“My students are my kids … and I want to be able to protect them just like I would protect my own son,” says the Oho teacher, who participates in a program called FASTER Saves Lives. (“FASTER” stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training & Emergency Response.)
Since 2013, FASTER Saves Lives has trained teachers and other school employees to carry and shoot firearms. Although many lawmakers and school officials around the country oppose letting teachers bear arms in the classroom, a growing number sanction the practice.
It makes sense. Is there any better way to prepare for the possibility of having to defend your life and your students’ lives against an armed assailant bent on mass murder? (We can set aside the notion that aspiring murderers will scrupulously respect gun-control laws.)
People do have counterproposals. Congressional candidate Levi Tillman urges arming teachers with pepper spray. Well … there are problems, as blogger Tom Knighton elaborates. How do you get close enough to use the pepper spray before the killer squeezes the trigger again? What if he sees you coming?
And suppose you do spray the attacker? He won’t be immediately incapacitated. He may even be unaffected.
Some brave people have stopped a gunman by tackling him in mid-rampage. Great … if you have the ability and opportunity to do that.
On the other hand, suppose you’re neither strong nor nimble but can shoot, carry a gun, and shoot back — when the assailant is on the floor, bleeding: no more threat.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Don’t Bring Pepper Spray to a Gun Fight”
I can see this scenario in my mind …
A previously bullied and ostracized student enters a classroom armed with the deadly AR-15. The brave teacher grabs his/her handy pepper spray and unleashes it on the threatening gunman.
The pepper spray spews out for 8 – 10 feet before falling on the other students who are now cowering at their desks. The gunman is laughing so hard that it is difficult for him to aim properly, so he only hits around half of his targets.
Any school that displays the “Gun Free School Zone” signs ought to replace them immediately with signs proclaiming “Armed Personnel on Duty.” Whether or not it may be true in every case, no murderer will enter with weapons in clear confidence all the victims will be not able to fight back.
There might be another alternative: stun guns. At the very least, it would provide an opportunity to disable a shooter and reduce, if not eliminate, casualties.