To the Editor:

I’d like to humbly suggest to my fellow townspeople, that - where possible -  we employ concealed-carry teachers already teaching in our schools to act as school marshals for the purpose of emergency response professionals in the event of a school shooting. This group might augment and/or replace – if there are enough of them – the retired police personnel being planned for this function.

We might use the air marshal program as a loose model.

The main two advantages for this model in our schools are number one, the “bad guys” would not know who/where the armed and trained defender is in the school building, giving great tactical and psychological advantage to the “good guys” and serving to intimidate the intentions of the “bad guys.” Secondly, the school marshals would save tens of thousands of dollars each and every school year.

I’m sure this type of program is already being used in other parts of the country, so it wouldn’t be like we’d be inventing the wheel. We’d just copy what’s already in place and working successfully elsewhere.

Thank you very much.

Peter McLoughlin

Pleasant Hill Road, Newtown                    March 18, 2014