Op-Ed: Gun toting teachers' names must remain private

by John Lott

Are people safer if criminals know who is carrying concealed handguns? Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel seems to think so.

With school starting soon, he claims that if the Clarksville, Arkansas School District lets employees carry concealed handguns at school, their names must be made public. This is his second attempt to derail the school district's proposal.

McDaniel's demand to publicize the names will greatly limit the protection these employees can offer.

School shooters have a strategic advantage in that they determine when and where to attack.

The alternative of hiring uniformed armed guards is not only costly, with one armed guard costing more than the cost of training and equipping over 20 employees, but also relatively ineffective as they are usually the first victims shot.

The benefit of letting some unknown teachers, staff and administrators carry concealed handgun is that the killers don't know who to attack first. Publicizing their names might intimidate employees and lead them to decide not to participate in the program.

...The issue isn't just about privacy, as McDaniel wants to argue, it is also a safety issue.

...Ask yourself: Would you feel safer with a sign on the side of your home declaring that "this house is a gun-free zone"? If you wouldn't put these signs on your home, why put them elsewhere?

Click here to read the entire op-ed at FoxNews.com.