“Allright, boys and girls, you open your books to page 93 while I cover you…”
Wisconsin State Representative Frank Lasee (R – duh!) wants to make it legal for teachers and other staff to carry guns. Not sure how he sees such a step as minimizing the damage guns are already causing in our schools; while armed teachers and janitors with Uzis might conceivably deter some would-be attackers, it appears to me that the latest round of armed-to-the-teeth and ready-to-die nutcases would have done what they did anyway. And had they encountered a teacher with a gun, the carnage and collateral damage would just have been more comprehensive.
It really is striking how the Republican “compassionate conservative” mindset has left a significant number of Americans with violence, oppression, and firearms as their only response to any challenges they face in life. Country far away pissing you off? Bomb it. People voicing opinions you don’t like? Arrest them indefinitely, and torture them. Insane kids with guns killing kids in schools? Kill the kids with guns killing kids in schools. And if you manage to get some innocent kids killed while you’re at it? Well, “you can’t make an omelet” and all that.
No, I’m not suggesting touchy-feely therapy for the kids with guns who randomly shoot up a school before killing themselves; I’m suggesting that we perhaps step back and consider why it might be that a) that kid is whacked out of his skull badly enough to do something like shoot a principal, and b) how it is that the kid in question got his hands on a gun in the first place. Then perhaps address those issues to prevent the situation from happening at all. But that’s not the way the GOP does things. They prefer knee-jerk reactions, fingers in the dike, and guns for guns’ sake.
