I Guess This Needs to be Said
I had thought that post-9/11 and with the very visible object lesson of TSA security theater that this would have already been understood, but I will repeat it: There are no security steps that we are willing to tolerate as a free society that would make it impossible, or even substantially more difficult, for a motivated deranged person to shoot up an elementary school.
Promises by politicians up to and including the President to take "steps" to improve safety are illusory. What we will get, if anything, will be incremental steps that will hassle law-abiding citizens (think: taking your shoes off at the airport and not using your iPad during takeoffs) without doing anything to deter actual criminals. In particular, any honest and knowledgeable security person will tell you that there is no realistic way, short perhaps of turning ourselves into North Korea, of stopping a killer who is determined to die as part of his crime.
" turning ourselves into North Korea," Took me a while to pick up on it, but given the current power structure and administration, this would be a feature, not a bug!
In your scenario if the teacher is unarmed the kids die and the teacher dies and then more kids die. It has to be optional, but if a teacher wants to get qualified to carry I have no problem with that. A better alternative would be to have law enforcement or special security personnel onsite, but I don't have a problem with a willing teacher carrying on campus.
I understand that in Iseael teachers are trained and armed. It seems to me that we could learn from their experience. There have been episodes in Belgium and China where a deranged person attacked school children with a knife. There is really nothing that society can do to prevent a loony from pulling a weapon of some sort from under his coat and attacking people.
The doctor/patient confidentiality prevents having a list of people with mental prolems to go along with criminal records when the FBI checks your gun purchase application. I gather that almost all the senseless killings were done by deranged people. Connecticut has stringent gun laws that didn't stop the killer.
As to private sale of guns, you are supposed to check that the buyer is a resident of your state. Also, I am sure no one would sell a gun to a stranger who was acting strangely. A great way to get into trouble. Nobody, least of all gun owners, wants to see these horrible events. The anti-gun crowd always likes to demonize gun owners and the NRA.
It is interesting that many look for simplistic solutions to complex problems. Perhaps we should emasculate all men. There would be no more rapes.
There was a real police force at Va Tech that did not stop that guy. Thinking you can take a person who has a degree and training in Education - who specializes in teaching children - and turn them into a qualified weapons expert and to walk around with guns like a security guard is bizarre to the extreme..
and the irony of advocating a govt program to seek out and find and sanction those with "mental" issues of which there are hundreds of different kinds... a new Federal bureaucracy? ;-)
the US gun laws HAVE STOPPED CRAZY people from committing mass murders - with AUTOMATIC Weapons. That HAS WORKED! If you categorize high capacity clips and magazines the SAME WAY that automatic weapons are classified - why not try it? We have a nationwide background check system - that 1/2 of gun purchasers can easily evade and do.
yes there are mass murders with knives and poisonous gas and explosives - indeed, How many mass murders are committed with those weapons compared to guns - especially in the US?