There was another school shooting recently, this time in Nebraska. Another young man decided the only appropriate response to being expelled from school was to come back and kill the vice-principle that expelled him.

That’s another one of those permanent solutions to a temporary problem that I am really not fond of.

I don’t know what 17-year-old student Robert Butler Jr. was expelled from school for, but really, does it matter?  I don’t think so.  It almost definitely wasn’t because he was an honour-roll student.  More likely it was because he’d done something he shouldn’t have. Kids do that. All the time, actually.  But it generally doesn’t result in the student deciding that killing someone is their best response to being held accountable for their actions.

I guess young Robert figured that out a few hours too late, since he was found dead in his car a few hours after the murder.  He’d killed himself.

It’s tragic and it’s stupid.  Like public schools or hate them, killing teachers isn’t the solution, I don’t believe.

Nebraska Senator Mark Christensen agrees, and has tabled legislation he believes will help solve the problem.

Christensen’s Bill LB516 would amend Nebraska’s Concealed Handgun Permit Act to allow teachers to carry concealed firearms in schools.  Current legislation lists schools as one of the places where concealed carry permit holders cannot legally carry their firearms.

Which is, of course, why schools are such popular killing grounds for mass-murdering lunatics.  “Gun-Free Zones” are always the preferred and target-rich environment  for crazy killers with guns.

This is something the Nebraska Senator is looking to change.  And good on him, I say, for having the backbone to introduce this legislation when he did: in the aftermath of yet another school shooting.

But you can’t have guns in schools!

I can hear the weeping and wailing already from the anti-gun zealot crowd.

For them I have a simple question, followed by a simple statement.

Why not?

Seriously.  Why not?  Your answer must be factual, though, not the emotional rantings you’re so used to offering up at times like this.

You see, Israel, back in the 1970’s, had a very big problem with terrorists attacking their schools, killing teacher and student alike.  Terrorist bombers are much like our crazed school shooters in that regard: they don’t much care WHO gets killed, as long as SOMEONE gets killed.

So Israel armed their teachers.

And can you guess what happened then?  No, the teachers didn’t go mad and start killing unruly students.

The terrorists decided schools weren’t such a great target any more.  Immediately following the arming of Israel’s teachers, the next terrorist attach was stopped dead.  By a teacher.  With a gun.

Go figure.

But such a rational solution can’t apply here in North America?

Really?

Someone’s going to have to explain that one to me, because insisting that our children be kept huddled in “gun-free zones” and relying on the good intentions of crazy people with guns doesn’t make sense to me.