A Pack, Not A Herd: Utah

After dozens of school shootings, both famous (Columbine, Red Lake, Nickel Mines, Bailey) and not-so-famous (the shootings at Cold Spring/Rocori, Minnesota a while ago), people are starting to figure out that merely calling a school a "gun-free zone" doesn't necessarily make it so.

I've pointed out the example of Israel, where teachers are allowed to carry legally-permitted concealed firearms in school - a response to terrorist-launched school shootings some decades ago) as one that could help deter the next batch of murderers from preying on our kids.

Others seem to have gotten the same idea. Last week I noted the effort to legalize the same thing in Wisconsin

Now, in Utah, some teachers are responding more directly:More than a dozen teachers and public school employees will spend part of their UEA weekend in a classroom — learning how to use a gun.
Clark Aposhian is offering a free class today to public school employees seeking to get their concealed- weapons permit.
"It is self-defense," he told the Deseret Morning News on Thursday. "But because teachers and school administrators and custodians are typically surrounded by students all day, any threat to any individual with a firearm would also be a threat to those students."The responses - well, anyone that reads this blog should know where this is going, right?

The concealed-weapons instructor's offer was met with opposition from some teachers and union representatives at the Utah Education Association's conference in Salt Lake City.
"We've always resisted the idea of arming school employees," said Susan Kuziak, executive director of the 18,000-member teachers union. "Though the intentions may be good, ultimately, the potential for harm is too great."

Although, as usual, that potential is never spelled out.

A handful of teachers interviewed at the UEA convention agreed. Some said the idea of guns in schools, even when toted by trusted colleagues, makes them nervous.
"Who's to say a kid couldn't take a gun from me or another teacher?" said Darren Dickson, a teacher at Altamont High in Duchesne County. "It's too much of a risk."

Who's to say? The statistics, for one, which shows this sort of thing happens vanishingly rarely to carriers who are paying attention.

Aposhian said he does not want teachers to suddenly become "heroes" in the event of a school shooting. In fact, he said, they should continue to follow school lockdown procedures, which include teachers locking doors and remaining in classrooms. "We discourage teachers from roaming the halls looking for the intruder," he said. "We're not trying to turn them into law enforcement in any way."

I'm not sure what Utah's self-defense laws are - but in Minnesota, the law would tend to forbid actually looking for a criminal. But I suspect anyone taking the course would know that, and more of any applicable laws than their detractors.

So far, about 2 dozen teachers and public school employees have signed up for his class. Included with the free class is fingerprinting and photography for the concealed-weapons application. Public school employees will still have to pay a $59 application fee to the state.

Anyone at the MFT listening to this?

We've had two school shootings in Minnesota in the past four years, either of which could have turned out very differently had a citizen with a gun been on the scene.

Posted by Mitch at October 16, 2006 05:57 AM | TrackBack