Is More Security Needed to Prevent School Shootings?

Did you see the news clip on the 15th of that suicide-bent man who terrorized a school board in Bay City, Florida? The guy brandished a gun and drew a big red "V", for Vendetta, within a circle on the wall. It looked like he fully intended to shoot the school superintendent, but the trigger squeeze threw his aim off. The outcome was not tragic - a security guard was able to shoot the guy in the leg, then the unwelcome guest finished himself off with his own gun. Since the security guard also got shot, but not hurt severely, he got to be the hero.

One educator commented, "This is why we have security." Except that security were the ones who checked all the law-abiding citizens and the school board members for weapons before allowing them to enter the room, leaving them defenseless to the criminal who sneaked a gun in. Security were the ones who were outside the room when the jerk was waving his gun around, and did not know what was happening until he got off several shots, barely missing the superintendent, and forcing the male board members under their desks.

This is why we have Amendment Number Two in our Bill of Rights, which I paraphrase thusly: "Organized training in the care and responsible use of weapons by all citizens being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms in all places at all times, and teach the same to their children, shall not be infringed."

What if the female board member who hit the gunman's gun from behind with her purse had instead concealed a gun in her purse and shot him from behind? What if the superintendent or at least one of the board members had a gun hiding behind their desk in preparation for just such an event?

My educator friend, the one who credited security with the not-so-tragic outcome, had previously mentioned how out-of-control and dangerous things get at some of the high schools here in metro Atlanta. In fact, bullying in schools has become such a problem our state legislature is taking action to prevent it. But I dare say, if teachers were allowed to carry weapons and if students who pass certain levels of training were allowed to carry certain weapons, the wild, unruly behavior at those schools would disappear.

The recent event in Florida was just a lucky break in a long history of such events since the fall of the free state. The Columbine high school and Virginia university tragedies particularly come to mind.

Along these lines, I also wonder if the airports handed out box-cutters, whether airline staff and passengers wouldn't fly more securely and wouldn't need to be groped on the way in. And we would not need to pay tax money or extra fees for TSA and their X-radiation/microwave energy, virtual strip-searching machines!

No security guards or educators were harmed in the writing of this blog post. However, the Second Amendment lies bleeding and dying on the floor. Let's do what we can to help pull it back to life.