After this experience, as well as many other school shootings, it should now be clear to everyone that disarming a school and relying solely on the police to defend the students and staff against the bad guys is not an acceptable situation.   It is foolish to pretend that these murders are an act of nature and that there is nothing we can do to reduce their frequency or their destruction of precious human life.  Instead, we must take action to protect our children. 

The bad guys always will be able to get weapons, but that does not mean we must leave our children defenseless against them.  Since the police cannot be everywhere, and generally show up only after the murders have been committed, it is clear that the most effective way to reduce the potential for the bad guys to kill lots of innocent people is to provide a mechanism for properly-trained civilians to carry weapons for defense.  It has been proven repeatedly that the most effective way to stop a bad guy is for the good guys to carry guns. 

Many people oppose allowing civilians to carry weapons on school grounds or on a college campus, saying it would make the place even more dangerous.  They describe a theoretical scenario of students getting drunk, getting into fights, and shooting each other.  They describe a theoretical scenario in which a civilian pulls out a gun to stop a murderer and then is shot by the police.  They never describe the many very real scenarios that actually have occurred and been documented, in which the good guys with guns really do stop the bad guys and prevent the murders of many innocent people.  They do not tell us about the experience in Israel, where teachers and parent volunteers have carried guns to protect the students for many years with great success.  For some reason, they simply ignore the facts.  Unfortunately, our children cannot afford that luxury.

The question is, would there be any type of training, testing, or certification that would make these people comfortable allowing civilians to carry a gun in a school or on a college campus?  If so, what would it take?  If not, then what makes them comfortable allowing the police to carry guns?  What is the difference between a policeman carrying a gun and a well-trained, certified civilian carrying a gun?  What would make the civilian more dangerous or less trustworthy than the policeman?  Surely these people do not believe that wearing a uniform or being paid by the government makes a policeman more trustworthy, more intelligent, or safer than a certified civilian volunteer.

Anyone who thinks that allowing trained, certified civilians to be armed makes a place more dangerous is simply being irrational – ignoring all the facts, logic, and historical record.  Whether that person has an irrational fear of guns or an irrational trust in policemen does not matter.  The point is that we cannot allow such irrational people to establish and enforce a policy of unilateral disarmament that makes our children sitting ducks.

It is time to get our heads out of the sand and stop pretending that we can’t do anything to prevent or stop these mass murders.  Whether the next murderer will be a lunatic loner or a van full of terrorists, we need to be prepared to defend our children and ourselves. 

Ask what your school or university is doing to protect your children.  Any school superintendent or college president who will not establish a mechanism to enable emotionally stable, well-trained civilians to be armed to protect our children should be removed and replaced by someone who will. 

  See also: http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/freedomline/current/in_our_opinion/Virginia-Tech-Shootings.htm

 also see JeffersonReview.com