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The best defense is a good guy with a gun

Recently there have been a number of local news articles about preparedness for a potential shooter attack. A letter to the editor in the Newport Miner in February demanded that something be done about mass shootings, and complained about Congresswoman McMorris-Rodgers auctioning off an AR-15. School boards are questioning whether, with our current media climate, we should have gun shows at our schools. During Havoc on Campus Day in Newport, emergency management teams were given a training for different school shooting scenarios, specifically one with a disgruntled student shooting a shotgun and other weapons at students and staff in the cafeteria. And 10 agencies came together in Sandpoint to train for an active shooter scenario.

But no one mentions the elephant in the room. Mass shootings only happen in “gun free zones.” The media never reports on the mass shootings that were averted because one armed resource officer or responsible passer-by took out the shooter before he/she could do any damage, as happened recently in Maryland and Illinois. How long did it take for the various responders in the Newport exercise to make it to the scene of the crime? How many fewer beds would Newport Hospital have had to utilize if a few, anonymous, qualified teachers or staff had been armed? Was that even a scenario that was considered in the preparedness exercises?

Idaho, at least, has passed a bill allowing certain qualified people to carry concealed at its schools. Why have we not put that into effect to protect our students? Are we afraid of being politically incorrect, at the expense of our kids? Our Second Amendment rights are in place to protect us from mass shooters, and businesses that claim to be “gun free” might as well have a sign on the door that says, “Come in here, shoot us! We’re unprotected.” A CDC study reported that defensive gun usage prevents crimes 2.2 million times per year. Statistics repeatedly prove that in cities like Chicago and Washington DC, which restrict Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens, and countries like Australia and the EU where guns have been outlawed, crime goes up. As the saying goes, “The best defense against a bad man with a gun, is a good man with a gun.” Let’s try that scenario in our nation’s schools, and see how it works.

ANNE WILDER CHAMBERLAIN

Priest River