I wish to add my comment regarding the Sun Journal’s April 27 front page article, “Proposal to arm teachers draws emotions,” by Lana Cohen of the Portland Press Herald.
My comment questions Maine’s legislators over the simplistic logic of protecting school children by arming a school official.
As a retired Army officer with 33 years of military service combined with 20 years federal law enforcement experience, I’d like to point out the basic flaws in the Maine legislators’ solution.
Just because one allows a person to carry a firearm into a school does not mean — instantly — the school is safe from severely mentally/emotionally challenged individuals. In the same way, a weapon handed to a military recruit does not instantly achieve Special Forces proficiency.
The essential missing element not considered by the Maine legislators is … training. Continual training to achieve comfort and familiarity with carrying a sidearm.
Wearing a heavy sidearm is very uncomfortable, and the person needs to develop a “comfort” with the discomfort. Weapon training (muscle memory) is vital to weapon loading, arming, unjamming, and firing at the target without a second thought.
One must be comfortable without looking to reach, grab, aim, then hold, finally, placing the front sight on center mass of the intruder. All the while watching the entire body and deciding when to pull the trigger to neutralize the threat without remorse.
Then be prepared to relive that single moment in time, and all its second-guessing, for the rest of one’s life.
Maj. (retired) David Oshansky, Auburn
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