Villalba Files School Marshal Bill
State Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, has filed a bill that would allow Texas schools to appoint "school marshals" — employees who could carry guns in an effort to protect students from violence.
"We're going to make sure the person serving is essentially a peace officer," Villalba said. "We've created a new class of law enforcement."
House Bill 1009, which Villalba is calling the Protection of Texas Children Act, would allow marshals with proper training and certification to be able to "use lethal force upon the occurrence of an attack in the classroom or elsewhere on campus."
"Whoever is serving ...
Comments (45)
David J Sorrells via Texas Tribune on Facebook
It's better than expecting the teachers themselves to carry guns. At least the marshals would be in the halls and not in the classroom. In fact, I think pretty much all schools should have armed marshals as long as they do not interact closely with the students. Or if they do, they leave the weapons with another marshal.
Susie Martinez-Dominguez via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Omg
Candyce Byrne via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Will this make students safer? No, and the gun fetish and deep paranoia behind it are damaging our entire society. Stop the militarization of the schools.
Shelly Brisbin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
In a word, NO.
Arthur M. Thomas IV via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Defensive capability is always good and it should be up to the school to choose if and how it is done.
Shelly Brisbin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
So we "secure" the schools. In the best case scenario for the gun nuts, crazy shooters now target malls, day care centers, parks, church potlucks, or Boy Scout fish frys. You don't address this problem by putting guards in the last place that got shot up; you address it with reasonable gun access rules, AND comprehensive mental health evaluations and treatment options.
Jeff Wright via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The folks that are against this are living i a fantasy world. I don't expect every teacher to pack a gun,but i think it is perfectly logical to have designated ,trained person there to respond with force if called for. We diid they same thing with airline pilots over the howls of anti gun nuts.Just the knowleddge that this is not a gun free aka lunatic hunting lease would certainly deter some of these lunatics.
Kevin Williams via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Do you think armed Secret Service agents make Obama safer?
Not just YES, but...
Chris Thornton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
YES...if Sandy Hook had armed guards on campus the psycho would have been stopped, saving countless lives. My kids have armed police officers in their schools now. And I'm glad they do.
Grimcargo Wheeler via Texas Tribune on Facebook
yes
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I would prefer to have trained law enforcement.
Grimcargo Wheeler via Texas Tribune on Facebook
In the first place the crazies are not so crazy that they dont know which is the safe target.
Renee E. Babcock via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Kevin Williams, there's a pretty big difference between highly trained Secret Service agents and a few armed school employees.
Martha Dunkelberger via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Why on earth should we be ok with a militarized school??
Kevin Williams via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Why on earth would we be ok with protecting our children?
Grimcargo Wheeler via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Ask the parent of a dead child that question Martha. And i dont think it needs to be police. Just some civilians who are trained.
Taylor J. Harris via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Why on earth would we be okay with a militarized commercial plane?
Why on earth would we be okay with militarized courthouses?
Etc., etc. Also, flippant usage of "militarized", Martha.
Ted McKnight via Texas Tribune on Facebook
A mix of administrators, teachers, custodial staff, etc. would be a deterrent. The opposite of 'gun free zones' in the eyes of potential bad actors.
Bambi Clark via Texas Tribune on Facebook
TEAxas seems to have a fixation with guns.
Tim Slaate Arellano via Texas Tribune on Facebook
o.O isn't this a bit extreme? Oh well whatever works for ya'll i guess. It makes sense to answer violence with violence I 100% approve.
Martha Stark Dolese via Texas Tribune on Facebook
"His (Villalba) bill would mandate mental health evaluation, active shooter and emergency situation training, and firearms proficiency requirements for the marshals, which would be paid for either by school districts or the employees themselves." More expense to the already budget-weary public schools. When are (R) TX lawmakers going to ever get anything right?
