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more than they love children. And these groups that claim they are striving to protect society from itself have blood on their hands.

I don't care if you're pro gun, anti gun, or somewhere in between (like most Americans): The lives of our children are too sacred to ignore any option that might keep them safer. So open your mind, cast aside the political motivated mantras, and let's really consider the implications of how we can best protect our children at schools.

Because no matter how distasteful, there is only one option makes sense. And I'd rather be offended by having to arrange for armed teachers at schools than be even more offended by another mass school shooting where students and staff were left helpless like sheep for the slaughter.

Appendix: The anti-gun straw men

There are far too many dogmatic arguments that anti-gun people throw out to make sure that students remain unprotected, but just to counter a few:

1. Teachers don't want to carry guns. This program would be for specially trained volunteers only. Nobody wants every teacher with a six gun on their hip.

2. Some teachers are too unstable to be trusted with guns. If there is a teacher so unstable that if they had a gun they would start shooting children, that person needs to discovered and institutionalized. And if a teacher has decided to become a mass murderer, then a rule against bringing guns to school will not stop them. Which is all the more reason to have someone else, even fellow school staff, prepared to stop them.

3. But what are we teaching our children if our teachers are armed? That their lives are precious and worth fighting for.

4. But how traumatic would it be for a student to see a teacher shooting a crazed student: Pretty traumatic. But as a parent, I'd rather pay for 18 years of counseling than a funeral. Is there a parent who wouldn't?

5. A student may take the gun and start shooting with it. The same can be said of a police officer and his gun. A baseball bat to the head will knock down either a teacher or cop, and if the cop is the only armed person in the building, the murderer now has the only gun and has disabled the only armed defender. Once again, more reason for multiple adults to protect children.

6. There's too much danger of accidental discharge. If this were a serious problem, then every police station would be a house of carnage. Dealing with this is a matter of weapons handling and training, and putting strict rules into place on gun handling.

7. Guns and children don't mix! This is true. But an armed mass murderer who doesn't care about the rules and helpless students cowering beneath desks waiting to be shot is an even worse mix.

8. An armed teacher may not have an opportunity to fight back: Also very true. Even a police officer, as we have seen, may not have a chance to intervene. But the more people you train and put into place, the more potential there is to stop the slaughter. An armed defender has a chance to save lives; an unarmed adult has none.

Learn more about this author, Stephen E. Wright.
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