Apparently you are all missing the point - the one that I thought was very large and plain to see but it turns out is not so big or so plain.
I am not in any way, shape or form blaming you for my disability or my inability to run and gun with the cool kids. As a matter of fact I have no desire to run and gun with kids, cool or otherwise.
I am all for changing the rules to allow for carry in a GFSZ. I just am not in favor of tying that to any sort of higher qualification level than already exists in order to have a CCW - and that's not just because I am a grumpy old cripple.
You talk about baby steps and incremental change to expand the privilege of carrying in schools so that after X amount of time you can revisit the restrictions on where a person may carry with the view to expanding that priviolege even further. You tie all of this to the ability to demonstrate some higher degree/level of skill. My question is why does there need to be a higher degree/level of skill? We are not, or so I have presumed, talking about purposely acting as security guards for the school. We are not talking about arresting some BG and applying the correct charge against them in order to secure a conviction. We are, at best, talking, or so I presumed, about a visitor to the school suddenly being confronted with the decision of whether or not to use a lawfully carried firearm in the defense of innocent third parties.
The state (OK, most states) already says I am fully qualified to do that in public parks, on the public street, in the parking lot of state offices (with some exceptions) and even inside public agency office buildings (again with some exceptioons). Apparently the only thing different about schools is that they are regularly full of children. If the potential threat of shooting a child by mistake is so high, why are all cops allowed to carry in schools instead of just those with "special training"? We all know that cops are not great marksmen and tend to miss their target quite a bit more frequently than they hit it, and that any bullet sent flying in a school will, like any bullet sent flying anywhere else, continue until it hits something or gravity pulls it to earth. Given the size of every school I am aware of, that latter option is not realistic - bullets fired at the BG that do not hit the BG are highly likely to hit a child. Will your special, enhanced, higher level of training prevent that from happening? And why is the satate requiring that we perform at a level higher than it reqiuires of its police?
What I see and hear is that you are willing to surrender to the emotionalism of the antis. I guess the plan is to show that the hallways did not run with rivers of blood and use that as the basis for the next incremental step. What I fully expect to see and hear from the antis is some emotional "Yes, but..." hook against the next incremental step, and the next, until we finally run out of incremental steps. I think that the choir has forgotten the music on this issue. "Gun control has never been about guns" is not just a cute poster - we know that it is about controlling people. Special permits for special people only fractures us even more than we already are, just like the duck hunters who say they do not care if the AWB comes around again because it will not effect them. I fully expect service rifle match shooters to demand an exception for their semi-automatric rifles but otherwise have no concern about a new AWB. Cowboy action shooters don't care because they use those nice, safe, friendly antique guns that nobody seems to be afraid of.
I probably have greater shooting skills than most cops in spite of my being in a wheelchair. That's not the point, just as being in a wheelchair possibly limiting my ability to pass a higher level/degree of state mandated training is not the point. I used that circumstance hoping to demonstrate that arbitrary qualkification requirements are just that - arbitrary and demonstrate nothing especially related to safe gun handling and safe gun shooting in a school that cannot already be demonstrated by the "mere" possession of a CCW. There are those who will never get training unless forced to, and will never practice unless forced to. Amazingly, most cops fall into this category. There are those who will attend every kewel kid class there is so they can say they shoot just like real operators, or so they can advance in the ranks of gun games. Based on the ads for training that I see, there are few folks interested in training for real-life situations where you just cannot, for example, draw without covering someone with the muzzle. While it would be better if you could avoid doing that I wonder how many IDPA/IPSIC shooters would stop and not draw and shoot at the loon with a gun in the movie theater just because they would sweep some of the crowd.
The bottom line is responsibility and accountability. The schools have done just about everything in their power to claim they are not, in fact, responsible for the kids, and they have created all sorts of zero-tolerance rules to further that aim. We all know that the police are not responsible for protecting us as individuals. Schools and the police make every effort to avoid being held accountable for what any individual does, be it some whack job shooting up the place or teacher using corporal punishment, or abusing their power by doing X, Y, or Z. On the other hand, with only the garden variety of CCW we are already held accountable and responsible for every action and every bullet. How will holding a higher level CCW change any of that?
And then, finally, we get back to me in my wheelchair. I can scoot and move with the rest of the kewel kids, except for going sideways or going as fast. But do you really believe that moving sideways (getting off the X laterally for the kewel kids) will not be one of the requirements for that higher level CCW? And silly me, I had thought stuff like knowing when to shoot and when not to shoot would be the most important factor, followed somewhere with how to shoot in/through a herd of stampeding kids. But I do not see many trainers who are willing to invest the money needed for FATS or other go/no go simulatrion trainers - especially because not every CCW holder is going to want to get the higher level certificate. I also do not see any trainer now (exept the military and a very few police departments) offering any training in how to shoot while in a herd of stampeding kids. None of the "enhanced CCW" proposals I have seen or heard about are without some running-and-jumping requirements while most pay scant attention to shoot/don't shoot. AQnd that is why I am upset that my wheelchair will most likely be an automatic disqualifier.
stay safe.
