How Two Officers Just Hurt The Argument For Arming Teachers

As many Second Amendment supporters continue to push for arming teachers following the school shooting in Parkland, there have been a few, rare instances that have damaged the effort.

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Late last month in Georgia, a school teacher barricaded himself in a classroom with a firearm and shot through a classroom window. Now, people with a list of reasons why teachers should not be armed can add two more instances of negligence to their total.

Early Tuesday morning, a school resource officer at George Washington Middle School in Alexandria, VA accidentally fired his weapon in his office. Thankfully, there were no injuries. NBC Washington has the details:

The officer was inside his office at George Washington Middle School in the Del Ray neighborhood when he accidentally discharged his service weapon about 9:10 a.m., according to Alexandria police.

The officer, a five-year veteran of the Alexandria Police Department, checked the area for any potential injuries and found that everyone was OK. He notified his supervisor and school staff, and classes continued as normal, police say.

One has to wonder how the officer managed to have his gun go off in his office. Since the officer has been on the force for five years, people jumped at the opportunity to suggest that this incident proves arming teachers would be a mistake.

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The incident is under further investigation, and the officer is now on “routine administrative leave.”

But this is not the only incident that is giving people pause.

Today, a student at a Michigan middle school found a firearm forgotten by a county sheriff. After changing clothes in the school’s locker room after a weekend event on campus, the officer left his backup gun in the locker room when he thought it was in his gym bag. Fortunately, a responsible student found the firearm and reported it.

A county sheriff is apologizing for accidentally leaving his gun in a mid-Michigan school gym locker room.

Isabella County Sheriff Michael Main said in a statement Tuesday that he takes full responsibility and is “devastated” by his negligence. He says he was at a weekend event at Shepherd Middle School and used the locker room to change from street clothes into uniform.

Main says he believed the gun – his backup weapon – was in his bag when he left.

The Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant reports that Shepherd Public Schools Superintendent Claire Bunker told parents that the weapon was found before classes started Monday, prompting speculation about who left the weapon.

Main says a student found the gun and immediately contacted an adult.

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Let’s say, for a moment, that the student who found the officer’s gun was not a responsible student. The story could have had a much different ending. If officers are accidentally firing their weapon in a school and leaving them where they are within reach of students, and a teacher is going off the rails inside a classroom, one can understand why some people might be skeptical about arming teachers. But while the mistakes made by these officers were dangerous and a crime was committed by the Georgia teacher, these events should not prevent responsible gun-owning teachers from carrying a firearm in a school if they so choose and receive all the proper training.

Hopefully, the two officers – and anyone else considering carrying a firearm – will learn from their mistakes and situations like this will never happen again.

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