Gary Kleck editorial on WSJ's OpinionJournal.com

[JimR]

Armed Self-Defense Works
First step to sensible crime policy: Ignore the school shootings.

BY GARY KLECK
Tuesday, March 27, 2001 12:01 a.m. EST

The U.S. has again been hit by mass school shootings, this time at two separate high schools in the San Diego area. The close timing of the incidents has brought about the usual publicity and hand-wringing, as well as the usual response from both sides of the gun issue.

Read the rest at the link above. More level-headed material from Mr. Kleck, as we would expect. Glad to see it getting published in the Wall Street Journal's Opinionjournal.com, which I'm pretty sure means it is also on the editorial pages (last 2 pages of the A-section) of today's print edition. Giving Kleck's material wide distribution to many readers is A Good Thing.

 

[EricM]

I like his article, but disagree with this:

I don't, at least at this point, support more armed police or civilians in schools, as many schools already have. I worry about omnipresent armed guards misleading our children into believing that the world is a far more dangerous place than it really is. This scary-world imagery is in itself one reason why people are quick to overreact to school shootings.

Police aren't needed, but the school can pay for an armed guard that has been properly trained. However, I think the only real solution is to eliminate the gun laws pertaining to schools at all levels. Home schooling is a good thing.