Wednesday, April 18, 2007

YET ANOTHER SCHOOL TRAGEDY--

It is long past time for lawmakers and school authorities to realize efforts such as posting signs on the schoolhouse door and adding an occasional metal detector are pitifully inadequate to prevent horrific events like the recent tragedy in Virginia.


Nor can armed police be everywhere.

Writing more laws will not help. A criminal, by definition, does not obey the laws we already have.

Gun control laws, specifically, do not work either. If they did, Washington, DC would not be the murder capital of the US.


As law abiding citizens we have a Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. It is called the Second Amendment.

We must recognize that right in every state in the union. It is the US Constitution after all.

And, we must quit trashing that right at the school house door.

Ponder this:

School employees and adult aged students could voluntarily qualify for concealed carry licenses. Perhaps additional training would be required. Perhaps their expenses would be compensated from the public treasury.

Then, school simply goes on as usual.

Except, embedded in there now, somewhere, would be qualified, armed defenders that just might be able to stop some of this periodic slaughter.

It would be similar to having a fire extinguisher on the wall.

Sensible folks pray they never have to use such a device.

But....

4 comments:

The Boca Beagle said...

I remember thinking, after the Columbine massacre, that someone should have returned fire. Obviously that couldn't happen.

It seems reasonable and prudent that physical education classes teach proper gun handling and marksmanship.

Additionally, we could have shooting competitions at local, state, and national levels. This has been done in the past and should be revived in cooperation with ROTC.

If you are going to keep a fire extinguisher, you should recharge it periodically.

frststrk said...

As a 30 year retired teacher it absolutely apalls me to know that my kindergarten and first grade grandchildren have : not only fire drill, tornado drill BUT now they have school lock down drills... thank god their school is trying to be prepared... but it breaks my heart... however,,,, in my preschool I am going to do the same... Scares the hell out of me.. If only people would realize that gun control , only controls the good guys.. the bad guys dont follow the rules.

Terry Wolf said...

Hi Karen:

Thanks millions for your delicious comment. Can you tell I appreciate your thoughts--particularly coming from an experienced teacher.

I, too, am appalled that a drastic measure such as I proposed even needs to be considered. But, clearly it does. How many shootings have now occurred between Columbine and the most recent horror in Virginia?

How long are legislatures and educators going to continue the pathetically,inadequate "protections" now in place. How many more students and faculty must die before our society is moved to find a defense that works?

Some crime across our land is down in the last 15 years or so. That's about the same period in which legal concealed carry has been adopted by the vast majority of our states. Is one the result of the other? I do not know. But, it is, at least, a very positive coincidence.

And, adopting this proposal would cost virtually nothing. In Ohio alone there already are nearly 100,000 concealed carry license holders. Everytime one of us is in your vicinity, you personally are enjoying some protection and you don't even know it.

As it stands now a concealed carry license holder could witness a shooting happening on school property and it would be illegal for him or her to enter that property with a gun and stop the massacre. We would be advised by authorities to place a hurry-up call to 911. Think about that for a minute.

All that needs to be done is for parents and educators to lobby the lawmakers for enabling legislation. Relief from potential liability can be granted as part of the legislative process.

Training for the license costs about $100. The application fee is $55.

This idea can be implemented for about the cost of another dozen signs or so that bureaucrats now routinely buy to prohibit guns on the schoolhouse grounds.

*Sigh*

Pat said...

AMEN Brother!