Circumstances create unsavory realities that counter what we would prefer to do and cause us to make the best we can out of a terrible situation.
As readers from time to time may have observed, we not only do not approve of weapons of war in civilian hands, but we question the wisdom of hand guns of any kind, since they often lead to accidental and spur of the moment shootings. In an ideal world, we would do away with both.
However, we live in a country where there are as many guns as people, over 300 million of both. We should bar the future sale of weapons of war, but there is no way that we will be able to rid ourselves of the likely tens of thousands of such guns that already exist.
(We read this morning that as many people are killed by clubs and hammers as by guns, but we know of no incident of mass killings by either.)
So what is to be done? If we were a teacher, we would volunteer to take appropriate training, to carry a concealed weapon, and to keep a n armament vest in a nearby, secure location. There might be a half dozen such volunteers in every school. Or shot guns and shells could be stored in a secure hallway compartments with appropriate security measures. (You don’t have to be a good shot and an armament vest isn’t sufficient to protect from the spray of a shot gun.)
We can appreciate the inherent dangers and the contraction of principles engendered by this, yet we are hesitant to allow our children to be the undefended prey of copy cat killers.
Tell us if we are nuts.
Instead of firearms, with all of their inherent dangers, what about tasers or other non-lethal weapons?
EDITOR: What non-lethal weapon can be used from ten yards away? Our choice is a shot gun, perhaps with bird pellet.
Pistol, shotgun, assault rifle; it doesn’t matter. Just knowing the school is protected by meaningful force is enough of a deterrent. According to the Commonwealth Foundation, since 1992 there has been a 5% increase in PA students. A 29% increase in teachers and a 36% increase in school administrators and staff. Here is an opportunity for some of this extra baggage to contribute to something useful.