Turns Out Guns In Schools Are A Bad Idea! Who Would Have Thought?

In light of the recent spate of mass shootings, rather than consider the merits of gun control -- a thing that might actually help decrease said mass shootings -- Donald Trump and friends have held fast to the idea that actually, what we all need are more guns. Specifically, more guns in the hands of teachers, whom they imagine would be eminently qualified to take down a school shooter.

 The AP reports:  

Speaking Friday to the NRA convention in Dallas, President Donald Trump called for allowing trained teachers to carry concealed weapons in schools, along with more armed security guards.

He said the best deterrent to would-be school shooters is "the knowledge that their attack will end their life and end in total failure."

He added, "When they know that, they're not going in."

Oh, yeah. Because the thing about mass shooters is that they all definitely think they're getting away with it and very much plan to come out alive. Clearly, the people advocating this kind of thing have spoken to a many experts and are not just grasping at straws as a way to keep people from wanting to come for their stupid guns.

Of course, the best laid plans of morons and gun nuts often go awry. As the AP reports, within the span of 48 hours this March, there were three separate instances in which guns carried by "good guys" -- "a school police officer, a teacher who moonlights in law enforcement, a veteran sheriff" --on school grounds put students in danger.

The school police officer accidentally fired his gun in his Virginia office, sending a bullet through a wall into a middle school classroom. The teacher was demonstrating firearm safety in California when he mistakenly put a round in the ceiling, injuring three students who were hit by falling debris. And the sheriff left a loaded service weapon in a locker room at a Michigan middle school, where a sixth-grader found it.

Also:

Sean Simpson is among the educators who have said publicly they would be willing to have firearms training, but the Marjory Stoneman Douglas science teacher recently had his own mishap. He was charged after leaving his loaded handgun in a public restroom at a crowded beach pier in April. An intoxicated homeless man found the weapon and fired it before Simpson snatched it back, authorities said.

The report also notes that since 2014, there have been over thirty incidents like these involving teachers or law enforcement bringing guns to schools. Responsible gun owners, indeed!

I don't know about you, but it sure doesn't seem to me like this is all that good of a plan? Sure, every gun owner on earth thinks they are a responsible gun owner. You're not going to meet a gun owner who says "Oh yeah, I am an idiot who will just leave a loaded handgun wherever." Humans, in general, often greatly underestimate their not only their own incompetence but also basic reality, especially when they feel under attack or as if they have something to lose. All they know is that they want their guns, and so they try to construct a narrative in which guns are the solution to these mass murders, rather than the cause of them.

It's sad that we need to hurt the feelings of these delicate flowers what just want to be gun-toting heroes, but the evidence is in, and guns in schools hurt a hell of a lot more than they help.

[ AP ]

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