To be honest if you’re a sheriff’s deputy assigned to protect a school it’s your job to investigate a shooting at the school not wait outside until the gunfire stops. Now I don’t agree with Trump’s outburst but I bet millons of Americans are thinking the same thing.
Very perceptive and persuasive arguments, Paul.
It has also occurred to me that, albeit improbable, it is not impossible that an armed teacher might use her/his gun against another member of staff, or even the students. The individuals who carry out mass-shootings are almost certainly psychotic, suffering from serious mental illness like paranoid schizophrenia. Such individuals often conceal their delusions of persecution from all around them, including family members, colleagues and even medical people who are unfamiliar with psychosis.
Stereotypes about people with severe mental illness are perpetuated by media representations of the seriously mental ill as ‘swivel-eyed loons’, ‘sickos’, ‘crazed nutters’; but they are generally indistinguishable from ‘ordinary folk’. It is often the case that they have no medical history of mental illness before they ‘crack’ under the pressure of concealing and containing their symptoms, which is why background checks are not always of much use in controlling their access to guns.
I have spent most of my working life working with these people, and public attitudes have scarcely changed since the mid 1950s when I began it.
1 Like
I found it disgusting that the top leader of one of a country was more determined to use the situation as a points scoring opportunity. I watch a video which showed the audience grinning and cheering wildly a the statement to arm teachers…
These people must be as idiotic as he is, to not realise what he was actually saying. oh, and as if any of those would put themselves in that position, to be the tutor with a weapon. yeah right…as long as it is someone else’s problem.
The vilification and blame game, sponsored by that very leader… Would you work for a leader like that.
Talk about being being put in front of a firing squad, destroyed and hung out to dry.
Just like justice in the old wild west… it hasn’t changed in reality.
No one actually knows how this “deputised” person …yes deputised and not a deputy sheriff, was trained. He was a GLORIFIED security guard nothing more. Probably telling smokers to get off campus, do not run in the corridor, take those drugs out.
What sort of training had he had ? - specifically in weapons ?
Do any of these people who have judged this guy, actually been on the wrong end of a rapid fire weapon, and they have 6 - 9 rounds ( ish) in single shot form… then we will see how strong their sphincter muscle is.
grrrr more coffee
3 Likes
Found this…very interesting read and makes total sense.
They could actually ban these types ( high velocity) of gun, and still keep their constitutional rights.
But a bet is, that chicken Trump will not do a thing about guns themselves.
Old News… about Australia and the way they changed their Gun Laws.
Great comment on Trump and his spectacular lack of judgement, Glenn. The POTUS commenting from a position of total ignorance of the circumstances calls a man a coward? A man who signally failed to enlist for national service to defend his country?
4 Likes
This sounds suspiciously like the case of a Scot was who shot in Texas under peculiar circumstances: http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/08/us/homeowner-shoots-tourist-by-mistake-in-texas-police-say.html. I worked for a newspaper in Aberdeen at the time and many questions about the incident remain unanswered to this day.
Absolutely. It would be interesting to know how many of the shooting deaths in the US are the result of gun owners defending themselves, their families or their property. I suspect the number would be vanishingly small compared to the tally of accidental shootings.
2 Likes
I believe he is saying they would be allowed to carry a concealed weapon.
Can I just check did you mean IRA or NRA?
“They don’t allow guns when Republicans or IRA have conferences.”
(both dangerous organisations)
1 Like
As a retired teacher, admittedly a UK one, I would be totally against having guns in school, even if it were the “good guys” who were holding them. Who is to say that the bad guys won’t find where they are hidden and use them in a much more enclosed space such as a classroom, rather than out in the open?
Many of the schools in the UK are going to secure grounds only accessible by keypads using fingerprints. Why isn’t the US doing the same? This pupil, who was actually an ex-pupil, would not then have had access to the school.
Why does the US allow people to buy guns that are really only suitable for the army? I have cousins in the US and one of their husbands goes hunting. He only uses hunting rifles and they are kept securely under lock and key when not in use. Why do we they semi automatic guns on the streets?