What America needs is for responsible NRA members to split off from the NRA and create a rival group to marginalize the Wayne LaPierres of the world.

Why would teachers be regarded any less likely than average citizens
to not have someone in their ranks going unnoticed with mental issues
that might one day lead them on the same kind of murderous rampages we
had armed them to protect against?

While I only support practical measures and fully support basic gun
ownership rights I don't think reverting our teachers back to the wild
west is a valid solution. No one seems to be asking themselves how
this could fare any differently if the guns which had been used in the
Newton school slayings that belonged to the gunmen's mother had been
issued to her by the school system instead of mere private purchase.

The NRA is nucking futs to bemoan gun buy backs. Gun buy backs are one of the single best things we can do to limit gun violence in this country. Hell, the NRA would be better able to make their case if there were more gun buy backs. Talk about stupid.

The sad reality is that most gun violence happens in very poor and impoverished neighborhoods. Many who live in these communities don't have the knowledge or even the financial wherewithall to keep their firearms safe and properly stored. Many don't know how to handle a firearm safely. The more gun buy backs we have, the better.

The only guns that shouldn't be destroyed in these buy backs are rare pieces of historical value and significance. In which case, you could put them in a museum or something.

But make no mistake. Guns do save lives. Most of the time, they're never even discharged when saving a life. And sometimes, they are.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/09/melinda-herman-mom-who-shot-intruder_n_2443920.html

Ok, contrary to this newly found popular belief, Gun packing Teachers and armed Security guards in schools is not a deterrent, m'k?

Banning guns doesn't work either.

Video games may desensitize some folks to violence, but you don't see every one of them grabbing a gun and heading for an elementary school.

Sex, drugs, and Rock and Roll also can't be a convenient excuse..look at all those people who survived the 60's and are not shooting at anyone.

Identifying folks with mental disability is what's important, including erasing the stigma associated with it, and treating people who have it, effectively.

Maybe if parents would teach their children about social and cultural responsibility, instead of having the Telly-Tubbies do it.

How about we, as Americans, learn to @!$%#ing relax and not work so hard for so damn little.

Spend more time with our families, and maybe if these billion dollar companies would release some cash back to their workers to assist in making us feel like we don't have to be at @!$%#ing work 24/7 to make ends meet, so we could have some quality family time, but that's @!$%#ing ruined because we won't know what to do with ourselves.

bahhh Nevermind.

;)

I wondered before-- and still do-- about whether Wayne La Pierre and others could offer a practical guide to teachers who have to carry weapons.

OK, so first, arm the "good guys with guns" and then prep them to respond in the event of an emergency. Now, if you are one of the teachers who has a gun, do you just stash it (loaded) in your desk drawer, or do you carry the whole time? If you carry, be sure to tell the kiddies to look but not touch (and we know there are NEVER cases in which some older students assault teachers, right?)

If you don't carry the weapon, then presumably you'll keep it stashed in a desk drawer, perhaps even with a trigger lock on it. Wouldn't want the young'uns to make a mistake and have an accident in your room during lunch or recess, right? OK-- so then when an assailant comes in to the classroom and you decide to confront them, what is the best method for getting to your gun? Is there a cool way in an emergency to tell the assailant to just hang on a tic while you get out the weapon that's going to stop his evil plan?

Just asking. I'm sure WLP will have a quick, sensible response that will protect our children, since he is always so good at how things work in the real world.

It's simply stupid to propose that teachers start packing guns. I expect teachers to know how to teach. I don't expect them to have a dual job of "armed guard". That's crazy stupid. It's also crazy stupid to say that you can use a gun in self defense in a crowded building. It's even crazy stupider once you consider that if you ever had to use it, it would be in a crowded building while everyone in that building is panicking.

No, it is far wiser to try to prevent such tragedies like Columbine and Sandy Hook from ever happening in the first place.

...However, one thing that teachers could carry on them that might be a good idea are lower powered tasers or stun guns.

Interesting side note: Tasers currently are far more regulated than firearms! Taser will not send you one of their products unless you can prove you're in law enforcement. There are many stun guns on the market. This seems ideal since it can't harm innocent bystanders, and it incapacitates someone without using lethal force.

Isn't this kerfuffle kind of "NRA picks up where Romney" left off? As I recall, there was a story repeated again and again on TRMS last fall about the conspiracy theory that Obama was trying to engineer some kind of problem that could only be resolved by banning all guns. And Romney played off it by claiming that if Obama got reelected, he had secret plans to "take away our guns."

So would anyone be surprised that some wing-nuts still buy into this conspiracy theory? It has always been the case that the NRA and its follows falsely equate "gun control" with "gun ban," but it looks to me like the virulence of the response this time has to have at least some connection to the widely spread conspiracy theory from the last Presidential campaign.

They think it's coming true.