How does the American Civil Liberties (ACLU) count to ten? One, three, four, five…. Affirming the civil rights organization’s traditional antipathy towards Americans’ civil right to keep and bear arms, the Pennsylvania chapter’s senior policy advocate penned an editorial for post-gazette.com arguing that Pittsburgh’s school resource officers should remain disarmed.

Mr. Harold Jordan’s polemic goes a little something like this . . .

There is no evidence that arming school officers increases overall safety or improves relationships within school communities. Having an armed officer stationed in schools has neither prevented nor stopped “active shooter” incidents. It did not at Columbine High School nor has it elsewhere. Thankfully, these tragic situations are still rare in schools.

How school-based police interact with students and the tools they carry and sometimes use have been the source of controversies. Incidents involving the use of even less lethal police tools, such as Tasers and pepper spray, have resulted in complaints, lawsuits, and injuries to students. These have been on the rise in recent years.

Citation? While we wait for that not to happen, it should be noted that an armed cops’ spectacular failure at Columbine doesn’t obviate examples where armed SRO’s did indeed stop a school shooter. And here. And here. And here.

So not only can’t the ACLU count to ten, they’re incapable of Google searching “School resource officer stops_”. But they are certainly capable of ignoring obvious lessons from past tragedies.

Unarmed school staff does not mean that schools are defenseless in emergency situations. School districts have arrangements, formal or informal, with local law enforcement in which outside assistance is provided when needed in emergencies, such as when there is a bomb threat or serious injury.

Two words: Sandy Hook. The school was unarmed and defenseless. The local police entered the school 10 minutes after the shooting began. The murderer killed 26 people in that time.

Regular readers will know that I believe armed SRO’s are a good idea, but not the best idea for defending schools from criminals, crazies and terrorists. What’s more, our school shooter simulation proved that an attacker can quite easily take out an SRO, even when the SRO knows one (never mind two) bad guys are coming.

The best idea: repeal Bush the Elder’s Gun Free School Zones Act and restore Americans’ natural, civil and constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms on school grounds.

“Allow” — in fact encourage — parents, teachers, administrators and staff [who are willing to do so] to carry on campus. That way the shooter(s) wouldn’t know who was armed. The money saved by not deploying armed RSO’s would more than pay for active shooter training.

Forward-thinking districts are reconsidering the kinds of support staff that work in schools, not whether they should be armed.

I don’t think the words “forward-thinking” means what Mr. Jordan thinks it means. Not even close.

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30 COMMENTS

  1. I agree, however as the number of people carrying in schools increases, so does the likelihood of a ND. And the very first time that happens, regardless of any injury or not, the antis will screech from every corner of America how dangerous this policy is. I really hate putting bullets in the gun of my adversary.

    • Putting pools in neighborhood subdivisions increases the risk of accidental drownings, which happens far more often than gun deaths, and yet that doesn’t really stop HOAs from doing it….

      • 400 kids drown in residential swimming pools every year. More kids may drown than are killed by a criminal with guns. But we have 30,000 deaths from guns every year. 30,000 people don’t drown.

      • I think Warren misspoke here (as opposed to bullshitting).

        IIRC accidental drowning in residential pools outpaces accidental death by gun when it comes to children. Drownings may outpace criminal killings with guns as well, depending in how you define “children”.

        A point of interest, the CDC says that from 2005-2015 an average of 3536 non boating related drownings happened each year with another 332 boating related drownings to boot.

    • I live in Philly near one of these schools. What they’re not saying is that the city is run by corrupt Democrats (naggers) and the public schools are filled with violent criminals “students” (naggers) who assault, rob, and rape actual students AND adults on a daily basis. They want to school police to continue to suffer these daily assaults, rather then allow them to properly defend themselves (and the public) with the arms they require. Because, we all know when a violent criminal is justifiably stopped by armed police, the REAL racists (naggers) create a false narrative to promote further crime and violence. (the lie of “hands up,don’t shoot”) Philadelphia has been destroyed by all the nagging and the corrupt left wing government and media. This is why all the children with actual parents who work pay to send their children to private schools, creating a financial bailout for city government.

      • Short version: Violent crime is committed each and every day at Philadelphia public schools. There has never been a “Columbine style” attack in Philadelphia, and only a few occurred in all the world, in all of history. Do the math. Don’t even get me started on the demographics of the criminals who “attend” public school in Philly, or the home invasion next door to the school which I had to personally intervene.

        • The above is what happens when democratic politicians, and their race based agenda, decides to bus thugs from the ghettos into distant neighborhoods on the completely opposite end of the city (geographically and demographically) to attend practically suburban schools. Leave them in the ghettos where they belong, and within the high crime police districts areas that are properly prepared, experienced, and armed to deal with this cancer. If you don’t like it, then feel free to practice proper family planning, responsibility, and actually work hard for a living to move out of the ghetto you created.
          I grew up in a ghetto. I went to one of these schools. I was a victim of daily crime. It motivated me to study and work hard to enable me to flee, which I did. Now, the ghetto is being bused into the very neighborhoods I fled to.

