Stop keeping guns from would-be heroes!

Perhaps the foremost expert in the nation on gun control laws is Dave Kopel of Colorado's Independence Institute. Kopel wrote in 1999,

All honest modern studies show that gun control, in this culture, benefits criminals while leaving law-abiding victims defenseless.

Gun control was essential to Hitler and slave owners in the Old South. Proven fact: Gun control oppresses and kills. Proven fact #2: Responsible adults, such as Joel Myrick, save lives. When unencumbered by bizarre gun laws, they can save even more lives.

Kopel tells the story of Pearl, Mississippian Joel Myrick, who saved the lives of school children who were being shot at by Luke Woodham.

Perhaps it's time for the school district, with the full support of city hall, to establish a voluntary defensive weapons training course for teachers and administrators. Politicians who find a way to balance the firepower between forces of good and evil, by arming some teachers and administrators, might not get re-elected. But they might preclude a future disaster like Columbine, where SWAT teams sat helplessly in a parking lot while a teacher in the building prepared to fire at the shooters with a fire extinguisher.

Have a good laugh at this idea, on me. Then ask yourself whether it's more important to be re-elected, or to cut short a future school massacre.

If you want to save lives, the answer is simple. Stop keeping guns from the hands of would-be heroes-the only people who obey gun laws. Joel Myrick had a gun, legally in his truck. Myrick and his gun saved lives, but they could have saved more. The lesson: Some guns save lives.

Read more here: http://www.davekopel.com/2a/othwr/principal&gun.htm

Glenn Reynolds wrote a column yesterday at USA Today that you can read here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2012/12/14/connecticut-school-shooting-gun-control/1770345/