Associated Press
Virginia Del. Bob Marshall (R)
It seemed a little excessive this week when Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) suggested school districts be allowed to arm teachers and administrators, so as to prevent future tragedies. What I didn't expect was for that to be the moderate position among prominent GOP officials in the commonwealth.
Del. Robert G. Marshall is proposing a bill that would require some teachers or other school staff to carry concealed weapons in schools.
Marshall (R-Prince William) requested that the bill be drafted in response to the mass shooting last week at a Connecticut elementary school.... Marshall would not only allow staff with concealed handgun permits to carry them in schools, but require school districts to designate some staff members to do so. Those employees would have to be certified in gun safety and competence, Marshall said.
The staff attorney for the Virginia Division of Legislative Services was initially unsure that state lawmakers had the authority to mandate school officials carry firearms on school property, but the lawyer ultimately concluded such a move would be legal.
What a relief.
Here's a follow-up question for the right: school teachers shouldn't be required to join unions, but they should be forced to carry loaded firearms around children? Does that not seem odd to you?
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OMFG! Is there no end this insanity? At least we can agree on one thing: mental health needs far more funding and availability. It also needs to be extended and made mandatory for, at the very least, all GOP persons holding office at state, local and federal level.
The GOP is availing itself of its unassailable right to brandish and employ the efficient means of its suicide.
And the very first time someone else's child is killed "by a teacher" in a Virginia school, then they'll arm the children......Thank goodness I don't live in Virginia!
Who will pay the skyrocketing liability costs caused by setting such a policy in place? Oh, I know, let's cut school budgets a bit more, and it will all come out in the wash.
Cheese. I can see VA right across the Potomac from me. Such people are actually allowed to drive, and vote, and carry guns.
There is indeed no end to their insanity. Their insanity is as bottomless as their shamlessness. But is somone surprised that products of ten generations of Southern "inbreeding" would think like this??
They've always wanted to destroy the public school system. This is a move towards that.
Well, his nickname in the legislature is "Sideshow Bob"...
Dumb!!! Dumber than dumb!!!
They're southern, don't'cha know? Someone is surprised a southerner is a dumbass?
I'm further south than they are (not by much) and no way in hell would I support this. Please stop lumping everyone together.
Yes, please, let's put even more guns near our small children. That'll make them safer.
What they really need protection from is the GOP.
Yeah, tell teachers that they are evil union thugs bent of corrupting the minds of our young people, and then give them weapons...
This doesn't bode well....
And then teachers would have to be trained in firearms and of course hand to hand combat because what would they do when a couple of students jumped them and took their firearm to kill all the other teachers and students they could until they ran out of bullets. Never-mind who would pay for it all.
We have a much more pressing issue. Mental health. We need to test the fools we elect to office before they take their oath. First to see if they actually have brains, then to see if they have any comprehension and then to see if they have at least a little bit of common sense.
Perhaps we should consider requiring psychological evaluations as a prerequisite for running for public office.
That's too obvious. But oh, so true!
Afraid we'd lose lots of Ds as well as Rs.
As a Republican...
Along the same line of thinking, I propose that we require all drivers to consume at least three alcoholic beverages in the hour immediately before they get behind the wheel. That way the folks who are already driving drunk will be no more dangerous than everybody else.
Would that require a show of competence and some training?
What could possibly go wrong?
- Accidental shooting of a child?
- Teacher going postal?
Idiots, blithering idiots, and then those in Va. legislature who would need additional iq points to qualify as idiot.
Yep, we need much more funding for mental health and while we're at it we need each and every member of the GOTP that holds public office to have an extensive mental health examination and those that are unfit need to be removed from office - for LIFE!
You mean they don't already have to? They have to take a physical don't they? Why doesn't that include mental testing?
It gets even more involved than that, doesn't it? Here was my thinking:
1) A teacher can't possibly leave a loaded gun lying around in his/her classroom. Even if they have a conceal/carry law, presumably they'd be required to have a trigger lock or other stopgap against accidental shootings of the children. So the "teacher as first line of defense" falls short, on the grounds that they can't very well ask a criminal/terrorist to wait just a sec while they unlock the trigger or ammo cabinet.
