“Of course it was not the right decision; it was the wrong decision period.”
– Col. Steven McCraw, Director Texas Department of Public Safety (May 27, 2022.)
Nineteen police officers were massed outside the Uvalde classroom but stopped from trying to break through the locked door by an incident commander who believed no more lives were at risk. Frantic 911 calls from children inside, however, proved that decision was a mistake, the state's top law officer said Friday.
In a briefing Friday, May 27, the on-scene commander made the call that the carnage at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday had gone from an active shooter situation to a “barricaded suspect” situation.
McCraw said with the benefit of hindsight, it was clear there were still students inside and in danger.
The admission came as police revealed the first time that shooter marched in through an unlocked door that had been propped open by a teacher.
The teacher propped the door at 11:27 a.m. a minute before 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos crashed his car into a ditch near the school Tuesday.
Authorities are scrambling to explain why it took an hour to take out the shooter, whose rampage at the school Tuesday left 19 children and two teachers dead.
(Mark Lungariello. “Top Texas cop admits cops botched Uvalde school response: ‘Wrong decision, period.'” The New York Post. May 27, 2022.)
The gunman who killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was on the premises for up to an hour before law enforcement forcibly entered a classroom and killed him, officials said Wednesday, May 25.
The 18-year-old shooter was in a standoff with law enforcement officers for about a half-hour after firing on students and teachers, Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose district includes Uvalde, told CNN’s Jake Tapper, citing a briefing he was given.
“And then (the shooting) stops, and he barricades himself in. That’s where there’s kind of a lull in the action,” Gonzales said. “All of it, I understand, lasted about an hour, but this is where there’s kind of a 30-minute lull. They feel as if they’ve got him barricaded in. The rest of the students in the school are now leaving.”
(Isabelle Chapman, Daniel A. Medina, Nicole Chavez, Dakin Andone and Elizabeth Wolfe, “Uvalde school shooter was in school for up to an hour before law enforcement broke into room where he was barricaded and killed him.” CNN. May 26, 2022.)
The horror of the school massacre continues to unfold in Uvalde. Mistakes now seem to have played a major role in the terrible tragedy. Time will surely tell more about the unspeakable crime.
Reality And Risk
Life-and-death decisions by authorities during the proverbial “fog of war” in an active shooter attack are complex and full of risk. I know many now support teachers and other school staff carrying guns on public school campuses. Wrong decisions, like those Uvalde, can be devastating. Even highly trained police officers can and do make critical mistakes. The knee-jerk reaction simply to have guns in the hands of trusted adults on campus is fraught with dangers.
The truth is that to safely carry and use a concealed weapon on campus during an active shooter attack, teachers must first receive intensive, on-going firearms training. The National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), which opposes arming teachers, says the training of teachers should be done under simulated and high-stress conditions, and should prepare them to take the lives of students if they are the assailants. Because firearm skills degrade rapidly, training must be on-going and frequent.
Robin Hattersley-Gray – Editor-in-Chief of Campus Safety, who has authored award-winning editorials on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, and crime trends – says …
“Considering all of the challenges campuses have with adequately maintaining their cameras, locks, two-way radios and other equipment, the idea that faculty members would stay current on firearms training is delusional. What’s more, not staying up-to-date on firearms proficiency is potentially much more deadly than not maintaining your security equipment. If a camera, radio or lock isn’t maintained, it most likely just won’t work, but it won’t kill anyone, unlike the misuse of a gun.
“Additionally, most CCP qualification standards aren’t very demanding and don’t address the training capabilities I’ve just mentioned.”
(Robin Hattersley-Gray. “Should School Teachers Carry Guns? Campus Safety. April 03, 2018.)
According to Northern Virginia Community College Lt. John Weinstein, who is an ardent gun rights supporter, it’s possible to receive a CCP in his state without actually demonstrating live fire proficiency. This lax standard probably applies to other states as well.”
Additionally, according to Weinstein, those who receive training on a range most likely won’t be adequately prepared to respond to an active shooter.
“First, most ranges don’t allow shooters to draw from holsters, both on the hip and concealed,” he says. “Second, most ranges do not allow shooting and moving, an essential firearms combat skill.”
Even individuals who have received active shooter firearms response training from local police have performed poorly during active shooter exercises. Weinstein recalls the time he witnessed a church active shooter exercise a few years ago involving church team members who were trained and went through some simple scenarios: “During various scenarios, innocent civilians were shot, as were police (actors) responding to the scene. Team members crossed in front of other members’ aimed weapons. In short, it was a nightmare, not to mention a gigantic potential liability for the church.”
(Robin Hattersley-Gray. “Should School Teachers Carry Guns? Campus Safety. April 03, 2018.)
The fact is that police officers who do receive adequate firearms training more often than not miss their targets when they are under the severe stress of an incident.
