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Originally Posted by Azure
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In a CBC article on this it mentions this but adds that Obama plans to allow schools to use federal grant money to hire "school resource officers" to improve safety if they wish.
I still think armed guards in schools is mostly just a waste of money though, as you've touched on:
- Schools are big and full of long corridors and many different rooms of many different sizes. A guard can't be everywhere at once.
- If the guard is visibly carrying a weapon then a shooter probably knows where not to go. If they are carrying a concealed weapon then IF the shooting starts close enough that the guard can react, a video posted earlier in this thread shows what can likely happen. Guard may be an excellent shot on a range or in training but who knows how they'll react when the panic ensues and they might get shot themselves. They might also end up a target themselves right off the bat. Or by the time they are able to react a lot of the shooting may have already taken place.
- If the shooting starts and the guard is too far away to immediately react, is the expectation that they're going to seek out and confront the shooter? I don't even think the police do that until they know exactly what they're dealing with. Further, again I would imagine most of the shooting would have already taken place by the time the guard would be able to find and confront the shooter, if that is the expectation place upon them.
I'll admit the level of training the guards receive (or have previously received) will factor into all of this as well. However, more training = more money and we can see the funding for these guards will come out of federal grants, meaning it's probably eating away at some other portion of the schools budget (like schooling related matters....). It just seems like a lot of things would have to go "right" in order for an armed guard to even be in the right place to react to a shooting and then react in a fast and efficient enough manner to stop or greatly reduce the shooting before it takes place. From what I can see a lot of these shooters are attacking familiar territory with little to no regard for their own life as well which complicates things even further.
Bottom line is, IMO, this would seem like nothing more than a placebo to make people feel safer. Maybe Obama is just trying to compromise a bit with the NRA though by somewhat implementing their big idea on reducing school shootings.