'ABSURD PROPOSAL' MAKES SENSE
State Sen. Bob Beers was crucified when he proposed teachers carry guns. Not so crazy now, is it?
BY CHUCK MUTH

Chuck Muth is president and CEO of Citizen Out reach. He is a professional political consultant. Find more about him and read more of his work at www.chuckmuth.com. Other stories by Chuck Muth

When Nevada State Sen. Bob Beers (R-Las Vegas) introduced his bill this legislative session 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 nightmare that occurred at Virginia Tech on April 16. 

For example, Emil Steiner of the Washington Post awarded Beers with the Silver Medal in his “2006 Idiot of the Year” awards. Who looks like the idiot now, Emil? 

Or liberal blogger Hugh Jackson of the Las Vegas Gleaner, who called Beers’ bill 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 on Virginia Tech’s campus, right Glen? 

Another Sun letter-writer must have felt like a complete dope following the tragedy. Sam Chinkes of Las Vegas wrote that “police patrols that protect the school should be adequate as a deterrent.” Good call, Sam. 

The Las Vegas Sun, not to be outdone by mere letter-to-the-editor 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, 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? 

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.” 

Rulffes will be happy to know that there was no shootout at Virginia Tech because the victims didn’t have anything to shoot back with 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. 

The simple, undeniable fact remains that if gun-control and banning weapons was an effective counter-violence policy, Washington, D.C. — 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 April 16, only applies to the victims. As columnist Alan Caruba noted, “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.”

Amen.