According to NBC New York, Marlboro Township in New Jersey will be posting armed security guards at every single school in their district starting after the new year. New Jersey is one of the most restrictive states when it comes to gun control, and Governor Chris Christie has previously stated that we shouldn’t be turning our schools into “armed camps” We need to look for other options. But while the politicians continue to bloviate, the school district is actually taking concrete action to protect their kids . . .

From NBC New York:

On the same day the National Rifle Association spoke publicly for the first time since last week’s elementary school massacre in Connecticut, one local school district announced plans to place armed police officers in every school.

The mayor of Marlboro Township in New Jersey said Friday there would be armed security guards at the district’s nine schools starting in January.

“This is not such a major change– we’re not putting in SWAT teams,” said Mayor Jon Hornik.

Hornik, who has three school-aged children, told NBC 4 New York he was still shaken from the Newtown shooting, and he “hasn’t stopped hugging” his five-year-old.

He statements about safety and protecting children echoed those made by the NRA earlier in the day.

“Just like what happened on 9/11 — air travel changed,” he said. “In my opinion last Friday, school security changed, and you can sit by and hope that it doesn’t happen at your school or you can take action.”

The comment about airport security following 9/11 was particularly interesting, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that becomes one of the more prevalent arguments in favor of armed guards. We felt the need to “do something” after 9/11 as well, and restricting sales of box cutters certainly wasn’t the answer then.

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40 COMMENTS

  1. Its not armed teachers and I know nothing of New Jersey gun CONTROL laws but good for them. Thats a nice step in a positive direction. Congradulations!

    Edit to Add: In retrospect maybe its not something to be congradulated but honest efforts to protect children diserve some sort of recognition.

  2. The first rule of a gunfight is to bring a gun. Armed guards will definitely cost money, but they will have a deterrent effect. I do know of some school police who are so fat as to look embarrassing in uniform. My hope would be that these armed guards must actually be able to demonstrate some level of proficiency with a firearm, and maintain some sort of physical fitness standard.

    • Thats a good point Accur81. A quick look at most security guards in and around Memphis, TN and I know what areas a crimminal could still strike with minimal resistance. I was getting close to a female guard at a healthcare facility I frequented for work and even though they are required to carry their own personal firearms, she couldnt tell me a thing about hers. Not that she wouldnt or wasnt allowed to, she just had no clue other than it was a nine.

      Anyways it still seems like a positive step. One can only hope it will be enough of a deterance.

    • Accur81, most of the mall security types that I’ve seen have the body of a retired sumo wrestler and the situational awareness of a mother sea turtle while she’s laying her eggs. RF and I saw an armed guard a while back who was either loading or unloading money bags from his armored truck. The guard wouldn’t have noticed a dump truck driving through a nitroglycerine factory.

      The sight of a big gun on a wide belt around an even wider waistline might have some deterrence capability, but ultimately it comes down to whether or not the operator can shoot the damn thing. Some maniacs won’t be deterred by anything except a bullet.

      • “… wouldn’t have noticed a dump truck driving through a nitroglycerine factory.”

        Uncle Lewis FTW!

    • Will they have enough firepower though? A pistol is not much of a match for an AR, just ask the security guard Niel Gadner at Columbine.

      “Gardner, seeing Harris working with his gun, leaned over the top of the car and fired four shots. He was 60 yards from the gunman. Harris spun hard to the right and Gardner momentarily thought he had hit him. Seconds later, Harris began shooting again at the deputy.”

  3. Even if you could pass a total gun ban today there are over 300 million already in circulation with enough ammo to support them for generations to come. Any discussion of protecting our kids is dishonest if it doesn’t include some form of armed security. Police, private security or parent volunteers.

    As broke as California is and as stiff necked as the pols are in California I see our school kids being left unprotected. Sacremento is not going to let responsible adults protect their own kids if it means guns are involved.

    • Well it is only a matter of time till it happens here..
      Maybe then the parents will demand that they DO SOMETHING!

  4. So it begins. I knew that even if they lean or are anti-gun the realities would start to sink in with many (not all!) school officials and districts about the need for armed security. Some will employ armed paid security guards and others will turn to armed volunteers. After last week, school officials will held accountable by parents and society for not preparing while others have prepared. Districts that have ideologically refused to get rid of the no-guns-allowed policy, not brought in armed security, and then later have incidents of violence that might have been prevented will be held accountable. San Francisco will probably now increase their sales tax to 11% to pay for security rather than use retired cops and retired military that volunteer.

    • School districts, administrators and other “officials” will never be held accountable for failure to protect their students. They weren’t at Virginia Tech and they won’t be at Newtown or anyplace else.

