Forsyth County Georgia Board of Education - Jere Krischel - 02/20/2024

Last month, we heard the tale of a mentally ill high school social studies teacher, who in 2018 brought a gun to school to commit suicide by cop. Before his third period class arrived, he barricaded himself in his classroom, and fired a single warning shot when the principal tried to talk him down. After he was stopped by good guys with guns, he was convicted and sentenced to two years of prison, and assuming he is still alive today, he has four more years of probation left.

This story was presented as a stark warning against allowing responsible, law-abiding teachers, from exercising their right of self-defense. We are supposed to somehow believe that if we allow good, mentally healthy, responsible adults, carry firearms at school, that this will somehow magically create more mentally ill murderers who will target our schools.

Try as I might, I cannot see the connection.

In 2016, a radical islamic jihadist, murdered dozens of people at the Orlando Pulse nightclub, a prominent gay establishment. In response, I joined other volunteers in Operation Blazing Sword, dedicated to teaching firearms safety to the LGBTQ community, for free, so that they could learn how to responsibly exercise their god given right to self-defense. Living close by to Hollywood, California at the time, I had the privilege of sharing my firearms expertise with over a dozen gay couples, and during this time I became an NRA Certified Instructor in a number of disciplines.

Now, if we banned responsible, law-abiding gun owners from carrying firearms when working in nightclubs, do you think that would make them a more attractive, or less attractive target to mentally ill or religiously deranged psychopaths?

In Forsyth County, we are blessed to have armed officers on every campus. The only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, and one good guy is much better than zero good guys.

If we want to deter mentally ill maniacs from targeting schools, the best way to do that, is to make them less certain about their odds. I want bad guys to have to worry about every responsible adult in a school, not just the one resource officer open carrying.

Now, of course, training is key in order to responsibly carry. Even more so when dealing with our children. But I would honestly feel safer, in this room if everyone was responsibly armed, rather than only our sheriff's deputies. Not because I doubt their bravery or their skill, but because they are not invincible, and if a wild band of antifa or military age male illegal immigrants decided to attack these offices, we'd all be glad for every armed citizen here.

With all that said, I'd like to ask the Board to commit to piloting any teacher concealed carry program offered by our legislature, but to keep completely confidential which school it is being piloted at. Whether or not a single teacher signs up, just the possible threat, of one more responsible armed individual, at even a single school in our district, will provide a protective effect against any would-be murderers, by making our schools less attractive targets. Murderers want easy, unarmed targets.

And so on that note, thank you very much for your time, and again, I'd love to buy lunch for anyone who disagrees with me.