By Scott Shephard
Bullet Proof Backpack/Bullet Proof Vest - Child Size
Pictured on the left is a (somewhat) fashionable, child-sized backpack. It would accommodate several books, pens and electronic devices. It is also armored and somewhat bullet proof. But it would not stop rounds from an AR-15 assault rifle. Pictured on the right is a child-sized bullet proof vest. It, too, will stop some bullets from completely penetrating. But it won’t stop a round from an AR-15.
The 18 year old gunman who entered an elementary school in Texas earlier this week was apparently armed with an AR-15 and several 30 round clips. It didn’t take him long to kill more than 20 people including, at current count, 19 grade schoolers. I don’t know if any of the deceased children were wearing bullet proof attire but I doubt that it would have helped
I’m thinking parents everywhere (and even grandparents like me) are wondering how best to protect children in a place that was once seen as a safe haven. In spite of their limits, I suspect that bullet proof backpacks and vests are selling well today.
How do we prevent school shootings? In Texas, which has a very high per capita gun ownership rate and, perhaps not co-incidentally, a very high gun-related death rate, some leaders are suggesting that one solution is . . . . more guns in school.
Yes, let’s arm the teachers. Brilliant! As a classroom teacher in a high school for over 30 years, I can tell you that arming teachers is perhaps the worst thing you could do in the name of schools safety. Let me offer a few problems with this “solution.”
Where in the classroom do I keep the gun? In my desk? On my desk? On my hip? And do I keep it loaded? What if one of my students is having a bad day and manages to get the official classroom gun? What if I’m having a bad day . . . ?
Can I competently use the weapon? Will my hand be shaking as I aim over the tops of my students’ heads as I prepare to defend my classroom? Will we have teacher in-services dedicated to helping us perfect the “kill shot?” And am I prepared to kill a person who comes to my classroom door? Finally, imagine this: ten or more teachers armed with their guns in various places in the hall attempting to kill a shooter while panicked students run for cover.
Arming teachers will not make our schools safer.
So what will? This is a complicated question and I will certainly not advocate “gun control” because I think that phrase and concept is unworkable. Instead, I would advocate “gun safety,” which is multfaceted, but which includes regulating who and how people can procure and use weapons. It would also study the question on how we can make guns safer. Maybe we should look at guns the way we looked at the automobile decades ago.
When the automobile was introduced, it was revolutionary. But it was deadly. I wonder if back in the 1930s and 40s people were saying, “Cars don’t kill people. People in cars kill people”? Actually, it turned out that cars (and people) could be truly deadly. So we started to prohibit drinking and driving. We instituted age limits. We required licenses. We even made people who couldn’t see, wear glasses. Imagine that. We also did crash testing and found that things like seatbelts, collapsable steering columns and side-impact reinforcement saved lives. Traffic deaths per miles driven have fallen 92% since 1923, the time when people started to realize that cars might be unsafe but that they could be made safer. So maybe we should repeal the Congressional prohibition on studying gun safety and look more closely at how we could make our world safer from gun violence. We wouldn’t tamper with the Second Amendment, which was written, incidentally, in a time of muzzle loading rifles and well before the invention of the bullet.
Whether you love guns or hate them, you should love our children enough to become an advocate for making schools, churches, malls, grocery stores and homes safer places.
I urge you to call or write your Senators and Representatives and ask them what they are doing to make guns safer. Please.