(SEE: Below The Fold)
Despite the recent (?) spate of school shootings, NYT thinks that arming teachers would:
"... contribute to a climate of fear in schools and note that study after study equates more guns with more injuries and deaths."It's significant that the wise editors of the NYT use the term "contribute to the climate of fear", which tacitly acknowledges that a "climate of fear" already exists in schools, after reports of predators attacking schoolchildren around the country.
When the only one with a gun is a predator, it's difficult to imagine how an armed defender could make any student more fearful .... unless the NYT is willing to encourage students to "Pay No Attention To The Man Shooting Your Friends". Apparently, students should not trust their teachers, but they should trust interlopers.
(Among interlopers, I'm including the sworn police officer who received reports of armed attacks on innocents, and heard the shots fired, but hid in his police car under a bridge until the shooting was over, rather than to risk his life defending the public.)
I'm sure there are statistics which report the number of educators who turn on their students with intentions of mass murder.
Oh, I looked it up. I found ten reports of teachers killing students: worldwide!
Three used firearms The rest used knives, or various forms of strangulation. Apparently, when teachers run amok, they use the tools at hand ... some of which are more gruesome than others. (Many of the reports note an "interpersonal" relationship; the teacher was
I haven't found any reports of Mister Jones or Miss Smith Niner-ing their Junior High School class on Civics in Dubeque Iowa.
THE FOLD:
