We want to prevent three main types of events.
- Students being shot by shooters;
- Students being accidentally shot by teachers returning fire;
- Students being deliberately shot by teachers.
Arming teachers can mitigate the first at the cost of the other two; but what if we could arm teachers as a group without arming any one individual?
Picture a thumbprint activated gun-safe in each classroom, with all safes networked together via encrypted wi fi.
Some teachers would voluntarily undergo firearms/crisis training before having their thumbprints added to the network's database, valid for all safes at that school.
While a teacher holds their thumb on a scanner, that safe stays closed, but all of the other classroom safes buzz and light up, to alert the other teachers and students, and are primed so that they'll open with an authorised thumbprint.
Any one teacher having a sudden, psychotic episode is unable to access a firearm.
He/she is only capable of allowing firearm access to all the other authorised teachers in the school.
A rampage with school-supplied weapons is only possible if two teachers, each of whom has passed a multitude of clearances and tests before having their prints added, collude in advance, which is incredibly unlikely.
It would act as a school-wide early warning system, and could be combined with internal battery backups, and intercoms so the alerting teacher could describe the sighting to his now armed colleagues.
Training those teachers to kneel in the doorway and fire horizontally would prevent the accidental shooting of non-com students, who could be drilled to lie on the floor upon hearing the buzz.
A prospective school shooter wouldn't see a bulge to know which teachers were armed and therefore a threat, nor could they start a spree by overpowering a teacher and taking their weapon.
Teachers could also move between classrooms and even between schools throughout the day, without needing to take anything with them.
The system could be customised to include different safes for different firearms in different areas of the school, or include sensor-only modules, allowing a trusted party, like a crossing guard, to prime all of the safes without storing a weapon in that particular spot.
As it stands, a teacher may see potentially menacing behaviour, but not have enough justification for calling in the police. Thumbing the safe would arm and alert his colleagues, and if it turned out to be nothing, the system could be quickly reset, and lessons could resume without further fuss or fanfare.
I think this makes for a potential compromise.
Those who want armed teachers get most of the benefits they want, and those who don't, get most of the safeguards they're after.
Ultimately, having a system like this in place could prove such an effective deterent that it's never actually used, which would be fantastic.
As always, have a great day.
Interesting idea @mattclarke. From a technical perspective, fingerprint scanners are easy to spoof so it would be better to go with 2 factor authentication. Something like a key and a passcode. From a moral standpoint I don't really like the idea of teachers with guns and students being defenceless.
Great to hear from you, Peter :)
Any attempt at a solution is going to be fraught with potential pitfalls, as is inaction.
I don't like the idea of millions of additional public sector firearms, but if they're locked behind a consensus requirement, they may be the lesser of two evils.
Obviously permanently defunding all public schools would be my preferred approach.
J2r mentioned wifi is jammable too, so there are certainly some technical considerations.
Chuckles.
You're solving a problem that shouldn't exist. It's easy to identify the criminals when they are the only ones holding the guns.
And then there's this $8 solution to beat your system anyway
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Wifi-Jammer-With-ESP8266-and-Mobile-App/
May need to be a wired connection then.
The police can also tell who the bad guys are if they're the only ones left alive when the police finally enter.
It's certainly a problem which shouldn't exist, but it does exist; and there's a debate raging between those who believe the solution is fewer guns, and those who believe the solution is fewer gun-free zones.
Unless and until they fix mental health, guns, prayer in schools or whichever other culture-wide issue needs to be addressed; I think this is a reasonable stop-gap which delivers the benefits of a gun free zone, and the benefits of armed deterrence.
I'm more in favor of striking at the root: getting rid of government schools.
However, something like your system seems a good step until that happens. Just needs some tweaks.
Yeah, it's not polished; but could be a good jumping off point.
Any specific tweaks come to mind?
I don't.
One thing that bothers me is that with your system, the teacher most able to quickly stop the shooter would be the very one denied access to his gun. That gives the shooter that time advantage that they all use so well-- to kill as many as possible before armed response shows up.
