STOPPING AN ARMED HOMICIDAL-SUICIDAL MANIAC

Would armed teachers have made a difference at Columbine High School or Sandy Hook Elementary School? Would an armed theatergoer have made a difference at the Aurora, Colorado movie theater? Facing someone who is shooting at you is a far cry from facing a paper target or an empty soda can on a tree stump

By Howie Katz

PACOVILLA Corrections blog
December 16, 2012

Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America, blames the Sandy Hook massacre on gun-free school zones, saying that “the only thing accomplished by gun-free zones is to ensure that mass murderers can slay more before they are finally confronted by someone with a gun."

Many gun owners believe that the Aurora theater shooter could have been stopped had there been an armed theatergoer present. They’ve also said that an armed teacher could have stopped the shooters at Columbine High School or the shooter at Virginia Tech. And now they’re saying the same thing about armed teachers at Sandy Hook.

I know of only one school district in the U.S. that allows some of its teachers and staff to be armed and that is the one-campus school district in Harrold, Texas, a small town about 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth.

While I am not opposed to arming classroom teachers, whether in public schools or colleges and universities, I have serious doubts about their ability to stop some armed psycho determined to shoot as many victims as possible, especially if he intends to commit suicide at the end of his rampage. There is a vast difference between an armed homeowner confronting a burglar and an armed citizen confronting a homicidal maniac.

Most armed citizens are not prepared for a combat confrontation. They may shoot accurately at a stationary paper target in a shooting range but that is not the same as being in the highly stressful situation of confronting a moving shooter. Facing someone who is shooting at you is a far cry from facing a paper target or an empty soda can on a tree stump. Even trained police officers often miss an armed suspect. While many cops undergo officer survival and instinct shooting combat courses, armed citizens do not get that kind of training.

So, would armed teachers have made a difference at Columbine and Sandy Hook? Would an armed theatergoer have made a difference in Aurora? Possibly, but very likely not. All this talk about armed citizens and armed teachers stopping some armed homicidal maniac is just pie-in-the-sky rhetoric. It takes a trained police officer to do that.