This past week, my 9-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son experienced a “lockdown” drill. When the kids heard the announcement “Code Red,” everyone ran to a pre-determined hiding place. According to my daughter, everyone needs to practice hiding behind coats and being quiet in case there’s a person with a gun in the school looking for them.
Is this disturbing to anyone else out there? When I was a kid, we had fire drills and an occasionally earthquake drill, but we didn’t have to practice hiding out from armed and dangerous roaming gunmen.
And then, two days after lockdown at the neighborhood school, I read the headline that an Alaskan legislator is proposing a bill that would allow teachers to arm themselves at school.
Responding to increasing violence by arming teachers — what’s next? Permits for children to carry weapons? What is going on?!
While I support people’s rights to have guns for hunting, our society has devolved to a low point if we are advocating for teachers to arm themselves.
On the same day as the shooting in Connecticut, there was a similar attack at a school in China. A man wielding an ax attacked students and teachers at a local school. More than 20 students were injured before the man was overtaken by teachers using brooms to defend themselves.
No one died that day at that school in China. The only difference between the two attacks? There was no gun involved. China has strict gun control laws.
The U.S. may be no more or less violent than other nations but we are providing wider access to lethal weapons on a much greater scale.
The message from the NRA is that more guns is the solution (arm teachers!). But the U.S. already has more guns per capita than any other country in the world; and a much higher murder rate to show for it. More guns has not been the answer.
I call on all mothers and fathers — take action! More guns will not create a more peaceful future for our children. Americans need to take a serious approach to controlling guns, for our children’s sake.
• Champney is a 20-year resident of Juneau. She and her husband have three children — two attend Harborview and one attends Dzantik’i Heeni.
Comments (96)
Add commentabsurd plan
Hide behind a coat. That is about the worst idea I have ever heard regarding protecting yourself. I don't fault the schools for such an absurd idea for if they don't show some kind of action plan they become the subject of endless nonsense from those who expect the truly impossible: protect kids at all times from every possible danger.
Plans to allow teachers to be armed are another sounds good -- feel good kind of reaction. One that the attorneys will lead to long term careers as they find every possible way to illustrate the teacher involved in a defensive shooting was not absolutely positively qualified and right in their decision to use such force. Police departments find themselves having to litigate constantly when officers have to resort to deadly force actions. Teachers will never be able to show the same level of training and firearms qualifications as active police officers. The lawyers will feast on the events as they destroy the school district policy, the teachers competency under the guise that some kid was traumatized by seeing the teacher shoot an individual. For the teacher it will be the end of a career.
If we truly need to resort to having armed individuals patrolling school those individuals need to be police officers and not simply armed teachers.
I totally agree
Arming our teachers or posting armed guards in school is totally unacceptable. If you are afraid of a mass shooting then YOU keep your kids at home and provide for their protection there.
More guns = more violence not less!
Armed guards
Don't have enough teachers in our schools? Then it really makes sense to get rid of one or two so we can replace them with armed guards -- NOT!
Don't understand
I guess I don't understand how legal guns become illegal guns. My guns will not kill someone becuase they are secured from non-responsible hands. If I sell one of my guns it will be to a licensed dealer (who should be doing background checks). If you are of sound mind and responsible, you have a right to have guns (the case can be made agaist certain types of guns).
The issue is we need to provide barriers to mentally unstable or irresponsible individuals from purchasing guns.
Up, the penalties for illegal possession of firearms (unlicensed, unregistered, illegally obtained) and you may have a good start.
Welcome
To the world envisioned by the NRA.
According to the NHTSA, 21 school children die every year while being transported to school. A Newtown's worth of tragedy every year. None of it good, but just to put things into perspective...
Scares the hell out of me!
Closets and broomsticks? Absolutely CHILLING! Makes as much sense as jumping under a desk in case of nuclear attack. Kim, what happens if they pass a law banning sales of scary military looking guns tomorrow? Will you feel safer? Nations have signed treaties that limit nuclear proliferation. Is the threat neutralized? The gun ban mentality is the most frightening to me. Disarm everyone and Lanzas and Spenglers will still get their hands on them.
no skirkz
I don't think Lanza would have "gotten his hands on" an AR-15 or other guns if his mother hadn't kept them in her home and actively encouraged him to take an interest in them.
By all accounts this kid was a social cripple, and I highly doubt that he would have made the contacts necessary to buy a gun from an illegal source.
Additionally, if only licensed gun users were able to possess and fire guns, it's certainly possible that Lanza would have been denied a license due to his mental health issues. And therefore he would not have been allowed to hone his skills with them at the firing range.
