Not paranoid*

So a public school district superintendent in Harrold, Texas, has decided to preempt a Columbine-like attack, he would send an undisclosed number of his teachers to an undisclosed private security firm to train them to use handguns, which they will carry on their person — undisclosed — in school. Putting on hold public access issues for now, let us explore how else this is a bad idea.

The superintendent, a Mr. David Thweatt, has a number of whopper quotes in this NY Times article¹, so let us start with this one:

“Country people are take-care-of-yourself people. They are not under the illusion that the police are there to protect them.”

No, Mr. Thweatt, the police are clearly there to write traffic tickets, rescue kittens from trees and fine people who leave their parking meter to run its arrow to the zero. What else would they be trained in things like conflict resolution, negotiation, etc.?

Mr. Thweatt also, “considers himself prepared,” not paranoid. Wonderful.

What is interesting is Texas law regarding guns in schools: It bans* them. (*Oh, yeah, about that. It turns out the Texas legislature “carved out an exception” to that ban, permitting “people with concealed handgun licenses to carry their weapons.”) So weapons are not allowed in schools unless they are secret weapons that no one knows about. That sounds safe. Why does it seem like these laws are not there to protect students but there so when some crazy idiot does shoot up a school, the police can charge him with one more thing at trial?

Also, I should point out the heat the teachers pack is not “less lethal” in any sense of the word.

Teachers have received training from a private security consultant and will use special ammunition designed to prevent ricocheting, he added.

So these are not rubber bullets, tranquilizer darts, Tasers or bean-bag guns. The bullets are just designed to not hit lockers, break windows, etc.

Now about those undisclosed details. This man is a superintendant, of a public school, he cannot keep secrets. Texans pay his salary, and Texans have the right to know who he hired to train the peope educating their children how to shoot “bad guys,” as he calls them. (Whenever anyone uses that phrase, you really have to wonder if they have seen just a few too many buddy cop movies.) There is no way he would win if someone submitted a FOIA request, so why make them go through it? Because of the bad guys, obviously.

For the icing on the cake of this “not paranoid” man, he thinks “gun-free zone” signs at schools are, “like saying sic ‘em to a dog.” Are we sure this is not Steven Seagal in disguise? Seriously.

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¹Sorry for the Meta Mark address, I’m typing this on my phone, and until Apple comes out with cut and paste, that’s what you’ll get. I’m not about to retype a 26-character URL. If you don’t trust those things, go to The Times’ site and search for the article. ↖.