By Sam Hoober, Alien Gear Holsters
Concealed carry on campus has been a hot-button issue for some time, and especially public school teachers concealing and carrying. It has been touted as one potential measure against school shootings.
Incidentally, the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 doesn’t actually prohibit carrying in school zones if you have a valid permit; it’s state and local laws that do that. But so much for that.
At the moment, fewer than 10 states give school districts or teachers the choice if they want to, but there is a steady trickle of school districts where more teachers are choosing to.
In mid-December 2018, the Blanchester, Ohio school district voted to allow teachers to conceal and carry if so desired according to WLTW5. Training and an Ohio concealed carry permit would be required, of course. In Sept. 2018, the Tamaqua School District in Schuylkill County, Penn., likewise voted to allow teachers to carry on campus, according to WHYY. In July 2018, the Washington Post reported the school board of Lee County, Va., had likewise voted to allow teachers to do so.
More are poised to do so.
In Florida, the state commission reviewing the shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland recently recommended – among other things – that teachers be allowed to conceal and carry a weapon if desired, so long as they undertook training and held a valid Florida concealed carry permit, according to CBS.
And so on and so forth. While it seems to be in drops rather than in waves, more school districts and teachers are opening themselves to the idea.
Don’t kid yourself. “A good guy with a gun” doesn’t really always stop a bad guy with a gun, not every time. Sometimes they do (and sometimes they don’t; active shooters often kill themselves to avoid capture or surrender peacefully) though ostensibly more would if there were more good guys (or girls) with guns in the right places. Obviously schools are one of those places.
Failing a stoppage, active shooters can be slowed down by intervention from armed citizens. After all, in the UT Austin massacre of 1966, shooter Charles Whitman’s field of fire and also firing rate was severely slowed down once people started shooting back. Returned fire from the ground also pinned him down sufficiently to allow officers from the Austin PD to ascend the clock tower and shoot Whitman.
Of course, there are many more factors that go into a school shooting, with multiple points along the way where the event could have been stopped. There are also methods of reducing their frequency that don’t involve arming teachers. There’s no legislation yet written that can compel people not to be deranged.
However, if we’re serious about reducing the number, frequency and severity of these incidents, then we had best consider every possible deterrent out there.
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Sam Hoober is Contributing Editor for AlienGearHolsters.com, a subsidiary of Hayden, ID, based Tedder Industries, where he writes about gun accessories, gun safety, open and concealed carry tips. Click here to visit aliengearholsters.com.
