School armed guard leaves gun unattended in student bathroom

[ScrappyB]

Guns in schools? What could possibly go wrong?

http://gawker.com/5977112/security-officer-hired-by-school-in-response-to-sandy-hook-shooting-forgets-to-take-handgun-with-him-when-exiting-student-restroom

[Thejebusfire]

According to the article it wasn't loaded, so I guess that's a good thing.

[Whore of Spamylon]

Guns in schools? What could possibly go wrong?

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/25/justice/new-york-empire-state-shooting/index.html

On a busy Friday morning in Manhattan, nine pedestrians suffered bullet or fragment wounds after police unleashed a hail of gunfire at a man wielding a .45 caliber pistol who had just killed a former co-worker.

Police officers having guns? What could possibly go wrong?

See?  I can point to anecdotal evidence as well.

[Art Vandelay]

Why'd he have his gun out in the first place? Aren't there strict rules about keeping it holstered unless it's actually being used?

[The Illusive Man]

Folks you can’t buy competence, not even with bank notes.

[Stormwarden]

That officer is an idiot. It's firearm safety 101! You keep that thing in the damned holster until you need it. You don't leave it in a situation like above where any kid with more curiosity than sense can pick it up, loaded or not. Ladies and Gentlemen, VET YOUR GUARDS, make sure they have the training and know-how to be there.

I'll be in my angry demiplane if anyone wants to look for me (thank you, demiplane seed!)

[Her3tiK]

I say we teach kindergartners gun safety. Get 'em to shoot and handle firearms at a young age (with live ammo), and they won't grow into this bumblefuck.

Because the lesson stuck, or they died in a training accident. Either way.

[mellenORL]

I say we teach kindergartners gun safety. Get 'em to shoot and handle firearms at a young age (with live ammo), and they won't grow into this bumblefuck.

Because the lesson stuck, or they died in a training accident. Either way.

My dad did exactly that. On my first outing with him and my brothers at the junkyard shooting range, when I was a 4 year old girl, he placed his huge Spanish American War-era officers Colt .45 revolver into my hands, his hands were over mine, guiding and controlling for safety, telling me to be ready for the loud noise and kick-back, explaining the proper way to squeeze the trigger. I never even thought about casually "playing" with a gun after that. I now knew just how powerful and dangerous they could be. It was a good lesson. Later in my childhood, he taught me more about handgun and rifle safety. The family trips to the junkyard range are fond memories.

[Sylvana]

Guns in schools? What could possibly go wrong?

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/25/justice/new-york-empire-state-shooting/index.html

On a busy Friday morning in Manhattan, nine pedestrians suffered bullet or fragment wounds after police unleashed a hail of gunfire at a man wielding a .45 caliber pistol who had just killed a former co-worker.

Police officers having guns? What could possibly go wrong?

See?  I can point to anecdotal evidence as well.

This is a false equivalence and you know it.
The fact that children by the very nature of their youth do not really know better puts them at far greater risk than anyone else around unattended firearms.
Police officers are supposed to be trained better, however America does seem to have a trigger happy police problem.

I agree that training children is a good idea, the part that bugs me most about it is that one shouldn't need to. I completely agree that people need to learn to respect guns, but there seems to be this crazy frivolous attitude regarding them in America. It must be based on a societal attitude, but it becomes incredibly dangerous when such frivolity regarding firearms enters a school.

Nothing serious happened this time, but it has barely been a month since the Sandy Hook shootings that spurred this kind of precaution. If the armed guards that are supposed to be protecting the children are leaving their guns behind in the toilet already, it is only a matter of time before something catastrophic happens.

[Her3tiK]

I say we teach kindergartners gun safety. Get 'em to shoot and handle firearms at a young age (with live ammo), and they won't grow into this bumblefuck.

Because the lesson stuck, or they died in a training accident. Either way.

My dad did exactly that. On my first outing with him and my brothers at the junkyard shooting range, when I was a 4 year old girl, he placed his huge Spanish American War-era officers Colt .45 revolver into my hands, his hands were over mine, guiding and controlling for safety, telling me to be ready for the loud noise and kick-back, explaining the proper way to squeeze the trigger. I never even thought about casually "playing" with a gun after that. I now knew just how powerful and dangerous they could be. It was a good lesson. Later in my childhood, he taught me more about handgun and rifle safety. The family trips to the junkyard range are fond memories.

Exactly. And anyone who doesn't learn will likely do us all a favor and remove themselves from the gene pool. Win/win in my book.

[Whore of Spamylon]

This is a false equivalence and you know it.

You seem confused as to the point I was trying to make.  I was trying to explain the uselessness of anecdotes when constructing effective gun policy, not to position these two incidents side-by-side to be compared.

Basically, if we had no other evidence to go off of other than the NYC incident when judging whether police officers should be allowed to carry firearms, one might come to the conclusion that we might be better off with disallowing officers to carry firearms.  However, I think it goes without saying that constructing proper firearms policy for police officers around this single incident would be idiotic, so I don't see why constructing firearms policy for school security around a single incident would be any different.

Yes, the guard fucked up, yet this incident by itself says very little in regards to cost/benefit analysis.

[TheL]

But remember folks, according to the NRA, nothing can go wrong if there are armed guards in the schools.

[Distind]

so I don't see why constructing firearms policy for school security around a single incident would be any different.

Just to note, this is pretty much how I feel about Sandy Hook.

Adding more guns to something is not terribly likely to ensure someone DOESN'T get shot.

If anything, the long running series of the unstable getting their hands on guns should be enough to generate a sane policy of requirements for gun ownership and registration. But hey, 2nd amendment means pointing guns at the children is a good idea.

[Damen]

I'm of the opinion that any guard working at a school who loses his weapon should have his professional life turned into a living hell. I'm talking paperwork, investigations, suspension (without pay), more investigations and maybe even facing a review board.

Maybe if we lay kinda heavy on the stick and offer a carrot (bonus pay for good conduct) then this sort of shit will be the exception rather than risk becoming the norm.

[Stormwarden]

^Damen, I'm finding myself agreeing with you way too much lately XD. That's not a bad thing, though.

It IS an isolated incident, and should be treated as such for gun policy purposes. While I am against armed guards in schools, I wouldn't use this incident alone as a basis to prevent it. That said, I think this would serve as a good example of how proper guard training would be necessary.