What? No gunfight at the O.K. Corral-type shootout where the teacher pulls out his legally-concealed weapon and NRA Fan Club card while filling the perpetrator full of holes?

What is happening to our schools?

Bill Gates doing the same thing.

Seeeeeeeeeeriously.

Despite being trashed and blamed for poor school performance, every teacher I know would run towards somebody with a gun to protect the children

to harm, terrorize and destabilize society! Longtime subversives, menace of the world!

they actually get from pundits, politicians, and a propagandized public.

Of course some teachers are mediocre and some are lousy--that is true of every single profession in the world. But I can't think of many other professions where so many people routinely work such long hours with little or no gratitude under impossible conditions, sacrifice so much of their own free time, dip so often into their own meager finances to purchase supplies for their classrooms that school budget cuts have made it impossible for the school to afford, not to mention paying for food, supplies, and other things for individual students too impoverished to pay for such things themselves.

They do all this despite being paid much less than any other professionals of equivalent levels of education, practical training, and experience (including requirements that they continue adding to their education on their own dime).

And they do all this despite having the tenure protections they have earned yanked out from under them, and despite being raked over the coals when they cannot meet benchmarks deliberately designed to be impossible because corporatist politicians want an excuse to divert tax money from public schools into the pockets of their cronies by way of privatization schemes.

In addition to all these things, teachers in many schools are now at risk of being sued by disgruntled parents for daring to give less than perfect grades to their precious little snowflakes, or even violently assaulted by students or their parents (like the high school math teacher who recently was strangled to unconsciousness by one student's mother and then repeatedly kicked while lying there by that student, her mother, and several other students who gleefully joined into the attack).

Now, because of today's insane gun-culture, they are also expected, at a moment's notice, to protect students from murderous attacks by gun-wielding assailants, and they do so, regardless of the danger to their own lives.

Think of the principal, school psychologist, and teachers at Sandy Hook (all women, by the way) who died trying to warn others, helping their students hide or escape, or even covering their young charges with their own bodies to protect them.

The teacher in the OP who tackled the teen when he was shooting into the air in the school seems to be the rule these days, not the exception. He is just one of many teachers in recent years who have tackled and disarmed gun-wielding students, thus probably saving many lives at great risk to their own.

When will Americans stop piling crap onto these dedicated people, demoralizing them and driving even many of the best and most dedicated long-term teachers out of the profession they chose not because it pays well (it doesn't), but because they truly wanted to work with kids and to make a real difference in young people's lives?

Man, the NRA is going to fucking hate this!

Rational people, OTOH, celebrate the preservation of life...

you do that best you can with what you have.

In crediting people who go through life boldly and unafraid. People who do the right thing regardless of circumstances. It's the people who are so terrified of everything in the world that they can't go to Chipotle's without a gun that I have no respect for...

that carrying a gun for self defense is done out of fear.

the most logical conclusion is that this person expects that an attack is always imminent. And that describes 'fear' perfectly.

If one carries a gun everywhere, and the rationale is 'self-defense', it is normally done so because the carrier understands that the Bad Guys do not make appointments.

Being prepared for the occurrence of a bad event does not suggest a belief that the bad event is imminent nor even likely.

Carrying a gun everywhere, 24/7 for one's entire life, and rationalizing that as simple, common-sense preparedness, is not.

But obviously less concerned about the possibility of collateral damage than the teacher in the OP.

This, of course, is the NRA Rambo wanna-bees wet dream, of course. A righteous shot, target neutralized, with no collateral damage. The rarity of this confluence of events doesn't make me well-disposed to the delusional, soft-bellied shrinking violets who have to carry their AR-15s into Chik-fil-A with them.

When a carry permit holder risks his life to stop a shooter, it is a "NRA Rambo wanna-bees wet dream".

What happened to "People who do the right thing regardless of circumstances"? Or was he merely "a good shot" in the same way the teacher was I suppose "a good tackler"?

As far as I'm concerned, both individuals are heroes, as is anyone who runs towards trouble in the interest of helping others despite the potential risk to themselves.

If the teacher had tackled the wrong guy, at least the wrong guy wouldn't have ended up dead. It's pretty hard to launch a flying tackle and end up knocking down six other people you weren't going after.

Glad to hear that nobody was hurt, especially the teacher (who's a huge hero).

Laying hands in a student, no matter the reason, is completely unacceptable! I am shocked at the accolades he is getting. What next, spanking kids for flinging food in the lunch room? This is why teachers unions suck, protecting violent teachers like this. Who's to say he wasn't trying to molest the boy?

SMH

No one's *that* dumb.

She has stories.

We will work on the sarcasm thingy with s/he.

Psst. Under additional smiles.

Wonderful place to live. No one died today. 74 and sunny. Today was a good day

would not have done the same thing.

a better class of people. Most of the CCW people I know would have done that without a second thought. Granted I might know more CCW carriers than the average person.

and I know plenty of idiots with guns

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

some of whom own guns.

So, he would have had years of experience with firearms.

Whether or not that makes him a "gun humper" isn't for me to decide, though.

we are not that uncommon