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Subscribe to RSSA controversial Arizona sheriff wants an armed group of volunteers to stand guard at his county's schools. His plan has been met with outrage from many educators who say more guns in schools will be dangerous. NBC's Diana Alvear reports.
Arizona sheriffs and the state’s attorney general are pushing controversial programs to allow school officials and volunteers to carry guns in the wake of the shootings at a Connecticut school that left 20 children dead.
The latest proposal comes from Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-described toughest sheriff in America, who wants to station his “posse” of volunteers outside of about 50 schools in Maricopa County within a week, according to KPNX, a local NBC station.
“Everybody else is talking about what their ideas are. They want new laws. This is immediate. I don't need a new law to send out my posse,” he told NBC affiliate, KPNX, on Thursday. “I feel like we should do whatever we can outside of the schools.”
Arpaio’s volunteers number about 3,000, with 300 to 400 carrying weapons. They log about 100 hours of training and undergo background checks, just like deputies, according to KPNX.
He first sent out his posse in 1993 to guard malls over the holiday season because of violence at those venues in the past. He believed that program worked, saying there have been zero violent re-occurrences, azfamily.com reported.
Arpaio’s plan follows similar ones released earlier this week: Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu has proposed arming willing principals, according to ABC15.com, while Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said he wanted to arm a designated employee in every school, KPNX reported.
“Why not use these people we trust if they are willing to protect themselves and our children?” Babeu said.
Horne said a few counties have indicated they’d like to sign up for his program, though state law currently prohibits having firearms on public school campuses. Horne said he already has a sponsor for the necessary state legislation to implement his plan.
A controversial plan from Arizona's Sheriff Arpaio will send armed members of his volunteer posse to some Phoenix schools to provide security. Oralia Ortega, of KPNX, reports.
Anti-gun advocates and former educators denounced the idea of arming school staffers. Geraldine Hills, of Arizonans for Gun Safety, called it “outrageous.”
“Cops aren’t teachers, teachers aren’t cops,” she told KPNX. “It’s a very nice what-if scenario, this fantasy of the armed civilian hero. It doesn’t play out in real life.”
“I don’t feel that I would want to be in a position of being responsible for either a concealed weapon or securing a weapon on campus,” Gregg Baumgarten, a former principle outside of Phoenix, told the station. “I just think it’s a recipe for disaster.”
The Arizona officials’ stance echoed that of the National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre, who said he supported putting armed guards and police in schools in response to the Newtown shootings in which the gunman, Adam Lanza, also shot six administrators dead. Police say Lanza shot his mother to death earlier at their home.
“If it’s crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy,” LaPierre told NBC’s David Gregory. “I think the American people think it’s crazy not to do it. It’s the one thing that would keep people safe and the NRA is going try to do that.”
Some districts said they were preparing to take LaPierre’s recommended action, while other educators cautioned that doing so would send the wrong message about education.
After a controversial press conference last week, NRA head Wayne LaPierre made an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" saying the American people would be "crazy" to not put armed guards in schools. Meanwhile, Newtown, Conn., continues coping with the death of 26 people during the tragic shooting. NBC's Ron Mott report.
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Leave a Comment:
The first thing the towns in CT around the Sandy Hook school did was to put armed police in their schools as kids headed back to school after the tragedy. Well trained armed personnel could easily be part of the solution. "Gun-Free-Zones" simply invite in those intent on criminal behavior.
It didn't help at Columbine.
This senile old fool is becoming seriously dangerous.
m, mitigating this is arterial plaque, I bet.
This story is deliberately twisted and biased...The Arizona attorney general is in favor of qualified security to be placed in schools,and not arming teachers..which in my opinion,the arming of teachers would be a good idea with proper training. And sheriff Arpaio want's a posse to parole the perimeters of some schools. And how this story was written it's clear that NBC is trying to demonize sheriff Arpaio for wanting to do something to make our schools safer by trying to portray Arpaio as a kook. It's crystal clear NBC and other liberal media sources are only concerned with their liberal ideology and not the safety of our kids...The same is true with the anti gun liberal politicians who are using the Newtown tragedy as an excuse to push their ineffective gun bans. And by ignoring the proven methods of deterrent and prevention of armed security. The liberals have no problem with playing politics at the expense of the safety of our kids.
