You seem to confuse "public area" with various private, local, county, state and federal property quite often, Ghost1958. I understand your reasoning. However, I do not agree with it, and neither does the law. Heck, neither does the Constitution, for that matter. Even the feds can't just walk all over private, local, county, and state property without a lawful reason for their presence.
They're called "public schools" because they're open for attendance by school-age children from the general public. They are not, however, open to the general public at large.
As a parent, I really did not want just any teacher carrying firearms at school. While two-thirds of my son's teachers were good people, a third of them were a bit loony. Of the two-thirds who were good people, half showed decent dexterity while the other half were a bit bumble-fingered. Of the half that showed decent dexterity, only a quarter of them had the situational awareness I'd trust with respect to having access to a firearm in constant close proximity to children, adolescents and teens.
2/3 * 1/2 * 1/4 = 0.0833... That's just 1 out of 12 teachers, there, Ghost1958, and teachers are generally a cut above the general populace as it is, at least around these parts.
The steps outlined in
A Sensible Plan Towards Armed Teachers weeds out those who:
- Don't want to carry firearms
- Aren't legally allowed to carry firearms (yes, some teachers have criminal records)
- Don't have the basic manual dexterity to safely handle a firearm
- Don't have the mental capacity to safely handle firearms (some teachers are on psychotropic drugs)
- Aren't responsible enough to safely handle and secure a firearm (scatterbrains)
- Don't have the situational awareness to do all of the above in a classroom full of kids.
As temporary guardians of our children, the school systems have the same responsibility to keep them away from those who might intentionally or inadvertently cause them harm as we ourselves would exercise as parents.
Finally, while Lombard Street, Fifth Avenue, Bourbon Street, and every town's Main Street are public areas, despite bearing the name of "public school," the area inside a public school is not lawfully accessible to the general public. It's restricted. Go for a walk around Juniper Way if you want to. It's a nice loop around the Garden of the Gods park. OC or CC, I'll even join you. But you have no Constitutional right to walk into a school, much less a classroom, without a lawful reason for being there:
- Student
- Teacher
- Administrator
- Maintenance
- Security
- Contractor working on a specific and current contract, usually pre-scheduled with the administration for dates and times of access
- Parents, to/from the school counselers' office; other areas and times by invitation or arrangement.
- Guests by invitation only.
Heck, even law enforcement needs RAS/PC or one of the aforementioned reasons to enter a school without permission.
Thus, your subsequent comment is blatantly incorrect:
If you believe otherwise, then I suggest you tell the military to stop training it's members. Same for the police. Nope, they can't require training -- it's un-Constitutional!
Wrong on both counts. I still have my great-grandmother's teacher employment contract with a county in the state of Oklahoma. If you'll search the Internet, you'll find Rules for Teachers, 1879 and 1915. I'm not sure if those were ever real. My grandmother's employment contract was rather simple, but ran two pages, printed both front and back.
One section is entitled, simply, "ARMS." It reads:
"No school teacher or board official in the employ of the County of X will be armed while on duty. Teachers must allow students to keep and bar arms but will corral arms in a store room during school. Should no store room be available, arms may be arranged, unloaded, in a suitable corner. Students may not access arms during school duty periods except in times of danger."
Another section entitled, "Danger" included provisions for dangerous weather i.e. tornado and blizzards. Teachers were to ring the school bell only during the start of the day and re-start after lunch. If they rang it at any other time, it meant Danger and the local constable would come a-runnin'!
As for shooting up the schools, yes they were.
Read on...