Op-Ed: Teachers Packing Heat?

By John R. Lott, Jr.

Good intentions do not necessarily make good rules. What counts is whether the laws ultimately save lives. Unfortunately, too many gun laws primarily disarm law-abiding citizens, not criminals.
Banning guns from schools seems like the obvious way to keep children safe. But a teacher, Shirley Katz, in Medford, Oregon, is proposing the exact opposite and is stirring up debate across the nation. Recently the first round of a legal battle went to the teacher, since the judge would not accept the school district's claim that her case should simply be dismissed.

Ms. Katz, who has a concealed handgun permit and regularly carries her handgun with her when not at school, wants to be able to do the same on school property because she fears either another public school shooting of the kind that have become all too familiar or an attack from her former husband. Ironically, the day before her hearing four people were wounded at a high school in Cleveland, Ohio.

While Oregon's law allows permitted concealed handguns on school property, some school districts in the state have attempted to get around the law by including a prohibition in teachers' conditions of employment. Yet, the state law seems pretty clear in forbidding any restrictions, not just some types of restrictions, by local or district governments.

The school district and other opponents point to problems that might arise from Katz carrying her gun. But we can do more than hypothesize about what might happen, since Americans actually have a lot of experience with permit holders being able to carry guns.

Click here to read the entire op-ed at Tech Central Station
Daily.