There has been enthusiasm lately for greater numbers of guns in school and other places where large numbers of people gather, and are at risk for being slaughtered. The rationale: teachers are going to be in school anyway, and so should have guns to return fire. Proposals for trained security guards are sometimes entertained, but generally dismissed for reasons of cost.
A problem arises because the firearm competence of teachers is left to chance - the teachers are not trained security guards. Some schools may be fortunate to have one or more staff interested and competent to serve in this role but many may not. Teachers are also less than ideal in this role in that they may be disinterested in carrying guns or oppose their presence in schools for political or other reasons.
Consider now that there are many more students than teachers in any school. Students are in their formative years and are there to learn. Some may be interested in keeping order. I propose that each school at risk for violence train a subset of suitable and interested students to be the student militia. This would be like a school sanctioned (or government sanctioned in regions where local school politics might interfere) student club, or perhaps ROTC. Students would get militia training generally and specifically in the use of force and weapons. Training would be as appropriate for age and size. This skillset and the discipline which comes with it will also be valuable in later life. This too would cost money but can be covered by funds intended for education, which this is. The weapons themselves can be donated by manufacturers and other interested parties.
Benefits 1. Free! The students are already there.
2. If citizens are expected to help keep order, we need to learn how. Start young.
3. Persons uninterested or untrained in the use of guns would not be expected to carry one or know what to do with it.-- bungston, May 20 2014 Concealed weapons in schools http://fox4kc.com/2...weapons-in-schools/ [bungston, May 20 2014] The Wave https://www.youtube...watch?v=ICng-KRxXJ8 [zeno, May 21 2014] [+] saves having an explicit course in Darwinism.-- FlyingToaster, May 20 2014 Guns in schools, what a country.-- the porpoise, May 20 2014 Those two words, put together, send chills down my spine and turn my belly to water.
Children have been manipulated into armies since the ages of feudalism and their acts have been fully as dangerous as armies of adults. I support the second amendment, I support the right to bear arms, and I believe in teaching children about guns and how to be responsible but these student militias... god no. Not here. Not ever.-- Voice, May 20 2014 How stupid could you possibly be? Ah I see.-- zeno, May 21 2014 Please watch the movie The Wave.-- zeno, May 21 2014 I can't help picturing a 5-year old travelling horizontally backward on the recoil of a 460 Weatherby. It would almost be worth it for the Youtubability alone.-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 21 2014 Your opening paragraph, [bungston], is the most perfect opening paragraph on the halfbakery. ::applause::-- calum, May 21 2014 It reaches terror alert level readiness in subjects; simply by placing a large quantity of finely machined steel into the social substrate and someone turning the armed madman dial to high on the mass media can a nations people be made to stand on end. It is this extent of social control that commands America's well regulated militia, where the Minute Man is now one of a third milliard of tiny hairs on the buttock of a prairie buffalo clenching into action at the prod of either a confederate slave master, or a gay liberal elite leatherman. That had to go to purposeful political cartoon visuals instead of for any real meaning.-- rcarty, May 26 2014 random, halfbakery