There Were Blanks in That Gun! I Didn't Even Point the Gun at Him!

David Weigel | June 25, 2007

The University of Nevada system is going to let teachers carry firearms:

The tragedy of Virginia Tech is still fresh in the minds of many in the collegiate world and campus police departments from Reno to Las Vegas are trying to find a better solution. But students are dumbfounded by the plan to arm teachers.

"So there would be no reason for a teachers to run around, just try to play hero with a gun," said Chris James, junior.

Still the Board of Regents plan would allow faculty take a 21-week course in Carson City. That class would cost more than $3,000 per person and the universities would pick up the tab. But it would use a legal loophole to essentially deputize the employee. That way they wouldn't break the law.

It's a brief article, but note how all the fears about the new plan involve teachers going all Travis Bickle and not any likely problems.

Read more reason on gun rights here. 

Comments

|6.25.07 @ 10:28AM|#

But students are dumbfounded by the plan to arm teachers.

"So there would be no reason for a teachers to run around, just try to play hero with a gun," said Chris James, junior.

WTF?

|6.25.07 @ 10:30AM|#

Only a government program could possibly require a 21-week, $3000 course to learn how to load and fire a gun.

|6.25.07 @ 10:38AM|#

Hugh,

Hopefully they'll throw in some "Try not to shoot fleeing students, too" courses.

|6.25.07 @ 10:42AM|#

If they come out of the 21 week course like MOST law enforcement seems to, shooting AT a fleeing student won't be a problem anyway, since they'll be unlikely to HIT a fleeing student.

CB

|6.25.07 @ 10:45AM|#

It would just be too crazy with teachers carrying guns around on campus. One of them might blow up and you never know what might happen if they start shooting

Aren't academics the experts that are supposed to manage everything in a statist society? Yet another reason to decentralize power.

|6.25.07 @ 10:46AM|#

Chris James, junior, is evidently worried that teachers will stop jogging or other physical activity that would keep them fit in the likelihood of some attack and will now sit back and become gun-potatoes.

|6.25.07 @ 10:54AM|#

Ingersoll agrees, saying training should be left to the professionals.
Just Google Kathryn Johnston Atlanta for one of many examples of the desirable results of professional law enforcement training. Yep, go with the pros, that's ALWAYS good advice.

Episiarch|6.25.07 @ 11:07AM|#

A fucking 21-week course?!? To carry concealed? Which is that, the police academy or boot camp? What could they possibly be teaching for that long?

|6.25.07 @ 11:10AM|#

"So there would be no reason for a teachers to run around, just try to play hero with a gun," said Chris James, junior.

We already got a "WTF" with this one, but I'll chime in: What the hell is this quotation supposed to be conveying? Beyond the incoherence of the syntax itself, it just doesn't seem to actually MEAN anything.

Oh, I just clicked on the link. It's another one of these infernal local TV news sites. These places are the worst places on the web to try getting anything remotely resembling real journalism or writing.

|6.25.07 @ 11:13AM|#

They should be able to hang upside down blindfolded and reassemble their guns by feel alone after 21 weeks.

|6.25.07 @ 11:21AM|#

Only bizarre playwrights have reason to fear!

That 21-week course is probably two hours a week or something.

thoreau|6.25.07 @ 11:26AM|#

Cue the obligatory Reno 911 joke.

|6.25.07 @ 11:34AM|#

That 21-week course is probably two hours a week or something.

Still, WTF? What can you possibly go on and on and on for over 40 hours regarding concealed carry?

Unless they're doing lots and lots of shooting, this sounds like a near-total waste of time, intended more as a deterrent to any teachers actually doing it than anything else.

|6.25.07 @ 11:43AM|#

Probably 38 hours of "how to minimize civil litigation after a shooting", followed by 2 hours of range time.

CB

|6.25.07 @ 12:12PM|#

I've had female colleagues who have felt threatened by the actions of some students, perhaps if they were packing they would feel safer...I'm mixed about this. I've always thought the government can't tell the vast amount of law abiding folks they can't have a gun if they enjoy it or it makes them feel safer. On the other hand, attacks on teachers by students is so incredibly rare that this is probably a solution to a non-problem.

