheory
This is a much better link (also authored by a teacher, who does use firearms
for recreation) explaining why arming teachers may not be a good idea:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/14w806/be_wary_of_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/14w806/be_wary_of_people_who_say_if_those_teachers_had/c7h0776)

Less ranting, more measured/substantive discussion plz.

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jstanley
The article presents a good point, but it is so overloaded with anger that I
found it a little annoying to read.

