A high school teacher in Georgia who barricaded himself inside a classroom on Wednesday with students locked out in the hallway was arrested after the principal tried to force open the door and the instructor fired a gunshot, police said.
No students were hurt, except for a girl who suffered a minor ankle injury while running in the pandemonium that followed from the lunchtime incident at Dalton High School in Dalton, Georgia, about 90 miles (145 km) north of Atlanta, the state capital, police said.
After responding to reports of gunfire at the school, police said they found the teacher holed up inside a classroom.
Students were specifically not in danger, as the teacher wouldn't let them back in the room after lunch, and it isn't clear, despite the gunshot, that anyone was hurt besides the ankle injury. And maybe this teacher has "mental health" (I continue to use that phrase advisedly. It tends to apply to people we approve of; people we don't approve of are just "bad guys with guns.") issues (most gun deaths in America are suicides, I understand). Here again, the "mental health" issues that should (presumably) keep someone from having a gun are only readily apparent AFTER the gun is used. Because that's the way "mental health" works with guns: always a posteriori.
What is safe to say is that this wouldn't have happened if he hadn't had a gun. Why did he have a gun on campus? Why did he have a gun at all? My father lived to 90 years and died in a hospital, without ever owning a gun while I've been alive (in his childhood? Maybe a .22, I dunno.). I don't need a gun, it won't protect me from anything. What did it protect this teacher from, or the principal, or the students?
And did he have a "talent" for guns that failed him? Isn't that a possibility? Wouldn't it be better if he'd never had a gun? Certainly it would have been that much safer at this school.
Maybe vague and glittering generalities about what people will do with weapons that can indiscriminately kill is not the best foundation for public policy. Ya think?
@nra my favorite teacher at Dalton high school just blockaded his door and proceeded to shoot. We had to run out The back of the school in the rain. Students were being trampled and screaming. I dare you to tell me arming teachers will make us safe.