  2. The ACLU would do well to read “Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away”

    • The guard exchanged fire with Harris within 5 minutes. Harris ducked back into the building. Later, there was a second exchange of fire.
      Clearly, the armed response disrupted the killer’s actions.
      Policy at that time was to wait for reinforcements before entering the school. That’s changed.

  6. The problem is when a shooting doesn’t happen because it was stopped no one talks about it. I’m not surprised by the ACLU as they are just a hypocritical progressive organization. They send me questionnaires to fill out on occasion which I do. They’ve had zero questions about the second amendment. They’ve become a political agenda driven organization that includes anti-Trump questions in their questionnaire. Civil liberties should not even be part of their name anymore as it’s false advertising.

  8. We will never know what could have happened if teachers and staff had been armed inside Sandyhook. We do know, however, exactly what happened because they were required to be disarmed.

  9. Good. Unarmed government agents have a harder time violating civil liberties.

  10. C’mon, let’s not kid ourselves. What Harold Jordan really meant was that SROs are mainly white, and he doesn’t want to be around white guys with guns.

  11. “Having an armed officer stationed in schools has neither prevented nor stopped “active shooter” incidents…”

    The guy is an ignoramus or a liar.

  12. I have a little misgivings about “ARMED SRO’s” . And yes, there have been negative incidents in the news. There are even school YouTube upload from students at various schools showing the occasional power-hungry paramilitary security officers misbehaving, engaged in beating the occasional student, or assaulting the occasional disagreeing parents, or torturing the occasional forest creature that crosses their path of having a secured penitentiary…I’d rather have parents, teachers, or staff be armed…Then have prison guards….Furthermore, How come Elite Private schools, the likes of which Ex-Prez. Bush , or Obama sent their kids too…DON’T have similar issues that public school for the Unwashed masses do…?

  13. stuff like this is a waste of time to me. and by that i mean trying to point out the idiocy of people in charge of places like Detroit, Chicago. LA, NYC, etc. those people CHOOSE to live in a bubble and CHOOSE to be ignorant of the facts. if they CHOOSE that then there is nothing you can say that will change their mind because they have demonstrated they are irrational beings at heart. they do no value facts as we do. they see facts as “Truths” that are subjective and fluid. to them there is no difference between a truth and a fact. and nearly all of their “truths” are just emotional standpoints.

  14. I would point out that, even were his assertions true, an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. It simply means we can’t say anything that’s evidence based and are left with logical assumptions as the best basis on which to form an answer until we can acquire data.

  15. I understand there are people who think the ACLU is an important organization that fights for the right to walk around with a strap on dildo. Or the right to burn a cross on the private property of a black person. The Jewish and homosexual lawyers at the ACLU think it’s very important to be able to burn a cross on black private property, without the black person shooting them. And “Piss Christ” art is so important a 1st amendment issue. But the Tracy California gun store with a large poster window size display of hand guns is not worth defending?????

    Homosexual and Godless self-hating reform Jewish layers have never supported individual property rights. They are quite proud of what they do. They don’t support Christian property baker’s rights, and they don’t support the rights of innocent black property owners. Homosexuals and reform Jews are being perfectly consistent not supporting teachers having guns that would protect private school property or public school property, as well as the children inside.

    California gun dealers sue firearms bureau over window advertising citation

    http://www.guns.com/2014/11/10/california-gun-dealers-sue-firearms-bureau-over-window-advertising-citation/

    From 2008:
    http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/supreme-court-revisits-cross-burning-ban

    “The case stems from two separate incidents. In May 1998, Richard J. Elliott and Jonathan O’Mara burned a cross in the yard of a black Virginia Beach man.”

  17. This guy is totally divorced from reality. Pittsburgh City schools are by and large naught more than warehouses for youth. I have watched kids walk around metal detectors while they joke with the rent a cop that man’s them. They routinely allow youth to wander the halls and often the youth I interface with are barely literate. A week doesnt go by that there isn’t a brawl or a riot or a shooting.

    Further, along with school police most city schools have Juvenile Probation Officers who, outside the school, can carry, but not in the school.

    Meanwhile, in the suburb, police are armed in the schools. Including my kids elementary and middle schools. The kids know they are cops, know they are there to protect them, and know that guns are tools that cops use.

    What is the fundamental difference in the school environment from Pittsburgh to the suburbs? People like Mr. Jordan know that the the youth in the city schools engage in gang behavior, and are concerned the police are not there to protect them from the outside, but to be warehouse guards. Whereas in the suburbs we view the youth in schools as valuable, and like our banks, we want to protect them.

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