Give Tamaqua school officials credit for addressing mass shootings
up.
Locally, I believe the Tamaqua Area School District has taken too much flak for trying to address the issue by allowing teachers and staff to be armed. Parents, staff and others criticized the policy at a school board meeting Wednesday night — just hours before the Borderline shooting.
At least officials in Tamaqua are doing something. I don’t know if arming teachers is the appropriate response, but at least it’s a response.
I have mixed feelings about teachers and staff carrying guns. Knowing that a teacher in their classroom is armed, or wondering whether a teacher is armed, could put students on edge. Or it could put them at ease.
The biggest concern is the potential for something to go wrong — teachers or staff members not securing their weapons, misinterpreting something as a threat or not responding appropriately to an actual threat — and an innocent person being shot.
I don’t want to live in a society where everyone has to walk around with a gun because they’re afraid of people taking out their frustrations on the world. But I also recognize that sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. Having people at a school who could confront a shooter could reduce the number of casualties.
It’s no guarantee. One of the victims in Wednesday’s shooting at the Borderline bar was a sheriff’s sergeant who was rushing to help.
I doubt arming teachers would deter a shooter from targeting a school. There was a sheriff’s deputy stationed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and that didn’t deter a former student from opening fire there in February.
We can’t become immune to these slaughters. Remember, it could happen to any of us, anywhere we go. Rampages have occurred at restaurants, a post office, a military base, an immigration center, workplaces and other public venues.
I was ashamed when I searched for details of mass shootings and realized how many of them I had forgotten about. There is no simple solution. We’ve discussed banning some weapons, but that won’t prevent all mass shootings. While many shooters used assault-style rifles, some, including suspected Borderline shooter Ian David Long, used handguns.
We’ve discussed restricting who can own weapons, but that won’t prevent all mass shootings. Some killers passed background checks to buy guns, or hadn’t committed offenses or been committed for mental health problems that might have required them to turn in firearms.
That doesn’t mean restrictions aren’t part of the answer. Reducing access to weapons with massive firepower, and devices such as bump stocks, can’t hurt in the fight to curb these incidents. And background checks and ownership limitations can keep guns away from some people who shouldn’t have them.
Pennsylvania lawmakers and the governor made progress this year by enacting a law requiring people convicted of domestic violence or who are subject to a protective abuse order to surrender their guns within 24 hours.
Lawmakers chickened out on approving other legislation, such as expanding background checks and banning bump stocks. Those bills hopefully will come up again next year.
We have to keep trying to do what we can, on all fronts.
paul.muschick@mcall.com 610-820-6582 Paul Muschick’s columns are published Monday through Friday at themorningcall.com and Sunday, Wednesday and Friday in The Morning Call. Follow me on Facebook at PaulMuschickColumns, Twitter @mcwatchdog and themorningcall.com/muschick.