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Originally Posted by Coppertop
I've always wondered what use unarmed security guards were - at schools, work, the airport or anywhere.
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We have two security guards at the middle school where I work, both unarmed. I've had to call secuirty to have a disruptive student who refuesed to leave removed from the classroom, something which would have put me at a much greater risk than it did the guard.
The vast majority of assaults that occur in schools don't involve a firearm or weapon of any kind, and so don't require the guard intervening to have a firearm.
In addition, the mere presense of a guard in uniform in the parking lot between classes and in the maid quad between classes and durin lunch is a major deterrent to violence and vandalism. Remember that the purpose of security is to prevent crime and disruption; intervention is secondary.
Sure we should look at the possibility of arming teachers, but we should look at all aspects of what this means. Perhaps armed security guards at checkpoints would be more effective.
I think people on both sides need to get away from the idea that everyone is like them. I don't particularly like guns, and would be a very poor candidate for carrying a gun if it came to arming teachers. I'm not much good in a physical confrontation, and it would be easy to take a gun from me if I were armed. Arming
me would be foolish, and the same is true of many other teachers. I don't, however, assume that the same is true of everyone. I don't doubt that there would be those who would be quite responsible with a gun, and would just as difficult to disarm in a crisis situation as I would be easy to disarm. To assume that anyone would be as responsible with a gun as the people posting to this thread apparently are with theirs is as foolish as it would be to assume that everyone would be as intimidated and easily spooked as I.
I think a better solution would be armed security guards, trained in weapon use and retention, combined with a closed campus and security checkpoints.
We also need to keep in mind that despite the massive coverage that school shootings get, in school is one of the safest places a child can be in this country, certainly safer than at home, where they are more likely to be injured or the victim of a violent crime.