(State) Legislator suggests arming teachers

In the aftermath of recent school shootings, a state representative has proposed giving principals and teachers the right to arm themselves with handguns.


Frank Lasee (R-Green Bay) announced Wednesday that he plans to introduce legislation early next year that would give teachers and other school personnel the option of carrying concealed weapons. The action was largely prompted by the school shootings in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where Weston Schools principal was killed last week.

Lasee's proposal received a cool response by Milwaukee Public Schools, but the legislator stressed the measure would hinge on staff members undergoing strict training.

"Sometimes when people are intent on harming others, the only reasonable response you could have is to confront them with firepower to stop them," said Lasee, who believes that school personnel trained in handling weapons could better combat violent intruders or students.

More: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=510000

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Who didn't see this coming? :eyes:

mid 1800's. And now this idiot proposes arming the public to threaten potential criminals with vigilante justice.

The State motto is: PROGRESS; it is _not_ REGRESS.

Sounds like Republican logic to me.

geee overreact much?

brilliant??? Who votes these 'brainiac' legislators into office????

Teachers aren't even allowed to paddle students anymore, and this bozo thinks it's okay to start shooting them???

because they'll already be there!

"I'll grab Mr. Johnson's arms from behind, and you grab his gun!"

Brilliant!

mikey_the_rat

in fact, the elementary school had the moniker: "Prescott Prison".

Back then it was a joke. Seems like these days they want to make that a reality.

Prison guards aren't armed within the population to prevent prisoners from taking a gun from a guard, but why don't we remodel all the schools with gun galleries and ports and hire armed guards. We can hire the snipers coming back from Iraq. On the outside we can have gun towers. :sarcasm:

I was wondering how long it would take a Republican to trot this idea out again.

I could see arming trained security officers in schools, but teachers and other staffers should not have guns around children.

Uniformed security officers, well trained, carrying weapons openly would be more of a deterrant than the possibility that Ms. Frump the Latin teacher MIGHT be carrying a concealed handgun.

OTOH I would support Ms. Frump's right to defend herself.

What an absolute nutcase.

Republican lawmaker, "Oh, yes, our teachers can't spank our kids, but they can shoot them, if they want."

They most certainly don't teach you to play with weapons. A good instructor puts heavy emphasis on the legal and moral aspects of use of deadly force. You have to demonstrate good judgement in a variety of shoot/no-shoot decision situations. You are taught ways to avoid having to use the gun, and what will happen to you if you are unfortunate enough to be forced to use it. (Even if you are completely justified in shooting someone you are likely to have some very serious legal, financial, psychological, and social consequences.)

A student who passes the course will walk out with a deeper respect for the law and the weapon.

Are you seriously advocating guns in the classroom?

I advocate the right of teachers to protect themselves. If they are properly screened and trained, and carrying a concealed weapon correctly, nobody needs to know it's there unless it is needed.

As I've said in another reply, I suspect very few schoolteachers would avail themselves of the option were it made available. What I don't like about this discussion is the use of inflammatory language like "arming teachers", which makes it sound like someone is proposing actively issuing weapons to them and insisting that they carry them. If you read the actual proposal you'll find that is not what it's about. A teacher or administrator or janitor discretely carrying a weapon is not going to endanger anyone who does not need to be endangered and MIGHT provide, if not a deterrant against attack, an additional avenue to responding to one. Or it might not make any real difference. The fact that the Amish people in Nickel Mine had neither weapons nor phones made them especially vulnerable.

Again, I think a BETTER alternative that would be more likely to work as an active deterrant against a school attack would be to have at least one visible, trained, tough-looking armed security guard who has a way of quickly summoning a SWAT team.

You said someone would propose requiring teachers to be armed.

:)

That anyone else would in order to qualify for a weapons permit, why not?

I suspect a large majority of teachers wouldn't even consider carrying a weapon.

neighborhoods here. Everyday, he goes to school wondering. But he would never take a gun. He'd quit first if it came to that, he told me.

If the need for school security is so great, why not assign regular sworn police officers to every school?

Might also help to raise teachers salaries so that better qualified teachers can be hired. At this time, there is almost no way for teachers to pay for their educations from their salaries.

It part of the popos job to protect and serve within their rules, but its also within every resident's right to protect his or her fellow.

No one is saying make teachers police.

I understand peoples concern, but without a lot of training, people who voluntary get their license or permit to carry a concealed weapon are usually very careful when do carrying their weapon.

