FOLLOWUP TO OUR UNPROTECTED SCHOOLS

By de Andréa


In the “Gun Free Zone” of Columbine High School in Jefferson County Colorado, an armed school security officer and S.W.A.T. teams stood ineptly and disgracefully by, while our school children were being systematically murdered just a few feet away inside the school library. This happened in 1999 and since then, these types of school executions have been repeated unabated too many times, what’s more, little or nothing has been done to stop these outrages attacks on our children from happening, again and again.

Recently, President Bush Addressed a group of citizens, parents and State and county officials including Sheriff Dawsy and Attorney General Gonzales at the National 4H Conference center in Chevy Chase Maryland. The purpose was to discuss solutions about the lack of school security in our public school system in the aftermath of more school shootings. After all the speeches and Q and A, the problem was not even addressed, much less any solutions suggested. A lot of rhetoric about the psychology of students wanting to commit suicide, and opening the doors of communication etcetera, all good prophylactic subjects, but none of this will prevent someone from coming into a school with a gun and blowing away our kids such as the recent Amish Massacre in Pennsylvania.

Not only have our schools been legislated as "Gun Free Zones" by our so- called Federal Government-Protectors, but they have also been determined, not by representation of and by and for the people, but by a new dictatorial process, known as “Legislation Without Representation”, as well as in violation of the first Amendment, to be “God Free Zones” as well. While they are obviously not gun free, they are however, for the most part legally or illegally God free. One cannot help but wonder however, in both cases, if this has something to do with the real problem of protecting our school children.

Possibly we would do better at protecting our children from these killers than trusting in our Federal Protectors, by carrying a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other. If these cowardly murdering sons of Satan won’t pay any attention to God’s word in one hand then shoot them with the gun in the other before they kill our children. [Oooh that is good preaching de Andrea]

We can pass more anti-gun laws, we can attempt to raise the self-esteem of our children, we can self police our media not to sensationalize these outrages crimes, we can psychoanalyze our society to try to understand why warm fuzzy people go bad, and on and on. While some of these could be honorable endeavors, none address the problem, or offer any solution to the problem of protecting our children from these psychopathic killers and predators.

Interestingly enough a solution has been found and is already in place, Israel, for example, has for many years, armed not only its security guards and principles, but also teachers in the classrooms. Thailand is another country which has successfully armed their school personnel. Everywhere that this type of protection has been tried, it has been successful, yes even in the U.S. In 1995 the State of Utah, armed not only teachers, principles and security guards with concealed weapons, (pistols) but even parents, picking up their children from school are also armed. They have not kept this a secret in their State and as a result for the eleven years that Utah has had this program, they have not experienced any murders or any gun related problems in their schools.

Even without a program of this type in place, a random defence by principal Joel Myrick in a Mississippi school in 1997 thwarted an attack after several people were already shot at pearl high school. Principal Myrick retrieved his semi automatic 45 from the trunk of his car and managed to stop the perpetrator on his way to Pearl Junior High before the maniac could continue his rampage. Within a few days of the Pearl school shooting, an armed citizen stopped another attack in an Edinboro, Pennsylvania school. There are many such successful cases reported in schools throughout the U.S. One cannot help think, what if Principal Myrick had been able to carry his gun instead of having to retrieve it from his car, or better yet, if at least some of the teachers were armed, there may be a few more innocent people alive today, in that one incident alone.

In almost all cases any state could easily amend what ever existing State laws that would prevent teachers and other school staff, (after going through the required training and licensing program), from carrying a concealed weapon on school property. This would not even violate the federal “Gun Free Zone” laws since they do not apply to licensed CCW permit holders. At first this could be a voluntary program for existing teachers and school personnel, however it should eventually be required for all people who are applying for a teaching credential, planning to be teachers, to go through a special training program, and acquiring a CCW permit. Eventually, it would just be a part of the ordinary curriculum of becoming a responsible teacher.

The only way that a program of aggressive defence like this can work, is if the teachers were willing to decisively and responsibly kill someone that has obviously come into a school for the purpose of committing murder and or great bodily harm. In other words if some stranger pops into ones classroom and points a gun at a student, at first chance the trained teacher should simply shoot to kill the perpetrator, as opposed to trying to talk him into dropping his gun, and having a group hug, which will usually result in an innocent person getting killed, maybe even the teacher the students only hope. The teacher would have to assume intent to kill by the person pointing a gun at a student. This is why it would be imperative that the teacher have the proper training. This should be as much a part of teacher training as math, English, and science.

This type of program will of course be met with enormous opposition by the few hug a weed pacifists in our society, that would rather all sit around wondering why we just can’t all learn to get along with our warm fuzzy psychopathic murderers, and just try to understand why they might want to kill our children or whether their parents were mean to them, or maybe we as a community have done something to provoke this behavior. This of course, is sort of what we have been doing for years and I think we can honestly say—it is not working very well. Maybe it is time to try something that has already been proven to work even in our own country, as well as others.

Some may say, well how about just arming school principals and security guards? Unless we can have a principal or a security guard in every classroom, it would be useless, let’s not forget that Columbine had an armed security guard who cowered along with the disorganized S.W.A.T. team worrying more about, the political ramifications of shooting children that were shooting other children, than storming the place and putting a stop to these murders. No, every teacher, in every classroom, must be trained and armed. [The investigation of the Columbine fiasco by the way, is still on going]

THE BOTTOM LINE: Schools are magnets for psychopathic killers because it is a pretty safe bet that there will be not be any significant resistance in a “Gun Free Zone” against anyone bent on killing helpless children. Once a program of armed school personnel is in place, as in the State of Utah, a perpetrator would likely be intimidated enough not to carry out his intent of murder and mayhem in a school classroom.

If our Federal Government had only one job, it would be, according to our Constitution, to protect the citizens of this country from a foreign invasion. Interestingly the Constitution does not stipulate where, or what kind of foreign invasion, or by whom. Whether it is at the boarder by a foreign nation, or at the threshold of our schools by a psychopathic killer, our Federal and State Governments have a responsibility to protect, and prevent our young citizens from having to live everyday in fear of death or great bodily harm just to get an education.

If I were a Parent of a young child entering a government school or any school for that matter, for the first time today, the first question I would ask is… What kind of protection program does this school have in place for my child’s safety, if let’s say, a would-be kidnaper or murderer would enter this school and point a gun at my child’s head? I doubt at present, any school in my State could even come close to offering a satisfactory answer to that question. Then I would have to say… I am sorry, then I cannot place my child in this school. If even a minority of parents would do that, I can guarantee something would be done. What do you think??? I would like to hear from some teachers as well as parents. In the words of Ben Stein, Anybody? Anybody?

Just a side bar: I even carry my gun to my church and no body knows, so not even the pacifists anti gun people are bothered. They don’t even know that they are being protected by a Bible in one hand, and a gun in the other…

de Andréa