Foxy,

"What the debate should be about is the sick
gun culture in the US. It should be about limiting
access to firearms. It should be about universal
background checks, banning assault weapons, taking
away guns from people charged or convicted of crimes.
It should be about making it easier to take away guns
from people who may represent a threat to themselves
or others."

Fair enough, they already have background checks and assault rifles are banned, just as in Australia, assault rifles can only be held on a special licence.
As in Australia, people are said to be innocent until convicted; criminals are prohibited from having firearms, but, just as in Australia, American criminals do not obey the law.
That's why they are called criminals.

Mental health is a big problem in America they did the same as Australia and shut the Mental Asylums to save money, not much can be done about that.

Why won't you say what you consider that a teacher could do to resist an immediate threat to the life of herself and the children?

Your advice could possibly save lives or don't you care?

The knee-jerk reaction to mass killings in schools by Trump and supported by you, is not the answer. The arming of teachers can only result in more shootings, more deaths. The US has to grasp the nettle and do something about the systemic problem they have with guns in their community. I am glad to see you at least acknowledge there is a problem, but again the response from the hard political right in the US is disappointing.

Paul,

There is only one immediate answer to the problem of school shootings, someone who is on the spot and who is armed.
The teacher is the most logical as the teacher is also a target.

No one wants to see school children shot, unlike those who feed on such tragedies for political point scoring, but something must be done that can be quickly implemented and arming those school personnel who wish to be armed is the only quick solution.

The possible long-term solutions can be discussed at length in the future but what is now needed is some way of stopping a killer from murdering children and teachers, an armed teacher is an obvious answer.

There is a sick gun culture in the US. And if they
were really worried about preventing unnecessary
deaths - the sheer amount of damage that a gun can
do should be reason to limit who can get their hands
on one. But the NRA is a very powerful lobby and the
chances of that happening as we've seen is very slim.

Limiting access to firearms is not on their agenda. And
the recent incident proves it - it's about guns - but
their ridiculous answer is not about taking action on guns
but about arming teachers. High school students are begging
for their President to take action.

If a person is not old enough to drive a car or buy a beer,
then he should not be able to legally purchase a weapon of
mass destruction. This recent incident could have been
prevented. If the killer had been properly treated for his
mental illness, if there had been proper background checks,
then those who should not have guns would not have them.

America NEEDS stricter laws - not more guns. They need to
expose the truth about gun violence. End of story. But with
their current attitudes - nothing is going to change - the
same things will continue to happen. We do not want this to
happen here in Australia. And Thank Goodness we have enough
politicians who DO CARE. Those that want things to change here
and for us to be like the US are the ones who as SteeleRedux
pointed out are very selfish people - and they value guns
more than they value the lives of our people. Shame on them.

Foxy,

Obviously you are concerned, but do tell me, how could a teacher stop a murderer who is about to kill him/her and the children?

To some the answer is obvious, only if the teacher has a gun, and the only appropriate gun in the circumstances is a pistol.

Do answer the question.

The answer to the question has already been answered many
times over. Make guns less accessible, not more accessible.
Restrictions on firearms can save lives.
Arming teachers will not solve the problem.

The problem lies with people
who as a whole refuse to even admit they have a serious
problem with guns and violence. But more than that,
lawmakers continue (especially in the US)
acting like the solutions are
some sort of mystery. As if there aren't years of research and
experiences in other countries that clearly show that
restrictions on firearms can save lives. And in the US the
problem is very much the easy access to guns and the abundance
of guns. Until that changes - nothing will change in that
country and arming teachers will not solve their problems.
It will only make things worse.

How do you solve the problem of an armed murderer in a
classroom? You solve it by making it difficult for
them to have access to weapons of mass destruction.