Stupid Arguments Against Guns: The Instantaneous Defense Argument
So I'm neither for nor against the idea of arming teachers. But this general kind of argument rears its stupid head every time this general kind of idea is floated:
ZOMG guns in gun safes won't do any good because if a gunman bursts into the room and starts blasting away with an AR-15 there will be no time to get the gun out of the safe!!!!111
Look. If somebody leaps into the room and starts blasting away, there's basically nothing that's likely to save you. But that's not how most victims are shot in mass shootings. That happens, if at all, only to the first few victims. After that, the victims have heard him coming and have time to prepare. They'd have more than enough time to get a gun out of a safe.
Two seconds of thought and a modicum of intellectual honesty would allow people to see this.
Which, again, is not to endorse the idea of arming teachers.
posted by Winston Smith at
7:54 PM
1 Comments:
Some of the more compelling arguments I've see against the proposal tend to focus on funding. There are school districts that are only holding class 4 days a week due to lack of funding, nevermind the all too common stories about teachers buying the most basic supplies out of their own, often impoverished pockets. The amount of guns it would take to make a difference, the ammo, the time spent to train folks, etc., it's hard to imagine it would be an insubstantial amount of money. And ultimately, if there is money for that but not enough to support the actual aim of such institutions, we've got more than a little soul searching to do, though I suppose that was already obvious...
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