Guns and Schools

Listening to Donald Trump pontificate on school shootings and the cure for such is like asking Richard Dawkins to preside at Billy Graham’s funeral.  Trump knows nothing about public schools and public school teachers and it is pretty apparent he knows very little about guns.  Arming classroom teachers is absolutely the worst idea since hydrogen blimps or the Ford Pinto.  This is typical Trump, however.  For every highly complex problem there is a simple solution, and it is wrong.  Count on Trump to shoot from the hip in a thoughtless rant about how to fix school shootings and come up with an idea that will increase school shootings.  That is, putting guns in schools.

We have to begin to unpack the idiocy in this suggestion by thinking about classroom teachers.  I spent 40 years in public education and I know teachers of all sorts, all ilks, all subjects, from experienced pros to rookies.  And though each teacher is a unique human being, they all share several characteristics.  For instance, they all would rather help kids than hurt kids.  Period.  They show it in different ways, but I deeply believe this is true.  Put a gun in a teacher’s hand and ask them to shoot a current or former student very, very few teachers could or would pull the trigger.  Teachers are taught to disarm situations in ways other than violence.  We listen.  We prompt.  We counsel.  We extoll.  We direct.  But we have never, ever been taught to use violence to resolve a conflict, even if it is a bloody conflict.

The other dimension of classroom teachers that is not often discussed is the drama level that can occur on any campus.  Yes, the teachers are the adults.  But in the microcosm that is a public school, little ripples in the tranquility pond turn into tsunamis.  I have seen teachers totally lose it when the Xerox machine breaks down.  Or when someone failed to make a new pot of coffee in the lounge, or they are called to a meeting during their conference period, or they are shamed in public by a terrible principal, or the previous teacher did not return the computer cart.  I absolutely would not want any of those otherwise great human beings to be armed when they go ballistic. 

The logistics of such a suggestion are even more impossible.  Set aside the actual cost of providing a firearm, ammunition and training of teachers.  That alone is a deal breaker.  But assume that the Koch Brothers buy everyone a gun.  OK, so I am a teacher.  I am experienced with firearms.  I even have a concealed weapon permit and a carry permit.  I spend time at the range shooting targets with my Glock 17 handgun.  I am good.  While in class I do not wear my gun on my belt because it would be too tempting for students to focus on that and not the lesson, and for safety sake I do not want a loaded weapon so easily available.  I keep it locked in my desk or armoire.  Suddenly I hear gunshots in the hallway.  I hear the intercom issue the code for active shooter.  I order my kids to duck and cover near the hallway wall and I go to unlock my handgun.  I get the gun and step out in the hallway.  Just as every other teacher has stepped out in the hallway.  I am looking at the backs of my colleagues who are all facing the shooter.  Really?  Am I going to shoot?  Or, I am alone in the hallway with a handgun and 75 feet away is someone with an AR15.  What chance do I have of hitting that shooter before he shoots me with his semi-automatic rifle?  Very little.  In other words, given the physical structure of schools and the need for day-to-day security, quick response is unlikely, and any response is likely to be unsuccessful and may kill others.  Plus, while I am going for my gun I was not able to lock my classroom door to keep the shooter outside, so after I am shot all the kids in my class are fair game.

And finally is the simple common sense argument that having guns does not decrease the number of deaths from someone else’s gun.  In fact, the more guns that are present in America the more shootings we have, not vice-versa.  President Reagan was protected by six armed, highly trained Secret Service officers when he was shot on a sidewalk.  Bobby Kennedy was surrounded by Secret Service when he was shot.  And at Fort Hood populated by highly trained military personnel a mass shooting occurred in 2009.  No schools have the weapons available like a military base.  Almost every school where there has been a shooting had an armed officer of the law and it did not diminish the bloodshed.  More guns more people armed with guns is not the answer unless every hallway in America’s public school is staffed with armed officer of the law who have no function other than to keep guard.

So, if giving teachers weapons is stupid and I will always argue that it is, what might work?  How about metal detectors at the doors.  Nope.  Won’t work.  Picture a typical classroom wing with doors at each end and classrooms on each side of the hallway between the doors.  It would take two metal detectors for that building.  But it would take much more than that.  It would also take an x-ray machine and someone to monitor it for purses and backpacks.  It would take armed officers at each detector so if the alarm goes off someone will be there to respond.  And each of those officers will need to have a wand as well.  Kids entering the building will back-up as the line forms to get through the scanner, just like at the airport.  Bell schedules will have to be radically amended so that the time allowed between classes is expanded to include the sweep.  And what happens after the first period when as many kids are trying to exit the building equals the number trying to enter the building.  That will be total chaos.  Most any student could find a way to enter going upstream and avoid the detectors.  Or worse, any armed shooter will not be slowed by a metal detector because he will take out those officers first.  And shall we do this at elementary schools as well?  Sandy Hook may wish they had such a system, but it would not have helped.  Any shooter dedicated to killing people will not be slowed by a metal detector or an officer at the door.

How about active shooter training?  Nope, doesn’t help much.  Each school has an active shooter protocol based on the structure of the campus and the grade level of the kids.  Training in this protocols is probably OK, and though I have sat through several, the main message I got was run away if you can, hunker down, lock the door and pretend the room is empty if you can’t.  As a last resort attack the shooter, but we all know how that will work out.  There, you have now had active shooter training.

I’m sorry, but the issue is not the school or the preparedness of the school or weaponizing faculty.  The issue is the readily available source of firearms.  As long as there are so many guns, and acquitting a gun is so easy there will be school shootings, mall shootings, movie shootings, concert shootings, etc.  Obtaining a gun ought to be at least as difficult as obtaining a drivers license with pre-ownership training required, test proficiency required, frequent renewals, and liability insurance requires. 

Make owning a gun a much more restrictive process and eliminate semi-automatic military style weapons, make fully automatic weapons and silencers illegal, and update our list of folks who cannot buy a gun to include mentally disturbed folks.  Perhaps if we do so we will see the sharp drop in such killings as has most of the civilized world.  We cannot continue to sacrifice children for the profit margin of gun manufacturers.  We cannot continue to argue that the right to bear arms is more critical than the right to life.