Blah Blah Blah liberal Blah Blah
brasstacs they have absoulutely no alternatives to suggest. You are right. The only ones who have guns where they live are the gangstas and they buy them off the streets. Most of them are stolen, that's what they don't understand a gun in the hands of hoodlums or guns in the hands of liscensed, trained, background checked, trustworthy citizens who are there to PROTECT our children.
I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often.
Man Shoots, Kills Brother After Hearing Overnight Break-In
Police say a man ended up shooting and killing his own brother after he heard
someone breaking the glass to his front door early this morning.
Wilmington police say it happened around 12:45 a.m. on Hunter's Trail.
The 65-year-old resident told police after hearing the glass break, he
retrieved his handgun and went to investigate. The man said when he opened the
door, he looked to the left and saw someone lunging at him with a spiked object
in his hand. The man told police he fired once, hitting the person in the
chest.
When the man turned on his porch light, he realized the person he shot was
his younger brother. The 63-year-old brother was taken to New Hanover Regional
Medical Center where he later died.
Police have not filed any charges in the case yet
I guess braking and entering is not as safe as knocking on the door... What was his brother doing breaking into the house?? Did his brother have mental problems... this story needs a little more info
I agree it needs more info... but that's all there was. I'm sure more will come out later.
nana....
Why don't you post any one of the over 2 million times a year that a firearm is used by an armed citizen in the prevention of a crime ??...There are accidents happening everyday of some kind, and there are more deaths caused by using cell phones while driving,then accidents caused by guns each year.
Brasstacs,
Um, I'm pretty sure he thought he was preventing a crime... i.e. someone breaking glass to get into his house. Too bad it turned out to be his brother, but we don't know what his (the brother breaking in) intent was. I'm actually for home defense so chill.
Oh, and the reason I didn't post any one of the over 2million times a year etc. etc. is because I haven't seen those articles. I'm sure it happens, but for some reason it doesn't make the news as often?
Because it is a lie brasshack.
9/23/2012:
"A woman in WI at first thought the noises she heard at 2am were just her roommate coming home from a night out. However, a quick text to the roommate revealed that he wasn’t home.
That’s when the resident, who doesn’t want to be identified, grabbed her gun. At about the same time a masked man appeared upstairs and tried to use pepper spray on the woman. That’s when she started firing.
Once the bullets started firing, the would be burglar fled the scene."
These stories are easy to find, just not on NBC.
mpa,
Thanks!
Good for person in story you quoted! Too bad she didn't hit the would-be burglar though! Would have prevented him from repeating his crimes!
That is one (1). Where are the other 1,999,999?
You don't hear about the 2 million times a year a gun used by citizens protects,because the liberal biased media blacks this out...Check the source.... The American rifleman..the Armed citizen.
Is Google research beyond your capabilties, dave?
I typed "gun saves woman" and got 107,000,000.
Don't be lazy.
Lol Talk about lazy. Is google all you have?
I commend Sheriff Arpaio for his treatment of convicts, but I think his notoriety has gone to his head. Stationing an armed posse at every school is a crazyy idea, as one triggger-happy person could start a shootout of tragic proportions!
Please... we already know that NOT having somebody there ends in tragedy... Lets be real...the vast vast vast majority of gun owners are well versed in safety and gun handling... plus note the article says they have been checked and trained....
One person could probably set up the circumstances easily*, and walk away unscathed, given the conditions. The sheriff's a bit short-sighted.
*Champagne cork pop, for instance.
Yup.
Chanpaign corks popping all over the place in Arizona schools - unless alcohol is banned from school property.
