DEAR EDITOR:

After reading Sunday morning’s MDJ editorial page, I found two pieces, Dave Young’s letter to the editor, “Teachers to be SEALs now, too?” and “Award winning columnist” Judy Elliott’s column, “We are ‘Helpers,’ so time to help with weapon ban”...which were so either disjointed or lacking in logic, that I felt compelled to comment on both.

Mrs. Elliott obviously recognizes that she has no expertise with firearms so she attempts to skirt the issue with a rambling, theological/children’s TV star rant of which I got the point: Pray to your elected representatives to stop the slaughter of unicorns by “mean looking” guns. Or something like that.

Young’s letter, critiquing a proposal to arm teachers, was an example of (unlike Elliott, who made no attempt at speaking directly about issues of which she has no expertise) exposing his obvious ignorance of how much training would be required for an armed school teacher to prevent, or keep to a minimum, the casualties of a Sandy Hook-type scenario. He also has a misconception of the lack of courage, which he seems to attach to the educator who would have to “confront a suicidal lunatic in body armor, armed with high-capacity firearm intent on killing as many people as possible before he kills himself.”

First, addressing the amount of training: These teachers would not be rescuing hostages, nor would they be acting as policeman investigating suspicious persons. They are a last-resort, life-or-death source to stop the killing of children. Some have referred to them as “road bumps.”

The training required for individuals who would volunteer for this, depending on their familiarity with firearms, could take as little time as a brief orientation or a few hours of classroom instruction with a few hours of range time. (Note, that there is no requirement in Georgia for any firearms training prior to applying for a concealed weapons permit.)

As far as cost to the educator, I’m sure many of us who are certified firearms trainers would volunteer their time to provide these applicants with the training needed.

The last comment of Mr. Young, for which I take issue, is his assumption (perhaps a bit of projection) that only a “right wing Rambo” would take action in the scenario which he described. Here he obviously doesn’t have much experience. I’ve witnessed many heroic acts by people who were the antitheses of “Rambos.” Also, what he doesn’t seem to realize, in his scenario, this educator would probably have a better chance of death if he didn’t have the capability with which to fight back — unless he immediately ran in the other direction — without his students —and cowered in a corner! As evidenced by Sandy Hook, the brave educators there didn’t exercise that option. They took some of the bullets meant for the children and lost their lives.

Young and the other opponents of arming school teachers should open their minds and wonder how the situation might have differed if some of those school teachers, including the principal who encountered the shooter in the beginning, had had a firearm — and some less-than-SEAL training!

Bill Stanley

Marietta