First point is the one scenario that he points out that had crossed my mind many years ago: A determined group of terrorists who enter two to three schools at the same time. You have seen these types of complexes that have grouped a high school, junior high and an elementary in the immediate vicinity of one another.
If you wanted to terrorize a community, capture and hold these schools simultaneously. Could it happen? Yes. Will it happen? Unlikely. Did something like this happen in the past? Yes.
There are plenty of nightmare scenarios that we can dream up.
The solution found in the title of the op-ed above is something that those who believe the only thing stopping a bad guy with a gun is a “good guy” with a gun. It is rare that this ever happens. The closest thing to it would be the mass shooting in 1966 at the University of Texas. In that event, some men grabbed their hunting rifles from the backs of their trucks and started returning fire. I also worry about police responding to a shooting and shooting “the good guy” holding a weapon. Here in Seattle at the FBI building, there is an accounting of agents killed in the line of duty. One was an agent who rushed to a shooting scene and was consequently shot by her compatriots who reacted to a perceived threat.
Arming the teachers I know would not be a good idea. And what message does that send to the kids who attend the school about how they should behave? “I guess I need a gun!”
The author mentions wearing the pistol under a coat. Duh! Teachers don’t wear coats inside of schools anymore.
There isn’t one single solution to the issue we find ourselves in. Look at the sales and quantity of guns entering the market. You can quickly see the correlation between gun sales and mass shootings over the years. See this article and the accompanying charts: “6 charts that show the rise of guns in the U.S. — and people dying from them.”
More guns does not seem to be the answer to gun violence.
