Comments

1
Are they fucking nuts? Is this the norm now?
2
So you'd rather they were able to leave their guns in their desks than carry them on their person at all times?

3
It's not generalizing when your statement is demonstrably true.
4
To be fair, the non crazy ones simply don't have any power or influence in government.

That doesn't excuse them for allowing the fucknuts to take over. But then again, liberals are in the same boat with President Dronestrike.
5
...and @2 provides the demonstration.
6
When seconds count, the police are minutes away.
7
Wait for it: some wingnut's kid will get killed and he'll sue the teacher for not buying a gun.
8
The only way to win a gun battle with a psychopath is to either, be a very well trained, or be a psychopath yourself.

The combination of fear and the weight of killing a person will make it pretty damn hard to draw, aim, and fire before you are shot yourself.
9
@4 I'll take President Skynet over President Loot The National Treasury Occupying Two Dirt-Poor Rubble Heaps, thank you.
10
I love that they think they're sending us into a deadly situation (statistically, school is the safest place we could all be), but they're ok with cutting our salaries year after year, and we get to PAY FOR OUR OWN TRAINING. Thanks, Republicans!
11
Show me a teacher who wants to pack a gun at school, and I'll show you a shitty teacher.
12
Cowering in fear in an environment where only the bad guys are armed is crazy. Good people with guns might actually be a reasonable approach if one doesn't have an irrational fear of guns. It isn't like any of these proposals are going to force teachers or administrators to arm themselves.
13
...because kids never steal any of their teachers' belongings. Even my Glenn-Beck-loving, ultra-conservative, high-school-teacher-for-40-plus-years (and still going) mother thinks this is a bad idea.
Oh, and "dickbags"? Really? You should work on some more clever name-calling. You sound like a child and/or republican.
14
But what could possibly go wrong?
15
"...keep it on their person at all times..."

Sure. Coat pocket, ample bosom, top o' the boot, buttcrack, etc. What could go wrong?

http://www.kgw.com/home/Loaded-gun-found…

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2013/jan/0…
16
@ #12... yet.
17
@12..I don't have an irrational fear of guns, but my ex-husband was one of the "good guys with a gun". He was an Army officer and since he was often deployed overseas, he taught me all about guns, taught me how to shoot, and made sure I had a gun for protection when he was gone. One day, while he was back home, we had an argument, and that "good guy" used my gun and shoved it into my mouth. Good guys can turn into bad guys in seconds...
18
I see a great opportunity for synergy in the overlapping missions of charter schools and for-profit private prison corporations. Soon will dawn the glorious day when the private sector, bolstered by public funds, provides us all with around-the-clock security from cradle to grave, preventing bad people from getting in to harm us, while simultaneously preventing any of us from exiting the compound and getting into trouble.

The curriculum in schools can be streamlined, so that graduates emerge sufficiently trained for their new careers as armed guards in the schools they once attended, or in the prisons where they will find themselves incarcerated should they ever step out of line.
19
@18 ftw!
20
@9: Don't get me wrong. Obama/ Biden was a far better choice than the two morons that ran against them. But when "Black Reagan" is your only choice, you don't have a choice.
21
So the Repubs are now advocating an expansion of government power?
22
@12, Once again, I agree. I TRY to be the best guy I can all the time, but I know that within me there's also a good portion of a bad guy as well. We ALL carry one of those and, when the time comes, the bad shows up. I've seen that so many times in my life that I know it will always be like that. That's why I tell people to drive on the defensive and cause you never know what the other drivers on the highway can do in revenge.

Just imagine what an angry teacher could do with a gun. And how about an angry student who steals the teacher's gun. What a mess!

All these are stupid proposals comming from dangerous people who feels self-entitled to owe and carry guns.

At least this time the debate has lasted more than the news cycle. That gives me some hope that we will be able to convince some good guys with guns to give them up and come join the side of reason.

