• Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, Jan. 29, 2013
• Guns in school won't end violence
• It's certainly understandable that well-meaning adults would want to further protect schoolchildren in our state from the possibility of a horrific school shooting such as the one last year in Newtown, Conn.
• But the South Dakota House's passage of a sentinel bill to allow school districts to authorize volunteer armed employees perhaps creates as much opportunity for disaster as it does possible solutions to the potential for violence.
• The bill isn't about introducing guns in schools. That happened years ago with the school resource officer program. In schools where the officers work either full time or part time, they carry a gun and are trained to use it if needed.
• In South Dakota's sentinel legislation, volunteers among the school's employees would receive some training and would agree to be armed while at school. Schools could decide whether they want to have sentinels on staff and would have to talk to and get approval from local law enforcement about the plan.
• Schools certainly are expected to be a safe place for learning. But arming employees with minimal training is the wrong way to beef up security. Unless trained as law enforcement, a volunteer may well be able to accurately shoot at a target but wouldn't have the in-depth training and judgment that law enforcement personnel live by.
• It's silly to think that a minimally trained staff person could or would be able to defuse a school shooter. This sentinel answer simply seems to be a pro-gun response to a massive school shooting that has questioned our gun laws.
• The idea also doesn't address the very real potential of a staff member being overpowered and the gun getting into the hands of a student or anyone else with thoughts of causing harm. Nor does it seem to consider the anxiety children might feel if they know some of their teachers could be carrying guns.
• If arming staff within schools is the answer to school safety, what happens when students go outside for recess or go home on a school bus? There isn't a way to put a big enough bubble around children that would protect them from every potential danger.
• Locking doors to the school, requiring guests to identify themselves before enter

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