I'm willing to wager that some fairly low barriers would very early on have kept Adam Lanza from proceeding down the path that he chose. Not a solution for every case, but quite possibly for this case.
Like Raininak says: License the owners. Register all guns. Prohibit sales to unfit people - violent criminals, mentally deranged, and substance abusers (including alcoholics - get a DUI and you're a candidate for gun license revocation). Get a handle on the gun abusers, not the guns themselves.
Get a handle on criminals...
... Isn't that what we've been striving for for centuries? Guess you've got a plan on how to do that without force. They've got it. You think they're going to register it? CHILLING!
Judge Roy Bean got a pretty
Judge Roy Bean got a pretty good handle on criminals. Very peaceful area as long as Judge Roy didn't view you as a criminal. Except Judge Roy was a criminal in his own right. These mass shooting are statistically so rare they are almost a nonevent, except that they are used to foment the masses, which seems to work very well.
Where, then, if not behind coats?
What is a child to do?
Don't ridicule the plan - at least there IS a plan. Schools are not made to be secure, bullet-proof places, so if some crazy person did get in, at least that 9-year-old would have some kind of idea of what to do. I would hope my kids would hide if they heard gun shots at that age in school.
I will be much more willing
I will be much more willing to give up my guns, and go along with Obama's plan, if I saw him lead by example and disarm his secret service agents...
Sure
I have a plan. It'll take time. We can't solve this problem with a snap of our fingers.
1. Implement a gun owner licensing program. No purchase, possession, or usage of guns w/out a license. Same goes for the purchase of ammo or accessories.
2. Licenses only issued to suitable citizens. No violent criminals, documented nutcases, or substance abusers. Background checks to get licenses, and biennial renewals, which include background checks.
3. Gun safety training accompanies license and renewals. Training focuses on safe handling, transport, and storage of guns. Also focuses on risk assessment, such as "Do you have a mentally unstable or substance abusing family member living in your house? What are the possible consequences of that?"
4. All guns registered. Any transfer of ownership includes transfer of the gun's title. Just like selling a car.
5. Liability insurance required for all gun owners. Government sets the minimums, private insurance companies can set the premiums. Since the vast majority of gun owners are responsible, the premiums should be quite reasonable for most owners.
6. Lose a gun or have a gun stolen and face losing your gun license. Responsible gun owners safeguard their guns.
If a program like this became law, nearly all responsible gun owners like you and me would follow the law...because we're law-abiding citizens. Then the cops could focus their resources on the small percentage of violators - setting up gun buying and selling sting operations, etc. Make sure the penalties for illegal sales and possession are severe.
No, we won't get every illegal gun owner. But we'll make a dent in them.
My plan is better than your (lack of a) plan.
A good girl with a gun.....
A GOOD GIRL WITH A GUN
On Sunday December 17, 2012, 2 days after the CT shooting, a man went to a restaurant in San Antonio to kill his X-girlfriend. After he shot her, most of the people in the restaurant fled next door to a theater. The gunman followed them and entered the theater so he could shoot more people. He started shooting and people in the theater started running and screaming. It’s like the Aurora, CO theater story plus a restaurant!
Now aren't you wondering why this isn't a lead story in the national media along with the school shooting?
There was an off duty county deputy at the theater. SHE pulled out her gun and shot the man 4 times before he had a chance to kill anyone. So since this story makes the point that the best thing to stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun, THE MEDIA IS TREATING IT LIKE IT NEVER HAPPENED.
Only the local media covered it. The city is giving her a medal next week.
Ok
So where is the problem? Is it that our teachers are not armed, or is it that people that shouldn't have guns have access to them? We can all agree that in a perfect world only those individuals who are responsible and sane should be allowed to carry a gun (you would still have the potential for people snapping etc).
So how do you do that? I would not support removing all guns from America (I own a bunch). The issue is prevention. Stop the easy purchase of rifles and the purchase of second hand guns at gun shows or from private sales. Those sales could still take place, just licensed and monitored. How often do you need a rifle in 15 minutes.
Make it illegal to transfer ownership of a gun without proper steps being taken, and hold owners liable for such a illegal transfer if badness ensues.
Not the only solution, but a good step. You and I can still own our guns, we are just required to properly tend to them and help prevent those individuals not fit from possessing them.
Armed teachers, China.