Sorry to read about your horrible experience.
23
If teachers had been packin' when I was in school, I'd be packin' too. There's some crazy teachers out there, always on the verge of psychosis.
24
Check out what their hero wanted to do as far as gun regulation: http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/…
25
@17, Jesus, that's terrifying. I'm so sorry.
26
@22 and 25...thanks
I simply want to say that I know how quickly that good guy with a gun (who seems to be everyone's favorite right now) can turn into that bad guy with a gun. I'm not afraid of guns, but anyone can snap, and I would prefer that there is no gun handy when that happens.
27
What's funny about this, of course, is that the Republicans want to include additional requirements (training course, mental health exam, etc.) for the teachers to carry a firearm, but refuse to apply those exact same requirements on anyone else.
28
I'm sorry #17 :(
29
Umm I didn't do it, just sorry a person behaved that way to you :(
30
you know, they really think this will help. this is a pro-gun "common sense solution". what now, ed murray?
31
And of course, the Republicans want teachers to pay for all of this out of their own pocket, after doing everything in their power to eviscerate pay for those same "greedy" teachers.

Guarantee, if this goes through the GOP will literally call for the head of the first teacher who fails to prevent a Newtown-like massacre, because they couldn't afford the extra expense of purchasing a gun and all the associated costs.
32
It is a terrible idea. The array of responsibilities that the general public think belong to teachers is already ridiculous, adding the responsibility to accurately and bravely face down a psychotic shooter as if she or he is a cop is absurd.

In a situation where the lives of the students are at stake, the way to insure more of them survive is to get them out of the range and away from the attention of a shooter.

Then the gall of saying that teachers would be responsible for their training and their weapons...do these numbskulls realize that teachers already have to purchase supplies for their students because their school districts are too fucking cheap to supply students with the supplies they need?
33
Perhaps these GOP asswipes think that teachers just sit at their desks and teach while the kids dutifully sit at their desks and have all that knowledge transmitted to them, thus the gun sits far out of the reach of children. They probably never considered that teachers might move around the classroom, trip over a chair or a kid's foot or a backpack and have that gun accidentally discharge. They probably never considered that a teacher might be leaning over to help a kid and another kid grabs the gun from the holster. They probably never realized that a teacher might have to forcibly restrain a child who is about to bring his chair down on top of another child's head, thus bringing that child so much closer to a weapon that can kill. They probably have no clue that a student might walk up and punch the teacher for no reason, rendering the teacher stunned or unconscious and making the almighty gun available to any student close enough to grab it. They probably think that all classrooms have locks on the doors, that all teachers have desks - not to mention desks with locking drawers - and that teachers have keys to all things locking.
They probably didn't even think that teachers who are already paying hundreds of dollars out of their own pocket to purchase school supplies so they can do their fucking job, and thousands more to pay for classes to maintain their licensure might not have the time or the money to pay for guns, training, and permits. They're probably just responding to the NRA's pathetic ploy that Obama is coming for their guns - give us money and make more gun owners and we'll give you more campaign contributions!!!! - and in their greed, they see schoolteachers as a yet untapped source of $$$$$. Either that or they're all a pack of fucking idiots who can't even manage a coherent thought among the lot of them.
35
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJJXb14Gb…
36
Being a registered republican should qualify as a mental illness which prohibits one from possessing a firearm.
37
Someone ought to do a video of a fumbling old 3rd Grade teacher (sort of like Aunt Clara on the old Bewitched series) fumbling with her gun trying to stop a bullet proof vested gunman, and let it go viral.
38
Here's how my gun conversations go.

*joke* We should all get to own grenade launchers
*serious response* Yes.

The end. I don't need to talk to that person anymore. Game over. I'm out.
39
@27 FTW.

The purpose of this bill is not to arm teachers but to redirect the legislative agenda away from sanity. They don't really care if it passes or not, just that it occupies everyone's attention.

The exact same bill with the exact same language has been or is about to be submitted in all fifty state legislatures.
40
@17 (I'm sorry for that. How unspeakably awful.) and @18 have the right of it.
41
Hey Goldy, what about the Israeli school teachers who are armed? Are they psychos, or just superior?
42
Now let's not be so hasty. On the one hand, if teachers are heavily armed they might be taken a little more seriously during negotiations on pay and working conditions. But on the other hand, school districts could argue that their salaries should be reduced by whatever amount they can reasonably expect to take in from knocking over liquor stores and ripping off drug dealers -- you know, like with waiters and tips in some states. It's a complex issue with pros and cons and it merits thorough study and debate in the legislature.
43
What armed Israeli school teachers? You mean the fake ones?
http://messiahsmandate.org/are-israeli-t…
There is a picture going around the Internet that I have seen about a dozen times today that claims that Israeli teachers are packing heat. Well, are they? The answer is “NO.”

