This video shares a variant opinion on the gun control issue, but from a perspective that doesn't violate the 2nd amendment.
Video on gun control, the 2nd amendment and arming teachers due to mass school shootings
If you look at historical information on shootings, you will see that, as I've mentioned in my article and video about School Shootings, Video Games & Bullying, guns have been carried to school since at least the 1700s. But, maybe you didn't notice that I also said that shootings which occurred weren't just committed by students. There were shootings by angry parents, and there were shootings by angry teachers, too.
So, in a way, we're perpetuating a myth by saying that armed teachers automatically make for safer schools. Yes, I know, I watched the video but those students are naive. Not all teachers are mentally stable enough to be permitted a gun but they may not have been identified as at-risk. Given the increase amongst students of misbehaving and treating teachers poorly, it's only a matter of time before one gun-toting teacher is pushed too far and flips out. It won't matter if s/he shoots one student or twenty, the outcry will be disproportionate. Putting guns in the hands of people results in people dying. Does it matter if they're well trained to use their guns? Yes, of course, because they'll be a better at shooting but, sadly, teaching emotional intelligence isn't as easy as teaching how to shoot - not by a long shot (I couldn't resist the pun), so we'll have a subset of teachers who are a risk but are packing.
And then there are those who would use a gun for nefarious purposes; there are pedophiles in schools across the nation, and there are teachers who have raped their students - some teachers will not be able to resist the temptation to abuse the power of a gun to get what they want. This is not to say that all teachers, or even a significant number of teachers, fall into this category, but they do exist and there will be backlash when (not if) it happens, just as there is backlash after every school shooting, every case of pedophilia/hebophilia in school, and any other incident. Guns are not the problem, but they are not the solution, either.
Then there are the consequences that will ripple out after a teacher shoots a child. It doesn't matter if it was justified - there will be those who will become terrified of the teachers (gun-toting or not), and there will be other negative results. The teacher who shoots students will be under immense psychological trauma after taking a child's life - even if it was justifiable homicide - and that person will ALSO be under the risk of indictment for the shooting, if the investigation shows there is a reason to doubt the teacher, so the investigation will also cause trouble. There will be the parents who will picket and harass the shooter, too - probably the same ones who picket and harass about abortion. That teacher may very well have been completely justified, but may end up having to leave their town, or even give up teaching entirely as "the teacher who shot a kid".
If you want guns in school, put in trained professionals who do NOT have to deal with the students constantly (ie: NOT teachers), who are slow to anger, can make the best decisions under the worst of circumstances, etc. It's much easier to train such people and replace them, than teachers.
And let's not forget that the gun industry has a vested interest in this. They make about $11b/year, and taxes earned are about $123m, yet only about 1/3 of houses have a gun in them. So you can BET that they are doing everything they can to spin this issue in their favor, and you can also bet they won't mind a few lives lost if it helps them. The NRA is their mouthpiece so I can't take what they say seriously.
People are the problem. Gov. Bevin explained it in his video, I explained it in mine, and Colion Noir briefly talked about some of it in his video. And, for God's sake, deal with the real issues, which are societal, technological, religious and familial. Another video about the Parkland video by John Bouchell raises many questions.
Oh, another thing that would help is to not report school shootings nationally. There are those who shoot because they want to go out in a blaze of misguided glory, just like serial killers tend to revel in the attention the press gives them (even if it's back-handed). Also, telling the world about the shootings gives every new generation the idea that they, too, can resort to shooting their enemies at school. If they're going to be reported on, they should neither be lionized nor demonized because most of them are victims of some kind of abuse, programming by violent games, the product of a specific mindset, and other issues. Remember - kids become the way they are primarily because of those people around them and the teen years are the hardest years in most people's lives because of puberty. This is borne out by the number of suicides that are committed by teens, as well as a mountain of psychology research. I'm not a reigning expert on psych, and different people respond differently to how the news reports this stuff, so it's hard to say what the best way to handle reporting these things would be.
What needs to happen is to reverse the trends of the last few decades and solidify families and communities, return to values where there is some respect given to each other, and get rid of crap education like NCLB and CC. But, this reformation will likely have to take a different form than what used to exist.
In addition, we need to help the poor (both those who choose to mooch off welfare, and those who just need a hand up). My friend and I were talking last night about how there are people who go to the grocery store with 2, 3 or 4 food share cards (EBT) and buy groceries. Some buy a ton of junk, other buy really expensive stuff. This is clearly something that needs to be reported by the grocery stores and investigated by the authorities. Stores that are failing to report such abuses should be fined (increase the fine each time) because they are effectively complicit.
Finally, bullying needs to be stopped. This will be hard because bullying is a symptom of abuse - the bullies need help. Fortunately, there are effective programs out there that can be adopted by schools. If you've got the money, www.ChallengeDay.org is an excellent program to build understanding and unity in a school, but pricey, so I'd also suggest looking at www.GABNow.org (Generations Against Bullying), which takes an empowering approach with its peer ambassador program, wherein students learn how to be upstanders, not bystanders. Ultimately, both approaches need to be integrated into the US educational system (all states!), with some other things (such as ongoing efforts to reinforce).
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