I'd also be concerned about how drunk homeless people are getting into the school...
I wouldn't be too concerned about that, at least not because of this incident.
It didn't happen at the school. It happened at the men's restroom on the Deerfield Beach Pier. On a Sunday. That would be "during the weekend", not "over the weekend". Those phrases have different meanings and are not identical.
The linked report from the Miami Herald did not state the amount of time that passed between the gun being left, and being recovered. We are left to assume it was a long time, but that is an assumption, and doesn't seem correct, considering the report also says that the teacher was able to wrestle the gun away from the homeless drunk, after the drunk had fired a round.
Again, the report does not have enough details to be certain how much time passed, but I can't imagine it was very long. It MIGHT be that the drunk was already in the restroom, and entered the stall right after the teacher left it. We don't know where the teacher was when the gun was fired. We don't know if he was in the restroom washing his hands, or 5 blocks away down the beach, or whether he was struggling with the drunk to get the gun away from him when it fired. The news report about the incident doesn't tell us these (somewhat) important details. The report did identify the gun, however, as a Glock...
Numerous valid points about school safety have been made in this thread, so far, and a few that aren't quite "on the mark".
The biggest one, is the continued use of the media's phrase "arming teachers". That phrase is shorter and easier to say than "allowing teachers to be armed", so I get why they use it in that regard. But the two phrases do not mean the same thing. Not that the media cares...
"Arming teachers" means issuing them arms. PROVIDING them with weapons. This is not what anyone I've heard proposes to do. All that is proposed and called "arming teachers" by the press is allowing teachers the legal right to have their own, personal arms at work with them. NOT the same thing as issuing them an AR or any other weapon at the start of the school day.
Many people say "hire more cops, put them at the schools". Which might work, but the cost is a huge factor against that.
Now, I realize that anything we do about the situation is going to involve costs we currently aren't paying. And people are not going to want to pay anything more than they already do, if possible. So, what's the answer? Is there even one?? Would you be ok with hiring more cops (and putting them at schools) if it meant your taxes went up $25? How about if your taxes went up $3000??? Makes quite a difference, I think.
I have a suggestion that I haven't seen anyone else mention. Instead of hiring more cops why not just move the cops we already have???
CO-Locate a police precinct station /sheriff substation, etc on school grounds. Not the jail, or holding cells, but dispatchers, offices, locker rooms, etc. That way there are always some officers present, and they will be coming and going at random, unpredictable times (other than shift changes), so a potential mass killer has no way of knowing how many cops will be right there to respond, only that there will always be someone.
Yes, it would be a massive project, and no, it would NOT be cheap, but it would be a one time expense.
Other suggestions have varying degrees of merit. There is no free lunch.
I think its a poor idea to try to make teachers into SWAT responders. Few teachers are physically suited, and fewer still are mentally suited for that job. that is a burden they should not be expected to take on, and should never be required to.
Identifying "raid" jackets for teachers, so responding police don't shoot them mistakenly sounds like a good idea, but is it, really?? What happens when the killer(s) are wearing the same garb??
I would point out the Aurora Co movie theater killings, where the murder wore nearly exactly the same dress as the responding cops, and only failed to escape because he didn't try to. He hung around outside the theater watching "the show", and it wasn't until one astute officer recognized that while the rest of his gear matched, his gas mask was different from the ones the rest of the cops had. When that officer went to ask him about that, he confessed to being the shooter, and surrendered.
Impersonating the police is not a new thing, and getting your hands on raid jackets and other police equipment is not an insurmountable task. again, having teachers wear "staff" jackets or something like that MAY be a benefit, but where does that benefit go if the killer wears the same thing???
Stored arms (AR??) with ammo for emergency use also sound like a good idea, like fire extinguishers, right?
Except fire extinguishers don't have much use, other than fighting fires, so street demand for them is pretty low. AR rifles and ammo (or any gun, really) even stored in "secure alarmed containers" are a juicy, tempting target, and even with alarms, unless you have officers right there, guarding them, some of them WILL be stolen. Even a couple of minutes in response time could allow a gang to get away with one, or three, etc. Very bad PR, if that happens, now you are "arming criminals"!!!!
There's no easy way out, there's nothing that will work 100% of the time, nothing will deter a person who plans to die anyway. I'd like to think some horrific punishment (not allowed by modern law) MIGHT stop some people from committing these mass killings, but I recognize the only real deterrent effect being flogged to death in the public square (for example) would have is just to further deter the killers from being taken alive.
I don't know what will work, I don't know for certain that there is anything that will work, but I do know that taking things away from people who didn't commit any crime has zero effect on the people who do commit crimes.
Demanding that your neighbor's dog has to be locked in the house, all the time, because the wolf ate your sheep doesn't help anyone, except the wolf...