In this Aug. 25, 2008 photo, students arrive for the first day of classes at the Harrold Independent School District in Harrold, Texas. The school has a policy allowing teachers and other employees to carry concealed weapons on campus. Some lawmakers in at least five other states are looking into similar legislation in the wake of last week's deadly elementary school shooting in Newton, Conn. Anti-gun groups oppose the measure. (AP Photo/The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Ron T. Ennis) MAGS OUT; (FORT WORTH WEEKLY, 360 WEST); INTERNET OUT
Texas town allows teachers to carry concealed guns
In this Aug. 25, 2008 photo, students arrive for the first day of classes at the Harrold Independent School District in Harrold, Texas. The school has a policy allowing teachers and other employees to carry concealed weapons on campus. Some lawmakers in at least five other states are looking into similar legislation in the wake of last week's deadly elementary school shooting in Newton, Conn. Anti-gun groups oppose the measure. (AP Photo/The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Ron T. Ennis) MAGS OUT; (FORT WORTH WEEKLY, 360 WEST); INTERNET OUT
By ANGELA K. BROWN
Associated Press /
December 21, 2012
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‘‘You are going to put teachers, people teaching 6-year-olds in a school, and expect them to respond to an active-shooter situation?’’ said Ladd Everitt, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, who called the idea of arming teachers ‘‘madness.’’
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner said she would not have felt better if teachers at her children’s Seattle school had been armed during a May shooting at a nearby cafe. A gunman killed four people at the cafe and another woman during a carjacking before killing himself. The school went on lockdown as a precaution.
‘‘It would be highly concerning to me to know that guns were around my kids each and every day. ... Increasing our arms is not the answer,’’ said Rowe-Finkbeiner, co-founder and CEO of MomsRising.org.
Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign, said focusing on arming teachers distracts from the ‘‘real things’’ that could help prevent a school shooting ‘‘and at worse it furthers a dangerous conversation that only talks about guns as protection without a discussion about the serious risks they present.’’
As the debate continues, Harrold’s school plans to leave its policy unchanged.
‘‘Nothing is 100 percent at all. ... But hope makes for a terrible plan, hoping that (a tragedy) won’t happen,’’ Thweatt said. ‘‘My question is: What have you done about it? How have you planned?’’
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Associated Press writers Juan A. Lozano in Houston and Nomaan Merchant in Dallas contributed to this report.
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