It appears the School District in Clarksville, Arkansas has opted to have armed teachers as a common sense solution to a problem that has gripped some of our nation's schools in the past. These teachers will be trained, and the position is voluntary.

What say you all?

I just read an article about this. I think it's a good idea. I don't think the alternative of having a police officer in the school is bad, but then again I don't know if they are mutually exclusive.

I don't see what teachers are any "less qualified" than anyone else to carry a firearm.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

It's quietly coming about in other school districts as well....

Our most precious, our country's future is entrusted to our educators
at a time in their lives when our children are at their most defenseless.

It is our duty to defend and protect these young ones at every turn.

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

...reminds me of the first half of the 20th Century when bank personnel were armed routinely, even causing Colt to have their "Banker's Special" revolver. I'd say that our children are more precious than our paper money, to say nothing about the value of our teachers. I support this plan providing each teacher is not only trained, but has the mental capacity to know when and how to use the sidearm. I hope those teachers who opt out are taught to not put those who are armed in danger by identifying them in a crisis. Yelling, "Bill, use your gun" is counterproductive and dangerous for all. I also hope that the lawyers and school officials have protected the teachers from frivolous lawsuits.

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Term limits!

It's common sense, which is why most the media and all the leftest will attack it! They keep on spouting, " how can putting more guns out there be a solution?" If they would be willing to wrestle an armed maniac to the ground it would work for me. Only there would have to be more of them to overcome the losses as the maniac takes down a few.
I think its actually better than putting police there as the bad guy can't tell who is armed and it would serve as a deterrent. Good job Arkansas!

Len

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Endeavor to persevere

I think its sad that it has come to this in a suppossedly civil society BUT, I believe this and any other school that decides to do it this way has made a good choice. I know if my kids were still in school I would feel much better when they walked out the door to attend classes. A big "way to go" for the Clarksville, Arkansas school district!

Many of our school districts here in Utah have gone that route. They have even told the teachers that they would pay for them to get their concealed carry permit.

My daughter-in-law teaches fourth grade. When her principal asked if she would like to sign up for the concealed carry class, she replied, "Thanks, but I already have my permit and always carry." Her principal seemed pleased.

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Pack light and cinch tight.

Three words :I'm for it".

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I Cor. 10:13 "1611KJV"

The anti's battle cry is " a gun in school will scare the kids". Are the kids frightened to death every time they see a cop? We are willing to put armed personnel in our banks, planes, airports etc. but aren't our children more valuable to us?

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Tom
NRA Pistol Inst

Great idea trouble is, one negligent discharge is going to ruin it.

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Back to back World War Champs.

Nahhh....if that was the case, Quantico, FLETC, and every local police academy would have shut down by now.

I think its great besides the kids won't know who is carry

I did 34 years as a high school shop teacher. (Honor enough for a lifetime!) All I can say is they had better train and screen big time on this. We had lady teachers who couldn't retain their wallets or purses. I was a shop teacher. Consider how vulnerable you are when you are demonstrating engine tune-up and you are contorted under the hood of a car.You're pulling a V-8 spark plug while little Billy is either grabbing your gun or knocking you over the head with a tool then grabbing your gun. In the hands of the right faculty member this could work but the first time something goes wrong, the biased press will be screaming.

Last week on the local 40/29 tv channel in Fayetteville/Ft Smith, they had their knickers in a large wad about this, they could not find out who the teachers and janitors were that were qualified to carry, they tried the FOI and the leg. passed a law last year that CCW lists dont come under FOI. They really tried to make a mountain out of a molehill but it died down in a day or two. The lady reporter was astounded that they could not get a list, the kicker is that last year I head her covering the FOI law on the local news on the eary and late newscast, it makes you wonder if they comprehend the news that they read! Jeff

I'm all for it!

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Cheers, Charles
SWCA #2442

There are several other school districts in Arkansas that are doing this as well, unfortunately, Clarksville got caught in the media limelight by a few upset parents who complained. I have been involved in training school personnel for months with school administration approval and with little fanfair.

It's kind of strange, we trust our school officials enough to fill our kids brains with whatever indoctrination they want for 12 years but we don't trust them to physically protect the kids.

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- Change it back -

As a rule they don't. They are hired for how they look, not for what they know. If they can read at about the 6th grade level, they are hired.

As proof I offer the anchor in the San Francisco area who read verbatim a list of crew names from the crash of the Asiana Airlines plane.

"Captain Sum Ting Wong"

She read the who list and didn't bat an eyelash.

They read what is put in front of them without understanding a word of it.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

I made a gun rack in wood shop. Then I made a rifle stock and nunchucks with the scraps.

School was different then.

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Dum vivo cano

Providing security for children is a great thing that might make me rest a little easier after I drop my daughter off for school every morning. But, these staff members have to be rigorously screened & trained well above and beyond any ordinary CCW class. This must be super covert also. The kids should never know that their teacher is armed. Judgemental and combat shooting courses MUST be required. My dept. trained in a high school utilizing "active shooter" scenarios. This would be a good start.

A quick follow up on this story, as of today our democrat attorney general Dustin McDaniel ruled earlier today that this can not go forward. Jeff

Works for me.

Attached Images

With guns.jpg (49.4 KB, 30 views)

I have a couple of worries with this approach. First, there some middle schoolers that can take down the average school teacher. And when we are talking high school, how they gonna keep those guns secure? Second, why not expel the trouble makers?

Out
West

Yep, the state AG has shut this whole thing down.

