When children are being targeted by a gunman, what should be the last line of defense?

On average, a school shooting lasts 12 and a half minutes, while average police response time is 18 minutes according to national statistics. After Sandy Hook, there has been 74 school shootings, making it more than one each week when school was in session. Making guns illegal in school zones has not made an improvement, in fact it’s seen the opposite: “92% of mass shootings reported from 2009 to ’14 were reported in gun-free zones.”

So it all comes down to this situation. You are with your child(ren) and a psychopath with a gun shows up, he is looking to kill children and have a high number of kills. In that moment you or your child are not human to this man, you are a number and are in this man’s agenda as a statistic. You are quite literally a means to an end only when you are dead to this deranged man. What is the immediate solution? I believe any parent with any sort of protective instinct would know this man needs to be stopped before he completes his goal.

He will feel no remorse for killing you or your child. He plotted to do this and held admiration for other killers who did similar heinous acts. In that moment, there should be a universal, empathetic desire for this psychopath to be killed before he does any more killing.

However this is not the case, many disagree with this. This makes me question other people’s sanity. If you could prevent the death of your child would you choose to do so or not? Any anti-gun reasoning just falls completely flat in this desperate situation.

Call the police? In the Sandy hook shooting 26 people were killed within 5 minutes, police arrived in time to hear Adam Lanza shoot the last bullet. It was the same case in many other school shootings, the police arrived just as the killing ended. A life is snuffed out every couple seconds in school shootings, as vital as our police are, it is impossible for them to arrive immediately when a shooting is called in. Every second is crucial.

Take away all the guns and make it illegal to bring guns to schools? That gun-free zone solution has proved to be a fatal error with 92% of mass shootings occurring in gun-free zones. Obviously law abiding citizens will obey the law, it’s the cowardly criminals that prove they prefer gun-free zones where the victims are defenseless targets. Such as the four Marines and one Navy sailor that were gunned down in the Chattanooga shooting, and a young woman who followed the law and left her gun at home but was raped at gunpoint on her gun-free zone campus.

No matter what solutions there are, they will not prove to address the problem we are faced with every day and the possibility every moment holds for our children in school. It is tragic we are faced with this problem, but immediate action is the only preventative measure.

Oklahoma law has allowed concealed carriers in their schools. The superintendent, both principals of the Elementary and High School, and two teachers of the Wilson Public School system are training in order to respond to a school shooting or emergency. They will train in three phases for a total of 60 hours of concealed carry classes on and off of the range before they will begin carrying at the schools. In this article Elementary School Principal Cliff Benson said,

“It’s just the fact of the matter, so much is happening worldwide. There have been a lot of changes since we were in school.”

It’s an acknowledgement all across the board from both legislators and educators as they face the certain realities that, indeed, more school shootings will occur.  It’s simply a question of when and where.

Since Sandy Hook, many states have been making this decision to allow armed teachers and guards. Currently 18 states allow adults and teachers to carry a loaded firearm on school property.

Many arguments have been made against this, and the best i’ve read is from Ken Corbett who is a child psychologist. His three reasons against armed teachers are: Kids get their hands on most everything, kids will be afraid and the suggestion that armed school personnel use violence to handle their problems not their minds.

What are his suggestions to ending shootings? Using your mind and words as a solution? If he were between a shooter and his own child does he honestly think words is going to stop a shooter? What we need is education for those that are convinced guns are evil, dangerous, and murderous weapons that only do harm.

We need to continue to show that millions of peaceful law abiding citizens carry guns every day without an incident, people need to be educated. Lives are saved and victimization is prevented from many people carrying a firearm. There should be no emotion attached to it, it should be the same as when looking at a hammer or screwdriver. People control the firearm as a tool for good or evil.

Like Wayne LaPierre said, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” The solution right now is to arm our teachers in case of emergency, your child is at school more than anywhere else. Teachers will practice and become skilled with a weapon to use only when they are protecting children’s’ lives.