It takes a marksman about 3-4 seconds to set the sight on a target, so if you run away and weave, you greatly reduce your chances of being hit. In fact, you don't even have to weave.
Studies of New York police officer shootings show that if you can put 25 feet between you and the shooter, he almost certainly won't hit you at all.
In live fire situations, where cops were actively trying to hit a perpetrator, they managed to hit their targets:
- 38% of the time at a distance of 0-2 yards,
- 17% of the time at 3-8 yards,
- 9% of the time at 8-15 yards.
- 8% of the time at 16-25 yards,
- 4% of the time at greater than 25 yards
Lock all the children into a small room, just like you would lock sheep or cattle into a pen.
Yeah.
Brilliant.
It's apples and oranges. Police officers are using handguns which are less accurate and harder to use than rifles. Officers are usually reacting to a situation, which puts them at a tactical disadvantage. The shooter in Connecticut was carrying out his own plan rather than reacting to someone else's actions. It is much easier in that case to put rounds on target.
ReplyDeleteComparing police statistics to the Connecticut shooter is like comparing a combat situation to a firing range situation. I could fire expert on a popup target range in the Army. My hit percentage went way down using laser simulators (MILES gear) in the field where people were firing at me as I was firing at them.
I agree with you that teachers should be armed. School shooters kill themselves when confronted by an armed response. An armed teacher engaging the shooter would have made that happen much sooner.
There are many problems with the idea of mandating armed teachers, one of which is weapon retention.
ReplyDeleteWhen a police officer takes someone who has been arrested to be processed (fingerprinted and photographed), what does the police officer do with this sidearm? He locks it up in a gun locker. Why? Because he's going to be standing very close to the defendant, often with his side or back to him, and there would be a serious risk of the person getting ahold of the officers weapon. For the same reason, prison guards who are in with the population do not carry firearms.
So what does a teacher in your typical public or private school do all day? Walk up and down rows of desks very nearby to students, or stand with their back to the students and write on the board?
Who most frequently assaults teachers? Nuts who invade the school? No. Students, that's who.
Now compare your typical police officer or soldier to your typical school teacher. One is a man. The other is a woman. One puts at least some degree of physical and more important mental preparation into readying themselves for violent situations. The other most likely does not.
So how exactly is your 55 year old, 5ft, 110lb female school teacher going to maintain control of her firearm, while teaching math or English to a bunch of 16 and 17 year old football and basketball players?