Armed Guards?

1/22/2013

After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that killed 26 people, the National Rifle Association recommended that armed guards should be stationed at every school to prevent similar episodes. Read this article or find another one about this topic. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/us/arizona-sheriff-adds-school-patrols-to-posses-duties.html?_r=0

How do you feel about having armed guards in school? Would it keep us safer? Why or why not? Remember, you are being graded on content AND grammar, so I would suggest typing your response in Microsoft Word and using the spelling/grammar checker before posting.

25 Comments

Tyler Falls

1/21/2013 10:47:32 pm

I do think that it is a good idea to have armed guards at school. It would made kids think about it twice if they was going to do something that horrible. If we had armed guards at Hastings High school im sure the kids and parents would feel safer. I do think that some kids wouldn’t care. But I know it would make my family happier.

Austin Jordan

1/22/2013 12:54:28 am

I think that if a person was even thinking of doing a shooting, they would account for armed guards and take them down too. I think the best way to counter the threat is to be prepared with the students and knowing the procedures. A school shooting is just like a tornado, besides being man-made, being prepared may not save everyone, but may save many. There always has to be a sacrifice, whether it is social time or a person’s life to be prepared. Such as the students can either prepare for a disaster and spare unneeded social time to hear the procedures, or a first responder setting their life on the line to take down the assailant / finding students in debris.

Caleb Engle

1/22/2013 10:06:42 pm

I do believe that armed guards should be at schools. If it could prevent another school shooting then I don’t know why we shouldn’t have at least one police officer at our school. It would be a good thing to have.

Chris Hopkins

1/22/2013 10:09:14 pm

I guess that armed guards in schools are a good idea. In reality, I believe that teachers should have concealed weapons. I think that if teachers did, fewer casualties would ensue. I don’t know, maybe it’s my conservative thinking that makes me think that way, but our second amendment right to carry a gun. So why is it, a teacher can’t have a gun on their person just in case?

John Brunsink

1/22/2013 10:33:56 pm

We must remember that the right to bare arms is not necessarily the right to carry a weapon, it was more of the right to form a militia. And I would have to disagree on the teachers carry a weapon, because think of all the stress that students put the teachers through i would believe that a teacher is more likely to break down then say a bullied student.

Chris Hopkins

1/22/2013 10:44:45 pm

John, never the less, the Amendment, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” -Bill of Rights, it refers to both the militia, and the free people of the state. I found on a Facebook page last night, a picture with some statistics. The average number of people that die when police handle a mass shooting is 18.25, will if another civilian has a weapon, only on average 2.2 people die. Clearly, if another civilian is armed, less people die. I’d rather a teacher have the gun. Then, the schools wouldn’t have to make budget cuts, just for armed guards.

Veronica Klein

1/22/2013 10:10:35 pm

I think that having armed officers patrolling would be a good idea. It would add one more level of security an armed assailant would have to get past in order to harm or kill their victims. While I don't think every single shooting may be avoided by having police officers on site, fewer casualties may occur if they can take out the threat before there are multiple shots fired. Another solution to preventing killings is to let more teachers carry concealed weapons. If they can eliminate the threat right away without waiting for police officers to arrive, it will save many lives.

Tyler Davis

1/22/2013 10:10:54 pm

I feel that armed guards shouldn't be at schools because it disrupts the learning enviroment. While it makes schools safer it doesn't help the fact that students want their privacy. If the guards think that a student has something illegal or dangerous on them they will more than likely search them and that is just really uncomfortable. Not only that it is really undermining. If other students see a student getting searched people might think he is crazy and will likely start rumors.

Addison Millard

1/22/2013 10:18:04 pm

I think having armed guards at school, on paper, is a good idea. In practice, I see a few problems that may arise. First, in order to have armed guards, the school would have to pay their salary/wage. Our school budget is pretty tight, and I'm sure many others' are too. Second, the students might be nervous to have armed guards around them.

Corey Robins

1/22/2013 10:24:05 pm

I feel like having armed guards in schools wouldn’t really make a difference because people are going to do what they are going to do either way. If we had one armed guard in our school and someone came in to kill everyone and the guard tried to stop him but ended up getting killed then it does no good and there would be already someone dead. Also some people don’t do well with authority and would not like having more people in charge of them. On top of that it would just cost the school more money to pay the guard using money that should be used on books and supplies.

