Photo credit: newstalkflorida.com
The other evening on Fox News, Sean Hannity proposed his
solutions for security on school campuses, to prevent another Parkland shooting
from taking place. His proposals mostly involved increased armed presence in halls and
classrooms, security clearances at all entrances similar to checkpoints at entrances
to federal buildings, and so forth. I did not much like his proposals, as they would turn our campuses into the very militarized environments that we
associate with police states.
During the Parkland shooting, ROTC training saved lives. CNN reported:
Colton Haab heard seven gunshots,
and his Junior ROTC training kicked in.
The
17-year-old junior knew a gunman was on his high school campus Wednesday
afternoon so he ushered 60 to 70 people to shelter in an open Junior Reserve
Officers' Training Corps room. At that point, he realized that the Kevlar
sheets generally used for the Junior ROTC marksmanship program could come in
handy.
"We
took those sheets, and we put them in front of everybody so they weren't seen,
because they were behind a solid object and the Kevlar would slow the bullet
down," Haab told CNN on Thursday.
In his proposals, Speaker Newt Newt sets forth some alternative ideas that expand on the Junior ROTC trainee's quick thinking. The
excerpt below is from his newsletter (also posted online at Fox News):
This week’s tragic
attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is a deeply
painful reminder of how much we have failed to honestly confront the problem of
school shootings in America.
Putting up “Gun-Free
Zone” signs is not a solution. It is an act of self-deception. By definition,
the determined killers carry their guns past the signs. They are not slowed
down for one second by community sentiment.
The current
strategies of responding to a violent threat by either freezing students in
place or accelerating student evacuation both carry seeds of disaster. Freezing
the students in place simply sets them up to be killed methodically by a
brutal, evil, or mentally ill person. Having them flee may lead them to run
right into the path of the killer.
. . .
The fact is, evil
people with guns must be stopped by good people with guns.
Furthermore, the
faster good people can respond, the fewer innocent people will be killed.
Every school in
America should have several teachers and administrators trained in firearms who
are permitted to carry concealed weapons. The number of these “protectors of
the innocent” in each school should be determined by the number of students.
Agreeing to serve in this role might be encouraged with an appropriate monthly
stipend. After all, in Georgia, teachers who agree to serve as coaches are paid
stipends ranging from $150 to as much as $400 (and sometimes more for large
football programs). Surely, we can afford to provide this type of incentive to
people who want to help protect our children.
Because these
protectors would have concealed weapons and not be in uniform, would-be killers
would have no idea who might be capable of ending their threat by ending them.
. . .
If we are really
serious about protecting our children, we must have trained and equipped
protectors prepared to handle this type of situation whenever there are school
activities. The Parkland school had an armed officer assigned to the campus,
but the officer never encountered the shooter and was not able to respond in
time. Dramatically increasing the presence of uniformed, visibly-armed security
guards, however, might create an environment ill-suited for learning.
Instead, teachers
and administrators serving as protectors could complement and support the
dedicated officer or security personnel who are already serving in many
schools. This combination of using uniformed police officers to handle standard
school security challenges, while also having responsible adult protectors who
are already going to be working in the school prepared to provide additional
force in the case of a catastrophic emergency, like a mass shooting, is the
most effective and practical way to protect our children.
Read Newt’s full column here.
We all know now that the FBI completely dropped the ball on
this one. See Sundance here. It wasn’t the first failure by the FBI to act on tips of
imminent danger. And it won’t be the last. Message to schools: you are probably
on your own. Prepare accordingly. And I thought Newt's ideas were on the right track.
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