Oh, and champaign corks popping are confused with firearms discharge all the time . . .
Go back, try again.
Call Mayor Villiaragosa and Chief Charlie Beck in Los Angeles......if this Sheriff is crazy...the entire Los Angeles Unified School police must be absolutely nut cases then......
NOTE: He also treats the not proven guilty that way.
He's SCUM, and will end up in his own jail, mark my words.
That is, if his eating habits don't keel him over first (we can hope).
Great, now Yosemite Sam... I mean Arpaio, had to throw his two cents in the mix. What an idiot this guy is.
Peacocks do this. Evan fat, disgusting ones.
Something needed to be done. He got something done in less then a week. It will take everybody else 6 months to a year and then it will only be a bandaid
Joe Arpaio has had a posse of volunteer senior citizens that get to play dress up cop for decades It's not like he quickly organized this. Mostly the volunteers direct traffic at big events. They are not allowed to carry loaded weapons.. so carrying a loaded weapons in schools .. will be something new for the volunteer senior citizen posse and most likely will result in a few disasters. Letting these senior citizens suddenly become armed in Public schools is ridiculous.
As for them having sheriff police cars the same as real sheriff deputies drive, here is how that works.. Arpaio let's them park Sheriff department cars in their driveways because Arpaio thinks it discourages neighborhood crime .. it doesn't. These volunteers are never allowed to drive those cars.. State liability insurance wont cover them being driven by anyone but actual police officers and they can only drive them while on duty. The posse is not new, Arming them with loaded firearms is .. and could be a disaster. Arpaio is a nut !
Yeah, having a bunch of angry old white men prancing around in MCSO costumes with loaded weapons will hardly be a deterrent. I doubt that any of them can shoot straight anyway. Most of those clowns I've seen are fat old guys - the only places they've been known to "protect" is the local Krispy Kreme shops.
Not that any of this matters. Arpaio's posse will have no effect anyway - it's all about image and perception. It's that image that keeps the right wing lunatics voting for him, because he knows how to pander to their prejudices.
The next kid who shoots up a school will likely not need to bring a gun, it'll be there for the taking.
Anyone who thinks this is a substitute for toughing up the gun control laws and the banning of assault weapons and high capacity ammo clips are as nutty as Joe Arpaio .. who through the years has had his sanity questioned .. the guy should just retire. These posse members are senior citizens not retired cops .. retired cops have years of in the field hands on experience. These senior citizens may have gone through training but are not cops and have no experience.. getting that experience in public schools isn't a good idea.. nor dressing them as cops and giving them police cars.. when they are not police is dangerous.The reason they can't be real cops is their age.. they are too old. All their experience is on a shooting range period. Volunteers tend to be held less accountable for their actions than police.
example these posse members have gotten all their weapons training from a shooting range. Not dealing with real situations.
These are the words of words of a Special Forces operator
“There are people who train night and day to be good at shooting bad guys in situations where there are innocents in close proximity and even those people screw up because a gunfight is not a shooting range.
People are dying and screaming and there is blood everywhere and all that silly sh*t you ‘think’ you’re going to do goes right out the window when you are in that crazy environment.”
--- longtime Special Forces operator wounded in Afghanistan
Training means that you are trained to react to a certain situation a certain way without having to THINK about the action... That is how we train our military fighters so that in a REAL situation they do not freeze up...
they are also taught WHEN to shoot and WHEN NOT to shoot...
Even full time police do not TRAIN NIGHT AND DAY.
Assault weapons (automatic rifles) have been banned for 25 years. Nobody is talking about "banning" large magazines, only prohibiting their future sale. Any such magazines that people own would continue to be perfectly legal. I saw last week that a normal 3 1/2 year supply of AR-15 large capacity magazines had been sold in just 3 days. There will always be a way for people to get these magazines no matter what laws are passed. If you want an example, explain this. Cocaine has been illegal for a very long time, yet it accessible to anyone who wishes to purchase some.
