Part of the National Rifle Association’s recently-revealed
school security plan involves training and arming school personnel like
teachers and administrators, but a recent tragedy illustrates the risks
involved with putting kids and guns together, even with a diligent,
highly-trained law enforcement officer around. On Saturday, Wilson County, TN
Sheriff’s Deputy Daniel Fanning, a school resource officer at two elementary
schools, was showing his gun collection to a friend when his 4 year-old nephew
grabbed one of the guns and fired a shot, killing Deputy Fanning’s wife,
Josephine Fanning.
From Nashville’s WTVF:
The Sheriff in Wilson County talked on Monday about a
weekend accident that killed the wife of one of his deputies. Authorities said
a 4-year-old who gained access to a loaded gun during a family cookout shot and
killed 48-year-old Josephine Fanning.
The shooting happened Saturday evening inside Deputy Daniel
Fanning’s home on S.E. Tater Peeler Road in Lebanon. Authorities said Deputy
Fanning and a male relative had been looking at firearms in a bedroom.
“He was actually showing another person that was there at
the house some of his weapons he had locked in a secure gun safe,” said Sheriff
Robert Bryan.
The sheriff said no one saw Deputy Fanning’s 4-year-old
nephew walk into the room.
“Split second, we’re talking about seconds for that kid to
walk in that room unbeknownst to them, grab that gun and it goes off.” said
Sheriff Bryan.
The 4-year-old picked up the loaded gun and fired it once,
hitting Josephine Fanning. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
Sheriff Bryan said this was all just a horrible accident.
“He took all the precautions, he’s a trained law enforcement
officer, trains with weapons all the time.”
The sheriff told WTVF that this incident “just goes to show
it can happen at any time to anyone.”
Since shortly after the tragic mass shooting at Newtown,
Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School, the President and the NRA have
agreed, broadly, that armed security in schools is a good thing, but differ
significantly on who should provide it. I agree with the President that only
trained police officers should be stationed at schools, while the NRA is
pushing a plan that would arm teachers, administrators, security guards, and
volunteers. There are already states that allow teachers to carry concealed
guns in school, without notifying parents. Even police officers aren’t perfect,
but since they are the ones who would respond to any attack on a school, it
would be silly to object to them already being there. However, the school
resource officers are little more than sitting ducks if we continue to allow
them to be outgunned by the perpetrators of thee mass shootings.
The NRA argues that the quality of its training makes arming
teachers safe, but as this story illustrates, even highly-trained, experienced
law enforcement officers aren’t immune to tragic accidents. The key difference
between a teacher and a police officer is not just those years of experience,
but the fact that a police officer’s primary responsibility is the safeguarding
and proper use of that weapon. For a teacher carrying a concealed pistol, that
responsibility falls far down a list of occupational distractions, and is
coupled with a classroom full of children whose primary responsibility is to
get ahold of things they’re not supposed to. As the security guard who recently
left his weapon in a school bathroom demonstrates, placing that responsibility
in the hands of someone other than a trained police officer is too great a
risk.
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