[jefelump]

Originally Posted by chumdawg

We've heard the notion in this thread that as a parent one would feel safer if they knew the teachers at their kid's school were carrying concealed weapons. Let's make sure that is really and truly the case.

Let's say that you are relocating to North Texas, and you are researching the school districts in the area, looking for the best one in which to place your child. Let's say you narrow it down to two school districts. You are looking for a difference maker between the two, doing your research, when you discover that one of the school districts has armed teachers and the other doesn't. How does this influence your thinking?

Do you choose the district with the armed teachers, for the reason that your kids will be safer?

Or do you ask yourself, "Why in the world do they need armed teachers in that district? What kind of stuff goes on there?"

Let's say you dig into the matter further, and you research how many incidents each district had in the last several years. You research murders in both school districts, and you find that neither had any. You research incidents of students brandishing guns in both school districts, and you find that neither had any. You research abductions, serious assaults, and so forth, and you find none in either district. For all intents and purposes, the two districts appear to you equally safe for your child.

But then you think to ask whether the armed school district had any incidences of teachers brandishing their weapons. Surely that sort of thing is documented. You learn that yes, weapons were brandished...let's say three times. None of the incidents resulted in any sort of injury.

Does this new information at all influence your determination of which school district seems safer for your child?

You're asking me to answer a hypothetical like that with only the minimal information you provided? If there were no incidents (shootings, abductions/attempts, rapes, etc) in either school, then it seems unreasonable to me to say one school had three incidents where a teacher brandished their weapon. There would be no reason for it, and it would be a felony. Those teachers would be in jail... A small detail you left out of your hypothetical.

So yes, I would be more likely to look for a home within the school district where the teachers are permitted to carry if they so choose. That tells me the school is that much more concerned with the safety and welfare of the children.

Now if that area were truly a bad area and crimes happened regularly at that same school, then I would look elsewhere. I'm not looking to put my kids into a "war zone".