Nick Gaiski

1/22/2013 10:29:37 pm

I think this is a great idea. It will make everyone feel a little bit safer, and if anything the community will be brought closer. No parent in their right mind would send their kid to school not knowing whether or not they will come home. It's like sending a family memeber to war. So instead, we should have someone who has been to war, and wo has training be their to protect the children.

John Brunsink

1/22/2013 10:31:19 pm

I believe that it would be a good idea to have armed guards stationed at the school. Although not the way they have it in the article. The way it sounds is that what the sheriff was doing is making a gang and calling it a “posse.” Random retired civilians that are armed would not keep our schools save, especially when some of them have existing criminal records. What we need are ex-military veterans that can’t get jobs elsewhere. They would have the required training to handle a crisis and it would help them stay a part of society with a job.

Brad Hall

1/22/2013 10:47:59 pm

I think that the idea of haveing armed guards in school has good and bad possibilities. The good would be that just by haveing the guard there would make it less likely that someone would try something. The bad would only be if it was some random stranger from a Sheriff posses that is smart enough to use the free training and easy access to the school to his advantage.

Lane Merrill

1/22/2013 11:01:38 pm

I agree completely with the idea of armed guards on every school campus. In my oppinion the "no weapons on campus" signs that buisinesses and schools have posted at main entrances is just another way of telling mass murderurs "hey nobody here is going to shoot back". around the same time as the sandy hook shooting a man concealing a finrearm prevented a mass shooting by shooting the assailant before any significan number of lives were lost, this was not mentioned on the news or any otherform of social media other that local news articles the indeviduls posted online. This just goes to show how liberal the media is. In my oppinon in order to lower gun violence the gun laws should be lessened not intensified, making it easier for the average every day citizen to aquire a firearm in order to defend themselves in case of an attack. Iether way the bad guys are still going to be able to acces weapons illegaly and therefore the stricter gun laws are only affecting the law abiding citizens who only want to defend themselves. think about this for a moment, what would have happened on 9-11 had all the passengers on board had been concealing a firearm? what would have happened when the terrorists armed with mere box cutters revealed there evil plan? Even if the terrorists had firearms of there own even a few passengers with firearms could have gave the rest of the passengers a fighting chance for survival. Now if you were planning a mass murder where would you strike first? A school or buisiness with a sign displaying "no firearms on premises"? or one that displays "armed faculty and staff"? I think we both know the answer here. Now if you hadn't noticed i dont have many positive feelings about Obama or his plan for our country. Obama is not stupid, in fact he is a very inteligent man thats not the problem. The problem is that he is a liberal, and even more than that he has never been on the receiving end of a firearm. Now if you have ever found yourself fleeing from a crazed gunman i can assure you that your first thought wouldn't be "i wish gund were banned" no it would be something a little more like "i wish i had a way of denfending myself sohuld this ever happen again". Now, answer this. how do you defend yourself from someone with a gun? a knife? no. a bat? i dont think so. A magical disarming wand? well... yes, but those dont exsist. so how do you go about defending yourself from a gun weilding assailant? well i think the answer is pretty clear. you pull out your own gun and shoot him before he can shoot you, just as the man in arizona did which, had he not had a gun would have lead to alot more deaths. I myself am an active member of the NRA as is everyone in my household. Although i am under 21 and can not opperate under a concealed cary license or legaly own a gun i can assure you that the first thing i do when i reach the required age is go to the nearest gun store and get one as should you if you are not the type to sit around and wait for the government to protect you. We have all seen how well the turned out for the people involved in the sandy hook shooting as well as 9-11.

Lucas Johnson

1/23/2013 03:09:47 am

I personally think it is a good idea. I would fell a lot safer at school. And there’s nothing more than Americans like then a false sense of security. We should also have TSA style security check points throughout the school. Strip of us of our humanity for gun crazy security freaks; yes, let’s put guns in our school, and not deal with the real issue.

Jon Wilcox

1/24/2013 10:07:18 pm

I feel that having armed guards at our school would keep us safer from crazy people because the guards would drop a guy that walks up to our school with a gun. Therefore it would keep us safer. And who would be dumb enough to try and shoot up a school that has guards? This idea would work very well in my opinion.

Steven Wolfe

1/24/2013 10:08:02 pm

I think having armed guards in our school would make us safer because. In case if they were a shooting in the school with armed guards their would be less chance of deaths of students or schools staff. But with armed guards it would be very pricey for the school to pay for them and some schools can't afford them.

