I have to be proud of my local Missouri state Representative Rick Brattin (R-Harrisonville) and Representative Mike Kelly (R-Lamar). They are proposing a bill to allow teachers and school administrators with a Concealed Carry permit to carry in school.
Mo. Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Allow Teachers to Carry Weapons in Schools
Posted on: 10:29 pm, December 19, 2012, by Macradee Aegerter and Jason M. Vaughn
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Less than a week after a gunman shot and killed 26 people in a Connecticut elementary school, lawmakers filed a bill in the Missouri House that would allow teachers and school administrators with a concealed weapons permit to carry guns on the job.
The bill was filed on Tuesday by two Republican state representatives – Mike Kelly and Rick Brattin, who says it was drafted more than seven months ago, long before the tragedy in Connecticut. He does however say that last Friday’s shooting is a perfect example of why a law like this is needed.
Twenty of those shot on Friday were young children, while the others, teachers and administrators, some whom law enforcement say died while trying to shield their students from the rapid gunfire being aimed their way.
…
“These domestic terrorist, they absolutely, they thrive on seeking out the innocent and the easiest targets available and that unfortunately happens to be our schools,” said Brattin, who says the need to protect our children in schools is greater than ever. “We entrust our teachers to get them out of a burning building, you know, get them into the basement if there’s a tornado, to shape and mold their minds and educate them throughout their whole career. But the thought of the most educated people in our workforce you know not having the know how with the proper training to protect our kids in an event like this, I go kind of blank on that.”
“We shouldn’t be afraid of the gun. It’s not there to scare and fear-monger. It’s there to save their lives if need be,” Brattin said.
This is not a new concept. I related an incident from my childhood earlier this week where an armed school Principal defended himself and a student against three adults, one who was armed with a knife. I knew of a number of teachers when I was in school who habitually carried weapons. With the except of that one incident, I know of no occasion where any other teacher had to use or even draw his weapon. But the potential to quickly end violence was there—and known. It is time to revert to our past when simple solutions worked and worked well. Let us not be lead by hoplophobic liberals.
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Instead of focusing on firearms, why don’t we work towards allowing the state to hospitalize those with mental issues likely to harm themselves and others? A bill was proposed in Connecticut that would have allowed for the involuntary hospitalization of Lanza, the shooter. The bill was killed. By whom? The ACLU.
ACLU Killed Connecticut Forcible Institutionalization Law That Might Have Prevented Killings
December 15, 2012 By Daniel Greenfield
While we’re having that whole conversation about wadding up the Bill of Rights and throwing it into the trash, why don’t we have a brief conversation about what might have actually prevented the shooting by dealing with the mental illness of the shooter.
Let’s talk ACLU instead of NRA.
Connecticut is one of only SIX states in the U.S. that doesn’t have a type of “assisted outpatient treatment” (AOT) law (sometimes referred to as “involuntary outpatient treatment”). There’s no one standard for these types of laws, but (roughly speaking) these are laws that allow for people with mental illness to be forcibly treated BEFORE they commit a serious crime.
Whereas previous legal standards held that the mentally ill cannot be institutionalized or medicated until they harm someone or themselves, or until they express an immediate intent to do so, AOT laws (again, roughly speaking) allow for preventative institutionalization or forced medication
AOT laws vary state-by-state, and often bear the name of a person murdered by an untreated mentally ill person (“Kendra’s Law” in New York, “Laura’s Law” in California, etc.).
Earlier this year, Connecticut considered passing an AOT law (and a weak one, at that), and it failed, due to protests from “civil liberties” groups.
But thankfully the ACLU won and over two dozen children were murdered. And there will be of course no cries that the ACLU, rather than the NRA, should be held accountable for a dangerous lunatic being on the loose.
Let’s put the blame where it belongs—not the NRA and firearms but with liberal groups like the ACLU who believe that the dangerously mentally ill belong on the streets and that we should have no defense against them.