No!

What an excellent idea! I would love to know there was a loaded handgun sitting around my kindergartner's class! What could possibly go wrong?

An intelligent, reasonable idea brought about by our sensible governor. Time after time violent actions have been thwarted by law-abiding armed individuals. Unlike previous comments posted here It is an idea worthy of further discussion.

Sorry Warren, but you're an idiot if you think it's a good idea having a loaded gun around small children. Google "accidental shooting child" if you have any doubts. On average, 5 kids are killed bu gun accidents each day. You can expect that number to skyrocket once you place a gun in every classroom. I'd be happy to read all the "time after time" anecdotes of armed citizens thwarting violent actions. Please provide a source.

The entire idea is ludicrous.

First, I'd like to say that I am a gun owner. I do not, however, agree that guns should be in schools/classrooms, other than on assigned law enforcement officers or security teams..

McBrinn - I find it interesting that you ask Warren to "provide a source" for all the times that "armed citizens thwart violent actions", but you provide none for your statement of "5 kids are killed b[y] gun accidents each day." I'd also note that by calling Warren an idiot, you are not furthering the discussion/debate in an appropriate manner.

I think this is a great idea.. The firearm should net be left in the room but carried on the teacher as a law enforcement officer would... We send our children to shool thinking they will be safe but this is no longer the case. Our kids need to be protected and a single officer on campus is not likely to make it to the situation in time to protect the kids.

Right, Warren. I presume you're ignorant of the fact that two APD police shotguns were taken recently? They were locked up and under the control of trained LEO but, alas, they're gone.

That would never happen at the school right? Because they'd be trained controllers and their weapons would be locked up, right? Brilliant logic indeed.

I'm still waiting on your source, by the way. Mr. Simpson is obviously a bit challenged. I clearly told him what to search for to turn up my source. Maybe he doesn't know ho to use Google?

Please curb the vitriol in the comments.

A bit too Piers Morgan with some of the comments here. Always interesting how quickly civil discourse can turn uncivil. That may be part of the problem facing our country. Disagreements quickly lead to name calling, eventually escalating to a "meet me outside" reaction and then there is violence. We see it everyday, our kids see it everyday. It takes its toll.
With regard to arming teachers, look at it from where we already are as a Commonwealth. Virginia is a concealed carry state. For those who say "I don't want firearms around my kids" well guess what, they already are, you just don't see them in plain view. The person standing next to you at Toys R Us or the person strolling along at Arts on the Avenue may be lawfully carrying concealed. There are teachers, yes those men and women who see more of our kids than we do during the week, who are concealed carry permit holders. They are trained, have had background checks, spend hours at the range, and would do anything to protect the lives of our children. The problem is, when they head to work, their firearm stays locked at home. They are not even permitted to have their concealed carry firearm locked in their vehicle on school property. At the highschool and middle school level there are armed resource officers. At the elementary level, there is nothing. Allowing teachers who are already permit holders to legally carry at schools may be advantageous and worth a serious discussion. Not name calling.

"spell check much" and "site" your source in one post! Thanks for the laugh Jeremy!
I was right! You are dim witted!

Thanks for the laugh!

My first name is William. What nomenclature has to do with stance is beyond me but let the old men bleat on about it named. .

Thank you. I didnt even catch that...twice. I must do better when dealing with trolls.

Still, you have no substance. Thank you for the made up stats.

You're welcome.

Arming teachers??? You're joking right? Of all the back and forth on here nobody has stopped to wonder what the effect would be on a child knowing his/teacher needs to be armed in his kindergarten class. Is that the kind of country you want? Is that the reality you find acceptable? This is your solution? Or is this a pushback against the thought of clamping down on needless weapons in the hands of the public? You'd rather watch your country take a slow, steady descent into insanity than curb your desire to throw an assault weapon into your trunk for your trip to Walmart??

This seems like a good idea until a teacher has a bad day and starts offing his/her class. Then of course the natural policy response will be a proposal to arm kindergartners and teach them firearm operation before they're capable of reading, writing, or tying their shoes.

