"Active shooters in schools: The enemy is denial"

April 10, 2013


Please note the date of this article - May 5, 2010. It was written 2.5 years before Sandy Hook Elementary and 2 years before Aurora. It shows that there are people with expertise who are thinking about protecting kids in schools and have good, practical, effective ideas for how to do so. The problem? As stated in the article's title, the problem, and the enemy, is denial. It's the denial of the gun control advocates who choose to pursue their flawed agendas instead of real "common sense" and effective solutions.

I have mentioned US Army (retired) LTC Dave Grossman to some before. This article discusses Grossman's points as delivered in a presentation to law enforcement officers. READ IT! If you claim to have an opinion about providing safety or security in our schools, make it a more informed opinion by considering a professional perspective.

"Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, a Pulitzer Prize nominated author, West Point psychology professor, and without a doubt the world’s foremost expert on human aggression and violence."

"Preventing juvenile mass murder in American schools is the job of police officers, school teachers, and concerned parents"

“Never call an unarmed man ‘security’,” Grossman said. “Call him ‘run-like-hell-when-the-man-with-the-gun-shows-up’ but never call an unarmed man security.

"Imagine if someone said, ‘I want a trained fire professional on site. I want a fire hat, I want a fire uniform, I want a fire badge. But! No fire extinguishers in this building. No fire hoses. The hat, the badge, the uniform — that will keep us safe — but we have no need for fire extinguishers.’ Well, that would be insane. It is equally insane, delusional, legally liable, to say, ‘I want a trained security professional on site. I want a security hat, I want a security uniform, and I want a security badge, but I don’t want a gun.’ It’s not the hat, the uniform, or the badge. It’s the tools in the hands of a trained professional that keeps us safe.

“Our problem is not money,” said Grossman.  “It is denial.”

http://www.policeone.com/school-violence/articles/2058168-Active-shooters-in-schools-The-enemy-is-denial

Do you know about Beslan? When you support so-called "gun free zones" you enable future Beslans. One gun in the hands of a trained security officer couldn't have stopped it but it could cause disruption and allow some people to escape. More than one gun, in the hands of school staff or parent volunteers could do better. One or more of those guns in the hands of good guys could do much better against a single gunman or pair of attackers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_hostage_crisis