D.A. Ridgely|6.25.07 @ 12:17PM|#

Chief Wiggum: In a few days, you should all get your badges.
Cadet: [shaking and shouting] Screw the badges! When do we get the friggin' guns?
Chief Wiggum: Now I told you - you're not getting a gun until you tell me your name.
Cadet: AHH! I've had it up to here with your "rules"!

|6.25.07 @ 12:28PM|#

Chris James, junior, is evidently worried that teachers will stop jogging or other physical activity that would keep them fit in the likelihood of some attack and will now sit back and become gun-potatoes.

Ahhhh, I see now. Thanks for the explanation, megs.

highnumber|6.25.07 @ 12:39PM|#

I would not want my kid's teacher packing heat.
What happened to that Voice for School Choice guy?

|6.25.07 @ 12:49PM|#

Likely problems such as, one of the little darlings stealing teacher's gun, perhaps?

"Now listen class. Nobody goes to recess until whoever's got Mr Bickle's .50 hands it back. I'm just going to turn round, count to ten and that baby better be back on Papa's desk."

|6.25.07 @ 12:51PM|#

At this rate Nevada is going to need its own Fark tag. It's like Florida without a coastline.

highnumber|6.25.07 @ 12:53PM|#

Oh, it's a college. Never mind.

Oh, it's a state college. That's stupid.

LarryA|6.25.07 @ 12:57PM|#

From a story at the Las Vegas Review Journal the profs will attend a "police academy." The main purpose is to certify them as law enforcement, because you know only cops are competent to carry guns. (Same reason pilots are certified "flight deck officers.")

The problem is that most of the 21 weeks will teach the professors how to use equipment they won't have to do things the college doesn't want them to do. One of the biggest lessons I teach concealed handgun licensees is YOU ARE NOT A COP!

For instance, a prof is walking to class. The student ahead of her is walking funny. "Aha," the prof says. "I remember that from cop school. Possible public intoxication. The school taught me to use my radio to call for backup, detain the actor, require ID, administer a field sobriety test, arrest and handcuff the actor, and request transport to the nearest jail."

Hopefully she'll think before acting. "Oh, wait. I don't have a radio, or handcuffs, or backup, or transport. Besides, profs arresting students might be bad for faculty-student relations. Maybe I should just call the campus cop shop and let them handle it. I wonder why I had to learn all the cop stuff if they don't want me to use it?"

Of course a concealed handgun class would only take about a day, but that leaves the impression that self-defense is not rocket science and almost anyone should be able to qualify. CHLs don't have the authority a law enforcement officer has, but they have much more flexibility in handling a self-defense situation.

Both Ingersoll and Chris James say the issue isn't about teachers with guns, it's about loose campus security and the lack of officers on patrol.

Actually the "Gun Free Zone" philosophy worked as designed at VA Tech. Of course 32 innocent people died, so unless we want to consider that "acceptable losses" Something Must Be Done. Improving security to the point where it would prevent what happened in VA can be accomplished two ways:
1) Establish airport-style security checks at every building entrance. Enormously expensive and would require a much longer passing period between classes. Wouldn't prevent shootings between buildings.
2) Establish a constant SWAT team presence in each building. Again, enormously expensive, and I doubt students who don't trust profs with a handgun are going to want to be constantly surveiled by armored machinegun-toting ninjas who spend 99% of their time with nothing better to do than hassle students.

intended more as a deterrent to any teachers actually doing it than anything else.

Bingo. Exactly the TSA approach to arming pilots because, as we all know, if airline pilots have guns they'll go into the cabin and shoot passengers.

Four of the university system's eight institutions have police departments, and police chiefs from all of them were enthusiastic about the proposal because it would give them more officers on campus.
...
After completing the academy, the employees would be under the direction of each school's police chief but would only be used when a person was on campus shooting at people.

The only way armed reserve police officer profs would have any effect on a shooter is if they were in a position to respond defensively. Calling them up afterward only provides more bodies watching the Police Line yellow tape.

UNLV Police Chief Jose Elique reiterated that in such cases, he would have all of his officers go immediately to the shooter instead of setting up a perimeter, as was done at Virginia Tech.

That should be interesting.

D.A. Ridgely|6.25.07 @ 1:14PM|#

Oh, it's UNLV? What the hell? The faculty just want to be able to defend themselves against the basketball team.

VM|6.25.07 @ 2:19PM|#

What about that horse? Is there anything on the planet that you hate as much as that horse?