14 DAY TRIAL // As news of the Newtown, Connecticut shooting is still rocking America, several people are lobbying for teachers to be allowed to carry a weapon to school. In the small and isolated town of Harrold, Texas, that has been possible since October 2007.
The Harrold Independent School District has set up the "Guardian Plan," allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons. They resorted to this measure after the shootings at Pennsylvania and Virginia Tech.
In an interview with KFYO, Superintendent David Thweatt explains that schools need protection more than other locations, and labeling them as "Gun Free Zones" just welcomes attacks such as the one at Sandy Hook Elementary.
"We implemented this plan, and as far as I’m concerned, this is something that need to happen not just in rural areas school. It needs to happen everywhere because of this awful event that took place and every educator that heard it was just so sad. And I think not just educators, anyone who though about these small children being killed brutally," he notes.
He is quoted by Washington Times explaining how a hidden weapon is more efficient that a visible one, as it offers the advantage of surprising an assailant.
"A shooter could take out a guard or officer with a visible, holstered weapon, but our teachers have master's degrees, are older and have had extensive training. And their guns are hidden. We can protect our children," Thweatt says.
In Indiana, the law does not forbid carrying a weapon on school property, JS Online writes. School policy comes into play, when the decision is made on whether or not teachers can actually be armed.
In Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, the sheriff speaks against gun control, suggesting armed guards should be present "in every school and public place in America."
"We have to resist with the ferociousness of a junk yard dog any – any – attempt by liberals to make us less free by chipping away at our constitutional freedoms," he writes in the Tea Party Perspective.