New Jersey schools should have armed guards (Opinion)

As I have been saying for years, we have to harden our spot targets across the state and nation. The idea that an armed thug could enter school grounds or buildings unchallenged is completely unacceptable in a civilized society. The question is what do we do to solve the problem?

We've all watched in horror over the past few years as kids and school staff have been massacred at the hands of crazed, evil gunmen. Moving past the obvious solution to aggressively solve the mental health crisis by ending the normalization of mental illness, we need an immediate solution.

In the past, I've written about the many solutions we can implement to protect our schools BEFORE we send in armed guards and it holds true today. Beyond having an armed resource officer, we need to look at the facts surrounding armed teachers and staff.

In areas where teachers are armed in school, tragedies are prevented. A comprehensive study in 2019 (at a time when only 20 states had laws allowing teachers to carry a firearm) showed that there were no shooting deaths between 6 a.m. and midnight in any school where there were armed teachers. The pull quote:

Twenty states currently allow teachers and staff to carry guns to varying degrees on school property, so we don’t need to guess how the policy would work. There has yet to be a single case of someone being wounded or killed from a shooting, let alone a mass public shooting, between 6 AM and midnight at a school that lets teachers carry guns. Fears of teachers carrying guns in terms of such problems as students obtaining teachers guns have not occurred at all, and there was only one accidental discharge outside of school hours with no one was really harmed."
John Lott, Crime Prevention Research Center

After the tragedy in Ulvalde Texas, the debate reignited as 8 more states passed laws empowering teachers to be armed. Of course, the restrictions require the teacher to have a legal concealed carry permit and to go through training. In the case of Texas, it's 80 hours of training.

The bottom line is that the results speak volumes in the US. Armed good guys are a strong measure against armed bad guys. Here are some resources if you are a school board member looking to argue in favor of armed resource officers and teachers in your district:

Both sides/pros and cons discussed: read HERE.

Armed guards are necessary: read HERE.

Focus on school security: read HERE.

Advantages of armed security in school: read HERE.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill's own. Bill Spadea is on the air weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m., talkin’ Jersey, taking your calls at 1-800-283-1015.

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