Schools And Guns

A lady teacher in a high school near where I live in Oregon recently had a case that has attracted a good deal of attention. She wanted to carry a 9mm Glock pistol into her classroom at South Medford High School. The teacher has a State conceal-carry gun permit, which means she has taken a class on gun safety and been given a license to carry the gun.

The reason Ms. Shirley Katz cites for this is because she is afraid for her safety from a ex-husband, who happens to be a professional photographer in town. The man in question apparently does not have an arrest record, but of course that is no guarantee he is not capable of a crime. Nor is having Ms. Katz passing a gun safety course a lock cinch that that her gun might not be wrested from her in a struggle by a student or some other intruder (or taken from her purse when she isn't looking) and the result might mean a major loss of life in a classroom.

Here's the dilemma for me. I suppose. Of course, I feel that the woman has a right to defend herself, and God knows domestic violence against women doesn't stop at the divorce court. But there are also the kids in her class to consider and what is the best way to protect them. Ten of the students have already bee ntaken out of her classes by their parents.

I'm not real happy with the idea of letting a flock of teachers start bringing their guns into a school, conceal carry permits or not . I remember from my own high school days a particular angry male history teacher, Mr. So-and-So I will call him, whose hair-trigger temper made him the talk of the school. He once even physically attacked one student in a class I was in. (No, it wasn't me. It was some other smart aleck who dared call him by his first name instead of "Mr. So-and-So" . ) But I have wondered what Mr. So-and-So might have done to the kid who razzed him had he been carrying a gun that day. Instead of pushing the smart-aleck juvenile over a desk--one I was just sitting in at the time, minding my own business--might So-and-So have pulled a pistol out and branished it to preserve his right to be addressed as "Mr...?" And what would have ensued then?

The images of mass murders at Columbine High School, Jonesboro Elementary in Arkansas,Virginia Tech and other places--one most recently in, of all places, a town in Finland!--point up the threat of guns in school. I'm not going to bother to ramble on about gun violence in America because it is well-known, as is the legal establishment of private ownership of guns for just about any adult who isn't crazy or a previous violent felon.

The question is how to handle the threat of a futurte Columbine massacre, or the shooting of one person for that matter inside a school. We are a gun -saturated society and nothing, sadly, is going to change that. But we are also a country of laws with limits on individual license in matters of speech and conduct. The friction between issues of personal safety versus the fear of many innocent kids winding up as collateral damage in a classroom shootout have to be carefully weighed.

A recent ruling by a local judge stated that the school district had the right to restrict Ms. Katz from carrying a gun onto school grounds--that such a ban on her carrying firearms was valid. I suspect there will be many appeals up the judicial ladder on this one. The gun rights lobby and other concerned gun owners do not want restrictions placed on where they can bring a weapon--I suspect some would like to be able to carry their concealed gun right into a judge's courtroom or the governor's office--all in the name of the Second Amendment, a Constitutional right which many find to be a very elastic one.

My feeling on this is that only police or specially trained security officers should have guns inside high schools in Oregon. I'd rather see the metal detectors and full-time cops in many more schools than the spectre of lots of teachers with rudimentary firearms training locked and loaded.

If you want to read more details on the story, and a sample of the feedback below the article, here's a link.

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071110/NEWS/711100308...