A Parents Guide To School Shootings

My husband and I are no different than any of you. We were and are heartbroken over yesterday’s events.

I have posted this article before, but for those of you who have kids in school I think it is one of the best resources to help equip children to deal with the very real possibility that something could happen at their school. I do not believe doing so will frightening them if it is approached in the right way.

Our oldest daughter had to read the article for herself and then we discussed it several times. I would give her possible scenarios and she would then tell me what she would do. For the younger ones we role played and made a game of it. Several friends of our read this blog and they can tell you my kids are calm, relaxed and very kid like. They never talk about guns or bad guys. They do not live in Code Yellow. It is just another way we teach them to be safer like wearing a seatbelt, looking both ways before they cross the street, not touching a hot flame, etc.

My husband and I met with our school superintendent and several other folks responsible for the safety of the children while at school. We presented them a packet full of resources and this article was in it and we discussed it at length. I am not confident they read it, but we at least made the effort. We also gave it to our children’s teachers.

In addition to this article, I have read several of the books on Greg’s recommended list. I read them before I knew he had suggested them, but I agree they are very valuable. The more we know the more we can do.

Please don’t be fooled if your child is in a small school or a private one or in an affluent area. Crazy and evil reside everywhere and sometimes it travels. Take the time now to do a little preparing.

21 thoughts on “A Parents Guide To School Shootings

    • Except it won’t work. We have made alcohol, drugs and murder illegal, but people still drank, do drugs and kill. Criminals will always find a way to get a gun or kill.

      But I suspect you don’t care about facts and are only here to cause trouble. Don’t.

    • That picture is misleading. Why not specify the population of each country too and express those deaths as a percentage of the total population.

      It’s easy to skew a number or a set of numbers to solidify a position. Put those numbers in context and the ‘solid base’ kind of goes away.

      While I agree the school shooting was terrible and should not have happened, do you think taking the guns away would have stopped this guy from committing murder? Knives, bats, coffee mugs, stilettos… all can be lethal. So lets ban them too.

      While we’re at it, let’s just ban humans. I mean the source of the problem is the human mind and human actions, so banning humans is THE logical choice.

      You go first.

    • “The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil…”
      – John D. “Jeff” Cooper, Lt Col, USMC (Ret)

    • CT has the 4th toughest gun laws in the nation.

      Norway has gun control regulations that even CT would envy.

      Even before Dunblaine, the Uk had much more servere gun control than either CT or Norway.

      Fort Hood had gun control comparable to the UK.

      Guns weren’t used in the worst school massacre in the US.

      Oklahoma City was conducted, not by guns, but by fertilizer and diesel fuel.

      School shootings (in fact, single incident, multiple victim shootings in general) are on a DOWNWARD trend, and have been for almost 20 years.

      There are TWO constants in ALL of these mass killings:

      1. They ALL occurred in areas where the shooter expected ZERO armed resistance, due to being designated as “Gun Free Zones”.

      2. They ALL involved lunatics who had exhibited CLEAR precusor behavior that was ignored or mishandled by those responsible for doing something about it.

      Gasolene is relatively cheap, matches are free, and arson is a much better way to rack up high body counts.

      Gun control is NOT the answer.

      Lunatic control is.

      In fact, one correlation that is REMARKEABLY strong in all mass killing sprees by one or two individuals. They tend to end nearly instantly as soon as armed resistance (whether police or private citizens) was envountered, usually by the killers committing suicide. Basically, by running and gunning until resistance is encountered, then offing themselves, these pathetic excuses for humans have achieved their goal, and are going out “of their own free will”, rather than as a result of “losing”.

      Even in cases where they do not end instantly on encountering armed resistance (the North Hollywood Bank robbery, which was NOT, I will note, a spree killing, but rather a hyper-violent bank robbery), they tend to end in suicide once the offenders realize they are surrounded and will not be getting away.

      Warren, keep on cheerleading the death of innocents while trying to achieve the destruction of a Constitutional guarantee considered so important that the Constitution would NOT have come into effect without the promise of it.

      Meanwhile, I’ll focus on trying to stop these madmen BEFORE they kill.

  1. Funny, Warren, isn’t it, how inanimate objects are just that…inanimate. Those guns found in those schools didn’t put on a ninja outfit and sneak in after hours on their own. They were brought there. By someone. I’ve got three rifles and a shotgun hanging on my wall at home, all four barrels pointed just at or slightly above head-level when someone is walking through the garage. Just two sheets of drywall and some paint between them and the guns. Yet they’ve never killed anyone…because there was nobody operating them. They’re inanimate. Why do folks always concentrate on the inanimate object in an event like this? The guy pulling the trigger is the one to blame. Screaming for stricter gun controls is like trying to ban automobiles or make it harder for honest citizens to have access to a gas pedal after some drunk hops in his car and plows into a soccer-mom’s van full of kids. But then, with the anti-gun crowd, its not about saving lives, is it? Its not about taking responsibility and owning up to the fact that while some people want to have gun-free areas, they’re not willing to shoulder the mantle of providing security and protection for those inside their zones. Evil knows this, and welcomes your efforts to curtail where gun owners/carriers can legally carry. The price for these zones is being paid by innocents. Sleep well tonight.

