School 'Gun Free Zones' are Death Traps: Why We Must Allow Qualified School Principals and Office Staff to Carry Concealed
Thirty-two thousand Americans are killed each year in automobile accidents, and the President sheds no tears for them. The deaths aren't on the news, and there is no call to "ban cars" to prevent the deaths. Over 100,000 Americans are killed each year by government-approved pharmaceuticals, yet we never see all those dead bodies on the evening news.
The government's horror at Americans dying, it seems, is highly selective. Only people killed with certain kinds of things -- such as guns -- are "celebrated" by the federal government.
As the recent Newtown, Conn. school shooting reminds us, criminals pay no attention to "gun free zone" signs that often emblazon our public schools. Just because some government bureaucrat declares a school to be a gun-free zone does not alter the action of some psycho-crazed, medicated kid showing up with a bunch of guns he stole from somebody else (which is exactly what happened with Adam Lanza in Conn).
But because all the teachers and school employees abide by the gun-free zone rules, they are completely disarmed at all times. This is why schools are the perfect hunting grounds for psychopathic criminals who want to avoid anyone shooting back.
"Blood is on the hands of members of Congress and the Connecticut legislators who voted to ban guns from all schools in Connecticut (and most other states)," wrote Larry Pratt, head of Gun Owners of America. "They are the ones who made it illegal to defend oneself with a gun in a school when that is the only effective way of resisting a gunman."
"What a lethal, false security are the Gun Free Zone laws. All of our mass murders in the last 20 years have occurred in Gun Free Zones. The two people murdered a couple of days earlier in the shopping center in Oregon were also in a Gun Free Zone. Hopefully the Connecticut tragedy will be the tipping point after which a rising chorus of Americans will demand elimination of the Gun Free Zone laws that are in fact Criminal Safe Zones."
Why school employees and principals should be encouraged to carry concealed
Larry Pratt is correct. The solution for all this is stupefyingly obvious: Allow top school officials who pass extensive background checks and proficiency tests to carry concealed firearms at their place of work on a daily basis.
I'm not talking about teachers here. Mixing firearms and young students in the same classrooms seems to invite an unnecessary risk of accidents. But school personnel who work in offices separate from classrooms -- such as the principal, the psychologist, and other support personnel -- do not surround themselves with children like teachers do. If they were allowed to carry concealed handguns on the job, they could act as "school marshals" and provide a front-line defense against future school massacres. (We already have "air marshals" on airplanes who are secretly armed, by the way.)
School principals and other employees are already government employees, after all, and they're already trusted with the health and safety of our nation's children. Allowing them the means to protect those children will save lives and discourage future school shootings.
The idea that posting a sign outside the school which reads "gun free zone" will somehow magically banish all guns from the school grounds is delusional thinking. Signs do not matter to psychopathic killers. You cannot stop them with signs, but you can stop them with return fire.
Think about it: If signs worked to stop militant psychopaths, then Adolf Hitler could have been contained in World War II by the nations of France, Italy and Russia simply posting signs that read, "NO INVADING ARMIES ALLOWED."
Society already brings guns to schools when called for
Now, some of you might say we shouldn't have guns in school under any circumstances. But then why do you call 911 when the shooting starts? To bring men with guns to the school!
That's the whole point of calling the police -- because they have GUNS! And those guns are brought to the scene precisely for the purpose of protecting lives and stopping crime.
It's time we allowed capable, responsible adults who already work at our nation's schools to have those guns at the ready every minute of every day. Why do we disarm school employees and force them to wait for police help to arrive with their guns? The police almost universally arrive after everybody is dead. How does that make any sense?
This unacceptable situation is costing lives when school shootings occur. Because criminal-minded psychopaths can be sure no one is carrying a gun at the school, he can approach the building as a human hunting preserve with virtually no risk of facing any sort of return fire.
The principal in Newton, Conn. was killed by Adam Lanza. But what if she had been packing a Glock with frangible 9mm ammo? She could have returned fire, meaning she could have potentially pinned Adam to one area, injured him or even killed him. This could have been accomplished with minimal risk to the students, especially since failing to do anything obviously cost many more lives.
(Obviously, school employees who do carry guns as part of the common defense of the children would also need to carry frangible ammo in order to prevent shots from penetrating walls. The last thing you need in a school firefight is bullets that can go through multiple walls and cause multiple injuries).
What the Newtown shooting has in common with the Aurora, Colorado James Holmes shooting is that both shootings took place in gun free zones. This is precisely what guaranteed the higher body counts of both of those tragedies.
Gun free zones are death traps
Instead of blaming guns, we should be blaming the delusional idea of "gun free zones." Gun free zones are advertised death traps.
Imagine if you put a sign in your yard stating, "This house is a gun free zone. No guns on the premises." You'd be robbed and looted in no time. Why? Because you're advertising to all the crooks that you have no way to defend yourself against their invasion.
That's what schools do when they post "gun free zones" signs.
A far better sign to post outside schools would be the following:
SCHOOL PERSONNEL ARMED
AND PREPARED TO DEFEND
CHILDREN AT ALL COSTS.
ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK.
That sign would make lunatics like Adam Lanza think twice about committing violence on school grounds.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/038356_gun_free_zones_schools_concealed_carry.html#ixzz2FJSHioyw