2) Just say, hypothetically, that a teacher NEVER uses a trigger lock and DOES have a conceal/carry permit. Parents, do you feel safe with your kid in that classroom? Heck, let's go one step further and assume that this teacher actually does practice regularly at a target range. Pretty rare, in my experience, but hypothetically possible. I was talking to a police officer about this question, and when I asked him what he would do if people armed themselves and tried to "help out" in a situation like this, he said "I don't care who you are. I'm a trained sharpshooter, and I'll aim at anyone who is holding a gun. I can't afford to risk that the person holding a weapon might be the perpetrator." So on count 2, the "teachers as a first line of defense" idea has serious problems because some (many?) teachers do not own guns, and those who do don't always practice regularly on ranges (what a liability disaster), AND they might only become victims at a disaster scene if they don't drop or relinquish their weapons soon enough for police when law enforcement support arrives.
As a person who has taught for over 20 years, I can say that I'd much rather leave law enforcement to the professionals who have the training to do what they do. I have attended sessions about what to do if an armed intruder comes to our campus, but I'm such a lousy shot with a handgun that I'd only be considered an ally of a shooter in that awful circumstance. I'd hate to put the "license to kill" in the hands of people who are trained to do other things and who might not be inclined to fulfill the tasks of police officers. Police are not well paid, but teachers certainly don't earn enough to add "responsibility for children's lives, security, and rare combat engagement" to their roster of responsibilities.
By the way, if VA does require teachers to lock and load, will they subsidize purchases of Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, or other combat games just to get educators good and ready?
Another brilliant idea from Governor Ultrasound and the legislators of Virginia! Thank god for redistricting or these bozos would be on the public dole. Can't imagine any other job they could do!! I certainly hope this put this "initative" up for a statewide vote!!
They ARE on the public dole - they call it salary&benefits - and they ask to remain thus in every election
Someone explain to me how someone can claim to be a public servant, and hold a government office and then recommend a policy that directly subverts and undermines that same governments ability to do it's job.
This position directly undermines the authority of law enforcement (and law itself for that matter) in favor of individual responsibility for what is supposed to be a public trust.
This is almost surreal...next there will be a law proposing that we have no laws...Ungh
the electorate.
"I'd be embarrassed to be a Republican'".
Being embarrassed to be a Republican would require having a brain, which makes such embarrassment impossible for a Republican.
I'm not sure they can ever find their way back from such an extremity. It's like they're having a contest to see who can say something crazier than what they said yesterday.
Can teachers even afford guns?
Wait - wasn't it the GOP and teabaggers who were all "the gub'mit cain't force us to buy helth insher'nce - it's unnCons-tuh-TOOshunnil!!!"
But now they want to force teachers to buy and carry guns.
Again, don't venture south of the Mason-Dixon line if you want to exist in normal, decent society.
Hey, wait a minute! MD is south of the M-D Line, and I admit we've had our problems over the last 150 years or so, but look at us (very blue, OKd marriage equality, state govt. mostly sane for the moment...) lately!
OTOH, parts of MD might want to live in WV or KY. I grew up WAY south, in AL, which remains far out of my comfort zone.
Sorry to bust your story but, a huge number of those southerners moved out west & we have exactly the same insanity the S does. Why do you think they're crazy red? Saw a p-up last night with license plate GUNSHOW.
Just down the street the young couple has their family stickers in the back window of their car and instead of people & dogs they have----guns! Dad is of course the assault weapon down to handguns symbolizing the kids. Feels like there's no hope.
Somebody needs to take charge of this country and start running it for real. Screw the political yammering and stupid suck-ups to the organizations. Can anybody for once do what is right for the country and not for their own base or beliefs.
And most importantly stop saying wild things like most GOP folks have said.
If there are people that don't like how an issue is being handled, well deal with it.
As a long time high school teacher, I'm not sure that it would have been a good idea for me to have been carrying around a loaded gun.
Between misbehaving (and sometimes downright exasperating) students and clueless administrators who occasionally drove my blood pressure through the ceiling, there would have been waaayyy too much temptation there.
Not to mention the possiblity of a student getting ahold of one of the teachers' guns and shooting people.
Even if there were no other reason against it, and there are many, their insurance carriers will love this.
It's bad enough teachers are controlled by unions, now give them guns so they can shoot other people at rallies...........instead of just punching reporters in the face. It truly would be a blood bath as they warned.
I'd like to make a motion to allow Virginia to secede from the Union. These people don't deserve to live in the USA.
