School resource officers should be a ‘clear threat’

How do you protect schools and students? You make sure that the School Resource Officer is of the highest qualification. A clear threat to any individual endangering the school or its students.

They should be a competitive shooter in Tactical Police Combat Shooting, with a high rating. Preferably a Police Firearms Instructor, SWAT-certified. There should be no doubt they can take a central nervous system shot from 25 yards, and not endanger collateral personnel.

The most difficult thing in a school situation is taking out the perpetrator and no innocents. This degree of skill should be rewarded with a 25 percent bonus monthly; in the service it was called proficiency pay. Ammunition and range time to maintain that degree of skill should be provided. No accommodation made for minority participation or social justice. Either the individual is or isn’t mentally and physically fit, and with the necessary skill level to strike fear into potential problems.

For it is only through this fear that these mentally impaired individuals will be dissuaded from attempting mass shootings in the gun-free zones schools have become. Isn’t this what J. Edger Hoover did when the FBI started losing gunfights to the gangsters of the ’30s? Hire gunfighters, and arm them with the best weapons available suited to the task.

Walt Specht

Leesburg