Arpaio: the new J. Edgar Hoover
What a dope.
Don't you sheeple know that if an idea doesn't come from Washington, D.C. and doesn't involve more money and more laws that it can never work? Jesus H. Christ......
Anything which encourages the citizenry to take responsiblity for the local community is simply insane....
I hear that.
Seems so, doesn't it Tarheel?
For a better claification on the rules:
1. Liberal Los Angeles places armed uniformed policemen in its schools.....GOOD IDEA!!!
2. Arizona places uniformed armed policemen in its schools......BAD IDEA!!!!
3. NRA proposes armed police/security in schools........BAD IDEA!!!
4. Liberal Bill CLinton proposes armed police/security in schools.........GOOD IDEA!!!!
Do you see the agenda yet??????
RE: Station teams of three at each corner of the school grounds, one at the entrance, several in the hallway, and one in the cafeteria. Make sure any firearms are fully visible.
Good idea, pure genuis: I'm on our systems safety team, so help me with this:
Our local small town high school of 1200 kids has over 72 doors that open from a hallway or classroom to the outside. It is bordered by no less than three streets. The doors are of course all locked, but as proven before, anyone with a high powered weapon can shoot thru the opening mechanism. Multiple doors are visible from some locations, but at a minimum this plan would required at least 15 armed men at 8 hrs per day, $15 per hour including benefits = $1800 per day, or 1/3rd of a million dollars for this one school for this school year. I guess we could lay off 6 teachers.
Then an armed crazy could choose:
1. Front assault on 15 officers and do his best, knowing he will die, OR
2. Wait till dismissal and kill dozens as kids are massed at the main exits, knowing he will die, or
3. Wait until the evenign and attack any of a number of events, sports, music performances, or
4. Move on to the other 98% of unprotected targets [movie theatres, malls, restaurants, churches, OR OR OR, we were planning on putting armed guards at every possible target......
Armed guards is worrying about your parachute after you exit the plane.
We have to prevent crazies from getting major assault weapons at all, period.
No other method will work.
This is just simple logistics.
...
Maybe these people who disapprove of putting armed police or training and arming school personel should look at Ohio. Some of the surounding communities where I live have a program where a local police officer is stationed in schools. This officer is known as a School Resource Officer. These officers serve many functions, one being protecting children.
Clyon. We have the same thing in my area of Florida. I moved to this area ten years ago and we have had the cops at every school since then, and probably before, I dont know why anyone would be against having a cop around. If we retirees can afford to pay for this, any district should be able to afford it.
That is true, but a resource officer is employed by the school. "Volunteers" have zero liability. One armed resource officer is a good idea, but a possee of gun totin locals itchin to prove their manhood spells disaster. I smell several lawsuits a brewin...
A station full of armed cops in New Jersey couldn't stop cops from being shot, what's one over zealous teabagger with a gun going to do at a school?
And let the stupidities begin...
We need more Sheriff JOES. He takes action while America Bull @!$%#es. You go Joe, and while you have your Possee together, Round up all of the illegals in your area also. Show America that it can be done.
Low T.
And that's why he opened his mouth. It isn't about the kids, it isn't about the kids.
Gun enthusiasts are using the children as unwitting pawns, period.
And My OWN business, is all about guns, so don't call ME biased.
I'll let some of you in on a little secret. There are many of us who have more training in the use of our firearms than the police do. I wish some of you would look up the stats to see how many times the police miss for each time they actually hit their target. You may be amazed and how well your "trained" police actually can't hit the broad side of a barn.
Three round burst with an M-16, 400 meters (that is 4 football fields) or less w/open sights-I do not miss! Beyond 400 meters...more hits than misses.
There is only one person in this country that has what it takes to stick a finger in obama's face and tell him he is full of crap-SHE is the Governor of AZ. Flagstaff looks pretty good to me.