It’s a complicated and sordid tale, but the AG ruling stops it not on principle but on a debatable technicality. According to Arkansas Code 5-73-120 "it is a defense to a prosecution under this section that at the time of the act of carrying a weapon . . . The person is a licensed security guard acting in the course and scope of his or her duties." The Arkansas Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies Act (ACA §17-40-101 - 107 & other associated statutes) designates the Arkansas State Police as an administering agency to regulate private investigators, private security agencies and individuals or businesses offering security or investigative services.

What the school districts were doing was having designated personnel comply with the bureaucratic requirements of the licensing board (including training and qualifications) so they would be licensed security guards so they complied with state requirements allowing them to carry on school property, whereas a CHL would not allow them to do so due to state law.

What the AG did was rule that the school districts were not conducting business as a private security agency and therefore were not authorized to be licensed as such by the Arkansas State Police, who by the way, have been doing this very thing with several other school districts for 20 years!

I think it's a very bad call by the AG. I support local communities making local decisions with their locally elected school board to determine legal ways to prevent mean people from committing violent crimes in our schools. The Arkansas AG stood in the way of making schools safer on this one.

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- Change it back -

Jefferson City Mo. morning Tribune stated this AM...Attn. General of Arkansas said NO to arming of teachers.

I'm not sure I like this one bit. If Sister Mary Marcellius was armed back in the fourth grade I just might not be here today

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Forum consigliere

I am in favor of arming the teachers. I think if these nutcases across the country realized that they might get shot they wouldn't be apt to attack kids and teachers. I have always thought there should be some sort of deterrent at schools such as arming the teachers. The fact that the school zones and parking lots are off limits for guns just invites violence if you ask me. Just my 2 cents

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James
On the Llano Estacado

The sociopaths that have apparently been given free reign in this country probably won't be frightened away from doing what they intend to do.They are cowards and are aware that schools are easy pickings for them.They are our own form of suicide bombers that run rampant in other nations.If a few schools choose to arm a teacher or two it may prevent some of these wastes of oxygen from going through with what
they intend to carry out.Discretion and concealment are of the utmost importance in this issue.We certainly don't need the morons in the press advertising who is armed and who isn't and this is part of the overall problem.We all know what the press does.Publishing names and addresses of concealed permit holders and so on.All hidden behind freedom of speech.You give a moron in the press a constitutional right like freedom of speech and they will misuse it to the N'th degree just like a lunatic with a gun.Even if arming a few teachers isn't a great deterrent it may save more lives than waiting on the police after the 911 call.

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I'm just here for the guns.

Those school administrators made a mistake in going public.

When I was in highschool, we use to sit in the coach's office and have show and tell on new guns, and swap hunting stories.

They always closed the school for the opening of Elk season. There weren't no teachers there, and most of the boys had gone hunting.

Heck I would have felt plumb safe in our school if the teachers had been packin'. Several of them spent a lot of their spare time shooting and re-loading. Dang sure different from the sissy pants things we call teachers today.

If my teachers said "Jump!" you done it and asked how high on the way up too. By the same token, they would have died in a heart beat to protect their kids.

I was always pullin' some kind of mischief. They usually din't have far to go to find who was the culprit. One time the Principal pulled me into his office to chew me out.. I could tell he was havin' a hard time bein' serious. Finally, he said "Consider yourself chewed out and get the hell out of my office." I could hear him and the secretary dyin' laffin' as I went down the hall.

Them was the good ol days.

I completely agree with the concept of armed teachers. The one caveat is that they receive the proper training and that they must carry the gun on their person.

It also has to be handled school by school and, like the OP said, voluntary.

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Freedom isn't free.

It will definitely be an uphill battle for schools to get this thru... the local (or state in this case) antis will fight it tooth and nail. But that doesn't make it wrong and I too strongly agree with the concept. My daughter is in high school and I would feel a lot better if there was someone readily available to defend her in a meaningful way should the need arise.

^^^^^

Them administrators gotta quit tellin everything they know!

I'm not going to disseminate any information here,
but in the state(s) where my grandchildren attend,
teachers and facility are subject to full background checks...as terms of employment.

Some educators are taking responsibility for the safety of those in their charge.

Training is made available to those that want to take on this responsibility...


And that's all I'll say about that there.

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

The Arkansas AG nixed the move today.

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Sure you did

As snubyfan's poster says... Why not just act like the kids are worth at least as much as all of the other stuff we protect with armed guards, and put several in each school? $$$$$$$$$ no instant gratification in the form of profit?

That's a shame.

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Freedom isn't free.

Fortunately, the AG has only voiced an opinion, which is not only unenforceable, but carries no weight insofar as the rule of law. The Superintendent of Schools is going forward. As a side note, these volunteer teachers receive over 50 hours of training, and they may be Deputized as well.

If the AG wants to keep this from happening, he will have to sue, and Superintendent David Hopkins essentially said to bring it on.

With the kids playing their violent graphic video games now adays, a poor hunk of steel and plastic not being seen surely can't hurt them. But this isn't on the anti's agenda. Wonder how many walk past them everyday and don't even know they are there. I don't think the teachers will be walking down the hall with "their six shooters in leather strapped to their hips.

Not to change the subject but I saw one company selling school backpacks with ballistic panels in them.

Buckeye Firearms (dot org) offered free tuition/room/board/ammunition to the first 26 teachers that applied for a week long self defense course. There were over 200 applicants.

Several rural Ohio school districts have since authorized trained teachers to carry concealed. When the nosy ones start asking who they are, the school board has refused to identify those that are authorized, citing the fact that it's better when the bad guys cannot pinpoint who is and who isn't.

Wish it weren't necessary? Yes.

Grateful that it is happening? You bet!