As soon as the issue was framed as "arming teachers," we lost the debate.
I agree, in part. I’m not going so far as to say “we lost”, but the MSM’s script of “to arm or not arm teachers” is definitely aligned to the anti-gunners’ agenda.
Setting aside the mental health vs. gun issue, or the failure of authorities to act/prevent vs. gun issue we need to assume the most dangerous course of action: a bad guy with a gun/knife/bomb will find his way onto school grounds.
From there the discussion is, “ok, now what?”
We have an opportunity to shift the narrative’s focus back where it belongs: to defend or not defend the students. That’s ultimately what it comes down to. And the best defense, as some have already mentioned, is one that is multi-faceted/layered, but most importantly able to counter/deter an active shooter with equal, or better still, overwhelming force. This means multiple designated, trained and qualified armed defenders, both overt and covert, on school grounds. A consistent core augmented by a rotating armed cadre proportional to size of school from the ranks of teachers, coaches, admin staff, janitors, volunteer parents, volunteer veterans, police details, national guard details, etc would at best deter attacks like the most recent one in Florida altogether, and at worst provide an adequate active defense against an active shooter.
Anything less than that are half-measures that will ultimately result in an “unprotected (aka gun-free) zone”. And society will have no one but itself to blame when the next uncontested shooting happens in one of our schools.
“But how could this happen?! We banned those guns!! We said no more standard capacity magazines!! We had signs put up clearly marking this a gun-free zone!! We enacted more laws to do away with the archaic thinking and intent of our forefathers and their stupid Constitution!!”
Criminals don’t care. Mentally ill people don’t care/understand. They don’t play by your rules. Guns, bullets, bombs, knives don’t disappear into thin air because you held a peace rally or staged a walk-out protest or screamed down an opposing viewpoint on television.
The only thing we can control is our own actions. Do we choose to adequately defend our schools and children, or not?