Oh, brother, this guy's nuts. Next he'll be walking around with 2 six-shooters in his holsters. Just what we need, a return to the wild wild west. There's a lot of scared parents out there, and ol' Joe is more than happy to prey upon their emotions to make himself into the modern-day Wyatt Earp, who incidentally, made people check their guns at the sheriff's office when they rode into town. Just wait until a kid gets shot by accident.
These volunteers can never as good training and meet the standards of a Police officer. It just takes one Rambo or Barney Fife to shoot someone. Arizona is becoming the Wild West II. Shootouts on Main Street are next. This borders on insanity.
Arizona keeps getting crazier and crazier.
Arizona has always been crazy. There were a few times in the 90's that civilians would jump in to help the cops out in a gunfight. School children weren't allowed to bring book bags to school unless they were transparent. All of Maricopa County is a dangerous place to live. I left in 1999 and it was the best decision I ever made.
It was good for us too....thanks for leaving!
Is the sheriff paying for full background checks on these 'volunteers'?
How long does he expect them to 'volunteer' 8 or more hour days standing guard at the schools?
This plan sounds doomed to fail...
If I were a parent of a child at one of those schools, I would unenroll my child immediately. The liability is just too great.
Obama's 2 kids go to a private school heavily protected by armed agents of the federal government. If you had a child there, would you un-enroll them???
The President's children are protected by The Secret Service. There is no way you can equate the best trained personal body guards in the world to an untrained, un-vetted, and unregulated posse of armed civilians.
Real Army Wife -
Agreed. Then if it is good enough for 1 U.S. citizen, the prez, then it should be good enough for ALL of our children. Think the feds will pay for it?
Look, I lived on Ft. Hood, surrounded by soldiers and armed guards and we still had a mentally ill individual walk in to the readiness center and massacre our soldiers and DA civilians. I think putting armed guards on all of schools is reactionary and unnecessary. We don't have armed guards in our postal facilities even after several incidents. I have kids in public school and don't believe arming our teachers or having armed guards in our schools is the answer. The President's kids are guarded because they are at risk in a way no other kids in this country are at risk. The feds, the states, the school districts don't have the money to pay and putting untrained, armed civilians in our schools is definitely not the answer.
Where do I sign up? Finally a sheriff with some balls!
Hey Sheriff Joe how did you make out on Obamas birth certificate? Not so good? Your like Trump a whack job!
TonyWarVet-
You are actually comparing this article to Obama's birth certificate findings? Wow...
Again I hate to toss simple facts in your way But:
This Sheriff did not personally initiate an investigation into odumbo's birth certificate. The Sheriff was confronted with numerous citizen inquiries and complaints and the legal question of odumbo's being certified to be on an Arizona ballot came up......so to resolve all the inquiries and questions he assigned a team of investigators to answer the questions and conduct an investigation. He then made all findings public so people could see for themselves and make up their own minds.
An Atlanta Georgia court also addressed this issue and there are public court records on the matter.....as well as other investigations around the country.
Yet many of odumbo's records remain closed for unknown reasons. As a retired policeman myself I asked why would anyone withhold their birth certificate for so long....and more so WHY seal college and passport paperwork???
It is my assumption that obama is in fact a US Citizen, born in hawaii....but applied for college as a foriegn student and received grants/scholorships and monies as such. He is not a foriegner trying to be president......he is just a crook and scam artists. That would explain why he wont let that information out. But eventually the truth ALWAYS comes out.
Azrancher is a classic example of the right wing lunatic drones that Arpaio controls with his cheap publicity stunts, the Obama birth certificate issue, being one of them. Azrancher's explanation of above is B.S. It wasn't up to Arpaio to launch any investigation, and as we all know, nothing came out of it - the whole thing went away when the public lost interest. Anf yet, Azrancher, after all this time, still clings to the birther issue. I guess there's no cure for his kind of lunacy.
At least, Joe still provides an entertainment facet. and reinforces Arizona's image. Who knows? Maybe Arizona will beat Alabama as being the most backward state in the union.
odumbo? Who/what is that?