Here's an interesting article. It is old but with all the shootings lately it brings up some valid points

http://teapot.usask.ca/cdn-firearms/Lott/Lott1.html

How to Stop School Shootings
By John R. Lott, Jr.
How to Order John Lott's New Book
This week's horrific shootings in Arkansas have, predictably, spurred calls or more gun control. But it's worth noting that the shootings occurred in one of the few places in Arkansas where possessing a gun is illegal. Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi the three states that have had deadly shootings in public schools over the past half-year all allow law-abiding adults to carry concealed handgun for self-protection, except in public schools. Indeed, federal law generally prohibits guns within 1000 feet of a school.

Gun prohibitionists concede that banning guns around schools has not quite worked as intended but their response has been to call for more regulations of guns. Yet what might appear to be the most obvious policy may actually cost lives. When gun control laws are passed, it is law-abiding citizens, not would-be criminals, who adhere to them. Obviously the police cannot be everywhere, so these laws risk creating situations in which the good guys cannot defend themselves from the bad ones.

Consider a fact hardly mentioned during the massive news coverage of the October 1997 shooting spree at a high school in Pearl, Miss.: An assistant principal retrieved a gun from his car and physically immobilized the gunman for a full 41/2 minutes while waiting for the police to arrive. The gunman had already fatally shot two students (after earlier stabbing his mother to death). Who knows how many lives the assistant principal saved by his prompt response?

Allowing teachers and other law-abiding adults to carry concealed handguns in schools would not only make it easier to stop shootings in progress, it could also help deter shootings from ever occurring. Twenty-five or more years ago in Israel, terrorists would pull out machine guns in malls and fire away at civilians. However, with expanded concealed-handgun use by Israeli citizens, terrorists soon found the ordinary people around them pulling pistols on them. Suffice it to say, terrorists in Israel no longer engage in such public shootings to respond.

The one recent shooting of school children in Israel further illustrates these points. On March 13.1997, seven seventh and eighth-grade Israeli girls were shot to death by a Jordanian soldier while they visited Jordan's so-called Island of Peace. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Israelis had "complied with Jordanian requests to leave their weapons behind when hey entered the border enclave. Otherwise, they might have been able to stop the shooting, several parents said."

Together with my colleague William Landes, I have studied multiple-victim public shootings in the U.S. from 1977 to 1995. These were incidents in which at east two people were killed or injured in a public place; to focus on the type of shooting seen in Arkansas we excluded shootings that were the byproduct of another crime, such as robbery. The U.S. averaged 21 such shootings per year, with an average of 1.8 people killed and 2.7 wounded in each one.

We examined a whole range of different gun laws as well as other methods of deterrence, such as the death penalty. However, only one policy succeeded in reducing deaths and injuries from these shootings-allowing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns.

The effect of "shall-issue" concealed handgun laws-which give adults the right to carry concealed handguns if they do not have a criminal record or a history of significant mental illness-has been dramatic. Thirty-one states now have such laws. When states passed them during the 19 years we studied, the number of multiple-victim public shootings declined by 84%. Deaths from these shootings plummeted on average by 90%, injuries by 82%. Higher arrest rates and increased use of the death penalty slightly reduced the incidence of these events, but the effects were never statistically significant.

With over 19,600 people murdered in 1996, those killed in multiple victim public shootings account for fewer than 0.2% of the total. Yet these are surely the murders that attract national as well as international attention, often for days after the attack. Victims recount their feelings of utter helplessness as a gunman methodically shoots his cowering prey.

Unfortunately, much of the public policy debate is driven by lopsided coverage of gun use. Tragic events like those in Arkansas receive massive news coverage, as they should, but discussions of the 2.5 million times each year that people use guns defensively including cases in which public shootings are stopped before they happen--are ignored. Dramatic stories of mothers who prevented their children from being kidnapped by carjackers seldom even make the local news.

Attempts to outlaw guns from schools, no matter how well meaning, have backfired. Instead of making school safe for children, we have made them safe for those intent on harming our children. Current school policies fire teachers who even accidentally bring otherwise legal concealed handguns to school. We might consider reversing this policy and begin rewarding teachers who take on the responsibility to help protect children.

