Showing posts with label guns in schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guns in schools. Show all posts

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Armed Student Helps End School Attack

No, not in the United States, but in Israel. Students here would have probably lined up against the wall and waited to die. Anyway. A cowardly murderer walked into a seminary in Israel and started mowing down students. One student drew his pistol and fired back, striking the murderer twice in the head before someone else with a rifle finished the job. Remember folks, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

One of the students, Yitzhak Dadon, reportedly shot the gunman twice before he was finally killed by an off-duty Israeli army officer, who had gone to the school after hearing gunfire.

"I shot him twice in the head," he told the Reuters news agency.

"He started to sway and then someone else with a rifle fired at him, and he died."

So why don't we allow CCW permit holders to carry in schools here? Oh yes, it's because the anti's want to feel safe, without actually being safe.

Read more here.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

CCWing Reporter Won't be Charged

About time. And what about those "Only Ones" who arrested him falsely? Something tells me they're going to get away with it. Oh well, nothing new there, move along...

Thanks to Say Uncle.

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No charges for TV reporter who was arrested carrying loaded gun near Florida high school


MIAMI - Prosecutors have dropped the case against a TV reporter who was arrested carrying a loaded gun near a high school while working on a story on school violence, authorities said Tuesday.

Jeffrey Weinsier of WPLG, an ABC network affiliate, was arrested last month after police said he carried a weapon onto the grounds of Miami Central High School and refused to cross the street when asked by an officer.

A cameraman caught the encounter on videotape, which the state attorney's office used in deciding not to pursue the charges, Assistant State Attorney Maggie Gerson wrote in a memo released Tuesday.

Weinsier had been charged with armed trespass on school property, possession of a weapon, violation of carrying a concealed weapon and resisting arrest without violence. But he was not on school grounds when police approached him and ordered him to leave, Gerson said.

"Since the defendant was not trespassing, anything that was found on the defendant after he was arrested will be suppressed as a matter of law," Gerson wrote.

Weinsier's actions did not appear disruptive and students had been dismissed from classes when he was arrested, Gerson said.

The reporter began carrying a gun after he received death threats stemming from a series he did about unsanitary conditions at restaurants, according to the station. Weinsier has a concealed weapons permit, police had said.

"From day one, I knew that I had been on the public sidewalk outside the school," Weinsier said Tuesday. "I knew the law clearly. This is false arrest."

The reporter said he has filed a formal complaint with the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department and is considering legal action.

WPLG is owned by The Washington Post Co.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Oregon Teacher Loses Right to Defend Herself

Click here for PDF of the ruling.

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Judge rules teacher cannot bring gun to school

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - An English teacher in Southern Oregon has no right to take her semiautomatic handgun onto school grounds, a judge said Friday in a ruling that may clarify a possible conflict between school policy and state law on concealed weapons.

Shirley Katz claimed she had a right to carry a handgun, as a defense against intruders or her former husband, despite Medford School District policy against teachers carrying weapons.

Her attorney, James Leuenberger, argued that only the Legislature, not local governments, can regulate firearms under state law.

But Jackson County Circuit Judge G. Philip Arnold ruled Friday that an ordinance is different from a school district employment policy for its teachers.

"The district has the right to enforce its policy," Arnold wrote to conclude his nine-page ruling.

State law does not prohibit carrying a gun in school if the owner has a concealed weapon permit issued by a county sheriff.

But the Medford School District has a policy that prohibits employees from carrying firearms. Teachers or staff could face disciplinary action or be fired for violating the policy.

Tim Gerking, the school district's lawyer, welcomed the ruling.

"Allowing staff to carry weapons into school buildings wouldn't enhance safety, it would only make it worse," Gerking said. "We'd have a completely new risk of accidental injuries as a result of these weapons."

Leuenberger said he planned to appeal.

"I think the judge obviously is wrong," Leuenberger said. "To make a big difference between a policy and an ordinance makes no sense. This is just an antigun decision."

Katz has said she obtained the Glock 9mm handgun - favored by many police departments - to protect herself against alleged threats from her ex-husband during their divorce in 2004. The ex-husband has denied the allegations, but a judge granted a restraining order against him that since has expired.

Arnold noted in his ruling that Katz's "personal problems are not a factor in deciding this case" and that, "likewise, the wisdom of the district's policy is not a factor ... the issue before this court is whether or not the state statute prohibits the district from having its policy ... ."

Most Oregon school districts have policies against guns on school grounds.

A spokeswoman for state school Superintendent Susan Castillo said Oregon Department of Education officials had not seen the ruling and could not comment.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

National Collegiate Empty Holster Protest

Press Release - National Collegiate Empty Holster Protest – Students for Concealed Carry on College Campuses – ConcealedCampus.com

On April 16, 2007, twenty-seven students and five faculty members at Virginia Tech lost their lives to a madman who possessed one distinct advantage over his victims—He wasn’t concerned with following the rules. Undeterred by Virginia Tech’s status as a “gun free zone,” this mentally unstable individual carried two handguns onto the university campus and indiscriminately opened fire.

