To the Editor:

As a parent and gun owner, I am disappointed at how the conversation on “school safety” so quickly devolved into the arming of teachers and staff.

The idea of arming school faculty is an irresponsible and dangerous reaction that may sound reasonable at face value but is inherently reckless in implementation. For me to keep a gun safe in my home with children, it must be locked up in a key-less safe. The same standard applies to schools with staff and children: There is no way to completely prevent accidental discharge or irresponsible use of a firearm if it is loaded and carried on a person. However, if guns are locked up in a safe, there is little chance they can be effectively used in an active shooter situation. Secondly, most active shooter situations that I am aware of have involved the use of semi-automatic assault rifles and/or high capacity magazines. There is very limited ability to defend oneself with a handgun against an assault rifle.

I fully support efforts to ensure the children of Grant School District 3 have a safe learning environment. To that end, I would encourage the district to seek out funding for school resource officers at all three campuses. If this is not feasible in the near future, I would propose more creative means of providing a professional law enforcement presence. Perhaps an office at each school could be provided for local law enforcement where they could share shifts to cover the school day and take care of their own administrative duties? I would be supportive of physical measures to create hardened points of entry and locking doors to outside visitors. Finally, I would encourage the school district to work with other local entities to identify and treat the root causes associated with the deadly acts that have recently occurred in schools across the United States. The mental health and emotional well-being of our children (and community) should be prioritized in order to prevent these heinous acts. Putting firearms in our schools is a reckless and irresponsible reaction with the potential to have catastrophic consequences.

Darin Toy

John Day