Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Arming Teachers — Good Or Bad?

President Trump has advocated arming teachers as an answer to mass shootings at schools. Is that a good idea?

I don’t know. It’s probably too early for anyone to know. But on a related subject, I recently blogged about unintended consequences. One type of unintended consequence is called perverse effect, when a purposeful action has an outcome contrary to what was intended. Here’s an example that was in today’s morning news:

Gun-trained teacher accidentally discharges firearm in Calif. classroom, injuring student

The student’s father said he learned about the incident when his 17-year-old son came home with blood on his shirt and bullet fragments in his neck.

According to the news article, the student will be okay. But I think it’s safe to say that the outcome could have been much worse.

Of note is the fact that the teacher is a reserve police officer trained in firearm use. He had his last gun safety training less than a year ago.

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