Yes, that attacker sliced up 20 children (how horrible), and it appears none died. But Kim, you are incorrect about "The only difference between the two attacks? There was no gun involved. China has strict gun control laws." There is a huge difference. In 1938, Chairman Mao wrote "Every Communist must grasp the truth. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." Mao went on to disarm the population of China. According to Wikipedia (and I have seen similar figures elsewhere for the past 30 years), Chairman Mao's "rule is estimated to have caused the deaths of between 40–70 million people through starvation and executions." He would not have been able to do this if he had not disarmed the populace. Stalin also disarmed the populace, as did Hitler. If you want to believe our government would never turn tyrannical and monstrous, you may. I believe it is very, very possible. I remember what happened to our civil liberties after 9/11, and our Orwellian "Patriot Act". Armed teachers? If with a staff of 25, 5 or 6 teachers volunteer for training, bless them. I fully support it.
Sounds like alot of jobs
for people in the military who are already trained to use guns and protect people. Two military men or women in every school in the US is a lot of new jobs. Nothing against the teachers but have you checked out some of these folks? We don't want them to have guns.
Please enlighten
Why the thumbs done on keeping guns out of crazy people's hands?
Remember this part of the 2nd
Remember this part of the 2nd Amendment, it is right at the beginning "A well regulated militia..."
An "off duty county deputy" is part of the well regulated militia. We call them police.
Comment
Juneau schools have had lockdown drills for a decade or longer. A parent just now learning of those drills may say more about parental involvement than about anything else. However, I agree that hiding in a coat closet is exactly like the old nuclear attack drills that had children hide under their desks.
The writer here makes a comparison with China and that is exactly the correct comparison. China murdered 45 million of its citizens during the 1950's and 1960's, and it continues to murder citizens today. That is what we can and will have if we want complete freedom from fear of our fellow citizens; we can allow our government to come in the night to take those of us who speak up or back the wrong person. It's the choice we make when we talk about taking away the Bill of Rights, and that is exactly what originated the Second Amendment.
I believe it would be easier, quicker and much more certain for left-wing Americans to move to China than it would to convert the United States to China. One of the chief impediments to converting the United States to China is in fact the firearms that most American adults own.
By the way, I know a fellow who has Asperger's syndrome. His parents believe and I have come to believe that in China all people with this affliction, and the broader affliction of which it is a part, are put in prison. I doubt that any of us want that solution any more than most Americans want more gun control.
Rep. Lynn's bill merely gives school districts an option, and that option is not much of a stretch from current practice. Ms. Champney apparently doesn't know about ongoing school lockdown drills, and she may be shocked to learn that firearms training and use has long been a Juneau School District component. In Juneau some teachers are shooting coaches today, and the two middle schools have air rifle teams. There is of course a high school rifle team. Many Juneau teachers are certified to teach shooting by the National Rifle Association, and they obtained that certification from NRA instructors teaching in Juneau schools. Almost all sixth graders in Juneau learn gun safety and shooting basics.
President Obama sends his children to a small school that has about a dozen armed guards. I think that arming teachers makes more sense so far as what is practical and what might be most effective. I find the president to be dishonest when he speaks of gun control, and in part that is because he doesn't mention sending his own children to a school that has armed guards.
CT. has a so-called assault weapons ban and the .22 centerfire rifle allegedly used in that school shooting of a month ago had gone through the required processes. All guns reportedly carried by the alleged shooter were registered with the state and had been purchased after required background checks. Therefore, no gun restrictions short of nationwide gun confiscation would have stopped this tragedy if in fact we all have the correct story as to what happened.
Drills
Schools should be equipped with escape plans not hide in closet plans.
There should be hidden doors only staff knows of, ways to get from upper floors to lower, from one class to another, from inside to outside. Teachers and staff should be able to move our kids out of harms way not hide in a closet to be a still trapped target.
We have escape plans in our own homes don't we? There is a fire or danger we teach our kids how to get out if at all possible not to sit and wait.
School closets aren't bullet proof, we are in a new era and we need to change our way of thinking. Crawl out of denial and grasp we live in a pretty damn evil twisted world. Time to protect our kids, our future at all costs.
(PS) I agree with the comment that if a parent didn't know the schools had drills you really need to get your head in the parenting game!!
Bigger problem than just guns
Hiding behind a coat to avoid a gunman makes more sense than most suggestions. When I was in grade school, we had drills to hide under our desk in case of a nuclear attack. I guess someone had that brainstorm to protect us from being vaporized. Israeli children have drills for deadly gas missile
attacks.Afghani schools have to worry about suicide bombers. Ethiopian kids would just like to have something to eat everyday.
Children worldwide are in peril and have been for a long time. Ask any WWII era European Jewish child. Oh wait! you probably cant because most got murdered by the Nazi's.I offer no solutions, but suggest that this is an ever changing problem and we have to do what we can at the time to protect our kids. Once we solve the gun thing some lunatic will find another way to deal out his evil. It may be biological or chemical or something not even thought of yet. But I bet a dollar someone is working on it right now.
