In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, there was a school shooting in western Kentucky that wounded 16 people, including two fatally. In response to the carnage, two Republican state senators introduced legislation “that would allow school districts to appoint armed ‘marshals’ in public schools. Use of the firearm would be authorized for ‘the protection of a third person from imminent death or serious physical injury.'”

This is not a new idea. Every time some armed psychopath goes on a rampage, there seem to be two reactions:

1 – Ban guns

2 – Arm teachers

We already know how “well” laws work to prevent people already barred from owning them from using them to commit violent acts. Murder is banned. Assault with a deadly weapon is banned. Minors are banned from owning guns. Guns on school grounds are already prohibited. And yet, we once again are hearing calls for MOAR GUN CONTROL in response to the latest violent act.

Jeremy Binckes at Salon went to great lengths to sound rational when discussing the proposal to arm teachers, but his ultimate message: If the goal is to stop school shootings, maybe one strategy should be to stop guns from getting to schools in the first place. And while he tries to appear objective, quoting researcher John Lott’s arguments for allowing armed personnel in our nation’s schools, he devotes much more space to hysterical, opportunistic liar Shannon Watts of Moms Demand Action Lying Hags for Depriving Americans of their Rights, who (natch) peppered her narrative with ridiculous lies, easily disproved by anyone with a search engine.

“Arming a volunteer educator to shoot their own students” is something that Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts finds ridiculous. “Educators do not want to be responsible for that.”

Let’s put aside the fact that Watts is making an assertion about others’ opinions without actually providing evidence for said assertion. Let’s put aside the fact that Watts is not a teacher, but a screeching activist harpy with an agenda. She simply makes an assertion about what educators do or do not want, believing that people will simply take her words as fact.

Teachers in Utah appear they would tell Watts to ingest a bag of dripping phalli.

[Utah Shooting Sports Council Chairman Clark] Aposhian spoke shortly before opening a weapons training class for teachers and school employees that drew more than 200 Utah educators organized by the USSC, a leading gun lobby group that believes that teachers should be able to fight back when faced with an armed intruder.

“One firearm in the hands of one teacher could have made the difference at Sandy Hook or Columbine, but they weren’t allowed to carry in those schools,” Aposhian said.

The USSC is waiving its normal $50 training fee today for teachers who wish to attend. Aposhian said the 200 person course was filled to capacity and said he plans on holding another session for people he may have to turn away today.

So would educators in Texas.

Leah Smith, a first-grade teacher who attended Saturday’s training class, told the Fort Worth Star Telegram she supports arming teachers who receive proper training.

“More protection can’t hurt,” she told the paper. “Maybe it would save lives.”

Lolita Looney, an elementary school principal, said the class was an opportunity for educators to learn how to protect themselves outside of the classroom.

“We never know who we’ll run into at the grocery store or just out and about. We should be prepared,” Looney told the paper.

Watts, however, loves to make unsubstantiated claims about the wants and desires of others, as well as about possible outcomes of legislative proposals that fly in the face of historical precedent and common sense.

“The good guy with a gun is often a myth,” Watts said. “Chaos creates huge confusion. There’s no academic support that a good guy with a gun will see a solution.”

I would submit the good guys with guns in articles gathered just during the past month would differ with Watts’ conclusion on defensive shootings, as would John Lott’s examples of armed citizens stopping active shooters in schools, before more damage could have been committed (see: Pearl, Mississippi, Appalachian School of Law, and the shooting at Parker Middle School in Pennsylvania).

• Employee Shoots Restaurant Intruder in Self-Defense (TN)
• Pike Co. Wife Shoots, Kills Husband in Self-Defense (IN)
• Homeowner Shoots, Kills Man Who Drove onto Property and Fired a Shot (AZ)
• Shooter Claimed Self-Defense in Deadly Central Lubbock Confrontation (TX)
• Tamarac Man Shoots and Kills Car Burglar, Sheriff Says (FL)
• Everett Bar Employee Fatally Shoots Customer Who Shot Another Patron Outside (WA)
• One Killed in Marion County Self-Defense Shooting (TN)
• NASCAR Team Owner Richard Childress Shoots at Masked Burglars (NC)

Shannon Watts, however, has never been one to let facts obstruct her agenda, and Salon, unsurprisingly, gives her derptastic claims credence without challenging them.

