Not even two days after President Donald Trump and others resurrected the bizarre argument that teachers in US high school should have guns in case of school shootings, a history teacher in Georgia, has been arrested after firing a shot inside the school.
You don’t have to be a combat veteran or a hardened New York cop to know that more guns won’t lead to fewer people being shot, but that hasn’t stopped any of the usual suspects suggesting that the horrific massacre of 17 people at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida last month could have been prevented if only the teachers, maintenance staff, lunch ladies and wrestling coaches had all been packing heat.
Remember that social studies teacher you had with the barely suppressed, constantly simmering river of rage over his rejected fantasy novels and retreating hairline? The one who pegged the whiteboard eraser at Nathan P one Wednesday for laughing about turning to page 69? Now picture that guy with a loaded Glock in his desk drawer. Wouldn’t you feel safe?
Everyone knows underpaid, underappreciated adults who work with teenagers all day are super well-adjusted and content! (Source: GIPHY)
Even the most dedicated, attentive teachers shouldn’t be expected to turn into John McClane if the school suddenly turns into a war zone – let alone the fact that plenty of them are buying their own stationery. The suggestion that a school might fork out for firearms when they’re not funding textbooks properly is laughable.
Anyway, nobody’s sure exactly why Jesse Randall Davidson barricaded himself in a Dalton High School classroom yesterday. He allegedly wrote a note last week that contains a threat to harm himself or students – but in the end nobody was hurt in the incident. He fired one shot through a window, one girl sprained her ankle running from the school building, and no doubt the students are shaken after a terrifying morning.
@nra my favorite teacher at Dalton high school just blockaded his door and proceeded to shoot. We had to run out The back of the school in the rain. Students were being trampled and screaming. I dare you to tell me arming teachers will make us safe.
— Chondi? (@_omg_chondi_) February 28, 2018
Yesterday happened to be the same day Stoneman Douglas High students returned to school after two weeks away. Several of the students from the school have become prominent in the fight to reform gun laws in Florida and the wider US, founding the March For Our Lives movement and petitioning for pretty tame changes, like upping the age limit for buying military-style weapons and making it harder to buy gear that allow more bullets to be fired more quickly.
Outside the US, this stuff looks like a no-brainer. But the American approach to gun violence is so fundamentally broken that weekly child murder barely makes a dent, and the teeth-grinding idiocy of ideas like “give teachers guns!” can be illustrated quite literally within 48 hours. The timing on the Dalton High incident might be funny if it wasn’t all so deadly serious.