In the wake of the Florida school massacre there have been shrill calls for stricter gun controls, including raising the age to 21 for the purchases of semi-automatic weapons and an outright ban on AR-15-type rifles. If Congress passes any of those measures it will only be feel-good legislation because that will no protect our schoolchildren from crazy shooters.
Right now there are over five million military-style rifles in the hands of American gun owners. Some of these gun owners are already crazy and there is no telling how many of them will turn into nutjobs. It is obvious that we cannot protect our school children from these crazies. Having an armed cop in every school will not prevent a shooter from killing students and teachers, although it could cut down on the carnage.
I’ve noticed that schools in the Houston-Galveston area have surrounded their campuses with fencing to keep intruders out. Wrought iron fencing is decorative but if it’s only 6-8 feet high, it will hardly keep out some nutjob determined to slaughter a bunch of schoolkids. So what can we do to protect our kids?
As I’ve said, armed cops on campus could cut down on the carnage, but those cops would have to be in the right place at the right time to incapacitate a shooter before he has a chance to open fire on any students. The same can be said about armed teachers.
Locked bullet-proof classroom doors are effective while classes are in session but won’t protect students when the hallways are crowded during class breaks and when the school cafeteria is filled. How then can we make sure our children are protected while in school?
There is a radical measure that can be taken to make our school safe. Security fencing is the answer. None of that wrought iron decorative fencing!
The school campus perimeter should be surrounded by a chain-link fence at least 12-feet high and topped off with razor wire. A double fence would be even better. Any access point must have a guard post with a metal detector. And for very large campuses, having someone patrol outside the fencing with a vehicle would not be a bad idea.
All that is expensive, but how much are our kids worth?
School boards spend millions of dollars building palatial-looking schools and such fencing would certainly detract from that. Looking at it from the outside, one might think they are seeing a prison. But that is the price we may have to pay to make sure no crazy shooter will gain access to a campus.
Instead of constructing palaces, school boards should put up no-frills buildings and they should stop using a different architectural design every time they plan for a new school. That way they would save tons of money which could be used for the fencing, guards and metal detectors.
I’m sure some of you will think I’m the one that’s nuts. But I do not propose letting a snarling bunch of Rottweilers or Dobermans run loose inside the double fencing. At least not yet.
Seriously though, security fencing with guarded access points appears to be the only real answer for the prevention of school shootings.
If new gun laws are passed to make it illegal for someone under 21 to own a gun, does that mean that no soldier under 21 will ever have to go to war ?
What’s that got to do with keeping schools safe?
And for your information, that age requirement would apply only to civilian purchases.
“. . . armed cops on campus could cut down on the carnage, but ths a chance to open fire on any students. The same can be said about armed teachers.”
I don’t know which shools you’ve been in, but everywhere I worked as an active teacher and a sub there is a teacher in virtually every nook and cranny. Nutbars don’t have to know where the teachers are or which ones are packing heat, they just have to know that their chances of squeezing off a shot without getting return a volley are greatly reduced.
The suggestion of erecting “no-frills buildings” answers my question “Can new buildings look any uglier?”
I happened to have been a high school teacher for three years in Dallas following my receipt of a master’s degree and I am fully aware of where the teachers are. And some of my investigations in narcotics enforcement took me inside a number of schools where I observed the teachers as you described.
Now people of sound mind may be deterred by not knowing which teachers are armed, but what makes you think that will bother a nut case? Many crazy shooters are suicidal to begin with.
Razor wire-topped security fencing will do more to keep out a shooter than armed teachers – which I do not oppose – and even an armed school cop.
Razor wire-topped security fencing…as if the schools arent already looking like prisons. I thought we had armed police at the schools, isnt that what we have? They drive police cars.
Wish, HISD has around 200 cops for almost 300 schools, not including administrative buildings, and 80k to 90k service calls in their 300 square miles. The administration is calling for cuts to their force as well and they cover all three shifts. So unless they get lucky, they aren’t going to be around when the bullets start flying. Voters could always demand more cops but they’re going to need to pay for those additions or cut core services.
At least with Howie’s suggestions to make schools tougher targets, those ugly upgrades might slow down a lunatic long enough for area police to get there to limit how many are killed. But how important are building aesthetics compared to safety?
I’m sorry, I just don’t want America to start resembling the Green Zone in Kabul. We should want a free society, and that carries with it some risk. You do all the school hardening you want, and an evil doer will find some way to defeat whatever you throw up, or just hit up another soft target, gun free zone. Movie theaters? Shopping malls? Better that there’s unseen CCW carriers walking among us, if something bad happens.
If I wanted to go through a metal detector to go buy socks at Academy or Kohls, I’d move to the Middle East.
Educate yourself on the PROMISE program Broward County was using to gain federal dollars.
https://www.browardprevention.org/behavior/promise/
note in the mission statement “The intent of PROMISE is to safeguard the student from entering the judicial system.”
Meet Robert Runcie, the superintendent of Broward schools. Straight out of Chicago.
https://hibbsforchange.wordpress.com/2016/04/27/an-f-for-robert-w-runcie-superintendent-of-broward-schools/
Fences won’t motivate the FBI, the county sheriff and the school district to protect their students. Nikolas Cruz would never been able to legally obtain that gun if they weren’t working so hard to hide his well documented behavior. The intentional failures of our public sector watchdogs are huge in this story. Hold them accountable.
This is a point that cannot be made strongly enough. Liberals, in their quest to stop the “muh school to prison pipeline” do anything to not arrest kids and get them in the justice system where, coincidentally, a conviction could stop them from buying a gun. Gettin’ that sweet, sweet tax money for having the appearance that the kids are not savages, running wild committing crimes is pretty great, too….until innocent people get hurt because of this.
what’d I say?
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/03/06/two-parkland-shooting-survivors-announce-intent-sue-sheriffs-office-school-system/
That school district got $54 million from Obama for winning the 2016 PROMISE award. Take all of it.
While arming teachers may not eliminate the problem, I think that eliminating the gun-free zones at schools will be a significant deterrent to many criminals. And if you add clear warnings that there are guns on the grounds that may also deter some of the criminals that are smart enough to read……..
Howie,
I have to disagree with your basic premise. Prison style fencing and razor wire? Besides being easily defeated by anyone with a pair of wire snips or bolt cutters, that’s just more feel good window dressing. It has the added effect of trapping kids INSIDE the school grounds, assuming you control the entrance.
Look at HISD. They are broke (but thank God they changed those offensive school names for $ 2M they didn’t have). You want to spend a bunch of money on fencing, bullet proof windows, and other “hardening,” and HISD can’t even do maintenance on the buildings as they are now. Property tax payers are already taking it in the shorts. You’re proposing to hit them even harder.
I’m with Trump on this. CCW for teachers and staff who have been trained. I’m sure there are some military vets that work for area school districts. You think a guy who has seen combat, especially the urban style warfare of Iraq is not capable of handling a weapon against a school shooter?
And really, we aren’t looking at it in the proper context. Instead of saying, why don’t we arm teachers who are qualified, the question we need to ask is, why are we DISARMING teachers and staff at the school property line? Why are we forcing those people to be defenseless in order to teach our kids?
With all due respect Howie, I’m not aware of a single school shooter that didn’t walk in via an actual door. Prison fencing and razor wire????
Maybe we could beef that up. How about mine fields, and automated machine gun turrets?
I see no problem with arming teachers and school personnel who are willing to be trained. It would also be kinda nice if law enforcement agencies would actually do their jobs. . . .
LOL.