I am reminded of Congressman Frank's question:
Hey, hey, hey, wait a minute -don't cast the baby out with the bathwater!! The right wing nut Republicans are only in control of this state because of redistricting. If you look at VA as a whole, it really is more blue than red and getting bluer every day. Remember NOVA is decidedly blue, as is much of the Hampton Roads area.
McDonnell is only governor because the Dems in the southern part of the state picked a total loser to run against him.
Yea! Don't lump NoVA in with the rest of this friggin' state. We're all blue up here, it's the whole redistricting and McDonnell being a complete idiot that's making this sort of stuff happen here.
I hate this state. I can't come out as trans because there's no protection guaranteeing I won't get booted out of my house. I can be legally evicted because I'm transgender, and I have no recourse against it.
I can be beat up and killed for being trans and my assaulters would be guaranteed the ability to get away scot free - trans panic is a legitimate excuse in Virginia for murder.
This state sucks, but I'm stuck here because I work here. Our governor and our AG are both bigoted troglodytes trying to drag Virginia into the worst state in the union, and they're succeeding.
Sorry folks,
I was just so upset with this that I forgot that there are sane people in the state. I am blessed to live in a very blue state (Washington) and I just hate to see what the idiot GOP is doing elsewhere.
My sincere apologies.
There are always sane people even in the reddest of states. Whether there by choice or inability to leave.
Arming teachers or other school personnel is not the answer. Teachers and school staff already have their hands full with the requirements of their jobs. If we must have armed personnel on school grounds, let's at least use professionals. Professional policemen would be able to focus strictly on guarding our children's lives. If a school were fenced in or only had one entrance, the policeman could simply guard that entrance. Some school districts already have policemen on high school campuses. The officers are part of the city police force, but the school district reimburses the city for their salaries. It costs about the same amount as a senior teacher is paid. So if this is what we want--armed fortresses for schools--let's at least hire professionals and not force already over-burdened teachers to arm themselves.
Right, because just what we need is MORE of a police state. Have you noticed that Egyptian dictator Mubarak got rid of all government except police & military (neocon much?) and that is still all the government they have even when he's gone.
Are there no intelligent, better than more guns answers?
False analogy. Running around with armed with guns has never been a part of Egyptian life, unlike here where, for a time at least, there may have been a need for such weaponry in the hands of the average citizen. Note also, that when citizens of this country may have actually needed to be armed, the weapons they had available were, at most, six-shot revolvers - not extended-clip assaul;t weapons.
Personally, I'd suggest you read a bit more of our Constitution, beginning with that part that says who the government consists of; you know, "We, the People..."
Pitiful, just pitiful...
if they do require this and mandate it by law at the state level, they better be purchasing some massive liability policy for when the S hits the occilaltor
The firearms regulations that could actually pass bill of 2013....
1) 50 states same rules
2) only exceptions to 1 )a open carry in some low pop areas(alaska arizona desert whatever hunting grounds b)gun free zones in schools times square allowed but appropriate armed security required(1 half decent uniformed security guard could have beaten the kid in a gunfight, would have greatly reduced the carnage in the colorado and arizona incidents as well)
3) "military style" rifles banned not for function but the style appears to get the modern warfare/halo crowd a bit too excited(or a 30 year old minimum to buy at least)
4) 10-15 round capacity is fine
5) OR YOU CAN KEEP POSTING GUN BANS GUN REGISTRATION THIS AND THAT(HUGE AMMUNITION TAXES) AND THE RESPONSE WILL BE ARM TEACHERS AND PUT MACHINE GUN TURRETS ON THE ROOFS OF NURSERY SCHOOLS
6) During the election I said all along it was just the same 46-47 percent of the folks who voted mccain just yelling louder, this is just the same 20-30 percent of folks who want to ban guns entirely yelling louder. Joe Manchin has already walked back his support and for goodness sake Barney Frank just took a swipe at Mike Bloomberg on air not 15 minutes ago.
7) Shooting sports is the number 2 participation sport in the US behind golf. I dont even believe that accounts for hunting
8) I voted for Obama, and support virtually all of his policies, which have included allowing guns in national parks(no incidents there ive heard of) and amtrak luggage(nobody has shot up a train either)
UFB...
That's real special that is..
the nuns in my school had rulers