      Don’t you get it, my brother? It’s never the fault of the officials or because psychotic murderers are allowed to walk among decent people, and it’s certainly never the fault of the scumb@g who does the killings. No, it’s the fault of the guns in my safe.

      • Perhaps you are correct. Yet I sense the beginning of changes in attitude for school security and expectations to protect the kids. Gun ownership attitudes have changed over the decades. School officials that grossly fail to provide reasonable protection to their students might someday find themselves the hunted by parents and family. Then again, you might be 100% correct that there will be zero accountability since Americans have become sheeple too afraid and just plain lazy to stand-up to the growing spread of American fascism.

      • Will they be found guilty of Manslaughter I doubt it. Will there be a lot of questions and many of them will find themselves no longer on the school board very likely. I think the anti-gun force have underestimated Gun owners in the US. With close to half of American’s owning some kind of Gun the idea that Gun control can stop something like this even to the FUDS is pretty low. So many people agree with the argument we need armed personal in the schools. Even the Anti are going to have a hard time arguing against that and school boards that don’t at least have a plain for dealing with an armed intruder are going to have a lot of angry parents to deal with. It is funny in the last few days I have noticed a change in the views of many on the best way to stop this in the future and it isn’t more gun laws.

        Thanks
        Robert

  8. My highschool in Kentucky may not be ahead of the curve when it comes to education(honestly they do really well with the budget they have) but we have had armed school resource officers for years and years.

  9. More police, more taxes and inflation, less freedom…thanks NRA thanks a lot. Another government solution to another government problem.

    • Because higher taxes are way worse than dead children and the expenses of the investigation to follow and emotional toll.

    • I’m all for low taxes and small non-intrusive government in most cases. I’m fine with helping to indirectly provide increased safety for school children with a few more dollars being taxed. It’s at least for a program that is noble unlike most government waste.

  10. The most ridiculous argument I have heard yet came from some lawyer on Fox News this morning saying that you can’t trust even a police officer or army vet to stay calm if shots start getting fired. Really? What do they do now? THEY CALL THE POLICE! If there was an armed officer or security guard in the main office at Sandy Hook he would have had an excellent chance to take Lanza down when he shot his way into the school.

    • How do they know these things? It’s projection. That lawyer would probably not stay calm under such a scene. That lawyer seems like one of those people who believes that what is right and true for him- or herself is the same for all others.

  11. I don’t know about y’all’s schools, but my high school had a former SEAL who regularly patrolled the halls. It was not publicized, probably because of soccer moms who would throw a fit, but he was there. He dressed casual-professional and stowed a carbine of some sort (I never saw it, just the case) in the principal’s office. I don’t doubt he had a weapon concealed on him.

    This was during my senior year after we’d had a threat issued by a student. He was a pretty cool guy, the SEAL. I liked him.

    • That’s pretty cool. In my school we have two uniformed police officers, they walk the halls and check the parking lot occasionally. They open carry their glocks on their duty belt like any other police officer would. They are both pretty nice guys, I talk cars with one of them occasionally lol.

      I think we have them because of a local school shooting that happened in the 90’s, but I’m not really sure. I just know they have been there for all 4 years that I have been there. I’m definitely more comfortable with having them there.

      • I would imagine. I know I was more comfortable with the former SEAL walking around. He was a nice guy and all. Anyone who knew who he was (which wasn’t a large number of people, most were oblivious) felt much more comfortable with him around. I know I did.

        I don’t have a problem with armed officers in schools. I know, I know, the cost would be rather large. I get that. But we can divert money from other, unnecessary things. Or we could let it be handled and paid for at the state level. Hell, we could even do it at the county/city level (and probably much more effectively too). I’d prefer if they took armed volunteers, but we know that won’t fly with public schools.

        I’d volunteer in a heartbeat. Quicker if I had kids.

      • I would imagine. I know I was more comfortable with the former SEAL walking around. He was a nice guy and all. Anyone who knew who he was (which wasn’t a large number of people, most were oblivious) felt much more comfortable with him around. I know I did.

        I don’t have a problem with armed officers in schools. I know, I know, the cost would be rather large. I get that. But we can divert money from other, unnecessary things. Or we could let it be handled and paid for at the state level. Hell, we could even do it at the county/city level (and probably much more effectively too). I’d prefer if they took armed volunteers, but we know that won’t fly with public schools.

        I’d volunteer in a heartbeat. Quicker if I had kids.

