Tags
Arapahoe High School, Colorado, He Was Weird, Michael D LeFevre, NRA, school security, school shootings, schools, Security
The question of armed security guards in schools has become a major topic for discussion and debate over the recent years, so I thought I would venture forth with my thoughts on the subject. In a scene in “He Was Weird,” a Hollywood actor with conservative views addresses a meeting of the NRA about a month after Mark carries out his extravaganza on the school. During his speech, the actor explains that an armed security guard in the school would have dropped Mark before he got a chance to do so much damage. I was inspired to put this into the story because of it being the subject of so much media attention. However, I do not go further into the debate because I didn’t feel that was the point of the novel.
A school shooting at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado that occurred just before Christmas has brought the debate on armed guards in schools more into the limelight. The investigation states that the fact there was an armed deputy on duty at the school as the reason the casualty count was so low. In this instance, the shooter, who was about to be confronted by an armed officer, took his own life. Many applaud the fact that in this case, the armed guard proved to be a deterrent in the school shooting and conservatives are now rubbing this point into the liberals noses.
Well, I consider myself a bit of a liberal. However, I do not oppose the use of armed guards in schools if that is what is needed to make schools safer. My lament is over the fact that it has had to come down to this in the first place. The fact that such a thing is needed to ensure safe schools creates a sour taste in my mouth but I know that at the moment, it needs to be done especially if the other issues as to why a kid would bring a gun to school in the first place aren’t being looked at properly.
The whole thing now has my strange but wonderful mind going off in another direction. In regards to the book, would Mark have not carried out his atrocity if there had been an armed guard at the school? Getting into Mark’s mind, I think he would have, he would have just had to alter his plan. Since his deed was done in the playground before the official start of school, he would have tried to ascertain whether or not the guard would have been on duty. Even so, he would have still secured his first killing field before the alarm had been raised anyway so this would only mean that he would have had to alter his plan for the second one or abandon it completely. This still might have saved some lives but I emphasise might because the one major aspect in his plan was that Mark in no way wanted to be taken alive. Therefore, I speculate that, in order to save lives, the guard would have shot Mark dead on sight and that’s what he would have wanted.
Next post: Armed Teachers?
To buy He Was Weird, go to: http://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-LeFevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1390845578&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird