The Virginia Tech massacre was horrendous, and Columbine was horrifying as well. We didn’t even realize what could be done by attackers with guns in schools. But almost every school is a ‘gun-free’ zone, where guns aren’t supposed to exist. Herein lies the answer.

How many schools now have(or will have) a ‘copycat’? How many have students that are of the mindset that something like Virginia Tech and Columbine were ‘necessary’? It’s a scary thought, but without a doubt those same kinds of occurrences are being planned right now. We don’t know the time nor place where they will occur, but we know they will happen--sooner or later.

Hundreds of questions were asked after the V/T incident: What caused Cho Seung-Hui(23 year-old South Korean national) to kill 32 people? Were there signs beforehand that indicated that he might attempt this atrocity? What can we do to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the near future?

The third question begs an easy answer. Arm those teachers that want to be armed. We know that even though Virginia Tech is ‘gun-free’, Cho killed all of his victims with guns, after shooting over 100 rounds. But he got all of his guns into school without a problem. Gun laws only inhibit the law-abiding students. Cho was able to shoot 32 people over a matter of several hours because there was nobody close to stop him. How do you explain that to a parent of a victim of this horrendous crime? Do you really tell them, “Well some of the killings could have been stopped, but there were existing laws preventing that.” Police and campus security are usually not in the near vicinity of the shootings.

If “a” teacher has a gun to stop this madness, less people(or zero) get killed, the students are not dependent upon a seriously late police force for safety, the killer is wounded and not necessarily shot dead, he doesn’t get the last ‘laugh’, and all the ‘future’ shooters realize that they might not get away with these same types of heinous plans.

That sounds awfully good, until ‘naysayers’ claim everything evil that could happen with guns at schools. They claim that guns on the premises will cause more confrontations. But only teachers being allowed to have a gun? In actuality, those teachers with guns do not have to ‘advertise’ that they may be armed, and only ‘non-law-abiding’ citizens would use guns anyway. Why try to get a gun from a teacher who has fewer than ‘needed’ rounds, and may or may not even have a gun if other faculty members are armed?

It’s proven time and time again communities that have fewer gun restriction laws have fewer deaths by guns. Why are colleges and high schools different? Of course, it’s a ‘no-brainer’ to ask any one of the victims’ parents if they would like someone else existing in the school who could have put a stop to their child’s death. We know what their answer would be.

Unless the school has the ultimate power, and that may mean ultimate firepower, few will treat the teacher as a superior. And until the students look at their instructors as a superior, it will all be a lost cause.

Sure, a clandestine teacher ‘packing’ in a school may be a short term answer. But there’s more violence, more disrespect, more gang-style haranguing in schools than ever before. When we change that, we won’t need to ‘pack’ in the schoolroom anymore.

If one remembers, the ‘OK’ Corral was always a peaceful place, until the ‘bad’ guys stepped in.

Kevin Roeten
http://kevinroeten.us/