Lack of guns makes schools vulnerable

The March 28 headline of The Record Courier read: Lock down at Tahoe schools. Fortunately the scare panned out to be just that, a scare. The federal, state and local law enforcement elements are to be commended for their response and subsequent search for what appeared to be "a man carrying what appeared to be a rifle outside the school." Sheriff Pierini said a Zephyr Cove Elementary School aid called 911 at 11:30 a.m., and officers were on the scene within minutes.

Sometimes a precious few minutes mean the difference between life and death, a diffused situation and disaster. Another front page article appeared in the Aug. 28, 2007, edition of The Record-Courier titled: "Biggest nightmare in the world" describing tactical exercises by our sheriff's department in response to a potential school shooting scenario. Obviously the training has paid off.

I have a question about those precious few minutes between the 911 call and the law enforcement arrival on the scene. What if there was a sociopathic gunman in the school for the purpose of murdering as many people as possible and ready to commit suicide as a final act to gain his 15 minutes of fame?

How can a twisted maniac like that be neutralized in a "gun-free zone?" I believe we already know the answer from past experience; he cannot be stopped until someone armed arrives on the scene. Therefore a "gun-free zone" is in fact "a killing zone."

So as not to be considered an alarmist, I offer you the following - there are more than 50 million students in 119,000 public schools in the U.S., plus an additional 5 million more students in some 28,000 private and religious schools. Therefore the odds of any particular school being attacked are almost zero.

The stats are literally useless if the school your child is attending is attacked and students are murdered.

For your consideration regarding primary and secondary schools, I would recommend that qualified administrators and teachers have the right to be armed on campus (i.e. those with concealed carry licenses). As an aside I have a personal friend of 28 years who is the principal at a northern California high school and he also has a federal firearms license, meaning he is more than qualified to posess a gun on campus. Last year Sen. Bob Beers introduced just such legislation and if he does so again, I urge all to support it.

There is also the question of self-defense on a college campus. We are coming up on the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech atrocity where 32 students and faculty members were slaughtered by mentally deranged student before he committed suicide. Then authorities arrived. Once again a supposed Gun-Free Zone turned out to be a Killing Zone in reality. Last October a group of college students, led by the Students for Concealed Carry on Campus began the empty holster protest at 110 college campuses in 38 states to protest state laws and student codes that prohibit concealed carry on campus, even if they have passed background checks, demonstrated proficiency and have obtained concealed carry permits.

At this point in time only one state, Utah, expressly allows the right to carry on public college campuses. It is my understanding that the Nevada Board of Regents has endorsed a plan which allows some faculty and staff members to carry concealed firearms on public college campuses. According to board member Stavros Anthony, who is a police captain with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, "If an active shooter situation occurs, they're in a position to kill the bad guy."

Why aren't college students allowed to defend themselves against lethal campus attacks? Even more fundamental, why should you have less freedom and safety, be disarmed and essentially defenseless just because you attend a college? So far I haven't even mentioned the possibility of a foreign or domestic terrorist attack on what is referred to as a "soft target"-our schools. Suffice it to say that society is safer when criminals or terrorists don't know who is armed.

n C.V. Sledd Shearer is a Gardnerville resident.