IF any Israeli school teachers are armed, it is only after they have undergone 2 YEARS OF MILITARY TRAINING. I would probably trust an armed teacher who had had 2 years of military training. But in the US, where the states compete to have the most lenient gun laws of all (AZ and Utah win! Take your gun to a bar! Get a permit with maybe 8 hours of training!), arming teachers is fucking asinine.
44
This is jumping the gun. Why not do a pilot study, requiring state legislators to carry guns when in session? You could also require anyone trying to enter the state capitol to have a gun before being admitted. You could also do the same for legislative town halls. Let's be sure this idea has a proven track record before trying it in the schools.
45
IF any Israeli school teachers are armed, it is only after they have undergone 2 YEARS OF MILITARY TRAINING. I would probably trust an armed teacher who had had 2 years of military training.

Great! So you're in favor of arming any American teacher who's a military veteran. Let's get going!
46
@43 Good link! Thanks.
47
Good guys with guns?! What kind of bullshit is this. Anyone who currently hasn't killed anyone with a gun could fall under that category. Except in time some of those people will use the gun in a "bad" way, thus making that a complete fallacy.

Why can't we just split the country up so that people who don't want to be sitting at cafes next to concealed weapons can do just that, and the paranoid gun owners can go live in constant fear of a bad guy with a gun (but feel safe because they are a GOOD guy with a gun)!

48
@41, 46: the issue of fake aside, israel lives with a long term palestinian insurgency that has included terrorism, right? that's not equivalent. let's be realistic about the context and the type of threat - america is not facing a long-term threat of internal political terrorism.

one real threat we face is a very small subset of angry, depressed, suicidal young males with fairly unlimited access to high powered semi-automatic weaponry and ammunition. these men are spread randomly through american society, and there are very few tools for identifying them prior to their rampages available to law enforcement.

@everyone else: see, i told you the pro-gun side really thinks this will help. more guns, and more guns in schools. when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
49
Goldy, you asked a good question: Are Republicans crazy? Yes, by and large they are crazy and quite out of touch with reality.
50
Armed teachers in public schools? Yikes, and I thought MY junior high school experience was scary!
51
44:
This is jumping the gun. Why not do a pilot study, requiring state legislators to carry guns when in session?
We have such a program. It's called "Senator Pam Roach".

I did have to chuckle at Klippert's boss, Sheriff Keane, who thought the job of teachers is to...teach! Imagine that.
52
@13: You'll have to excuse their name calling. Neither side has a good argument, you see.

Speaking of nutty people, isn't it about time we started talking about mental health care? Or are people on both sides of the aisle afraid of what THAT conversation might mean for them?
53
#48, you also forgot to mention Israeli superiority, didn't you?
54
@36 wins the thread!!!!!!
55
@44, it's also called "most republican legislators", in case you were wondering.

@52, what's your mental health care proposal?
57
@56 don't lie, your roomate's mother would have to work like 266 hours to make that much money at her hourly rate. Come on.
58
Personally I think teachers should be taking mental health evaluations in order to be TEACHERS, guns or no guns.

That said, I'm sure everyone here has had at least one teacher who serves as a living counterargument that teachers should be packing heat in the classroom. Perhaps these teachers would simply fail the proposed mental health evaluation, but that's quite a risk to bet on an imperfect test.

Although apparently being pragmatic makes me a fake "progressive" whereas a REAL, quotation-free progressive should believe that guns will solve every problem, ever, despite no concrete evidence to suggest this (what percentage of crimes are "solved" by armed bystanders, again?).

Hey, in Somalia they rely exclusively on "good guys with guns." I bet that's why it's such a haven of peace where nobody crosses anyone else for fear of getting shot, right?
59
I would like it if teachers had to undergo a mental health evaluation to be teachers. I swear, the nutjobs I've encountered...

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