One year ago the Harrold (Texas) Independent School District did something groundbreaking: they allowed teachers and staff members to carry concealed handguns on campus, in the classroom, and — gasp — around children.
Here’s the story of how things are, one year later.
In short:
In the year since that historic decision, a gun was never brandished or fired at the school. There were no problems, [HISD Superintendent David] Thweatt said.
Granted that doesn’t mean that guns in school kept bad things from happening, but it does show that after a year with guns directly in school that nothing horrible did happen. The guns didn’t cause immediate death of all the schoolchildren. There weren’t any problems with teachers whipping out their guns to keep the kids in line. Nothing. Life just went about as normal.
So why have the guns in school? Response time, as a matter of practical importance towards keeping those kids safe:
However, one week after school began, police busted a methamphetamine lab set up in an abandoned house that sat 50 feet from the school property.
A deputy had peered inside and “saw something in the walls and windows and called for backup,” Thweatt said. “They made it to the abandoned house in 15 minutes. We had figured it would take 18 to 20 minutes in a typical situation.”
Had that been an armed intruder at his school, response time would have been too slow.
“We’re the first responders. We have to be,” Thweatt said. “We don’t have 5 minutes. We don’t have 10 minutes. We would have had 20 minutes of hell” if attackers had targeted the school.
So what did the kids think about the policy?
Harrold students, who grew up on ranches and in the middle of the North Texas gun culture, were unperturbed by the school district’s new gun policy.
“The kids just laughed about it,” Thweatt said.
It’s no big deal. Kids aren’t phased, everyone went about life as usual.
But if it is life as usual, why do it? Thweatt explains:
When a London reporter asked Thweatt to explain why so many kooks go into schools looking for a body count, Thweatt said he couldn’t explain such a devolution of society, but he did know a simple way to stop it — the same solution he chose for Harrold ISD.
“Good guys with guns — good,” he said. “Bad guys with guns — bad.”
Stuff From Hsoi 
I do love the prime example of what the police response time would have been… And that is just the repsonse time for them just showing up at the door. Securing the perimeter and mounting an actual rescue operation are another matter entirely.
Also of interesting note, if I am not mistaken, Utah allows anyone with a permit to carry at its colleges – how many campus shootings of any variety have you heard of there?
Exactly. If it takes that long, how much evil can be done? Or perhaps to those that question this… just how much bad stuff happening do they find to be acceptable?
I do think Utah does allow that, and gosh we haven’t heard of anything. But you know… the lack of anything sensational doesn’t sell advertising space or airtime, so it’s not like the “news media” will report it.