Exactly. The authorities want the USA disarmed so that you cannot protect yourselves or anyone else from them, eventually. In Japan, if you could buy guns, I would have one. In fact I think if I was in the USA I would feel morally obliged to have at least one gun to protect my kids with. I think children should be trained to combat armed adults. Ten children could disarm one adult. Teachers should be armed. It is a disgrace that schools are not thinking along these terms. Metal detectors. CCTV cameras and watchmen in an office secretly keeping a look out. A patrol man on the roof. A quick response team available in every town and village. Parents trained to help too. Study groups in towns and villages. Putting heads and equipment together to come up with some solutions. Voluntary guards organized by parents groups. Come on .... there is a lot to be done.

We have a useful metal pole in our bedroom.

Sounds like arms-race reasoning. Let's just give everyone a gun, kids too. Hell, let's pay for it with tax dollars and make them government issued to everyone.

Increase the amount of armed people and you increase overall number of shootings. You may have less individuals shooting massive amounts of unarmed people. But you would have more people shooting each other over little beefs, misunderstandings or suspicion. You'll have people getting shot for anything that looks suspicious or threatening.

Yes and no, with no restrictions and universal carry you're absolutely right, with sane restrictions it can be beneficial in some environments (in others it would remain as you say). Where I am there was a LOT less violent crime when open carry was socially acceptable and concealed carry was restricted to law enforcement and private detectives. There were even fewer knifings and serious assaults because punks had to worry about an armed citizen happening onto the scene. Open carry it was easy to track where any potential problem was and if someone didn't look like a cop and had a shoulder holster the cops got called.

Proper training and culture eliminate most of the temper related violence with the restrictions I'm referring to. In other words it really can go both ways, but I'd be against even all teachers being armed.

Take a look at what happens to countries like Iraq, who did not have WMDs to threaten the USA with.

Take a look at the citizens of South American countries where US-backed fascist governments kill unarmed villagers.

Guns are allowed. It is time to address the likelihod of attacks by preventative measures and also plans that can go straight into effect to make sure the outcome is less horrendous.

I do not trust governments. I think the press has no place in the area. Parents must be allowed to protect their children even if they are being attacked at school. If the school is not protecting them then there is something wrong in that society.

It could be that the production of WMDs is making it a morally bankrupt society.

Then you are an anarchist.

No I am not an anarchist. Sorry, to disappoint. I presume you totally trust the government. You would not mind being a slave in a new world order? Either way, whether you are a lefty or a righty you are heading in the same direction. I am a middle of the roader Libertarian with a strong emphasis on human rights, beginning with the right to work, in preference to the right to be kept by the government. I do not believe the government should keep anyone with two arms and two legs and a head that works okay. They should keep themselves. When those people lose any of those members of their body, then the government or their ex-employer should keep that person in a home. Or give them work they could do.

Of course the loss of a head is the most unfortunate and lets everyone off any further payments.

You and I are headed in the same direction. The question is, which one of us is going to get us there quicker. It depends on were we are headed. If we end up a totalitarians state led by government officials, you can blame me. If we end up in a totalitarian state led by bankers, I will blame you.

If you are a libertarian, that means you are socially liberal and economically conservative. Your economic ideals are in conflict with your own social ideals.

Personally, I don't think arming teachers is such a good idea.

I remember a few teachers from my youth whom, if with a firearm, would have been a deadlier threat than a madman on a mission.

Poor old Mrs Smithey from fourth grade would have shot everything in sight, including both of her feet, if somebody had startled her. Mrs Jamison was so near sighted she had trouble telling which student she was talking to; I guess she'd have to use a sawed off shotgun where seeing what you're shooting at isn't all that important.

Mr. Stanislaus had it in for me so I betcha we'd a had an accident, eh?

And my first exposure to a woman going through menopaus occurred when I was in Junior High School, I'm sure there are many students extremely thankful that lady was armed with only a paddle.

I'd just like to mention that dozens of Amish showed up at the funeral of the shooter to mourn his death and comfort his family, a powerful statement while several children are still in critical condition.

Very good, billfmsd.

Only one problem, though....

It seems to me that the government officials and the bankers are the same folks on different sides of a large revolving door.... one day they're into finance, the next day they're working the aisles of power.

One hand is washing the other, and we're all getting taken to the cleaners.

"An armed society is a polite society" - - NRA saying

Actually...Robert A. Heinlein (Monroe-Alpha in Beyond This Horizon)