The response to the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut continues to get more and more bizarre. In Arizona, a controversial sheriff will have a volunteer “posse” at schools armed to the teeth. The NRA president wants armed guards at every school. Now, in Montpelier, Ohio, the school district wants to arm custodial staff who will now have push brooms, plungers, and semi-automatic weapons.
Montpelier Exempted Village School District superintendent Dr. Jamison Grime believes that such a move makes schools safer even though such attacks are exceptionally rare and custodial positions are viewed as requiring the lowest levels of qualifications in the school system. Grime however insists that they will be put through training and presumably will not use their weapons to shoot out burned bulbs or loosen stumps in the schoolyard.
The school board approved the proposal unanimously for four armed janitors.
How intense will the training be, you ask?
Two days.
Below is one such custodian going into battle in an elementary school:
Source: Toledo Blade
If they outlaw guns only Janitors will have outlaws. {Is that how it goes?]
I wouldn’t be to hard on janitors in particular.
Even NYPD cops are a danger to anyone near the intended target
Nine bystanders injured by NYPD
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/25/empire-state-building-shooting-nypd-bullets-shot-all-nine_n_1830007.html
Presumably these cops had more than 2 days training.
Handguns – and particularly small conceal-carry funs – are really for close-up use.
The NYPD cops in the incident were about the 10 feet range.
If I were going to carry out a massacre and believed I would be met with armed gueards/janitors/teachers, I would kill them first and then settle down to the main business.
An armed guard at a single gate would be easy. I would just kill him from a distance with my rifle.
I would most likely get a teacher coming down a corridor well before they could get close enough to shoot me.
I would have planned my actions taking expected reactions into account.
The problem would not be the nature of the response in the school.
The problem would be me having guns.
Pete-
The only public safety legislation currently being debated in Miami is a bill that would make it illegal to drive a Buick.
“It takes a lot for the NRA to shock. But this is just beyond disgusting. The NRA has launched a new ad campaign calling President Obama a ‘hypocrite’ for allowing armed Secret Service agents to protect his school aged daughters.
There are so many vile things about this ad. But one thing to note is the ad is really only designed to appeal to people who have a deep – really deep – animosity toward the President. The sort of people who don’t think he and his daughters should be in the White House and wish him the sort of ill citizens should never wish upon a freely elected head of state.
Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns tells TPM: “At some point the NRA’s Washington lobbyists may realize that this kind of thing is making them irrelevant. It does nothing but offend the reasonable people who make up the bulk of their country – and the bulk of their own membership.”
The White House is declining comment on the ad.” Talking Points Memo
if the janitor is amish does this mean he will be carrying a flintlock?
bruce @6:24, that’s about the funniest and most truthful thing i’ve seen written yet.
HenMan, that’s why there are no mass school shootings in miami.
These are all good ideas, but you are all ignoring the obvious solution. The simple solution is always the best solution.
ARM THE CHILDREN!
RC the libs want to take the guns away from the law abiding people, because the crooks and nuts won’t give their guns up.
If these janitors are allowed to conceal carry in public, then why not at school? They’re much more likely to do more good than harm if there were ever an active shooter at their school.
Will the added responsibility come with a pay increase?
If this isn’t the single stupidest idea conservatives have come up with, it’s at least highly seeded. Does anyone remember the janitors in their schools? There’s almost always a reason these guys are janitors and it isn’t for the high pay and prestige. What if a janitor or teacher or adminstrator actually has a brain and doesn’t want to be armed? What if the janitor has a conviction record or a mental deficiency and isn’t permitted to have a gun?
mahtso,
Yes, if you search long enough, you can find almost anything. Usually the person with a gun that stops a killer’s murder spree, is a police officer.
We’re not putting more guns in the schools, unless they’re in the custody of police officers.
We have too many fools carrying guns, not too few.
The nation is fed-up with NRA-financed distribution of military-style weapons of mass murder to psychos and criminals. Any decent organization would be asking “How can we help to stop gun violence?” rather than “We won’t tolerate anyone restricting our macho toys.” The NRA leadership are simply not decent human beings.
“Columbine High School had an armed guard, Virginia Tech had several. Ft. Hood had plenty of armed personnel…didn’t change anything.” Accepting that as true, it doesn’t show that armed guards (or others) haven’t prevented deaths in other places. One does not have to search too far to see that there have been instances where a killer’s murder spree has been stopped by someone with a gun.
;Max you have to limit access to the campus. U.S.C. just did exactly that.
I agree with those who assert that Americans are easily frightened. But I will not be frightened by those who assert that more guns means more deaths.
Columbine High School had an armed guard, Virginia Tech had several. Ft. Hood had plenty of armed personnel…didn’t change anything.
I came across this interesting article in my readings:
Warning: It starts off as a rant because the author is fed up with what he perceives as a misguided national conversation. Just the first two sentences, though.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=215962
It does not look at the tragedies with the focus on the firearm- but on the individual- more specifically the medications they were on.
It is a well thought out piece, you science and number people ought to get a good think out of it.
Funny Illustration! I agree with AY-noone is talking about using police officers to protect our schools only because our cheap-non-caring federal government doesn’t want to pay for it. How many local police officers have to be put out of a job due to layoffs or children have to die for the feds act in good faith? Arming Janitors!?!?!? Are you kidding? When I was coming up in the school system, some of the janitors smelled like they were drinking (not talking about pepsi or coke), flirting with the highschool students (some were doing more than flirting), and smelled like they were smoking more than just a pack of luckystrikes.
J.H. armed guards have stopped these assasins the problem is the time it takes to get to the scene. With someone on the school grounds and alerted by security cameras there is a good chance of stopping the massacre before it starts.
Pragmatism. If arming the school staff will serve as a deterrent, I am for it – A gun control proponent
All that needs to be done is install perimeter fences with security cameras. During school hours have one entrance and exit and have it patrolled. one trained and armed security guard.