In those countries you mentioned you have no right to us a gun for self defense and are more likely to be a victim of criminals as they know you won’t be armed. Here in the US you have a right to defend yourself with a gun. I’ll take the US over any of those other countries any day.

@Trajan61 cool story and we have heard it millions of times from the NRA and other gun maniacs, only, all the data and hard evidence shows exactly the opposite of that claim.

Well said!

I would remove my child from any school with an armed guard. Accidents and psycho guards would kill far more children than are now killed. There are about 132,656 schools in the US, if each one had a guard, that would be over 130,000 chances someone will be hurt or killed by one of those guns. NO, this is a bad idea.

@EdEarl do you ever wonder why we have guards protecting banks, military bases, government offices, government officials, airports, etc.?

It's to keep them safe. How does a guard whose job is to protect the school equate to someone being Hurt or killed? You don't have to kill a person to deter them from shooting your children. I'd be fine if my kids went to a secure school. What's the problem with security?

@Lancer Your fear drives a knee-jerk reaction that I'm unlikely to change. I don't want my children to be terrified by armed guards. I appreciate your desire for safety, but I think you are wrong minded. I'm not into flame wars.

@EdEarl you sound like a reasonable person, I understand that we have different preferences and views on this matter.

But I'm sure we can both agree that these types of incidents must be stopped. At the end of the day we want the same thing.

I just wish other people were more accepting and receptive to open discussion. Sadly though, working together and finding a middle ground is something that most people don't want to do.

@Lancer I appreciate your listening. I also think the money spent on guards would be better spent on education and more school psychologists who should have time to work with students more, especially giving time to those with the greatest need. I think we should focus on prevention, not remediation. Albeit, the authorities may be necessary, but not permanently stationed at schools.

@EdEarl I agree we should put more funding into school psychologists and other preventative measures however one major factor in incidents such as these is the community around the individual. The parents, teachers and the students that are around the people who commit incidents like these have so many chances to stop it from happening.

I used to be a bit of a problem child in school when I was 6-8 but one day a man overheard the bad stories about me when he heard 2 women gossiping in the staff room, the women hated having me as a student and I was the worst in my class, I didn't have many friends either. Plus I ran away from school often because people were bullying me.

But this teacher, this man. He requested I be put into his class the following year. I went from having almost no friends and being a social outcast with the worst grades. Transformed into the best student in the class with many more friends, my life changed dramatically in 1 year because a great man saw something in me. He changed me in ways that other teachers thought impossible and to be honest, if I hadn't had him as a teacher I would probably would have gone down the wrong path eventually.

I think the teachers also need to try teach kids more than just the curriculum. I know it's not their job but it would help a lot. If they listened openly and honestly to their students when they need someone to help them, then you can help save not just 1 life but many many more.

@Lancer My wife is a special-ed k-5 teacher, who works many 12 hour days, and sometimes weekends, just to satisfy federal regulations, lots of testing and other non-teaching stuff, and spend a few minutes each day with her children, but she has too many to help them as she would like. She is maxed out. Schools really do need more money to provide more services, or the federal regulations need to change so teachers spend time with kids, instead of other things.