{"id":92325,"date":"2023-04-29T03:03:08","date_gmt":"2023-04-29T08:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=92325"},"modified":"2023-04-29T03:03:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-29T08:03:08","slug":"92325","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=92325","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Uniformed School Resource Officers Aren’t the Solution to Stop Mass Public Shootings<\/a><\/p>\n

With six murdered at the Covenant School in Nashville at the end of March, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee proposed\u00a0over $200 million<\/a>\u00a0in new measures to protect schools and prevent more such attacks. One of his proposals is to put \u201can armed security guard in every school in Tennessee.\u201d Both Republican Senators from Tennessee have offered\u00a0similar legislation<\/a> in the form of the federal Safe Schools Act.<\/p>\n

Governor Lee understandably wants to do something to prevent this type of violence from ever happening again. But allowing teachers to carry firearms in their classrooms is a much more effective and less costly solution. A bill\u00a0advanced<\/a>\u00a0by a Tennessee state House committee last week would do just that.<\/p>\n

Having an armed ally in a school could stop attacks. but identifiable officers are easily targeted.<\/p>\n

\u201cA deputy in uniform has an extremely difficult job in stopping these attacks,\u201d\u00a0noted<\/a>\u00a0Sarasota County, Florida, Sheriff Kurt Hoffman. \u201cThese terrorists have huge strategic advantages in determining the time and place of attacks. They can wait for a deputy to leave the area or pick an undefended location. Even when police or deputies are in the right place at the right time, those in uniform who can be readily identified as guards may as well be holding up neon signs saying, \u2018Shoot me first.\u2019 My deputies know that we cannot be everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

There’s a good reason air marshals on planes don’t wear uniforms.<\/p>\n

If you have an armed officer in a school, don\u2019t put him in uniform and make him readily identifiable. Give him a staff position in the school so it won\u2019t be obvious that he is the one person with a gun.<\/p>\n

The prospect of armed resistance deterred the Covenant School shooter from choosing another target. \u201cThere was another location that was mentioned, but because of a threat assessment by the suspect of too much<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, no one at the Covenant school had a gun to fight back with.<\/p>\n

These murderers count on gun-free zones to ensure they will be the only armed person. Last year, the Buffalo, NY shooter wrote in his\u00a0manifesto<\/a>: \u201cAreas where CCW permits are outlawed or prohibited may be good areas of attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, national media refuses to report such\u00a0explicit statements<\/a>\u00a0by attackers. Nor do they report that\u00a094% of mass public shootings<\/a>\u00a0occur in places where civilians are banned from having guns.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Violating gun-free school zones in Tennessee means a six-year prison term. While that is a severe penalty for law-abiding citizens, an additional six years for someone such as the Covenant school mass murderer is irrelevant, even if they had lived. The murderer would already be facing six life sentences or the death penalty.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Twenty states<\/a>\u00a0already allow teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns. Any teacher with a concealed handgun permit can carry in Utah and New Hampshire. In other states, school boards or superintendents decide the policy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the thousands of schools where teachers are permitted to carry, no one has been wounded or killed in an attack during school hours. Only at schools where guns are banned have people been hurt or killed in school shootings.<\/p>\n

Other common concerns about allowing teachers to carry guns \u2014 such as students getting a hold of the weapons or teachers losing their tempers \u2014 have\u00a0never actually occurred<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Surveys show<\/a>\u00a0that criminologists and economists strongly support abolishing gun-free zones in places such as schools.<\/p>\n

\u00a0President Biden is right that we shouldn’t impose security measures which make schools resemble prisons. There is another alternative. Instead of posting gun-free zone signs in front of schools, let\u2019s post signs which warn attackers that there are teachers with concealed handguns.<\/p>\n

Lott is the president of the\u00a0Crime Prevention Research Center<\/a>\u00a0and the author most recently of \u201cGun Control Myths<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Uniformed School Resource Officers Aren’t the Solution to Stop Mass Public Shootings With six murdered at the Covenant School in Nashville at the end of March, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee proposed\u00a0over $200 million\u00a0in new measures to protect schools and prevent more such attacks. One of his proposals is to put \u201can armed security guard in … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-schools","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92326,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92325\/revisions\/92326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}