One thing I've noticed, through experience, is that carrying a gun has made me much less impulsive. When you know the power to kill is at your disposal, little annoyances seem less important. True, some people aren't that self-controlled. Should they be in positions of power over kids with or without guns?
I agree, its a pitfall. That's how compromises work, though.
I'm sure there are freedom lovers who doubt that arming a few million additional public servants is the best approach...
It's not ideal-- but probably the best approach if you insist on imprisoning defenseless kids in a facility for much of their lives. The real solution is so obvious and easy-- and scary to people who confuse schooling with education.
They never consider that 'more freedom' could be the answer to anything; because they believe excessive freedom is always the problem. Disgusting.
That's exactly what I thought after reading through the first couple paragraphs of your post. Of course, as others are mentioning in the comments, this system is gameable--ALL SYSTEMS ARE! But due to the advance planning and coordination of two or more people required to game it, schools that adopted this system would be much less vulnerable to attacks than schools that didn't.
(But the problem could also be solved by banning public schools.)
Good thinking, @mattclarke!
Exactly. Declaring the school a war zone costs you any ability to participate, but empowers noble actors to respond accordingly.
Cooperation for the win.
i saw on facebook today about some classrooms in america that now have bullet proof rooms within the classroom in case of any school shootings which i think is a great idea...
It's sad that we have to think about this stuff; but we do.
It's still a gun and doesn't address the problem that there's just too many of them floating around. It's hard to even fathom here in Canada that on this same continent the US is actually debating arming teachers with guns. Think about it..that is fucked! Americans can't get out of their own way and sadly this will keep happening, they can keep pretending it's everyone else's fault except the fact there's 3 guns for every 1 citizen in the USA which itself is rediculous
It also fails to address the obesity epidemic.
Perhaps we use some of the guns to shoot fat people. Boom..problem solved
The 'Logan's run' approach. "Cured" all sorts of diseases.
Good movie that! Yes, applied in our society we may see many issues come to an end.
Even if you try and screen and create multiple fail-safes as you mentioned someone going find a way around it and just one day snap. Not to mention schools are filled with hundreds to thousands of people. Missing a single shot can easily injure or kill others. Even more so if a lot of time is not put into training and even that cannot answer “do you have the willpower to do what Is required.” Many people want to tell themselves they do but you do not know till it’s over with.
Then you have the issue with swat and the cops coming in. During situations like these, they don’t think they don’t have time to think. They shoot anyone with a gun on sight that’s not one of them. Some school districts can have dozens of schools and hundreds of possible cops that could end up responding to a number of things. The chance of the teacher being shot and killed by law informant is something that has to be taken into consideration.
If it’s one thing we know kids will spend every waking moment doing it is hacking and breaking whatever “safety” protocols are enabled. Down here one area spent a massive amount of tax payer’s money to given under privilege area tablets in the schools. The first day or two they got around lockdown protocols on the devices and just unlocking them so they could do whatever they wanted.
Even if you wanted a group of teacher every month to go out and train for active situations like these and had them practice shooting every other weekend. Most schools can’t even find money to hire on a safety officer let alone be spending people to the correct programs. At best they would only spend the money once or twice a year and that’s simply not enough. Not to mention if a teacher spent an hour or longer every day with the kid who had enough will they even have the willpower to do what is needed? Saying and thinking you will but not being in a situation like that you really don’t know until its over.
Here in the USA far too many school districts can’t even give the teachers a cost of living pay increase year over year. Creating a massive and costly system to buy in, maintain, and run is not going last long term. Even if you had “volunteers” are they now expected to pay out of pocket to fly to attend training sessions?
Instead
Teachers should learn the layout of their school and practice monthly hide and barricade or flight situations. This is something every teacher can learn and do and do right now.
School safety officer or anyone in that kind of position needs to go into training a few times a month to be better handled and equipped and not the teachers themselves. They also need to train with the local cops so they know who this person is. That is really the only person who needs to be armed.
