Message from Sponsor Chet Billi

Since the founding of our country until 1990, no one thought twice about bringing firearms to school.  Firearm safety was actually taught in the classroom throughout the 1900s.

My father attended high school in the 1980s.  During duck hunting season, he and his friends would often bring shotguns and shells to school, set them in their lockers, and head off to class.  My mother also attended high school in the 1980s, and she kept a hunting rifle in the back of her truck while parked on school grounds.

There was never a problem with firearms in schools until the passage of the 1990 Gun-Free Schools Act.  Nine out of the ten worst school shootings have occurred since its passage, along with another 100+ smaller scale incidents.  School shootings were never this bad until the unprecedented passage of the GFSA created helpless victim zones and target-rich places for madmen to wreak havoc.

What many people fail to understand is the fact that gun-free schools, and gun-free zones in general, do not prevent those who wish to do harm from carrying out their plans.  A gun-free zone is simply a place where responsible, law-abiding citizens are not allowed to carry firearms for self-defense.  It's no wonder criminals target these places

We cannot rely on police for our safety, either. The police are not a crime prevention force.  They string the crime scene tape and, hopefully, catch the perpetrators.  Even if it were the job of our police to protect us, police response times are too long.  Whether it's five minutes or 30 minutes, police are almost always too late to prevent mayhem.

Most of our schools simply cannot afford regular, armed security. Allowing the staff to carry concealed handguns provides security for our children, without adding to expenditure. Teachers, janitors, and administrators are all a part of our community. They're friends and family, and many of them carry concealed firearms on a daily basis when they aren't at school.  We recognize the right of our friends and family in the community to carry firearms for their own self-defense.  School is a big part of the community.  Why should the rules be different for these responsible citizens at school?

We know that a responsible citizen is not the source of the problem, but is often the solution to violent crimes. It's time we provide an effective and cost-free means of security for our children while they attend school.  As a student, I hate lock-down drills because we are taught to cower in the back of the classroom and hope the madman doesn't see us before the police arrive.  I would feel much safer knowing I don't have to wait for the police to show up for a first responder to intervene.

The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.  This initiative will empower an armed good guy to be between our children and outside threats the whole time that they are at school. Those who have survived a school shooting know that it could have been stopped had someone been in the position to fight back.  It shouldn't be a crime to protect our children.