When Nevada state Sen. Bob Beers (R-Las Vegas) introduced his bill this year to allow properly trained teachers to carry a gun for protection in schools, he was universally ridiculed by the Left…and even by some on the Right. Perhaps those who thought this was such a crazy idea will re-think their position in light of the school massacre which occurred on the Virginia Tech campus yesterday.
For example, Emil Steiner of the Washington Post awarded Sen. Beers with the Silver Medal in his “2006 Idiot of the Year” awards. Who looks like the idiot now, Emil?
Or left-wing blogger Hugh Jackson of the Las Vegas Gleaner, who called Beers’ bill as an “absurd proposal.” Doesn’t seem quite so absurd now, does it Hugh?
Or Glen Gillette, a retired school teacher from Clark County wrote to the Las Vegas Sun that Beers’ bill “to allow teachers to arm themselves in their classrooms is, to say the least, a ridiculous and asinine proposal.” Unless, of course, you were one of those murdered yesterday, right Glen?
Another Sun letter-writer must be feeling like a complete nimrod this morning. Sam Chinkes of Las Vegas wrote that “police patrols that protect the school should be adequate as a deterrent,” adding that “parents and teachers as well as other administrative personnel in schools must be alert to report suspicious activity.”
Some deterrent, Sam. And as we found out yesterday, “alert” administrative personnel didn’t notify students and teachers at Virginia Tech yesterday that a murderer was running loose on the campus for more than two hours after his first attack.
The Las Vegas Sun, not to be outdone by a mere letter-writers, penned an equally dismissive editorial in opposition to the Beers’ bill. “Putting guns in the classroom increases the likelihood of something terrible happening, such as a teacher shooting in the wrong situation or being disarmed by a student or intruder,” declared the Sun, noting that armed teachers would create “a terrible learning environment for students.”
Unlike, we suppose, the optimal learning environment students enjoyed in Norris Hall yesterday, right?
The Sun continued: “We pay teachers to teach, not to patrol like some Old West lawman with a gun on his hip. Is that what we want, to turn our schools into some sort of O.K. Corral Elementary?”
Better than a school-yard slaughterhouse, wouldn’t you say?
Then there’s Joe Agron of High Beam Research who wrote: “School security is more multifaceted and involved than having gun-toting teachers patrolling classrooms. The misguided and dangerous proposal, if approved, most likely would not only create an environment that would significantly impede the learning process, but also make security matters worse.”
How, Joe? How could a teacher possessing the ability to fight back yesterday have possibly made “security matters worse”?
Walt Rulffes, superintendent of Clark County public schools said of Beers’ bill, “The more people who have guns, the more likely it is that there will be a shootout.” He added that “he was aware of no studies supporting Beers’ argument that schools would be safer if teachers carried guns.”
Hey, Walt, you’ll be happy to know that there was no shoot-out at Virginia Tech yesterday…because the victims had no ability to shoot back and “school security” was nowhere to be found. You don’t need a “study” to recognize that it would have been safer for those 32 innocent, unarmed victims had at least one of the teachers been packing an equalizer yesterday.
For her part, Clark County school board member Sheila Moulton said, “I’m not for putting guns in the classroom even when teachers are trained on how to use them.”
The problem, Ms. Moulton, is that “bad guys” are going to continue bringing guns into the classroom whether you like it or not because they know all the potential victims won’t be able to defend themselves. Your victim-disarmament mentality is the kind of thinking which allowed yesterday’s attack to occur without opposition. Is this really the kind of incident you want to see replayed in a Nevada elementary school some day?
I could go on and on like this all day. The simple, undeniable fact remains that if gun-control and banning weapons was an effective counter-violence policy, Washington, DC - home to the most draconian gun control laws in the nation - would be the safest city on the planet. But it’s not. Not even close.
The same goes for “gun-free” school zones. Gun-free, as we saw yet again yesterday, only applies to the victims. As columnist Alan Caruba noted this morning, “The murders on the Virginia Tech campus, the worst such rampage in our history, might have been mitigated if just one member of the faculty or a student had the means to return fire.” Caruba added, “The Virginia Tech murders confirm the value of empowering ordinary citizens to carry a concealed weapon.”
EVERY member of Nevada’s Legislature should be REQUIRED to cast a recorded vote on Sen. Beers’ bill. That way, if a similar tragedy ever occurs in Nevada, God forbid, at least we’ll know which legislators to hold responsible.
Posted on April 17th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
They never get it do they Chuck? The left has launched all over again into gun control mode. As if making guns illegal would stop a crazed murderer from obtaining one.
The days of Miss Landers teaching Whitey,Larry,Judy,and the “Beav” are over.We need to start taking matters in our own hands.Some of the 30+ families may still have there love one home today,if we had.We will never know if we don’t try.
After terrorists attacked a school in the late 1940s, the Knesset debated about the best way to prevent future attacks. The first thing they did was to reject the idea of “Gun Free Schools”. Israeli school teachers and aides have been armed ever since then. The terrorists now look for other targets and avoid the schools.
The anti-gun lefties to set forth their argument , make the assumption that somehow the students would know which teacher was armed. I deal with a half dozen folks a day that carry, and few know it. “Concealed” is a meaningful part of CCW!