Powerful DesNews Editorial in favor of Teachers trained w/ guns

Powerful DesNews Editorial in favor of Teachers trained w/ guns.


> Armed first responders are needed in schools
> By Fred Willoughby
> I am a retired military veteran (Marine Corps and Utah Army
> National
> Guard) with 45 years of law enforcement experience, including the Los
> Angeles Police Department during the 1960s and 1970s in Watts and shift
> commander on the sheriff's department in Boulder, Colo., and I personally
> encountered numerous incidents where deadly force had to be used. I even
> had
> to take a life in my front yard as I defended my family against five
> armed
> attackers while my family and two neighbors looked on.
> So I was saddened and frightened at the flawed opinion of the
> Deseret
> Morning News and the highly respected Utah Chiefs of Police Association
> that
> concluded guns should not be inside our schools. Based upon the UCPA's
> conclusions, I wonder how many of them have ever had to use deadly force?
> Those opinions tend to influence the public to the point that it could
> set a
> destructive and deadly precedent in our community that someday may prove
> tragic for children and adults in schools.
> Make no mistake, having no guns inside schools will almost always
> ensure that our children and adults - at some unknown location and date
> in
> America - will surely die or be injured. Killers almost always pick on
> the
> helpless and weak. They love to shoot unarmed people because it's easy
> and
> safer for them. Shooting unarmed people in school or any other place is
> like
> shooting fish in a barrel to such shooters.
> What the Deseret Morning News editorial did not point out - and
> most
> of the general public does not fully understand - is that highly trained,
> professional police officers and SWAT teams are second responders, not
> first
> responders. They do not have the element of surprise in a combat shooting
> situation. First responders are the people already at the scene, such as
> school officials. First responders do have the element of surprise. This
> is
> very important in shooting incidents. Rarely do second responders ever
> come
> upon the scene until the children are dead, wounded or taken hostage.
> This is why it is so important to have right-thinking, well- trained
> people inside the schools to surprise and incapacitate the shooters at
> the
> earliest possible moment before the problem escalates.
> Any right-thinking, mature person - if properly trained - can
> effectively use deadly force, even in a crowded school. A policeman's
> badge,
> the color of his uniform or his SWAT training is no assurance that things
> will go right. Highly trained police did not prevent the shootings at
> Columbine, nor have they at any other school. That is because, as second
> responders, they come in after the fact.
> I am very familiar with many police shootings that have gone bad
> because of poor judgment and lack of proper training. These shootings
> have
> prompted civil lawsuits and criminal charges against the officers, their
> agencies and the jurisdictions they work for. New Orleans, New York and
> even
> our Granite School District police are just a few examples.
> Our Founding Fathers' great wisdom is just as good now as it was
> when
> they wrote the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Our Founders
> thought very highly of personal protection. That is why they put the
> Second
> Amendment second - only after freedom of religion and free speech.
> Please, Deseret Morning News, don't ignore their great wisdom in
> favor
> of political correctness. And Utah Chiefs of Police Association, please
> honor the oath of office you took to uphold and defend the Constitution.
>
> Fred Willoughby is an adjunct professor and has taught numerous criminal
> justice courses over the past eight years.


The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !