Arming school staff only way to stop mass shooter

By: 
Ross Bielema
Columnist

While most politicians and bureaucrats seem stymied by the problem of school shootings, some states and school administrators have already figured out the answer.

When I teach my students at concealed carry classes in New London (I’ve taught about 1,000 students over the past decade), I ask them if they know the average time, start to finish, of a mass shooting.

It’s six minutes.

What is the average law enforcement response to that shooting?

It’s also six minutes, which means that the cops or deputies get there after the shooting is over, and of course, that is too late.

The odds of a fire in a school are slim, and fire departments are normally not too far away, but every school has fire extinguishers in the building. We make sure our school football players wear helmets and padding. We require ATV helmets and seat belts. Then we leave those same kids for eight hours a day, call for armed response if a shooting starts, and then act surprised when students are killed or injured.

Texas is one of 28 states that allows school staff, including teachers and administrators, to carry firearms in schools. Wisconsin has a provision in its state concealed carry law that allows anyone with a school contract (teachers, administrators, janitors, etc.) to carry if the contract allows it. No law changes are needed to allow staff to carry in a Wisconsin school; it’s still a felony for anyone else to carry on school grounds, however.

John Lott Jr., an economist and author of several books, including “More Guns, Less Crime,” a book that documented how concealed carry nationwide has reduced the violent crime rate, founded a website called the Crime Prevention Research Center. His scrupulous research crushes most of the myths surrounding crime’s relationship to firearms, especially the oft-repeated lie: “America is the only nation with mass shootings.” For the record, we are 10th from the top on the number of mass shootings per capita and 14th in terms of overall fatalities.

Shortly after the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, Lott wrote an article noting that no student has ever been shot in a school that allows staff to carry firearms. Uvalde was one school that had strict rules against staff carry. Lott also notes that most mass shooters intentionally choose “no-gun zones,” just as the shooter at the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater did. Crazed gunmen, no matter how deranged, typically don’t want to get shot by armed citizens, or anyone else.

When I listened to Lott speak in Milwaukee at an NRA convention, he gave our group one statistic that has stuck with me — concealed carry holders, as a group, are six times more law abiding than police.

This is another reason why more gun laws will never stop violent crimes like mass shootings. First off, murder is illegal. Possession of a firearm by a felon, or someone with a history of mental illness who has been involuntarily held, is illegal. Only the law-abiding obey gun laws. Making it harder for the law-abiding to protect themselves is the exact opposite of what we need when there’s an armed maniac on the loose.

ALICE, a program of “Run-Hide-Fight” taught in some schools, is better than nothing, if you think grade-school kids can fight an armed intruder. One Pennsylvania school came up with the idea of putting buckets of river rocks next to each classroom door. In the event of an attack, each kid grabs a rock and waits to toss it at the gunman. Remember, these educators are also teaching our children, folks.

Many schools have armed police officers or security guards, but it’s difficult for one officer to protect an entire school.

In Uvalde, the latest information shows the elementary school that was attacked had no officers present. Other officers waited up to 45 minutes to enter the school and finally kill the shooter. A delayed response was proven to be disastrous in the 1999 Columbine school shooting, when those trapped inside held signs to the windows pleading for officers to come and save them. A total of 13 people died in that shooting, and police afterward generally agreed nationwide to immediately confront attackers rather than wait.

Having firearms present in the school would allow staff to immediately respond to an attack. Basic firearms training can be sufficient to stop a gunman, since most attacks are by someone without extensive combat training. The presence of firearms is never a guarantee that nobody will be harmed, but it certainly is preferable to being helpless and watching people die.

Instead of wringing our hands and suggesting we add “just one more gun law” to the estimated 5,000 on the books, we should consider protecting our schools the way we protect our citizens, Congress, president, prisons and soldiers — with firearms. We put our kids’ minds in the hands of teachers and administrators every day. Isn’t it time we trust those good and decent people with the means to protect our kids’ bodies, too?


Ross Bielema is a freelance writer from New London and owner of Wolf River Concealed Carry LLC. Contact him at Ross@wolfriverccw.com

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