  2. Warren–Anything can be a weapon. I could easily do harm with a dull spoon as I could with one of my guns. Anti gun folks will just never get it. They will never understand that anything can be a weapon. Would you have perferred that this guy had strangled all the kids? then you would be screaming lets start chopping off hands. Cain killed Able with a rock, so lets go collect all the rocks in the world and make them illegal to own. How many good innocent folks get killed every year by a person who is DUI? –lets suggest we outlaw alchohol and all vehicles. on 9/11 madmen flew planes into buildings and killed thousands..lets outlaw planes… My point is that this is a tragedy and it is horrific and I pray for the families..but if where there is a will there is a way–and this guy was obviously sick and needed mental health treatment and he did not get it. The media needs to address that issue and not the inanimate object and so do people like you.

  3. Schools, colleges and hospitals should be “SAFE” places for all. However, they and a few other places are becoming shooting ranges for sick people.
    We need to train for work place shooting/ active shooters just like we’d prepare for a flood, fire, tornado, earthquake or hurricane.
    Have drills, set up precautions and train to be ready.

    (A few well trained good citizens with guns hand would be good to).

    • Last ISraeli school shooting I am aware of occurred when the students were on a field trip to the PA, where the teachers COULD NOT carry their guns.

      Likewise, Warren and his blood-mosh-pit fellows do not like to talk about the numerous incidents which had every hallmark of turning into another Columbine, Aurora, etc., but which DID NOT have high body counts. You know, the incidents where one or two CITIZENS (not police officers) on site, managed to get their weapons and STOP the incident cold.

      Mass murders like this are COWARDS, and they will not stand up to an armed threat. It’s been proven time and time again.

  4. One of my concerns is how doors, usually the main front door, are open-anyone can walk into the school… I think all doors should be locked.

    • Counsel dew –

      A valid concern for many schools. However, in CT, they had those locked doors. But they apparently recognized, and/or believed, the shooter and believed he had a valid reason for coming in to the school and buzzed him through the locked door. So locked doors are not the answer, if the shooter is known. And he usually is.

      For example, at Thurston High they probably wouldn’t have worked – he was a student (but was under a one-day suspension, so might have worked on that one particular day only).

      At Columbine the shooters were students there, so they would have been buzzed in.

      No, locked doors aren’t the answer. There is no one answer.

      But two big steps forward would be:

      1) for the media to stop giving these murderers the limelight, their “15 minutes of fame”. Report the event, but specifically, and overtly, refuse to name the perpetrator. Don’t give them the satisfaction of knowing their name will be broadcast.

      2) allow teachers and staff, both paid and volunteer, to carry at school if they have the proper knowledge and training. In some states schools are not off limits by law to people with permits. But the school districts and teachers’ unions through the employment contract prevent teachers from carrying where they otherwise legally could, for fear of losing their jobs.

      I no longer have school-age children. But I do occasionally go on to the grounds of the local university. I am thankful that I do not have to worry about going unarmed.

      • I agree. Locked doors wouldn’t solve the issue. There is no sure fire way. Innocent people will get killed by those that are evil. It’s the price we pay for free will, but the carnage can be reduced and as you say if we stopped glorifying the deeds, perhaps it would help. Regardless, they deserve no such attention.

        • He went through a window… Closed room or did nobody hear anything? We don’t know enough information yet, but something needs to be done.

          Staging entrances is an easy improvement. I agree there is no one answer, but we have to stop shooting down options that might help just because it isn’t the one answer…

          A deputy at each school, not just at middle and high schools, would also help. Easier to pay for that than for training for teachers-many of whom don’t want guns on campus… Even PH.D. holders snap too.

          Again… There is no one answer. Likely we will need to do a number of things: LE at each school, better screening (he came to school but he wasn’t a student, his mom wasn’t there,…), and more security.

          I support freedom and individual rights, but if it is an option of teaching kids to hide, evade, escape, and resist or that plus my suggestions, I know how I would vote…

      • Slight change in info. Now they’re reporting that he broke a window to gain access to the school, so he didn’t go through the buzzer procedure. Same net result. Locks are for honest people, and windows are easy to break.

    • Locked doors have other security issues — they can keep the DESIRED people OUT.

      Callous as it sounds, and while drills and practice outght to incorporate Active Shooters, the simple fact is that tornadoes, earthquakes, fires, or other highly destructive natural disasters are a bigger threat to your kids in most areas.

      Tornado blows through a school in Kansas? Page 3 story, forgotten in a day or two anywhere outside the region. Major earthquakes stick around longer in the collective mind, simply because they affect a much larger area.

      School shootings, however, get COVERED. In today’s 24/7/365, Twitter, Facebook, live cable coverage world, school shootings get a LOT more attention than they did 20 or more years ago.

      You MUST evaluate the risk by comparing likelyhood versus the consequences. Most school divisions (i.e., the ones that HAVEN’T already done so in the last 10 years or so) would do better to completely replace their fire alarm system and exterior glass windows to avoid casualties from fire and tornados. They’ll save more lives overall.

  5. By the way, teh linked article is spot-on, and matches 100% with the professional analyses (analysi? ) of Active Shooters.

    1. Survive

    2. Evade

    3. Resist

    4. Escape

    The only change from military doctrine is to re-order “Escape” to rank before “Resist” in preference. Especially for smaller kids — running and weaving targets getting farther away are HARD to hit, even if you are a good shot (which most of tehse shooters ARE NOT). Kids who get outside the building, even if they have a bullet wound or broken legs from jumping, have a pretty good shot at being medevaced in time. I GUARANTEE that law enforcement will figure a way to close and evac a kid outside the building, if they have to run in holding spare vests over their heads. Any of my cop friends, anyone I served with in the Army, would run in buck naked if they had to in order to evac a wounded kid who managed to get outside. Likely get away with it, too — frankly, your odds of surviving a bullet wound are better than a knife wound, IF you can get to medical help quickly enough.

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