Janet Robinson, the School Superintendent for Newton’s schools, has requested that armed police officers continue to guard the schools indefinitely. She has requested at least two officers be stationed at each school in the district.
This contrasts sharply with the arguments against armed guards of any sort, including police officers, presented to Michigan’s legislators by the American Federation of Teachers in a letter to the Governor of Michigan opposing the proposed armed carry by law abiding citizens before the Michigan Legislature.
Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, stated in a letter to Governor Rick Snyder that “Firearms have absolutely no place in our schools. The . . . tragic massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, CT, is a chilling and heartbreaking reminder of this. Permitting firearms in schools, visible or concealed, enables a dangerous set of circumstances that can result in similar tragic outcomes. We should be doing everything we can to reduce the possibility of any gunfire in schools, and concentrate on ways to keep all guns off of school property and ensure the safety of children and school employees.”
The AFT’s position is the very reason why $40 billion in DHS homeland security grant funds to the States from 2002-2011 never were spent to harden the nation’s schools on a priority basis. To the liberal mind, armed security is worse than suffering the mass killings at schools, universities and the theater at Aurora. They are willing to sacrifice the kids for their ideological goals of ending the private ownership of firearms in this country.
VP Joe Biden and the Presidential panel has refused to discuss the idea of armed guards and enforcing current gun laws, preferring instead, to reflect Ms. Weingarten’s unrealistic liberal ideological mantra of trying to ban, or at the very least, to further restrict the sale and ownership of firearms. More laws that do not work is the typical liberal solution to anything.
This gives rise to a question as to just what it is that the BATF actually does, if not to enforce the nation’s federal gun laws? How do felons manage to commit crime with firearms in the face of so many restrictions and laws against them possessing them in the first place?
Unfortunately, even had the BATF been doing its job, Adam Lanza would have still tried to do what he managed to accomplish. For that, one has to ask “with all the DHS homeland security grant money awarded to CT, why weren’t the schools hardened against a potential armed attack years ago? After all, some degree of security was in place at Sandy Hook Elementary, why was the job not finished?” Ms. Weingarten’s expression of liberal contempt for armed guards is why. That, and it “can’t happen here” attitude on the part of the good citizens of Newtown and the officials of Newtown and the State of Connecticut.
The State of Connecticut received $686.85 million in DHS homeland security grants from 2002-2011. The reason given by Ms. Weingarten undoubtedly mirrors that of the liberal educators in CT and gives succinctly the reason why CT schools were never provided protection against an armed threat. It appears that the shock of the tragedy at Sandy Hook has finally hit home, and clearer heads are prevailing with respect to the safety of the children. In the face of our President and Vice President calling for stricter gun control, the citizens of Newton are calling for armed guards for their schools.
CT needs to assess and to evaluate its schools to provide for single point of entry with a security camera, remote lock, and intercom, security cameras to cover the other entrances, and grounds, doors that are locked to entry from the outside, and shatterproof or bullet proof windows inside and out. The exterior and classroom doors need to be hardened against breaching by a 12ga shotgun and equipped with shatterproof or bullet proof glass.
Armed guards and armed teachers using the Israeli model would insure that the next time an attempt is made to harm children in a CT school, the shooters would be dealt with severely and buried according to State law. Training needs to be conducted on a regular basis against an armed threat and other emergencies to prepare the staff for such eventualities.
Maybe, the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary will give notice that bad things happen without reason, and the best solution is to be prepared for the worst. Maybe, now, Americans can ask the hard questions of their officials and their representatives regarding the lack of priority for hardening the schools against armed attack.
The kids are worth the time, effort and the money. Although, someone should be held accountable for making the decision against hardening the schools. The “it cannot happen here” attitude came home to roost in Newtown with a vengeance. Such attitudes need to be excoriated from our public officialdom once and for all. That kind of ‘kum by yah’ malarkey kills innocents.
After all, are there not armed guards in banks to protect money?
Does not the President, Vice President, and most highly placed officials in our federal and State governments have armed body guards? Of course, their kids go to private schools with armed guards. Why are those that go to public schools not afforded that level of protection?
Why not armed guards for our children in our public schools?
For more information:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/teacher-union-sandy-hook-shooting-proves-t...
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/biden-hints-outlawing-unregulated-pr...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/10/nra-sees-white-house-age...
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