The first lesson is that many people have learned nothing. And, more appallingly, they make it their actual business to learn nothing. Republicans in Congress did their best for years to discourage any federal money for studies on gun violence because they’re afraid of what those studies might reveal.
The second lesson is the idiocy of the idea that more guns make us safer, with its corollary of the “good guy with a gun” theory of stopping gun violence. Here’s why they don’t want studies. A 2021 study from Metropolitan State University in Minnesota and Hamline University found this disturbing little piece of news — that the rate of death in 133 mass shootings between 1980 and 2019 was greater, 2.83 times greater, in cases where an armed guard, presumably a good guy, was on the job.
And then there’s another absurd take on the notion that guns make us safer, which is to arm teachers so they could, um, take out shooters coming to their classes armed with assault weapons and wearing body armor. Have you seen the studies on how often cops — the guys trained to do this — hit their targets? A long-term study of the Dallas Police Department showed a hit rate of — get ready — 35%. And we want to see barely trained teachers exchanging gunshots with a mass shooter while school kids are in the line of fire?
oh and then there is this....he killing Uvalde gun — Daniel Defense — recently featured a tweet with a toddler holding an assault-style weapon. The company also decided not to attend this year’s NRA convention.
(x out of pop up to continue)....THIS POV is so relevant, it is heart shattering. MY first focus...I am so elated I DO NOT HAVE CHILDREN,GRANDCHILDREN.how fortunate for me, there r many things we have NO CONTROL OF...THIS IS NOT ONE OF THEM.
No one is forcing teachers to carry guns. But there are probably some teachers who are mentally and physically up to the task of carrying a firearm at school. Some might even be former vets or retired police.
School Resource Officers are armed in many school districts. Often they are police officers. Is a retired police officer who teaches that much different than a current police officer assigned to a school?
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
