The NRA is so MAD...

The NRA is so MAD... they'd rather see your kids die than let common sense legislation repeal the 2nd amendment.

Did that get your attention?

Good. It isn't far off the thinking in some circles. But what a lot of us common sense gun owners are really saying is why don't we just copy the highly successful Air Marshal program and adapt it for use in schools?

The air marshal program, as you know, puts an under cover, but armed, person on every flight, or random flights (nobody really knows for sure, they're under cover!). This way the bad guys are forced to assume that all hijackers will have at least one armed marshal to overcome. That ain't easy math, as the last few years have proved.

We can use this program for schools too. But, ironically, it can cost NOTHING, AND be 100% gun free!

Again, go back to the air marshal example. The marshal doesn't need to be visible. He doesn't need to advertise. He doesn't even need to be on the plane for the passengers to reap the benefits of the program.

The same holds true for schools. You don't have to arm teachers or janitors, you just have to SAY YOU DO, and as long as the next Prozac-snorting teen-age psycho THINKS at least a few teachers and staff are ARMED, then the rampage will happen someplace else (most likely on-line in a video game, where when people shoot back it isn't so fatal).

Unfortunately, it's easy to tell when a cop is stationed at a school and when he isn't, as VA tech proves. All the shooter had to do was wait quietly until the uniform cops in their obvious cars were gone. He didn't have to fear the students, teachers, janitors, or anyone without a badge and lights on the roof.

The power of the air marshals isn't in the guns that they pack. It's in the doubt it places in the criminal mind. Who's armed? Who isn't? spotting a cop in uniform is too easy and won't save any children from harm. But not knowing which teacher is packing will. And the beauty of it all is that NONE of the teachers has to actually be armed.

You could protect a school by just putting up a dozen certificates of completion for firearms training on the bulletin board. . . names left out, for obvious reasons, of course