I'd rather teachers get some training and carry a concealed weapon than have cops around every corner.

eta: I have a dog in this fight. I work at a university, I hate not being able to carry my weapon with me when I can to many of the other places I go.

Ewkay.

I'm speechless. Thank Goddess I don't live there.

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I think ur country is just about fecked, seeing the number of posters on a DEMOCRATIC board that think this is "OK if handled properly"

GUNS IN SCHOOLS???

Ya gotta be nuts

The nutcases will get their weapons in on their own, and armed teachers may just INCREASE the attacks . .

Remember, these attacks are made mostly by juveniles, hormones just arushing, confused and angry - -

Knowing that a teacher that pissed them off is "armed" will "justify" to their adolescent mind to be "armed" also

Are us "adults" ever going to get smart?

Seems not

Ya gotta be nuts

Are you an Internet psychoanalyst? Credentials, please...

armed teachers may just INCREASE the attacks . .

Why?

Knowing that a teacher that pissed them off is "armed" will "justify" to their adolescent mind to be "armed" also

You are unclear on the concept of concealed weapons permits. The point is to keep the weapon concealed so nobody knows that you are armed.

Mmmmmmmmmkay?

on teaching. Let someone else keep the bad guys out. It is not practical either. The gun would have to be locked up. What are the chances the teacher could get to it in time if a gunman burst into the classroom? If the teacher did get the gun what are the chances that seeing the gun would make the gunman start shooting immediately? What are the chances a student would get the gun and fire it accidently or on purpose?

The gun is carried on the person, out of sight and without knowledge of anyone else unless it is needed.

seriously think the kids wouldn't figure out that their teacher was carrying a weapon? Word would get around and the chances of the gun being used against the teacher or others in the school would skyrocket. Prison guards generally don't carry guns in cell blocks because they are outnumbered and the risk is high that they could be overpowered and the gun taken away. Teachers are also outnumbered in a school. If a group of students finds out a teacher has a gun and they decide that they are going to get it guess what is going to happen? It is a bad idea.

The teacher would have blown it on one of the fundamental rules of concealed carry. It is supposed to be a secret. In some states the law specifically states that the weapon must remain concealed when not in use.

I would certainly not want the students or anyone else (except the local police and the senior staff) to be aware of who is carrying a weapon.

all of the "fundamental rules" you want. Underwear isn't supposed to show, pants are not supposed to fall down, shirts are not supposed to ride up, concealed weapons are not supposed to be detectable. But the law of averages says all of these things will happen and the law of averages doesn't distinguish between teachers and non teachers. Nor does it care about what the rules are. One thing is for sure. If a teacher is NOT carrying a concealed weapon, the kids will not know that he has one. Therein lies the solution.

It is a myth.

There is Murphy's Law and the Law of Shit Happens. I would accept those as risks worth considering.

is what I was trying to say.

941.235
(1) Any person who goes armed with a firearm in any building owned or leased by the state or any political subdivision of the state is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

http://tinyurl.com/z4tsg

If Lasee wants guns in the schools, he shouldn't mind guns in the legislature ...

... and while the idea of a little Smith and Wesson discipline crossed my mind at times, this is a bad idea for many reasons.

First, the temptation factor: "Johnny, I've had it with your cheap crap. I'm gonna buss a cap in yo ass!" Blam!

Next, I personally have no interest in drawing fire. I always told my students that if I saw a kid with a gun in school, I'd grab one of them and use them as a human shield to protect my large Irish ass. If I'm strapped... the kid will be gunning for ME rather than his twit cheerleader girlfriend or the class jock/bully.

Another reason is that a stray round or ricochet from my .44 Mangle-em might hit a National Merit Scholar! Talk about "collateral damage"!

No more pencils.. no more books... no more Black Talon ammo.

Anyone who walks into a real weapons training class with a Rambo attitude will either lose that mentality or flunk out. Some people enroll in them because they think they want to get a weapons permit, and change their minds when they find out what it's really about. Some people get permits but never actually carry a weapon.

why not arm our teachers and schools with the proper resources
for things like oh, books, supplies....

and all of us were so dumb and used to seeing guns that we never said a freaking thing.

He was a psycho.

He is now dead....but it was viewed as a veiled threat against all of us.

He would get really angry in class over the dumbest things and then out would come the handgun to be "cleaned"...

Yeah...that is what we need...more handguns in school.