This is a very sad time that we live in..
The NRA and some legislators are trying to arm teachers up because others are unwilling to give up high capacity and large mag weapons.. that is beyond selfish and I hope you all wake up and realize what you're doing to this country.
Background Check
The desire to own an AR-15 is probably an indication of mental illness and therefor you are not mentally stable enough to own an AR-15.
We'll call it the Paradox Solution.
What happens when the crazies
What happens when the crazies cant get a gun? Its called a pipe bomb. Terrorists the world over have shown that if they want to create mass casualties, they will regardless of the items on hand.
Kpawsuh
Look up columbine and compare the number of casualties between the guns they used and the pipe bombs they used..
Hey super hero. Go reread my
Hey super hero. Go reread my post. If they cant get guns they will use pipe bombs. Taking the guns away isnt going to solve everything and let you live in a utopia with unicorns and fairies. It just is going to require the crazies to take chemistry.
“Everyone ran to a
“Everyone ran to a pre-determined hiding place. According to my daughter, everyone needs to practice hiding behind coats”
So let’s herd them all in one corner and make this a duck shoot. Sorry but how stupid can you get? As far as teachers not having the training’ I know many who are retired LEOs and ex-military. BTW Lat something you didn’t hear from the mainstream media, was this nutcase did try to purchase a rifle from a dealer just days before the shooting, he was turned down. License the owners. Register all guns. This will do nothing to stop these types of shootings. I will agree that the mother here was at fault by leaving those firearms around knowing that her son was mentally ill. However if she hadn’t this guy would have just gone somewhere else. As they say if there’s a will there’s a way. With over 20k laws out there already let’s enforce them first instead of making other that will make no difference.
Superhero, here is what's going to happen. If these mags and rifles "ARs" were banned totally and these feel good politicians realize down the road that it didn't make a difference they will soon be after all the other guns out there. Registration making it easier to confiscate.
Feinstein has already said if she had the votes she would take them all. She is not the only one either.
kpawsuh
Reread my post and try to understand the point that I am making...
Actually, i'll spell it out for you. Sure, if someone is going to kill, they will find a way. The Columbine shooters had 12 deaths, over 50 injuries, yet only one person was injured by a pipe bomb. (They made over 99!) Most failed to explode and some were thrown, giving the children enough time to dive away from them (if you've seen the Columbine security camera footage, you can clearly see someone diving away from a pipe bomb). Now, let's compare that to the chaos they caused by their guns, shall we- On April 20, Harris was equipped with a 12-gauge Savage-Springfield 67H pump-action shotgun, (which he discharged a total of 25 times) and a Hi-Point 995 Carbine 9 mm carbine with thirteen 10-round magazines, which he fired a total of 96 times. Klebold was equipped with a 9 mm Intratec TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun with one 52-, one 32-, and one 28-round magazine and a 12-gauge Stevens 311D double-barreled sawed-off shotgun. Klebold primarily fired the TEC-9 handgun, for a total of 55 times.
With one squeeze of the trigger and proper aiming lessons, you could either kill or horribly hurt the intended target. Weapon malfunctions? Guns are so small that if someone is carrying one and commiting a massacre, they're more than likely carrying a lot more..
Making Up Stuff
The writer states that "the U.S. already has more guns per capita than any other country in the world; and a much higher murder rate to show for it."
The first part of this statement is true, as El_Boorba mentioned in his post. But the second part of the statement is totally made up! The United States is no where near the top of the murder rate ranks, not even close! In fact, at 4.8 homicides per 100,000 people, the United States is barely in the top 100.
I can't listen to someone's side of the argument, if they are going to make things up or throw in dramatic lies, just to help their viewpoint.
But, I also feel that armed teachers is just a downright stupid idea, another NRA gem (shaking my head). On the other side, I really enjoy my shotgun, and firing off assault weapons is a blast (I used to do it a lot when I was out at logging camps for most of the year).
Wishful thinking
"My guns will not kill someone because they are secured from non-responsible hands." -Raininak
This thought is a fallacy. Anyone harboring it needs to open their brains and dump it out. As I've said elsewhere, nobody is immune from stress, a mental health crisis or even a brain tumor that has unintended behavioral consequences. Nobody.
This line of thinking is not a solution, it's merely a band-aid and it doesn't stop the bleeding.
Band-aids are good first steps, I agree, but a tourniquet is ultimately required to stop this national shame. It is a National Shame. Americans are viewed as nuts by other economically advanced countries. Nuts.
We will need a cultural change to get in front of this shame.
Mike