Sunday, December 16, 2012

"Woody, I need your opinion."


Full time presence. We need more.
“Woody, I need your opinion. A former TU student posted that they would put a gun in their classroom (hidden) in case of a situation like the Conn. school. I told her, if I had a child in her class, I would have them moved. She felt that my response was uncalled for, due to my education level. Do you have an opinion? Thanks.”

 
A former colleague sent this to me yesterday and I have been thinking about it ever since. What helps is that in the last 24 hours a few analyses of mass shootings have been done, and the results show that there is no increase in them over many past years. It seems that way, I guess, because so many have happened in the last several weeks.
Shooters always seem to pick easy targets that they know will be “soft” (no weapons to shoot back). They don’t rush police stations or banks. Schools, malls, theaters all top the list of targets. Even in “carry concealed” states, most have restrictions on where guns can be carried, and schools are off limits. Shooters are cowards. They are mentally sick. They fit a post-event set of common characteristics but defy the ability of society to profile them in advance and secure the public from them. The latest shooter was reported to be a “Goth”. So are thousands of young people who don’t even dream of killing kids in a school.
How to protect ourselves is the question. I think the answer is probably just be vigilant, have a plan and hope for the best. As for gun carrying, maybe it works and maybe it doesn’t. We will never know how many potential shooters thought about the possible guns on the street and decided they were not ready to die yet. But the ones that go through with the attacks seem mostly ready to die, and often kill themselves. Guns in the hands of civilians probably would not deter them. So what about teachers with guns? What about hiding guns in classrooms and theaters and malls so that shooters can be stopped? I don’t think it would make much difference in choice of targets. Shooters are not the rational folks the rest of us are. I think a better solution for schools and other public places would be to have enhanced security arrangements, highly visible, and a plan for everyone to follow in the event of an attack. For schools, maybe more secure entrances. Not prison grade, but something a bit more than a glass door or no fence around the perimeter. A few roving security guards who are child-friendly but vigilant. Strong doors for rooms that lock at the push of a button in the office. Make “lock-down” a really operative process.
I don’t know about arming the teachers. I have a former student, now a teacher who is a retired military man and former police man. He knows how to shoot and when to stand down. Most of the teachers I have taught probably do not.
I think the teacher mentioned above is wrong about my colleague. Her educational level is really irrelevant to the issue. Her choice as a parent is relevant. Her decision to move a child from one class to another for any reason should be hers alone. And BTW TU teacher, no response that is rational is uncalled for. No opinion should be overlooked. As a teacher you should know that.
Image: http://static.news-gazette.com/sites/all/files/imagecache/lightbox_800_600_scale/images/2011/05/19/20110519-204413-pic-837823817.jpg

1 comment:

Zarko said...

Very well said...

One thing, if I may add to slow down this insanity, is to stop publicizing it. I feel like once you make such locomotion about it, that makes more sick people think about it, and then act on it to recreate bigger thing, more news, more dead. I feel like that these social parasites feed on the attention and are willing to do whatever it takes to be remembered. There was an attack on a school in Somalia earlier last week, and I believe 80 kids died, but that was nowhere in the news. All I want to say is that innocent people dying is not NEWS its TRAGEDY. I am by no means blaming media for these actions, but I am sure that they are catalyzing a new attack somewhere else.

In a weird twisted way, I am not even sure why people are so shocked about such human behavior. For anybody that takes a closer look at us HUMANS would see that we are not as domesticated as we seem to be. I mean not long ago, we have stoned woman for thinking independently (witchcraft), slaved people, child molestation and abuse during the industrial age, crusades and killings in name of god, now allah, a woman is trying to kill her husband for not voting, polluting waters, killing animals for fun,greed and corruption, and the list go on. I have been attending some middle and high school soccer game and I have to admit about 80 % of parents are insane. They would scream instructions to their children to take out another child, they would scream to intimidate other children the referees and sadly the kids are acting more violent and are more aggressive in a game where at the end of the day points don't matter. What I am trying to say is that massacres don't surprise and should not be a shock, when one can see how animal like we are...

The only true way to prevent shooting is not gun control, but rather gun dismantling. As long there are guns being made, there will be shootings. And if somehow one of the biggest industries in this country (war industry) would seize the production of weapons, people would come up with some other creative methods to kill more innocent people. So bottom line is that as long there are guns there will be shootings, and as long there are humans there will be killings...