Katy Wallace

1/24/2013 10:09:11 pm

I don't think that having armed guards is really going to make that much of a difference. I'm sure it would put parents and students at ease, but it wouldn’t stop a killer. If a person is willing to come into a building full of children and shoot them, why would armed guards stop them? Maybe having the guards would stop so many deaths by being able to come into the building faster and secure the person, but there’s not much else.

Jillian Bailey

1/24/2013 10:11:12 pm

I think having at least one armed guard at every school is a good idea. Some people say that using violence to fight violence only creates more violence but how else are we supposed to stop someone with a gun who might not be in thier right frame of mind? Talking things out doesnt always work. I also think that having better security in schools would help stop a person from even entering the school in the first place.

Bo Morgan

1/24/2013 10:15:03 pm

I feel that having armed guards in schools is a good idea because it allows armed guards to already be at the scene and prevent a gunman from even entering the school. Where without armed guards on site they would have to travel to the school which gives the gunman time to kill, rather than being stopped before that opportunity occurs. So, therefore armed guards would keep our schools safer.

Miguel Arjona

1/24/2013 10:15:17 pm

I think that there should be at least one person in the school with access to a gun in case of situations like the one a Sandy Hook or we could have an officer patrolling the school while class is in session. The NRA makes a good point when they suggest that places like schools and malls always have someone there with access to a weapon such as a handgun. It’d make our school safer and protect us more. Some people would feel uncomfortable with that idea but I think it’s something they’re just going to have to deal with because the majority of people feel safer.

Leah Czinder

1/24/2013 10:17:36 pm

I think that armed guards in schools would be somewhat pointless. Yes, they would make people feel better and safer but if there was a shooter I do not believe he would stop his plan just because of a guard. Most mass shooters take their lives after they have completed their “task”. They would not fear a guard with a gun since they do not fear their own death. Having armed guards would potentially cut down on the number of deaths during a mas shooting if the guard got to the location in time. But what are the chances of the shooter and the guard being in the same area of the building during the shooting? While I think it is a good idea to create a plan to keep the children safer while in school, I do not feel that the armed guards would be very affective.

Stephen Bowles

1/24/2013 10:19:20 pm

First off, let me say that efforts to remove firearms from the equation entirely are quite rediculous. Other items that are illegal in that extent are still accessible. Also, one should consider that killing went on long before the invention of guns.

Now to the point of the article, I believe that the sheriff is taking the correct steps. Having trained volunteers on campus is both cost efficient for those districts whose budgets are tight, and an effective form of protection. The presence of officers on site can discourage criminals. While the shooter may try to account for it, it would take a proffessional to effectively penetrate the layer of protection. A madman may get a few shots off, but he would not be getting very far before he was shot too.

Amber Snore

1/24/2013 10:24:07 pm

This subject is really split for me. I do believe teachers and students should be protected, but instead we're taking officers off the streets. I believe personally, teachers should be allowed some kind of weapon, rather than hiring guards for each and every school. Hiring guards is a bit overkill don't you think? Yes, Sandy Hook was a devastating tragedy, but honestly are school shooting turning into a common occurrence? Not exactly, Sandy Hook was over-popularized because of the age group of the children, school shootings happen much more severe than Sandy Hook. Adam Lanza’s (I think that’s his name) intent was revenge, he was going to kill regardless of if he would be shot or not. It's great that the government is stepping in to take steps towards safety, but why all of the sudden? Guns are not the only problem, so to say guns are the problem, is wrong. People are the problem, if a person wants to kill someone, they will regardless of their weapon of choice. Just settle the dispute and give guns to teachers and administrators, provide more thorough background checks, and regulate gun sales better. America has way too high hopes of solving gun issues; we're trying far too hard to stop something that is nearly impossible. If someone wants a gun and a lot of ammunition, they'll get it somehow, regardless, but if we cut the sales of high ammunition guns and who they’re sold too, that might help decrease the amount of people who have access to them. It's going to be a process and it won't happen overnight, but the precautions being taken I believe are in the best interest of the American citizens. As stated before, no I don't believe putting guards in every school will do much good, that's one more officer off the streets, one more criminal who isn't caught, just give weapons to administrators, end of story.

Todd Fox

1/24/2013 10:48:28 pm

Having armed guards can provide one more factor that a shooter may have to think about but does he really care? He is there to shoot whomever he can. There is the potential that it would keep us safer but there should also be other factors imposed. Things such as locked doors, cameras, and systems to block of sections of the school could all help.

Armed Guards?

Leave a Reply.

Author

Archives

Categories