Rather than Do It Right, Let’s Do It Cheap and Stupid — Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne Suggests Arming One Civilian Employee per School — with the Caveat that the Weapon Be Kept in a Locked Place — in Short, another Bird Brain Representing My Covey of Fellow Gun-Owners

28 December 2012

I am beginning to think that the prominent people who speak for us gun owners are all imbeciles

For example, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne:

Tom Horne, Arizona Attorney General, today made proposals to reduce the risk of a repetition of the Newtown Massacre. He is joined in these proposals by Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County, Sheriff Tom Sheahan of Mohave County, and Sheriff Joe Dedman of Apache County. Other Sheriffs are also considering participation in this proposed program.

The proposal is that any school that wishes to do so, may designate the Principal or another designee to receive training in the use of firearms and how to handle emergencies such as that which occurred in Newtown.

The training would be provided by personnel of the Attorney General’s Office, and of the cooperating Sheriff’s Offices. The training would be free to the schools.

The designated individual (no more than one per school) would then be authorized to keep a firearm locked in a secure place, and would have adequate communication to be alerted to an emergency in any part of the school.

What is wrong with Attorney General Horne’s proposal?

I listed the practical pitfalls to proposals like Horne’s, here. They boil down to three basic elements:

(1) A weapon that is not immediately accessible is of no value in a surprise situation — which most school shootings are.

(2) In order for an armed person to prevent school shootings, all school traffic would have to physically routed through her or him.

(3) Properly selecting and educating these people to use deadly force would have to parallel law enforcement recruitment and training — but the likelihood that each school will already have someone of law enforcement caliber and mentality in its employ is near zero.

Plus, in Horne’ instance, there is a fourth objection. What happens when the single authorized firearm toter is not at work?

These objections are obvious to anyone who has competently been in deadly force circumstances.

The fact that these objections are not evident to prominent members among my fellow gun owners shows how irrational or inexperienced many of us are.

The moral? — Just because it is cheap and camouflages real problems does not make it effective government policy

Rational thinking is not the Extreme Right’s strength — as Lawrence O’Donnell and Michael Bader have respectively shown, here and here.

PeteFree.com

Rather than Do It Right, Let’s Do It Cheap and Stupid — Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne Suggests Arming One Civilian Employee per School — with the Caveat that the Weapon Be Kept in a Locked Place — in Short, another Bird Brain Representing My Covey of Fellow Gun-Owners