Con: We do not need more security in our schools

With issues ranging from stolen chemicals, to fights, to shootings in area high schools; some jump to the conclusion that increasing security is the way to stop these occurrences from happening. By the time security officers get to the scene of such events it sometimes is too late. The problem should be stopped before it starts.

One of the recent acts of violence was the Ballou High School shooting. What could a security officer do in that kind of situation? Not much. Think about Columbine. It's just not realistic to say that school security officers could have prevented the situation. But perhaps a psychologist could have. The boys should have been given help, when the signs were showing: the threats one of the boys made to another student, the stream of violent essays and projects that they turned in to the teacher. They put bombs in cars right outside the school, in the cafeteria and in their own homes. Since they were smart enough to set off a diversion bomb for the police and leave the bombs in the cafeteria right when the janitor was switching security camera tapes and couldn't see what was happening, they almost certainly would have been smart enough to get the bombs into the school even if the school had metal detectors and police officers.

It's not realistic to put metal detectors and full-fledged police officers in every school. School funding issues has hit the majority of the schools across the country, even Blair, and more spending will further hinder the schools' ability to educate their students.

The government has taken actions that seem to have crossed the line between safety measures and invasion of privacy. According to the CNN website, police have publicly strip-searched "suspicious" teenagers, searching them for drugs and guns.

We need to be asking questions like: How are these kids getting guns? And how is more security going to stop this from happening? Sure, security officers might seem intimidating but they can't do much against bullets. It just isn't very difficult for people to get guns. One of the Columbine boys got his from his girlfriend. Neither federal nor state law requires background checks for the sale of guns at gun shows by unlicensed sellers, according to Seattle columnist Thomas Shapley.

Many schools throughout Montgomery County now have an actual police officer, equipped with loaded guns (news story and Blair's reaction). Will a loaded gun in the hand of a policeman stop kids from getting bringing guns to school themselves? And I was under the impression that fighting fire with fire was not a good approach. The people of the U.S. didn't stop North Korea from getting nuclear weapons by having them themselves.

The only measure that will work to solve this sad onslaught of school shootings is for the government to tighten its grip on the sale of firearms.