The story is here: http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/news/ ... ?id=331460" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Some excerpts with editorializing...
In other words...No.COLUMBIA -- It was an issue discussed during the legislative session this past spring, and it was a hot topic for discussion Thursday during a panel discussion at conference sponsored by the Missouri School Boards Association. The subject is campus violence.
The issue is whether to allow people to be armed at school for their own protection. School administrators and resource officers face a potential for campus tragedy unheard of just a generation ago.
...
When asked if Jefferson City could handle a Columbine? Cole County Sheriff Greg White answered, "I think we're still building a preparedness structure."
I would say this is two too many steps. First step is fight back, immediately, with multiple rounds....
The subject was threat assessment and response options. Brad Spicer, a former state trooper who now runs a security business, discussed the three "outs" in an active shooting situation on campus-first you lock out, then you get out, and then, "the take out, to fight back," said Spicer.
For many people, fighting back means the ability to return fire. That means allowing people with concealed weapons permits to carry guns on campus. At the high school level, armed school resource officers bring peace of mind, but not every district has them.
"At my school, we have security guards who are trained in the same manner as law enforcement, but they are not allowed to be armed, according to our board,” said a school administrator. “Kids have actually asked them, ‘what would you do in this situation?' they said, 'we would be hiding with you.'"
Yes, because those Columbine kids, and the guy at Virginia Tech, and the one in Pearl, Miss., and all the other school shooters had CHLs didn't they? Er,didn't they? No? Oh. And even if a nutso gets thru and gets a CHL, so what? We should disarm all the others so when nutso goes off his nut he's the only one who has a gun....what!???!!...
Skeptics in the law enforcement community say the weapons permitting process does not red flag the people it should.
"Most of those individuals, if not all, will pass a criminal background check," said Sgt. Kim Vansell, University of Central Missouri.
THEN GET BETTER TRAINING. Criminy. God forbid a cop ever have to face a "chaotic" situation. How many citizen-related defensive shoots have there been? Thousands? Yes occasionally a good guy gets crossways with the cops, but those incidents are notable by their rarity....
“And when you have multiple people potential pulling out guns, that's gonna totally go against our training and potentially create a chaos that we may not be prepared to handle," said a police officer in the audience.
I would have loved to been there for this next one...
I would have stood up and started applauding...Sheriff White argued that armed civilians on campus have the potential to end the threat quickly. And he stunned the room with this assertion.
"In actual shootings, citizens do far better than law enforcement on hit potential,” said White. “They hit their targets and they don't hit other people. I wish I could say the same for cops. We train more, they do better."