Susan Sanders Wansbrough via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The idea of a bunch of people, even with some training, opening fire in a chaotic situation with dozens of screaming, panicked children doesn't sound like what I'd want for my kids. Several of the shooters in the past have worn body armor. Are teachers going to have immunity if they accidentally shoot a child? What about if a kid breaks into the teacher's desk and steals a gun? Are bus drivers going to be armed, too? What about crossing guards? And are we going to put armed guards in grocery stores, movie theaters, bowling alleys, and at soccer fields? The job market for armed guards will swamp that for engineers, teachers, doctors, etc. Is this the kind of country we want to live in? We are already one of the most violent countries on earth. Maybe that is what we should work on.
Matthew Cowan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
One does not need to be a trained police officer to be able to defend yourself with a gun. We are talking about using teachers to defend our children and to react in a certain situation. Will it take some training? Of course but it does not take as much as you would think it would. It is not like we are training them to react as a SWAT team or to conduct forced entries. You would train them to secure a location until help arrives. You train them how to react. The suggestion that arming teachers is because of some fixation about guns. It is because training with knives and swords does not make sense when you can not throw either 50 ft at 1,800 feet per second.
Andy Jones via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Nope
Robert Wyatt via Texas Tribune on Facebook
In my experience the people who volunteer to carry guns are not necessarily the ones whom I would like to be carrying guns.
Matthew Cowan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Susan, the picture you have painted is not reality. There would be no indiscriminate shooting in response to a situation. Even if the perp is wearing body armor, it still makes a difference to have someone shooting at him. The perp is not going to be calm when bullets are flying at him. He is going to be nervous and scared. Chances are he will stop and seek cover or retreat. Then you have done what was needed by stopping the attackers actions. It will cause them to rethink what they are doing. Also getting hit by a bullet even with body armor is going to hurt like hell and still might even break bones. Even in the instances where the perp wore body armor, it does not protect the whole body especially the head. Getting hit in an area not covered can be just as deadly and definitely painful which will stop and delay the attacker.
Any paradigm in which arming the teacher is talked about, no one is suggesting leaving the firearm accessible to the students. A desk is not a secure storage for a firearm. a Firearm locker would be used if the teacher is not actively carrying the firearm.
As to having armed security everywhere and the job market for security swamp that of other professions is just silly. There is already armed security at grocery stores. Wal-mart has armed security. You just do not see them. The best idea is to get rid of these so-called Gun-Free-Zones. That is nothing but an invitation for those who want to do harm to go to. Allowing society to carry arms for protection is not unreasonable since police are only there after the crime has occurred. The notion that some will bring up about there being gun-fights in the streets is not true. Texas has had conceal cary laws for almost 20 years and the streets have not turn into blood baths. Neither has Florida or even the localities that have open carry. In localities that require people to own a weapon for defense at home crime is lower.
Pickles Sorrell
I apologize to the men on this comments stream for some of the dumb things that liberal bee-yaches of my sex say when it comes to guns. Gun man on a campus? I'm armed and ready. Militarization of our schools? That's code for "I get kids killed." Worried about immunity and other hypothetical situations? Here's my take: If you're dead, you don't care if you' re sued.
So if one of you anti-gun nut liberal bee-yaches were to be a bystander victim to someone who returned fire on a psycho in a school but saved the life of a kid(s), I say, too bad you were in the way. People like you are how free people fall to live in tyranny and the reason that kids get picked off by psychos. I will defend what I love with all that I have and my Beretta would do the job quite nicely.
Harold Pate via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Yes
Jennifer Frey Hebble via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Yes, I fear it will become a challenge or right of passage to break into schools and shoot at the defenseless....Let there be another line of defense between an attacker and our students and staff.
Toni Mikel via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Columbine had two security guards. I'm not sure it'll work but as long as they have background checks, mental evaluations first as the President is suggesting them ok. I want NRA And gun makers paying for it though because we already have an education problem with funds, teachers laid off and states cannot afford this expense when teachers are needed worst.