  12. Let’s get to the root/foundation of the situation. If we sell all public schools to private institutions, repeal all taxes that fund schools and let parents home school or send children to private schools we can end this problem in short order. If you choose to send your children to a private school, you can pick one that arms the teachers or has parents/relatives that provide security. In high schools you can teach the older/mature students to do the same. This will not only resolve the problem of free fire zones we currently have but will give us better education of our children and teachers and schools will have to earn their money by producing well taught students. No government solution to a govt. created problem and it will cost less. A lot less.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9PEqmpGK9k is the first 10 minutes of a video created around 1990 that explains why our society/culture has devolved to where it is today. And why it will keep devolving. And if you watch the rest of the the video (in 10 minute segments) it will show the ultimate solution. Whether we choose to follow this wisdom will determine our future. Regards to all.

    • David,

      Although I hate the public schools system with a passion you option will never sell there are too many people who couldn’t afford to send there children to private school. Now selling all the schools and using a vulture program to provide funding would work and would be a good balance. Some schools could offer extra services but cost you extra on top of the vulture amount and some would just find a way to make due with the amount. Although a well run place could have gold plumbing for what we are currently paying.

      Thanks
      Robert

  13. The NRA’s solution of another federal bloated bureaucracy akin to the TSA and DHS, putting a guard in every school is missing the mark.

    Once every school has a guard, the next Ritalin junkie punk will just attack a water park, or library, or you name it place where people congregate.

    The NRA should have used this opportunity to push for more CCW holders, and let states allow teachers with a CCW to carry at work, instead of calling for more big govt bureaucracy.

    • I don’t necessarily trust the NRA, but maybe they played their cards in such a way as to not seem too radical for all the pathetic sheep out there.

      Somehow a district in Texas has been doing just what you say:


      Thweatt said there have been no incidents since October 2007, when his district adopted the plan giving an unspecified number of teachers and school staff — dubbed “Guardians” — authority to carry concealed weapons on school premises. Participating staff are anonymous and known only to Thweatt and the school board, which must approve each application for an employee to become a Guardian. They receive a small stipend annually.
      “We’re 18 miles and 30 minutes from the nearest police station,” Thweatt said. “So we are our first responders. If something happened here, we would have to protect our children. You know, police officers are true, everyday heroes in my book, but one of them once told me something very revealing. He said, ‘Ninety-five percent of the time, we get to the scene late.’ I can’t afford to let that happen.”

  14. Shows we have been winning the debate and even some liberal towns know of logic to have good guys to protect the kids of public schools.

  15. I irks me to my core when people regurgitate meaningless talking points. “We shouldn’t be turning our schools into armed camps.”….. Well why the fvck not? Would you care to elaborate? Or do you just want to throw around clever little snipets that don’t actually have any real meaning but sound extra scary?

    “We don’t want to turn our school into armed camps.”
    “More guns isn’t the solution?”
    Why not?

    “The NRA is to blame for these shootings.”
    How so?

    “If it saves even one child then it’s worth it.”
    If you’re taking a utilitarian approach, then you should ban swimming pools and cleaning products long before you ban “Assault Weapons” or even guns in general for that matter.

    Or RF’s from earlier “Are you saying you’d sacrifice those 20 kids for your freedom?”
    Please dipsh!t, explain to me how my “freedom” killed those kids. I’d love to hear it.

    Alright, I’m off my soapbox.

  16. Living in CT and needing to pass by the temporary school for Sandy Hook students, they have two police cars at the entrance of the school that are there day and night along with barriers to stop and question everyone entering the grounds including FedEx delivery trucks.

    While I am sure this is to keep media and copycats away, would this not have been a better idea before the school shooting if they had been guarding the school in the first place? Are other schools not important?

    Kudos to the NJ school system for not waiting for the state or the federal gov’t to act.

    To Chris Christie if you choose to run for the big house in 2016, I will be sure not to vote for you in the primary.

  18. Well, I don’t have data, but anecdotally, my mother in law is a mental health therapist, and she always notices that no matter how crazy or deranged a patient is, they always respond in a submissive manner to anyone in a uniform of authority. Particularly police officers. In other words, even crazy (paranoid schizophrenic’s aside) recognize when its time to tone it down. Armed security in a school? I don’t want teachers armed…but a security guard in uniform? Yip, works for me.

  19. Here, in Calgary, the public school board has had School Resource Officers for years–a Glock 22 on the hip, and a shotgun in the cruiser. This has been a success, and the costs have been modest. Kids actually get to like the cops, and a police presence puts a chill on activities like violent bullying. Remember that school shootings are rare, but other criminality isn’t:

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/12/05/toronto-washroom-assault-school.html

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