Moving forward schools need to be redesigned. Every classroom needs to have an exit. That way people are not left the trap in any one room. They have options to flee. This is something that will take a long time to deal with. Since new buildings can be made this way but its far to costly to redesign old ones. It's more of a long term way of dealing with it.
Finally here is the big thing that needs to be address here in America and in many other countries as well. Mental health needs to be addressed better. Politicians avoided that line of thinking like the plague but it’s true. There are not enough outreach, free or low cost options, and systems put in place. Far to many people are not well and can easily just snap one day. Even when warning signs are presented not enough money is being spend in this area so nothing is being done about it.
A difficult topic to address in one short post but one that should be discussed for sure. Children should be safe in school...Just like tourists should be safe whilst walking on the Promenade des anglise in Nice, France instead of getting run over by a truck.
Good post @mattclarke.
Thanks, mate. It's a divisive issue which is being discussed ad nauseum.
Just trying to think up some mechanical solutions.
I don't see much appetite for compromise, sadly.
Yes agreed; With both sides of the argument unwilling to seek common ground it’s unlikely to find a resolution anytime soon. I’d love a few of those thumbprint things around my house. That’d make it easier to access my handguns. Unfortunately I doubt they’d be permitted by SAPOL Firearms Branch here. Besides ammo and gun cannot be stored together. Still, worth talking about as that’s the only way a resolution will be found.
You could have two mounted 50cm apart. One with a full magazine, one with a pistol.
(I'm assuming you have two thumbs. Sorry if you're missing one, and I didn't notice and now it's awkward)
Haha, yes I have two thumbs. :). Having a loaded magazine constitutes a loaded gun here though. It’s a bit dumb.
Wow. Did not know that. They really don't want you prepared to look after yourself, do they?
TheymKe theses rules do that it’s easier to justify taking guns away if the laws are breached. I know a guy who was shoveled by firearms branch and they found 1 shot gun shell in a gun bag which was stored inside the safe with the guns. He lost alll his guns. Took 15 months to get them back.
I got booted from the SAPOL facebook page for posting this.
Yeah, they take things pretty seriously.
The threat of this could prove an affective deterrent for delinquency. 😆
Another solution, don't send your kids to school, homeschool them instead. Oh yes, the government doesn't like that either.
Yeah! if we cover these things, we will be living in a more safe place and most of all safe place for our kids!
Great work brother.
Very interesting concept. I suppose if the safe was secure enough that it would take a long time to break into so no one could come and break in to it quickly.
I don't see it working in Australia, or anywhere else with gun control, as pistols are too rare and valuable; people would break into the school overnight just to steal them.
Far less likely in America, where schools are more closely watched overnight, and guns are easier to get by other means.
Very true. I was thinking just that, breaking in at night and looting them. Must be much easier ways to get a gun than that in the US.
It’s an idea to consider, I particularly like the idea that it would sound an alarm once the thumb print is placed. Since these shootings are from kids bring guns to school wouldn’t they know where the gun is and attack their first?
There'd be a safe in each classroom. Many classrooms would contain untrained/unauthorised teachers and their safes would stay closed, but I imagine each trained teacher would be able to arm themselves pretty rapidly, even if they needed to dart into an empty classroom upon hearing the alert.
Those who want armed teachers get most of the benefits they want, and those who don't, get most of the safeguards they're after.
beautiful lines :)
Good work @munazza
Without addressing actual causes, all other changes at the symptomatic level are just denials of what is really needed. This might help in some cases in the short term, but without addressing the deeper levels of the issues nothing much will change.
If teachers are armed, guess what - school shooters will just get more prepared and maybe start using explosives more.
True. Ultimately it's about a lack of respect for the sanctity of human life.
That is a large part of the issue, yes. The origins of such heartlessness are always denials of various forms, typically denials of emotions and love - so the problem begins in the hearts of individuals and can be solved at that level too - it's a new frontier for most human beings!
This by any means should not be allowed at first. Its not any difficult to determine who the actual criminal is ofcourse when no one else is armed. Giving such powers should not be allowed for the safety of humanity.