About the only thing more terrifying than a lone gunman firing into a classroom or a crowded movie theater is a half a dozen more gunmen leaping around firing their pistols at the killer, which is to say really at each other and every bystander. It's a police officer's nightmare.
I am tired of the politics of fear. I don't give a damn if more guns in schools could reduce the effectiveness of a rampage. There are plenty of tasteless solutions that can limit the effectiveness of a rampage. Every student could wear body armor, for instance. I don't want to live in a country that takes this approach, and I don't want my daughter to go to a school filled with guns. I don't want guns to be there for accidents, or to be stolen, or to be used by a distressed teacher that was just sacked. We have come this far without guns in classrooms and we are fine. The root of this problem is mentally deranged people with access to guns. The clear choice that does not push us towards a society of fear, is to identify these individuals, treat them, and limit their access to guns. The NRA has one goal, and they don't much care if our children's environment is perverted for them to achieve it. They brew paranoia as a marketing tool.
One thing I like about this article, and one thing I would caution against: -NotPhil chose a particularly good paragraph to highlight. As a twentysomething male NRA member raised in rural america, there is a large psychological mechanism that drives most of us- the idea that our particular skill and sense of responsibility with firearm usage makes us unique among the general populace. There is an elitist, superhero-like complex that is associated with that, where our hobby and our time has been devoted just so as to effectively prepare us for protecting the innocent in a crisis. Even if you forget for a moment the fact that this is probably a fallacy of hubris, there is still another problem... If everyone acted as a skilled protector, there would be many gunmen attempting to subdue the original gunman, creating a chaotic situation in which the initial agressor becomes startlingly hard to identify. -One thing I would like to caution against... The author takes a leap in logic to which I cannot subscribe. He assumes that police training results in a greater firearm proficiency level than an average citizen. While possible, my experience is that the most impressive member of any gun club or range outclasses law enforcement by a staggering margin, and that a typical cop falls somewhere near the median in terms of accuracy and placement among the gun club regulars. Only those members of law enforcement that take on shooting as a hobby as well as a part of their work approach the level of the pure hobbyists.