During the week of October 22-26, 2007, college students throughout America will attend classes wearing empty holsters, in protest of state laws and campus policies that stack the odds in favor of armed killers by disarming law abiding citizens who are licensed to carry concealed handguns virtually everywhere else.

In thirty-nine U.S. states, thousands of collegiate students and faculty—age twenty-one and above—are licensed to carry concealed handguns throughout their day-to-day lives. And they do so without incident. However, despite the absence of any compelling evidence that these licensed individuals might pose any more threat to college campuses than they do to office buildings, shopping malls, movie theaters, grocery stores, banks, etc., they are currently prohibited, either by state law or school policy, from carrying their firearms onto most college campuses. On October 22 these students, through their Empty Holster Protest, will ask for a change.

In the last twenty years, the vast majority of the mass shootings in America—from the Texas Luby’s massacre to the Columbine High School massacre—have happened in “gun free zones.” Labeling an area “gun free” may make some people feel safer, but as the shootings at Virginia Tech taught us, feeling safe and being safe are not the same thing.

For over a year, state law in Utah has allowed licensed individuals to carry concealed handguns on college campuses. This has yet to result in a single act of violence. Numerous studies, including studies by John Lott, David Mustard, William Sturdevant, and state justice departments, show that license holders are five times less likely than non-license holders to be arrested for violent crimes. Clearly, license holders pose little threat to college campuses.

While some may argue that guns have no place in institutions of higher learning, the students of the Empty Holster Protest contend that it is the threat of uncontested, execution-style massacre that has no place on America’s college campuses, and these students respectfully ask that steps be taken to take the advantage away from those who seek to harm the innocent.

Oregon Teacher Steps Forward

Oregon teacher suing to carry gun in class reveals identity

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon teacher suing to assert a right to carry a gun at school has made her name public.

She is Shirley Katz, 43, a teacher for 21 years, the last seven in Medford. She teaches English at South Medford High School.

She went public in interviews beginning Tuesday with Lars Larson on his talk radio show.

Katz says she fears her former husband. They were divorced last year, and she has had two restraining orders against him, the last of which expired in September. She said she missed a deadline to renew it.

Gerry Katz, 54, a photographer, told the Medford Mail Tribune that he's no threat and said his former wife has made unfounded accusations as part of her effort to limit his visitation with their 5-year-old daughter.

Shirley Katz has custody, and Gerry Katz has weekly visitation rights under the divorce decree, which required him to complete an anger management class, the Mail Tribune reported.

On Sept. 26, a judge denied her bid to limit visitation rights and his request for full custody, the paper said.

Gerry Katz also has a concealed weapon permit, but his gun was seized after he waved the weapon at another driver and was charged with disorderly conduct, the paper said.

Shirley Katz filed her suit under the pseudonym Jane Doe. She said she went public after the school district filed a motion to dismiss the case based in part on her anonymity.

"I am definitely under the microscope," she said. "I had sought to avoid that (by remaining anonymous). My son goes to school here. My daughter is in the school system."

Katz filed the lawsuit Sept. 18. Oral arguments are scheduled for Oct. 11.

The Oregon Firearms Foundation is financing her lawsuit.

Oregonians who have concealed weapon permits may carry a gun onto most public properties, including schools, without violating state law.

School districts, however, commonly bar teachers from carrying guns to classrooms.

Oregon Teacher Poll

Go here and show your support for her right to carry a concealed weapon in her school!

Friday, September 21, 2007

Another B.S. Anti Editorial

No guns in school. Period.

Sympathy for an Oregon high-school teacher with a restraining order against an ex-husband ought not extend to allowing her to carry a gun to school.

The Medford School District teacher, known as Jane Doe in court papers, wants an exception to the district's policy against guns on school property so she can carry her Glock 9-mm. The answer forthcoming from a Jackson County Court judge ought to be a resounding no. The teacher's fear of her ex-spouse deserves a compassionate response — one that doesn't lead to pistol-packin' teachers.

The school could beef up security. Or the teacher could be given a paid leave while sorting out her personal problems. The restraining order could be strengthened or broadened for maximum protection.

There are solutions that don't require a gun in the classroom. The teacher has a concealed-carry permit but that doesn't give her the right to bring a gun to class.

If teachers fearful for their safety can carry guns, what about other school employees, or students fearful of the playground bully? Exceptions could create a school climate that is dangerous and distracts from education.

The 1994 federal Gun-Free Schools Act is threatened by cases such as the one in Oregon. The Christian Science Monitor reports the Michigan and Ohio legislatures have pending bills permitting school employees to carry concealed weapons on school grounds, while others have considered the possibility.

Washington state law prohibits anyone other than law-enforcement personnel from possessing weapons on school premises, school-provided transportation or any facility exclusively used by public or private schools. Legislative efforts led by Rep. Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor, would remove legal ambiguity by defining what is considered a weapon and making possession of one a felony rather than a gross misdemeanor.

Oregon's Jane Doe may fear she's in harm's way. But taking a gun into her classroom puts students in the same predicament.