The NRA and AFT Have It Wrong
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
I just read American Federation of Teacher's President Randi Weingarten's response to the NRA's proposal to allow school staff members to arm themselves (http://www.aft.org/newspubs/press/2013/040213a.cfm). Weingarten's belief that the NRA proposal will not work is right. Those who study the use of the deadly force understand that, even with proper firearms training, most people are averse to killing, even when faced with a killer's rampage. Reliance on teachers of school staff members outside of the realm of trained, sworn law enforcement officers is simply not the way to save children's lives.
But Weingarten is completely wrong about her alternative solution: gun control measures such as universal background checks, banning certain firearms, and limiting magazine capacities will do nothing to prevent the next Sandy Hook.
During the 1994 decade-long assault weapons ban, one the nation's worst school rampage shootings took place at Columbine High School. In that shooting, Eric Harris, armed with a ban-compliant carbine and ten-round magazines, fired 96 rounds plus an additional 25 rounds with a pump-action shotgun. Dylan Klebold fired a banned pistol with high-capacity magazines 55 times.
Adam Lanza fired 155 rounds in five minutes, a rate of about one round every two seconds. A motivated gunman armed with a bolt-action rifle and ten-round magazines could deliver rounds at the same rate, only he would be firing bullets with nearly twice as much kinetic energy as Lanza's. Furthermore, the Feinstein bill would actually protect a number of semi-automatic rifles capable of equal or greater devastation than Lanza's Bushmaster AR-15, and there would still be millions of grandfathered firearms in circulation.
Anyone who believes that the gun control legislation pending in Congress or the bills recently passed in states like Connecticut and Colorado will actually make children in schools safer is simply living in a fantasy land where armed people of evil intent simply go "poof" because a law was passed. In fact, the British responded to a mass shooting in the late 1980s by banning all semi-automatic rifles--a more sweeping ban than exists or has been seriously proposed anywhere in the United States--and yet, in 1996, a gunman entered a primary school gymnasium in Dunblane, Scotland, and killed 16 five-year-olds and a teacher before killing himself.
If we want to protect our children in school, we must get serious about school security. I'm not talking about armed fortresses or gun-toting teachers. I'm talking about implementing the kinds of common-sense security features that we take for granted in so many other places. When it comes to security, we fear that schools will become "armed fortresses" or that such measures will "not be conducive to the learning environment", yet when it comes to fire we think nothing of requiring fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems, fire alarms, and evacuation drills. In fact, we'd be irate if schools didn't have such protection, yet not one single child has died in a school fire in this country in the last 50 years.
We must get serious about school security and start talking about real measures that will mitigate the dangers of armed intruders. We must get serious about school violence and invest the money, time, and expertise that is needed to control the problem. Gun control won't stop it. Neither will arming teachers. But those of us who know about shooting incidents, who understand how they happen, who study the people who go on rampages understand that neither the NRA nor the AFT nor the politicians have the expertise to address the problem. I won't tell the AFT how to teach school, but the AFT needs to realize that, when it comes to school violence, they're out of their league. If you don't want to put the security onus on teachers, you're exactly right: teachers shouldn't be responsible for school security. But teachers shouldn't be advocating for gun control, either, at least not in any official capacity, especially when doing so does nothing more than provide the same false sense of security that Weingarten accuses the NRA of creating by pushing to arm teachers.
Michael Knox is a firearms and shooting incident expert from Jacksonville, Florida. Mr. Knox served as a police officer and detective with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office for over 15 years before becoming a full-time consultant who reconstructs shootings for litigation. Mr. Knox has taught shooting incident investigation and reconstruction to government officials on four continents.
But Weingarten is completely wrong about her alternative solution: gun control measures such as universal background checks, banning certain firearms, and limiting magazine capacities will do nothing to prevent the next Sandy Hook.
During the 1994 decade-long assault weapons ban, one the nation's worst school rampage shootings took place at Columbine High School. In that shooting, Eric Harris, armed with a ban-compliant carbine and ten-round magazines, fired 96 rounds plus an additional 25 rounds with a pump-action shotgun. Dylan Klebold fired a banned pistol with high-capacity magazines 55 times.
Adam Lanza fired 155 rounds in five minutes, a rate of about one round every two seconds. A motivated gunman armed with a bolt-action rifle and ten-round magazines could deliver rounds at the same rate, only he would be firing bullets with nearly twice as much kinetic energy as Lanza's. Furthermore, the Feinstein bill would actually protect a number of semi-automatic rifles capable of equal or greater devastation than Lanza's Bushmaster AR-15, and there would still be millions of grandfathered firearms in circulation.
Anyone who believes that the gun control legislation pending in Congress or the bills recently passed in states like Connecticut and Colorado will actually make children in schools safer is simply living in a fantasy land where armed people of evil intent simply go "poof" because a law was passed. In fact, the British responded to a mass shooting in the late 1980s by banning all semi-automatic rifles--a more sweeping ban than exists or has been seriously proposed anywhere in the United States--and yet, in 1996, a gunman entered a primary school gymnasium in Dunblane, Scotland, and killed 16 five-year-olds and a teacher before killing himself.
If we want to protect our children in school, we must get serious about school security. I'm not talking about armed fortresses or gun-toting teachers. I'm talking about implementing the kinds of common-sense security features that we take for granted in so many other places. When it comes to security, we fear that schools will become "armed fortresses" or that such measures will "not be conducive to the learning environment", yet when it comes to fire we think nothing of requiring fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems, fire alarms, and evacuation drills. In fact, we'd be irate if schools didn't have such protection, yet not one single child has died in a school fire in this country in the last 50 years.
We must get serious about school security and start talking about real measures that will mitigate the dangers of armed intruders. We must get serious about school violence and invest the money, time, and expertise that is needed to control the problem. Gun control won't stop it. Neither will arming teachers. But those of us who know about shooting incidents, who understand how they happen, who study the people who go on rampages understand that neither the NRA nor the AFT nor the politicians have the expertise to address the problem. I won't tell the AFT how to teach school, but the AFT needs to realize that, when it comes to school violence, they're out of their league. If you don't want to put the security onus on teachers, you're exactly right: teachers shouldn't be responsible for school security. But teachers shouldn't be advocating for gun control, either, at least not in any official capacity, especially when doing so does nothing more than provide the same false sense of security that Weingarten accuses the NRA of creating by pushing to arm teachers.
Michael Knox is a firearms and shooting incident expert from Jacksonville, Florida. Mr. Knox served as a police officer and detective with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office for over 15 years before becoming a full-time consultant who reconstructs shootings for litigation. Mr. Knox has taught shooting incident investigation and reconstruction to government officials on four continents.