Here’s a list of several other reasons why arming teachers is a bad idea:
It increases the risk of teachers being shot by responding police officers who could mistake them for the assailant (friendly fire)
It increases the potential for negligent discharges
It increases the chances of students or other unauthorized individuals getting the gun either by force or if the teacher accidentally leaves it somewhere
The teacher could be tempted to go after the shooter and abandon his or her class
A small concealed firearm is much less accurate than a long gun, which is used by law enforcement
It would require teachers to receive initial and then periodic background checks and mental health screening on par with those conducted on applicants for law enforcement positions.
The presence of a gun actually encourages hostile confrontation, according to a recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. This is an important point to remember since most school incidents do not involve active shooters. Hostile confrontation might be exactly the wrong response to a situation.
It’s expensive. According to the Brookings Institute, arming 10-20 percent of our nation’s 3.2 million public school teachers would cost more than $650 million, and that estimate is conservative.
It’s unclear whether the presence of an armed individual acts as a deterrent. The Parkland, Fla., shooter certainly wasn’t deterred, despite the fact that there was an armed SRO on campus. Additionally, many active shooters are suicidal.
Conclusion
The Uvalde, Texas shooting reopened the debate over whether teachers should be armed. 28 states, including Texas, allow it but with restrictions. Arguments against arming teachers and school resource officers highlight the elevated risk of accidents and negligent use of firearms as more adults in schools are armed.
The Associated Press reported, for instance, that there were more than 30 incidents between 2014 and 2018 that involved a firearm brought to a school by a law enforcement officer or that involved a teacher improperly discharging or losing control of a weapon (Penzenstadler, Foley, and Fenn, 2017).
(Penzenstadler, Nick, Ryan J. Foley, and Larry Fenn, “Accidental Shootings Involving Kids Often Go Unpunished,” Associated Press, May 24, 2017.)
This compares with around 20 active-shooter attacks at schools over a comparable period (Cai and Patel, 2019).
(Cai, Weiyi, and Jugal K. Patel, “A Half-Century of School Shootings Like Columbine, Sandy Hook and Parkland,” New York Times, May 11, 2019.)
When even trained police officers have been found to successfully hit their intended targets in just 18 percent of incidents involving an exchange of gunfire (Rostker et al., 2008), critics question whether teachers can be expected to effectively return fire without inadvertently injuring the children they mean to protect (Vince, Wolfe, and Field, 2015).
(Rostker, Bernard D., Lawrence M. Hanser, William M. Hix, Carl Jensen, Andrew R. Morral, Greg Ridgeway, and Terry L. Schell, Evaluation of the New York City Police Department Firearm Training and Firearm-Discharge Review Process, Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, MG-717-NYPD, 2008. As of October 6, 2019.)
(Vince, Joseph J., Timothy Wolfe, and Layton Field, Firearms Training and Self-Defense: Does the Quality and Frequency of Training Determine the Realistic Use of Firearms by Citizens for Self-Defense? Chicago, Ill.: National Gun Victims Action Council, 2015.)
Finally, if teachers are holding guns or engaged in gunfire, it may make the job of law enforcement officers more difficult and dangerous when they arrive at the scene. Officers could mistake the teacher for an active shooter or could themselves be inadvertently shot by the teacher.
More guns mean more gun deaths. In addition, a 2017 Pew Research Center survey found that more than half of U.S. adults (55%) would oppose allowing teachers and officials to carry guns in K-12 schools, including 36% who said they would strongly oppose such a proposal. Still, a sizable minority (45%) said they favored allowing teachers to carry guns in schools.
Educators see themselves as agents of change, not guardians of the status quo like the police. This means that teacher-educators try to help novices adopt an expansive professional vision that enables them to imagine possibilities for all students, welcomes them despite differences they might have with one another and the teacher, and encourages decision-making in the moment that is informed by such a perspective.
Teachers serve the public best when they see the human potential in each child and actively work over time to remove barriers that prevent children from growing into their limitless selves.
To contrast the training, police are taught to respond with routines that reflect both attunement to danger and an admittedly biased model for determining who is good and bad.
The professional vision of the police is ultimately narrow – they are taught to look for trouble, make decisions based on limited information, and act quickly. These decisions primarily defend a sense of security for dominant groups and preserve current social norms.
Would armed teachers make some terrible judgments due to their conflicting primary concerns on campus? I believe the answer is “yes.” Professional law enforcement officers on a public school campus face unique, challenging obstacles if and when they decide to use their weapons. Poorly trained teachers with guns would struggle mightily when confronted with those same impediments.
I also believe teacher who pack guns send the wrong message to their students – these youth can come to believe that they need their own firearms to meet threats of aggression.
One survey released by the research firm RAND and funded by the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers asked a nationally representative sample of public school teachers a battery of questions in late January and early February 2021.
More than three in four teachers reported frequent job-related stress, compared to 40% of other working adults. Perhaps even more alarming: 27% of teachers reported symptoms of depression, compared to 10% of other adults.
(Elizabeth D. Steiner, Ashley Woo. “Job-Related Stress Threatens the Teacher Supply.” https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1108-1.html. Key Findings from the 2021 State of the U.S. Teacher Survey.)
Are proponents sure they want to arm our nation's public teachers in these stressful conditions? It could turn out to be another “wrong decision, period.”
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