More media bias & armed teachers

So, this cartoon really riles me.



The cartoon's point is that if we were to allow teachers to arm themselves, then they would cause more harm by pulling out their guns all the time.

Sigh...where to begin.

Well, first of all under current Federal Law, schools are "Gun Free Zones" where nobody is allowed to have weapons. Well...we can all see how well this law works. These Gun Free Zone invisible legal force shields have done nothing to prevent or stop armed nuts going bezerk in schools filled with defenseless people.

Second, in many states (although not in Wisconson) it is already legal for people to legally carry a handgun. Here in Virginia it is legal for anyone legally capable of purchasing a handgun to carry the weapon in plain view in a hoslter on their hip.

Those of us like myself who want to carry these weapons concealed so as to not freighten people, get conceal carry licenses so that we can have their weapons on them under cover.

So, have laws that permit people to carry handguns turned our society into a more or less dangerous place? Do we regularly see legal, permitted concealed handgun owners in Virginia pulling out their handguns and threatening their fellow citizens all the time? Hardly.

I personally don't think that teachers should be forced to carry weapons. That said, I think they should be granted the same rights as the rest of us. That if a teacher wants to go through the training and permitting steps required to carry a concealed handgun on their persons while at work, I see no reason why we should prevent them.

And remember, all teachers need not be armed for the presence of weapons to be an effective deterrant. Only the treat of armed victims need be there for it to be effective. But perhaps I'm not being eloquent enough, so here again is Thomas Jefferson on the matter:

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. -- in "Commonplace Book," 1774-1776, quoting from On Crimes and Punishment, by criminologist Cesare Beccaria, 1764

But again, if we were to listen to the media, then we would think that the moment anyone is allowed to defend themselves with a handgun, that they become maniacs capable of enforcing their tyrany upon us with rampant violence. Sigh...