Arming school personnel sounds like a bad idea to me. Unless the certification program to own a gun is rigorous and those who carry guns participate in frequent training courses and practice at a shooting range to learn how to properly aim and shoot, this could be a disaster. What if a school employee was aiming at an attacker, missed and the bullet when through a wall and hit someone?

Regarding accidentaly shootings I recently read in the paper about a very unfortunate accident where a man had placed his gun on the dashboard of the car. It accidentally discharged, and killed his 6 year old child.

A person can already snap and go on a rampage without this type of proposed legislation, be they a teacher at the school or a twenty year old. The rationale is that if licensed teachers are armed they may turn on those they are supposed to protect. The same logic can be applied to law enforcement officers. You just don't see that occurring.

Lost to the gun advocates in this discussion is the right of teachers and other school officials NOT to be forced to become gun wielders. I am comfortable around guns, but the belief that you can require someone to learn to use a deadly weapon is simply wrong.

Excellent point Pete.

So let me get this straight. Mr, Orta thinks that the guns should be in locked cabinets and when the kindergarten class is attached, the teacher would ignore the kids, unlock the cabinet, and start a gun battle. Am I the only one who thinks this is just a crazy scary scenario? And other think that teachers should carry concealed weapons. Schools full of active inquisitive kids and teachers hiding their guns until someone else starts shooting? What could go wrong with that? Is this really where we want to go -- to turn our schools into the OK Corral? How about if we start looking at some solutions that don't include creating scenarios for more violence, more shootings, more deaths?

Regarding the issue of numbers of kids in the U.S. killed by guns: 180 children, 11 years of age or younger, were killed by a firearm in 2010, according to the most recent report on violent deaths from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And if that doesn't seem like a lot, the question is how many is too many? I would say one.

Our teachers are already overworked and way under paid. Now, the Governor wants to require that at least one teacher in each school become armed?? I totally disagree. However, at least in Alexandria, we see to have an over population of Police. Why couldn't we establish Police Sub-stations at each school and require that at least one officer be on duty?

A cop in Texas was so threatened by a man in a wheelchair (he had one arm and one leg) he shot and killed him. In New York nine bystanders were shot by police with lousy aim. I'm not sure any government employee should carry a firearm.

Absolutely no to guns for teachers. If, Heaven forbid, a situation arose, I would want the teacher to be focused on his/her students and NOT on grabbing their gun. My husband, who was trained in weaponry during his years as a Navy officer and now is in his 17th year teaching at TC Williams, agreed with me that teachers need to focus on students not on arms.

In my opinion, it would not be long before the ACLU, NRA or others advocate that since Virginia allows concealed weapons, students over the age of 18 should permitted to carry weapons in school if teachers and administrators also can be armed. This is a dangerous, slippery slope.

What a retarded idea. I'd laugh in the face of anyone proposing such and absurd solution. You'd have to be brain dead to think this is a good move.

How can meeting violence with more violence be a good lesson to teach our children? They already see enough violence on tv, on their video games, in the news, it's all around them. No wonder these sick young men think it is acceptable to kill and maime in response to whatever wrong they feel has been done to them. Arming our school personnel is wrong on a moral level as well as a practical level. If the gun is properly secured, how could the teacher react quickly enough to prevent anything? If it is readily available, how can we keep our children safe from accidental use? It just makes no sense whatsoever to arm our whole populace and return to the good old days of the wild west. Look at the international statistics to understand that regulating the guns and the types of available ammunition is a sensible way to curb gun deaths.

It's about time that someone leads with some common sense. Gun deaths are not caused by legal gun owners and sane people. We use all kinds of constraints to keep mentally ill people away from guns and they get their hands on one because someone like the mom in CT and now we blame every gun owner. If the weapons were not in the house or locked up the young man would have looked elsewhere for a gun. He needed help and his mom did not do her job correctly. Now, if the teachers, a principal or a security officer were armed this could have been preventable. Legal guns can stop illegal gun users with one clean act of self defense....shoot to kill. We protect banks, court houses, stores and things...why not protect children? It is a very basic perspective. In every state that has promoted gun ownership and self defense the crime rate has gone down. I submit that before anyone legislates any new gun laws prove to us that they can stop criminals from using guns otherwise you are making people defenseless against illegal gun users.