Senator's Folly

Gov. Bob McDonnell recently suggested that there should be, if nothing else, a "conversation" about arming schoolteachers or administrators in order to prevent further massacres.

In response, Sen. Donald McEachin intoned:

“The governor should know better than to suggest that arming citizens will solve anything."

Well said! Meanwhile, in Oklahoma a few months ago: 

Her fear intensified to sheer terror, when she saw the knob of the closet door beginning to turn.

At that point, that for the first time in her life, Kendra fired a gun.

Police said the bullet traveled straight through the closet door and struck 32-year-old Stacey Jones in the shoulder, scaring him out of the house.

They arrested him a few blocks away and charged Jones with first degree burglary.

"When I had the gun, I didn't think I was actually going to have to shoot somebody," the 6th grader recalled. "I think it's going to change me a whole lot, knowing that I can hold my head up high and nothing can hurt me anymore."

So with a few narrow exceptions---i.e. a twelve-year-old not getting potentially raped and murdered---McEachin is spot on the money: an armed citizenry solves absolutely no problems at all.  As Thomas Sowell said:

Guns are completely inappropriate for the kind of sheep-like people the anointed envision or the orderly, prepackaged world in which they are to live. When you are in mortal danger, you are supposed to dial 911, so that the police can arrive on the scene some time later, identify your body, and file reports in triplicate.

Remember, the policeman is your friend, especially if he gets there after you've been killed.