Charlotte Vet Shot In Combat Says Arming Teachers ‘Asinine’

CHARLOTTE, NC — As the national debate over school safety and gun restrictions continues in the aftermath of the Feb. 14 school shootings that killed 17 students and teachers in Parkland, Florida, some gun rights enthusiasts are widely advocating hardening schools and protecting classrooms by putting more guns in them. Lawmakers, parents and students have shared their take on whether arming teachers is a deterrent, but one North Carolina military veteran who was wounded twice in Afghanistan calls that “an asinine idea.”

On Wednesday, President Trump seemed to suggest that he would push for certain trained teachers to carry firearms into classrooms. During a listening session Wednesday with parents and survivors of school shootings Trump said that a teacher adept at firearms "could very well end the attack very quickly." He followed that up with a tweet Thursday that "highly trained teachers would act as a deterrent to the cowards that do this" and later suggested they receive bonuses for the added responsibility.

“Defending children is a must, but putting a firearm in the hands of even the most trained teacher isn’t the answer,” former Army sergeant Matt Martin said in a recent essay for CharlotteFive. “Anyone suggesting this solution has clearly never experienced a situation like the one seen in Parkland because it oversimplifies the complexity of an active shooter situation, especially in close-quarters. It is not as easy as a ‘good guy with a gun stopping a bad guy with a gun.’”

Martin, of North Carolina, who served in the Army for three and a half years, was shot in the leg in 2011 and left with shrapnel in his face during a deployment in Kandahar Province in Afghanistan that ended up leaving 25 percent of his company wounded.

The day after the shooting, North Carolina state Rep. Larry Pittman from Cabarrus County told his fellow lawmakers that he wanted to train teachers so they could have guns in the classroom.

“We have to get over this useless hysteria about guns and allow school personnel to have a chance to defend their lives and those of their students,” Pittman said at a Joint Legislative Emergency Management Oversight Committee meeting, the News & Observer reported.

SEE ALSO: Florida School Shooting: President Trump Tweets Gun Law Changes

“When I saw the news flash of another school shooting I couldn’t help but think of the firefights I had been involved in and how these students and teachers just encountered their own version of Afghanistan,” Martin wrote.

Martin was shot with a high-powered assault rifle while he was in a gun battle, and said it felt like action movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger swung a sledgehammer into his leg. The bullet traveled more than a foot inside his body, through his hip and missing his colon and spine by less than an inch, he said.

The Army medic who had trained to render combat medical first aid, however, froze when called to treat Martin's wound.

“Now, I share this story not to draw attention to my actions during this firefight or as a condemnation of the medic,” Martin said. “I simply want to illustrate how even the best trained members of the military react differently when bullets start flying. Someone shooting at you, specifically trying to kill you, is probably the most terrifying life event a person could ever experience.”

Teachers aren’t stars in an action movie, he said. “The margin for error in close quarters combat, such as a school environment, is razor thin,” Martin added. “There is a reason it’s already part of a profession that involves life and death decision making and not placed in the skillset of a high school math teacher.”

Efforts to arm teachers, such as a Pittman’s recent proposal, will only lead to more tragedy, he said. “Politicians who are blasé about the complexity and rigorous training required for these types of engagements and who underestimate the physical, physiological and psychological toll a combat environment brings to those involved, should be forced to place themselves in these types of simulations,” Martin added.

SEE ALSO: These Are The Top Safest School Districts In NC: New Report

Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after holding a listening session with survivors of the Florida school shooting, President Donald Trump released a torrent of social media posts on Twitter in which he promised sweeping changes to gun laws. He described the participants in his listening session as "courageous students, teachers and families." He also expressed confidence that leaders of the National Rifle Association would "do the right thing" with respect to the proposed changes.

But speaking at the American Conservative Union on Thursday, NRA chief Wayne LaPierre appeared to blame the Parkland school massacre on poorly protected schools though Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had an armed officer on the property at the time of last week's mass shooting.

You can read Martin’s entire essay for CharlotteFive here.

Patch Editor Paul Scicchitano contributed to this report.

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