{"id":21743,"date":"2018-03-06T22:47:59","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T05:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=21743"},"modified":"2018-03-07T07:09:36","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T14:09:36","slug":"teachers-with-guns-sign-me-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/03\/teachers-with-guns-sign-me-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Teachers with guns? Sign me up"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Pvt. Bob Basler<\/p>

David Crisp, a good guy with a gun, in 1970.<\/p><\/div>\n

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., says the cowards who shoot up schools<\/a> can be stopped with deadly force.<\/p>\n

Daines has been known to hide under his desk at the sight of a loaded question, but he may have a point. And If we are going to start arming teachers, I\u2019m a pretty good candidate.<\/p>\n

I was an expert marksman in the Army. I haven\u2019t even so much as a traffic ticket on my criminal record.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t worked in law enforcement, but I was a volunteer firefighter. Firefighting never put me at certain risk of life and limb, but it did put me in situations that I couldn\u2019t be sure were safe. I fought on anyway.<\/p>\n

Although I am not a hunter, I did once shoot a turtle. I have just about gotten over the guilt of that senseless slaying.<\/p>\n

Moreover, at my age and untenured status, I\u2019m pretty expendable. Should anything bad happen to me, higher education could carry on without my vast knowledge of apostrophes and comma splices.<\/p>\n

\"DC\"<\/a>

David Crisp<\/p><\/div>\n

I do need a gun. All I have is my wife\u2019s shotgun, which is probably unsuited for classroom work. Perhaps I can get a grant. In any case, another gun would go into circulation, and that\u2019s good for the National Rifle Association. What\u2019s good for the NRA, some high school students have yet to learn, is good for America.<\/p>\n

I also was never in combat, but I have read a lot about it, and I think I understand why a deputy may have failed to go into that high school in Florida and confront that killer. None of us who have never been in that situation can be sure how we would act.<\/p>\n

Many novice soldiers faced with the perils of war have broken ranks and run. Soldiers have called that first taste of combat \u201cseeing the elephant\u201d perhaps as far back as Alexander the Great.<\/p>\n

Those panicked soldiers weren\u2019t necessarily cowards; once rallied and properly drilled and led, many went on to serve with distinction. It just takes an awful lot of training and dedication for even the bravest souls to willingly face danger when every atom of human nature screams against it. A few days of active shooter training isn\u2019t going to get the job done.<\/p>\n

So I can\u2019t be sure how I would act if an active shooter showed up on campus, but I have thought through some possible scenarios with their probable outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u2666 Scenario 1<\/strong>: I\u2019m teaching class and a killer walks in, assault rifle in hand.<\/p>\n

Probable outcome<\/strong>: I\u2019m dead. No matter how sharply tuned my reflexes might be, I can\u2019t grab a gun, load it and get off an accurate shot before I am sprayed with bullets. My students are on their own.<\/p>\n

\u2666\u00a0<\/strong>Scenario 2<\/strong>: I\u2019m teaching class and hear what sound like gunshots in the hallway. I ready my gun, close the classroom door and focus on protecting my students.<\/p>\n

Probable outcome<\/strong>: We all survive. The shooter can only come in through one entrance, and I have that covered. But the shooter is free to wreak havoc on the rest of the school.<\/p>\n

\u2666\u00a0Scenario 3<\/strong>: I hear gunshots in the hallway and venture out of my classroom, gun in hand. I immediately confront the shooter face to face.<\/p>\n

Probable outcome<\/strong>: I\u2019m dead. Let\u2019s face it: I\u2019m not going to have an assault rifle, and he probably will, so I\u2019m outgunned. I\u2019m also still hoping to avoid trouble. He is all about trouble. Moreover, my death leaves my classroom undefended and delivers an open invitation to further mayhem.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\u2666\u00a0Scenario 4<\/strong>: I venture into the hallway and encounter another good guy with a gun. Is he friend or foe? I have only a second or two to decide.<\/p>\n

Probable outcome<\/strong>: Somebody dies. The odds of tragedy vastly increase if, as some legislators favor, students with concealed-carry permits also are roaming the halls looking for the shooter.<\/p>\n

\u2666\u00a0Scenario 5<\/strong>: I enter the hallway and see the shooter, but he is looking the other way. I hold fire, thinking I might be able to talk him out of it.<\/p>\n

Probable outcome<\/strong>: I\u2019m dead.<\/p>\n

\u2666\u00a0Scenario 6<\/strong>: The shooter is looking the other way, and I gun him down.<\/p>\n

Probable outcome<\/strong>: I\u2019m a hero. Donald Trump calls me and somehow manages to insult me while praising my action. Steve Daines crawls out from under his desk.<\/p>\n

\u2666\u00a0Scenario 7<\/strong>: The shooter hears that local schools have armed teachers and decides to go shoot up the mall instead.<\/p>\n

Probable outcome<\/strong>: Not my problem. I hardly ever go to the mall. Mall shoppers will have to get their own guns.<\/p>\n

\u2666\u00a0Scenario 8<\/strong>: Everybody has a gun. Potential mass murderers are so discouraged they give up.<\/p>\n

Probable outcome<\/strong>: We go back to shooting each other in the traditional American way \u2013 a few friends or family members, then suicide. Gun sales soar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., says the cowards who shoot up schools can be stopped with deadly force. Daines has been known to hide under his desk at the sight of a loaded question, but he may have a point. And If we are going to start arming teachers, I\u2019m a pretty good candidate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21744,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3864],"tags":[2853,528],"class_list":["post-21743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-donald-trump","tag-steve-daines","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21743"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21749,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21743\/revisions\/21749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}