We know, you weren’t surprised that Michael Bloomberg didn’t have much good to say about the NRA’s proposal for putting armed guards in America’s schools. Who would be? If the country’s preeminent gun rights organization said their favorite flavor of ice cream is chocolate, he’d immediately call a press conference and accuse them of being reckless and dangerously out of step with the vast majority of Americans who like vanilla. And then he’d issue an executive order banning chocolate ice cream in the five boroughs. So after Wayne LaPierre laid out the plan for the National School Shield Program Friday, Bloomy called it “a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America.” But here’s a new year’s bummer for the diminutive dictatorial mayor: Staten Island parents agree with Wayne. D’oh! . . .
In fact, as nypost.com reports, the idea has so much support, they’re about to put it to an advisory vote in January.
The city should use roving patrols of armed air-marshal-like agents to keep schools safe in the wake of the Connecticut massacre, parents say. A proposal to hire 300 to 500 retired police officers — who already have permits to carry concealed weapons — is being introduced for a vote at next month’s Staten Island school-board meeting.
Mindful of the kiddies’ sensibilities, they’ll keep the guards in plain clothes so as not to spook anyone. This is still New York after all.
Keeping the armed guards undercover would keep schools safe without turning them into police states, supporters say.“It wouldn’t necessarily be that alarming to the students, because now it would be an armed guard they don’t really know has a firearm,” said Mike Reilly, a retired NYPD cop who sits on the Staten Island education council. “That’s the key behind the program.”
An armed presence in schools to respond to a Sandy Hook-like situation? We’re on board.
“It’s not possible to be 100 percent safe, but our schools could be safer,” said council president Sam Pirozzolo. “All we’re looking to do is add a layer [of protection] that might slow somebody down a bit.”
Or kill a killer before he can kill still more. You got a problem wit dat, Mike?
(h/t Allen V.)