President Trump met today at the White House with students and families from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The meeting was scheduled as a listening session for the President. It was an opportunity for him to listen to comments and pleas from some of those affected by the mass murder at the school on February 14, 2018. By all accounts I’ve seen, the President listened attentively and respectfully and was appropriately engaged with those who attended the meeting.
As reported in the Fox News story headlined Trump on preventing mass shootings: ‘we’re going to get it done’, a parent suggested “… that a select few teachers, administrators, or other school employees volunteer to become a designated “undercover police officer,” to manage a potential tragedy prior to the arrival of first responders.”
There followed some discussion about allowing volunteers on school staff to carry concealed weapons after receiving the appropriate training.
President Trump said, “It takes five to eight minutes for first responders. So the attack is over. If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could very well end [the attack].”
My opinion is that it is not enough to be “adept at firearms.”
Though initial and then regularly recurring safety and proficiency training are unquestionably essential as the President suggested using the word “adept,” it is even more important that volunteers be first properly selected and then prepared to do something that will forever affect their own lives: Before volunteering or being employed, trained, and entrusted with both the duty and authority to use lethal force, they must first be competently assessed to be psychologically prepared to shoot and kill the attacker, even if the attacker is a child.
Before even applying to be an armed volunteer or employee, applicants must self-evaluate. ” Do I really have the mental preparation and resolve to prevent an attack by shooting and killing an armed attacker before the attacker can attack his or her first victim?” “What if the armed attacker is someone I know? Maybe a child, maybe even a child I know? Can I do it?”
Applicants to be armed volunteers or employees must initially and then regularly be psychologically screened and evaluated to determine if they have the ability to kill a person, maybe a child, who has a weapon. The psychological evaluation must also determine insofar as possible how the volunteer will react after neutralizing a potential attacker. Will the volunteer be so emotionally distraught that he or she is unable to effectively engage a second or third attacker?
When the idea of armed volunteers in schools is discussed, people often suggest that retired law enforcement and military members from the community would be good choices.
I don’t think so. At least, not automatically.
If I were a parent, I wouldn’t necessarily want some retired geezer with a gun protecting my child or grandchild.
We geezers retired from law enforcement or the military for a reason. I retired from the US Secret Service after 23 years and before age 50 because I recognized my reactions were slowing and my eyesight was getting fuzzier. I did not want the life of someone our agency was protecting or a fellow employee’s life to be dependent on me.
Neither would I want your child or grandchild’s life dependent on me. Your child or grandchild’s life is no less important than the President’s.
Maybe in the next OpenCdA post I’ll put up my thoughts on how schools can be made safer.
Today the Democrat Minority on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) released its own version of events concerning the FBI’s alleged misuse of a FISA warrant to intercept Trump campaign conversations. Here is a link to the 10-page memorandum released today.
