John Cole on Guns and Security

At Balloon Juice:

When we were in Camp Doha in Kuwait, we would have rotations. Alpha troop (my unit), would go run border missions in Iraq while Bravo troop would do maintenance on their vehicles (the sand just killed tanks and wore down our equipment), while Charlie troop be in what we called Z-phase, which was running the security for our base. We had towers and gates and 12 foot walls, and armed troopers at every gate with mirrors to look underneath cars and plenty of folks to investigate people coming in as civilians to run base operations (cook, give haircuts, etc.).
So why am I telling you this? Because in the middle of one of the most dangerous regions in the world, even with clear Rules of Engagement, every time I went on gate duty, there was a piece of tape over my ammo clip on my M-16 and M1911 .45. Why? Because the most heavily armed military in the world did not want accidental shootings. If a situation arose, I would have to eject my ammo clip, remove the tape, and reinsert and work the action before I could fire.
This was in a combat zone. Yet I have spent the last two fucking days dealing with armchair commandos telling me they need unlimited firepower to be safe in… Connecticut.
If there are bigger pussies in the world than gun nuts, I don’t know who the fuck they are.

I haven't quite grasped the whole arm teachers thing.  If somebody with a gun comes into a school and walks into a classroom, is the teacher going to draw on him and shoot him before the assailant shoots the teacher.  So far, the gun nuts haven't advocated for arming students, so I would guess the school shooter is going to immediately shoot the teacher.  A teacher handling grade schoolers isn't going to be ready to stop the intruder.  All the other teachers in the school are going to have to lock their doors to protect their students.  They aren't going to be able to go confront the intruder.  That is the job of the police. 

The truth with the guns for self defense crowd is that they just can't handle the potential for random crime in their lives.  But do they really think that they will be able to stop these things from happening?  If they are going to be the random victim of crime, are they really going to beat somebody to the draw?  I highly doubt it.  But they feel safer carrying their gun.  I don't feel safer with them carrying their gun.