Rep. Frank Lasee has taken a lot of grief from a lot of people regarding his recent proposal to allow teachers to carry firearms. Hell, the guy got Stephen Colbert to build the Word around him a few nights ago. This might not be the corner of the blogosphere he would ordinarily expect a defense from, but he's going to get it.
Hearkening back to my own school days, I believe the standard operating procedure for a lockdown was to lock the exterior door to the classroom, turn off the lights, pull the blinds, and move to the back of the room away from the door. Now, that's all well and good until the nut with the gun blows the doorknob off the door and is standing in the middle of the room.
Then what? High-pitched squealing? Assault the attacker with blackboard erasers?
I think Lasee's original proposal probably went too far. To his credit, he took a lot of the initial input and came back with a proposal that is more reasonable than what was first suggested. He probably could've gotten that input if he'd bothered to run it by half a dozen people before putting it on the market, but that's not the point.
I don't think there are many people who want to turn our schools into the OK Corral. But the "then what?" scenario outlined above is hardly an attractive one.
Said Lasee, "I think everyone who's willing to shoot at my idea should come up and put their ideas on the table. Its not enough to just to say 'We don't like your idea.' We need to hear their proposals on how to make kids safer in Wisconsin."
I agree completely. We need to have a constructive dialogue on issues like school safety, something legislators have not always been so hot at in recent years. Whether the final product involves guns or not, let's hope they can turn the corner and find some solutions.
Hearkening back to my own school days, I believe the standard operating procedure for a lockdown was to lock the exterior door to the classroom, turn off the lights, pull the blinds, and move to the back of the room away from the door. Now, that's all well and good until the nut with the gun blows the doorknob off the door and is standing in the middle of the room.
Then what? High-pitched squealing? Assault the attacker with blackboard erasers?
I think Lasee's original proposal probably went too far. To his credit, he took a lot of the initial input and came back with a proposal that is more reasonable than what was first suggested. He probably could've gotten that input if he'd bothered to run it by half a dozen people before putting it on the market, but that's not the point.
I don't think there are many people who want to turn our schools into the OK Corral. But the "then what?" scenario outlined above is hardly an attractive one.
Said Lasee, "I think everyone who's willing to shoot at my idea should come up and put their ideas on the table. Its not enough to just to say 'We don't like your idea.' We need to hear their proposals on how to make kids safer in Wisconsin."
I agree completely. We need to have a constructive dialogue on issues like school safety, something legislators have not always been so hot at in recent years. Whether the final product involves guns or not, let's hope they can turn the corner and find some solutions.
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