Watts said that all school shootings have something in common: The guns used weren’t securely stored. They weren’t locked. They may not have been unloaded.

Lie. In Columbine, Klebold and Harris’ friend Robyn Anderson bought the firearms they used in the massacre.

A month later, the Heritage High School, GA shooter broke into his father’s gun cabinet to obtain the firearm he used in the shooting, according to police. Maybe Shannon doesn’t comprehend the meaning of a break-in, but generally, when someone breaks into a house, cabinet, etc., it means said house or cabinet were secured.

The teen attacker at Woodson Middle School in Louisiana got a handgun from a former student who had been expelled for fighting.

Jeffrey Wiese apparently killed his police officer grandfather and his girlfriend before stealing his police-issued firearm and killing five students.

Virginia Tech murderer Seung Hui-Cho simply bought the guns he used in the massacre.

Michael Phelps got a handgun from a friend before the shooting in Martinsville, Indiana.

TJ Lane stole the firearm he used in the Chardon High School shooting.

Adam Lanza stole his mother’s guns, but there is some debate about whether the safe or gun cabinet was locked or whether he broke into it.

Point is that Shannon Watts lies. As I methodically combed through the school shootings that occurred from Columbine and beyond, I found that in the vast majority of cases, we simply don’t know whether the guns were secured or not, as Watts claims. We do know in many instances the shooters stole the firearms after murdering their owners or obtained them from troublemaker pals.

There is, however, a commonality that occurs in the vast majority of the cases I examined: mental illness and depression due to bullying or other factors. That’s the elephant in the room no one seems to want to discuss as they studiously work to divert attention to this nation’s already copious amount of gun control laws. The National Institutes of Health bend over backwards to disassociate mental illness from school shootings, but it is quite obvious that kids who commit these crimes have histories of mental illness.

TJ Solomon who shot up Heritage was found guilty, but mentally ill by a jury.

Cordova, who shot a Deming Middle School classmate told friends he was suicidal.

Seth Trickey told friends he was “crazy” before shooting up his middle school.

Santana High School shooter Charles Andrew Williams was being bullied and attempted to see a counselor before being turned away, because apparently the office was full at the time. He told his friends he didn’t want to live anymore.

Red Lake shooter Jeffrey Wiese committed suicide.

Seung Hui-Cho was certainly mentally ill.

Success Academy Asa Coon also committed suicide, as did Jose Reyes after opening fire at Sparks Middle School.

Elizabeth Bush, who wounded fellow student Kimberly Marchese in the cafeteria of Bishop Neumann High School in 2001, suffered from depression.

Gabe Parker, who allegedly committed this latest act of heinous murder in Kentucky was apparently also bullied, according to a woman who identified herself as his step sister, and apparently came from a family that saw its share of domestic violence.

Mental health watchdog Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) estimates that at least 36 school shootings between 1988 and 2017 were committed by those taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs. And these are shooters who were already known to have had mental health issues. How many were at the very least depressed or suicidal and weren’t under the care of a psychiatrist?

But we already know that Shannon Watts is an unapologetic prevaricator, who will say anything to advance her political cause.

The question remains: should we allow teachers who are trained and willing to take responsibility for their lives and the lives of the children for whom they are responsible for eight or more hours per day? Will these educators be willing to take on this extra responsibility? Would they be able to shoot dead a kid whom they may have taught, and who is threatening the lives of others?

It’s a question that’s difficult to answer, because the reply will differ with every individual, as will the visceral reactions once, God forbid, the situation actually occurs.

Can an additional, trained individual, licensed to carry a gun and trusted with children, possibly help in an active shooter situation? It could certainly help more than locking and blocking the door. It certainly couldn’t hurt.