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February 28, 2013

Late Addition: Bills on Requiring Armed Guards at Schools to be Heard Today

Carroll Andrew Morse

A bill (H5068) requiring cities and towns to post an armed guard at every school in Rhode Island was posted Tuesday for a House Municipal Government hearing today. Here's the complete text:

The school committees of various cities, towns, and school districts, shall appoint a guard to each school building within their jurisdiction. The guard shall protect the safety of all students and school personnel and preserve order at each school.
I wouldn't oppose a decision by local authorities to assign armed guards at the schools they are responsible for, if they determined it made sense for their circumstances. However, I'm also skeptical that a blanket mandate by the legislature, especially one that rather casually combines protecting safety and preserving order, is the most sensible policy on this issue.

Comments

Repeat after me...unfunded mandate.

Posted by: Patrick at February 28, 2013 9:02 AM

SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!

Posted by: John at February 28, 2013 9:39 AM

The nauseating and slightly of his rocker Wayne LaPierre of the NRA is calling for armed police officers to be posted in every American school. Then the NRA can pay for it too. 12 billion a year should cover it. Where do we send the bill? ? ?
Or a tax on all guns and ammunition to pay for hired guns to protect normal people... from guns?
How about that? We can't have any new, UNFUNDED spending now can we?

(The draft-dodging LaPierre refused government paid FREE guns and bullets during the Vietnam War)

Posted by: Sammy in Arizoa at February 28, 2013 2:15 PM

sammy-Everyone with an IQ above 80 knows Ted Nugent is a loudmouth POS and a draft dodger-I think LaPierre is too young to have been one,but please present proof or shut your foul trap punk

Posted by: joe bernstein at February 28, 2013 5:10 PM

unlike troll sammy I always admit an error-LaPierre is old enough to have been drafted-but darft dodging is a serious accusation-sammy will never provide details-I KNOW what Nugent did-f**k him

Posted by: joe bernstein at February 28, 2013 5:14 PM

For the record..."Wayne LaPierre born November 8, 1948" citation Wikipedia"

Which would make him 18 in 1966 and 22 years old after 4 years of college in 1970, or 20 years old after hiding out in a castle in France with his own chef and manservant, like Scissorhands Romney did
Respectfully Sammy

Posted by: Sammy in Arizona at February 28, 2013 6:18 PM

I'll start by saying that I support the second amendment. I don't mind people having guns, even the ones that go 'pew-pew-pew!'

I don't even like to use a baby monitor at home, especially not the video kind. I think it's bad for kids to grow up 'vigilantly watched'. I feel the same way about this. I'd like for more cops to be walking around on the street with nothing but mace and batons. I had a friend have two guns drawn on him by officers for -littering-, and then 'talking back'.

Adding an armed guard to a school isn't going to make them safer (just shoot the guard!).

Adding armed guards might make them LESS SAFE. I'll bet accidents and 'fatal misunderstandings' happen more often than shootings are prevented.

The costs just do not add up. There's a way to do policy math where you account for spending vs. lives saved. Usually you try not to spend more than $6-12M per life. The 'excessive' fire coverage in Rhode Island adds up to about $38M/life saved. Armed guards would cost about $120M/life, assuming that the guards are 100% effective at ending school shootings. Not worth it by any means.

What I don't get is how there's political support from anyone on this kind of crazy expensive stuff... Am I the ONLY ONE with a cocktail napkin and a pen to do the basic math?!

Posted by: mangeek at February 28, 2013 7:20 PM

This is unnecessary. You don't beat the hysterical, irrational gun control crowd by stooping to their level of emotionalism and overreaction. You beat them with reason, maturity, and respect for individual rights.

Posted by: Dan at February 28, 2013 8:53 PM

Does anymore need to be said other than that private schools in DC have armed guards.

Sammy, as to hiding out in France, I think you are confusing Romney with Sly Stallone (a/k/a Rambo).

Posted by: Warrington Faust at March 2, 2013 9:19 PM

"Rambo" actually hid out in Switzerland.i'm still not convinced about LaPierre-lots of people in that period weren't drafted for a host of reasons not having to do with evasion.

Posted by: joe bernstein at March 3, 2013 12:04 AM