This is not a gimmick, and I believe that it’s a good idea.
An Austin-area gun store owner is joining the gun rights debate with a controversial offer for teachers in light of the tragic shooting in Connecticut.
Crocket Keller of Kellers Riverside Gun Store says if educators want to get a concealed handgun license, he’ll give them a discount.
“As we do with veterans, I would offer them a discount. Our normal rate is $110.00, so I would give them a rate of $90.00,” said Keller to KRLD. “If they are teachers, we would be more than happy to do that.”
Note that this is not a call for concealed carry in the classroom. It’s a call to allow teachers to gain familiarization training with firearms and get a permit to carry them if they choose to do so. We can’t turn all of our schools into fortresses. We can’t ban all guns or come up with a perfect solution that keeps them out of the hands of criminals and madmen. We just can’t.
But we can spread firearms familiarization far and wide among those who are vulnerable and who have the responsibility to protect the vulnerable. I would suggest many in the media should also obtain firearms training, but for a different reason than teachers need it. Teachers need it because though the odds are very small they may find themselves in a position to have to rely on a firearm to defend themselves and their students. Many in the media need it because when tragedies occur, they leap to report inaccurately on firearms, gun ranges, ammunition types and uses, just about everything having anything to do with guns. Training might help them avoid spreading falsehoods.
Well, one thing is certain, all the loose talk is going to generate good business for gun dealers. I spoke with a local retail outlet today to get a sense: Their showroom is full and their phone has been ringing non-stop. This is out in the middle of nowhere in rural Missouri.
“We can’t ban all guns or come up with a perfect solution that keeps them out of the hands of criminals and madmen. We just can’t.”
You’ll have to forgive me if that sounds just a tad self serving given that, you know, you really don’t want to try.
For those of us who would like to try to avert these kinds of catastrophes there seem to be *plenty* of things we could do to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. It starts by keeping guns out of the hands of society in general, since that’s where criminals come from. Another option is to make ammo scarce.
The problem isn’t that we can’t fix this mess, it’s that YOU won’t even try.
If you think you have the votes to repeal the Second Amendment, go for it. However, I will not be disarmed; I am not a subject or a slave. You obviously are.
Who said anything about the second? Gun control requires no such thing. “Arms” can be interpreted a great many ways besides the way you choose.
Wouldn’t it be a great selling point for a private school: “all teachers trained and armed.” I suppose it would help with student discipline, too.
I think the question of whether someone on school campuses should be armed and trained is worthy of debate. I personally hate the idea, but we have a serious problem and the answers may not be all rainbows and roses.
But be careful: when I’m talking about “trained,” I don’t mean a one-day weekend course. Dealing with a shootout is professional’s work, as the story below implies.
In any case, armed persons on campus is a question to be seriously considered. Whether we need to take serious action to stop the flow of more and more weapons onto the streets, especially the deadliest weapons that are designed to do nothing except kill numerous human beings quickly, is not a question it all. That must happen; no whining about how hard it is, either. It’s only going to get harder the longer we wait. Now is the time, not after the next catastrophe.
Now to the story I promised.
From Raw Story:
Six people were killed and 14 more were injured when a gunman opened fire on an event outside a Tucson Safeway Saturday.
The tragedy could have been even worse had an armed bystander not thought twice before shooting the hero that disarmed Jared Loughner, the alleged shooter.
“I carry a gun so I was — I felt like I was a little bit more prepared to do some good and than maybe somebody else would have been,” Joe Zamudio told MSNBC’s Ed Schultz Monday.
“As I came out of the door of the Walgreens, sir, I saw several individuals wrestling with him and I came running. I was already at a full sprint and you know, there’s no time to think about anything,” he explained.
“I saw another individual holding the firearm. I kind of assumed he was the shooter. So I grabbed his wrist and you know told him to drop it and forced him to drop the gun on the ground. When he did that, everybody says, no, no, it’s this guy.”
“Did you ever think in drawing your firearm or you made the determination you didn’t have to?” Schultz asked.
“Sir, when I came through the door, I had my hand on the butt of my pistol and I clicked the safety off. I was ready to kill him. But I didn’t have to do that and I was very blessed that I didn’t have to go to that place,” Zamudio replied.
“I would have shot the man holding the gun,” he added.
“You would have used that firearm,” Schultz pressed.
“You’re damn right,” Zamudio said.
Raw Story (http://s.tt/1de0i)