(NAME-MCE) Arming educators

Thu Sep 20 12:34:03 EDT 2007

I grew up in Japan, and coming to the US was quite a shock. 1985, Worcester,
Mass - not a very 'safe' place, certainly compared to Tokyo, Japan. NO ONE
is allowed to own guns where I come from. The mere fact that this is a
QUESTION or concern regarding arms in schools in the US, is problematic. We
shouldn't even HAVE guns available to people, PERIOD. The arms industry and
arms race is bad  - internationally, as it is nationally, locally. Violence
on TV, violence in video games, violence in the schoolyards, and Robert
Fulghum is spinning in his grave, and he ain't even dead yet, Chaney
shooting his lawyer in the face, Columbine, Virginia Tech. The deeper
question is: What can we do to teach children to love and feel compassion?
We might as well start selling flame throwers at the local grocery store.
Silly me.

on 9/20/07 12:00 PM, name-mce-request at nameorg.org at
name-mce-request at nameorg.org wrote:

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>    1.  Mich. Lawmaker Wants to Arm Educators (KispokoT at aol.com)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 09:40:18 EDT
> From: KispokoT at aol.com
> Subject: (NAME-MCE) Mich. Lawmaker Wants to Arm Educators
> To: name-mce at nameorg.org
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> 
>  
>  
>  (http://abcnews.go.com/)
> 
>  
> Mich. Lawmaker Wants to Arm Educators
> Under Bill, Specially Trained Faculty and Staff Could Carry Concealed
> Pistols on Campus
> By DAVID SCHOETZ
> Sept. 11, 2007 ? _http://abcnews.go.com/_
> (http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3586066)
> Anyone other than a member of law enforcement who carries a gun into a
> Michigan school right now is breaking the law and, according to one freshman
> lawmaker, likely intent on harming students, faculty and staff.
> And there are horrific examples to illustrate Rep. David Agema's point: 32
> shot dead on the Virginia Tech campus in April, five girls shot to death at an
> Amish school in Lancaster County, Pa., in 2006 and 13 people gunned down at
> Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999.
> With precisely those school rampages in mind  as well as the notion that
> Islamic extremists may start targeting American academic institutions  Agema
> has filed a controversial bill that would allow gun-owning faculty and staff
> with proper training and permits to pack concealed pistols inside a school or
> on  school property.
> Agema, a Republican from outside Grand Rapids, introduced the bill this month
>  with the support of 15 Republican sponsors.
> "What motivated me to do this is a form of disaster preparedness," Agema told
>  ABC News. "To me, it's about safety for kids first. I just think we have to
> have  something like this if something starts happening with al Qaeda."
> Under Michigan House Bill No. 5162, teachers, administrators and staff could
> carry a concealed pistol on school grounds if approved by a principal. The
> principal at an individual school could require interested educators to take
> additional training, perhaps with a police department.
> The proposed legislation would also allow parents and legal guardians who
> already possess proper gun permits to carry concealed pistols on school
> property 
>  while picking up or dropping off a child.
> Agema said entrenched partisan bickering with a Democratic-controlled
> Michigan House would probably prevent the bill from even emerging out of
> committee 
> hearings.  
> Politics may not be Agema's only roadblock. Already, a stream of Michigan
> educators have come out against the legislation.
> Doug Pratt, a spokesman for the Michigan Education Association, the state's
> biggest educator union, said his organization has always come out against
> concealed weapons. Still, he also described Agema's proposal as having "no
> logic."  
> "You talk to the average person on the street and this just doesn't fly,"
> Pratt said. "Why would we take the chance of something tragic happening by
> simply introducing guns into the environment. Nothing about this makes sense."
> Grand Rapids Superintendent Bernard Taylor, for example, told the local
> newspaper the proposed bill left him "speechless," before saying, "If that's
> what 
> we've come to, I need to find a new line of work."
> Larry Johnson, the school system's head of security and a former  police
> officer, called the proposal a "ridiculous" bill and a "knee-jerk  reaction."
> "If 
> you miss, your backstop is other kids," Johnson said.
> But Agema stands by the proposed legislation, which he said was similar to
> one recently offered by a Wisconsin lawmaker. That bill, however, stalled. In
> Utah and Oregon, he added, educators are already allowed to carry concealed
> weapons because those states do not have "gun-free zones" around schools.
> "The misconception is always that a gun in the hands of a law-abiding citizen
>  is bad," Agema said. "The only person right now who enters the school with a
> gun  is the guy who's intent on doing harm."
> Agema, a licensed gun owner and former commercial airline pilot, said that
> the knowledge alone that a teacher may be armed would act as a crime deterrent
> in classrooms. He added that the policy would be optional, not mandatory.
> And in the case that there is a student rampage, a madman on campus or even a
>  terror attack, the school would be better equipped to respond if trained
> educators were armed.
> "What do you do in the 10 to 20 minutes or even longer for police to arrive
> at a scene like this?" he asked.
> 
>  
> Copyright ? 2007 ABC News Internet  Ventures
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