Yea... before we were inturpted by jemima... We were talking about how this wouldn't happen or would happen in forign countries...

Well I would just liek to say that I had a first hand view on gun in England and I am sure anyone who had passed through would agree.

British police do not have guns, nor are guns legal.. So the average person, ignorent, would think that this means no violence. Well that is the way it would apear. But as I was saying if you pass through any part of britain you will see many guns, just not in the hands of police, that is because in Britan the people with the guns are "military" that play the role of  police. Just a thought, which one seems more sinister A pistol (american cops) Or a fully automatic rifle (British "military"

On balance I think it is better to have schools as gun free zones than to not. Mass shootings like this are extremely rare. The benefit outweighs the drawbacks.

no, it's very very different. Pilots are largely removed from the passangers and don't relaly have to deal with them on a regular basis, i.e. they are much less likely to get stressed and fslah the gun. plus the lives of the passangers depend on them, very different to the role of a teacher.

teachers on the other hand.... very different scenario, having to deal with unruly students, getting stressed etc. i have seen many teachers come as close to a mental breakdown as one can, and i've had some get very agressive with me personally. teachers are among the last group of people in the planet i'd want to see armed, some of them are hardly able to control themselves when they lose it. i could see many an "accident" occurring if teachers were made carry guns.

I've had teachers that have had nervous break downs during class.  Not sure if I'd want them to have guns, although I can see your point.

The tradeoffs suck though. It's absurd to say "well don't give the teachers who have breakdowns guns", you don't know who will have a breakdown, and even in the case where someone is crazy (like Cho) the background check system doesn't work very well. You can arm everyone but you're going to end up with more shootings in schools. I'd rather less guns in schools and the occasional shooting rampage that can only be stopped by police (or suicide in the case of Cho or the Columbine killers) than arm all the teachers and hope that they are all good shots, don't flip out themselves, etc. This isn't even getting into the incredible legal liability and fiscal cost involved with arming teachers. As it is now, if someone has a gun in a school and they are not a police officer you know immediately that something is fucked. If it became normal for people to walk around with guns then it becomes less clear when something is fucked. As an example, I am not used to random methhead rednecks walking around with handguns in convenience stores. So when I did see one my first response was to become extremely concerned for everyones safety. In fact this was totally normal because I was in Arizona at the time and they let methheads carry guns wherever they want there.Fortunately, the guy just bought his beer and chewing tobacco and cruised off in his truck without shooting anyone. The same principle applies at schools, you won't know you're fucked until the bullets start flying. 

Probably the most feasible way to prevent mass shootings like this from happening, without even involving guns or anything else really contentious, would be to better fund the mental healthcare system and give mental healthcare professionals and local judiciaries more authority to get involved in the wellbeing of crazy people. It may have stopped Cho if he could have been evaluated for a longer period of time, or if he could have been involuntarily committed, or if the DA could have prosecuted him for stalking without the active cooperation of the victim.

In a nation full of guns and crazy people it's inevitable that crazy people will use guns. Mitigating the use of guns by crazy people by handing out guns to teachers seems like one of the worst solutions imaginable to me. Cops have a hard enough time with their own guns, teachers with guns would be such a complete disaster.