Jennifer Frey Hebble via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Paying for it that is where the rubber meets the road...
Matthew Cowan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Why a should the NRA and gun manufactures pay for it? If you want safe schools, you pay for!
Matthew Cowan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Jennifer, I recently read an article that suggests that there is merit in what you say about young people engaging in such behavior. If you look at mass killings and separate out work place violence, there have been about a dozen such instances since 1950 and a total of about 280 victims. In Europe, there have been about 190 victims since 1984. The age of the perpetrators have been young, all male, usually under 30 and mostly between the ages of 15 and 28, with an average age of 25. So what is it that is cause young people to commit such acts? In 2003, The Commission on Children at Risk was formed to “investigate empirically the social, moral and spiritual foundations of child well-being.”
Researchers reported, “at least one of every four adolescents in the U.S. is currently at serious risk of not achieving productive adulthood.” Additionally, researchers reported, “about 21 percent of U.S. children ages 9 to 17 have a diagnosable mental or addictive disorder associated with at least minimum impairment.” There is, according to the research, “a serious crisis among young people today.”
"n summary, the researchers said, “We are witnessing high and rising rates of depression, anxiety, attention deficit, conduct disorders, thoughts of suicide, and other serious mental, emotional, and behavioral problems among U.S. children and adolescents.” As to the cause of this crisis, the researchers wrote, “What’s causing this crisis of American childhood is a lack of connectedness.” They went on to define this lack of connectedness as a lack of “close connections to other people, and deep connections to moral and spiritual meaning.”
Leath DeRitter via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Poor Texas........
Jane Lampton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
No
Steven Felfe via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Folks can always home school their children.
Matthew Cowan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Perhaps they should Steven. The results might be better.
Texas RMS
Arming teachers is not the answer. Ever. Let teachers teach. Do you honestly want your child's kindergarten teacher packing heat on the playground? Let's just get all the teachers holsters, and they can carry guns everywhere they go all day. A locked up, unloaded gun would be no help, since I doubt a shooter would hold off until you had time to run down the hall and get your gun. Of course, you could just make an announcement over the speaker. "Mrs. Teacher, we need you in the office. And bring your gun." Maybe it will cut down on discipline issue, too. Kids might think twice about back-talking an armed teacher.
Robert Ruiz via Texas Tribune on Facebook
no.
John Longoria via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This guy is way behind the times. Most schools can have armed guards if they want.
Matthew Cowan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Most schools could but why don't they? It because people have bought into the idea that having armed security is bad. They want the ultimate gun free zone. Look what the first person said. He says he is in favor of security but then goes on to say " should have armed marshals as long as they do not interact closely with the students. Or if they do, they leave the weapons with another marshal." Why? Would he expect the police not to come near children because they are armed? Does he takes his kids in another direction when he sees the police just because they are armed? That is the dichotomy that exists. While some people say they are in favor of security but when it comes down to it they are repulsed by it. Schools can arm teachers now but why dont they? IT is because they never thought of it before. They are not sure how to implement such a policy. They want the state to come up with common guidelines on the subject. Nothing wrong with that. It preserves the ability of each district to choose whether they want to participate or not.
Jonathan Myatt via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Take cover behind a desk or fire back
Rose Recio via Texas Tribune on Facebook
No. That rep is a moron. Really?? He wants to put guns in our schools??? F$%king idiot! Whoever his constituents are need to vote him out of office NOW!!!
gypsy314 ne
Just do away with the gun free zones that cowards target our children and us. I trust a parent and teacher to shoot back at a coward targeting our children or us. I think it is time we use our right to bear arms and protect our self and children.
gypsy314 ne
All the coward has to do is know who the marshal is and take him out first and then go to the class rooms. You liberal idiots just do not get it gun free zones puts a target on our children and us. Let me guess TSA is going to happen for schools on tax payers dime is a joke Americans have given up to much because of liberals control freaks and terrorist attacks because liberals can not see to call a spade a spade.