Even though I am now a proud Oregonian, a story hailing from my native Wisconsin caught my eye this morning. Apparently Frank Lasee, a wild-eyed Republican from Bellevue, thinks the perfect answer to these recent school shootings is to
arm the teachers.
Referring to recent incidents as "turkey shoots," Lasee cited teacher-gun programs in Israel and Thailand that have gone 25 years without an incident like what we've been seeing lately. Apparently his logic, following along the same lines as the conceal-and-carry furor that swept through Wisconsin a few years back, is that if a gun-toting student isn't sure whether or not his teacher is packing heat, he may rethink his plan to take out his classmates. Because obviously the kids who are making pipe bombs in their basements are capable of rational thought.
But then, because this is a tight election year and Republicans don't know how to do anything else, he was sure to inject his statement with that little modicum of fear, saying that it's only a matter of time before "Muslim extremists and terrorists" start targeting our schools because they're such soft targets. "...[I]t's unfortunate, but it's the world we live in."
So who are we afraid of now? Kids with chips on their shoulders, hell-bent on bloody revenge? Or terrorists? And by terrorists, of course he means the ones of Middle-Eastern descent. It's important for Lasee to make that distinction, apparently, since gun-weilding students shooting off classmates at point blank range don't rank as terrorists in his twisted mind.
It's just another instance of Republicans scrambling for anything to give them some kind of leg-up this November. However, I never thought that arming teachers would have even stayed on the radar long enough to become a viable option. Who wants to send their kid to school knowing that a gun will be present, on the teacher, at all times? And what's worse, what if the gun ISN'T on the teacher at all but in a drawer somewhere? What's to stop some determined kid from getting his hands on THAT gun?
It's insanity. Pure, unfounded insanity. We've just got to make sure that other wingnuts don't follow suit and take up this maniacal battle cry.