Editorial: O.K. Corral Elementary?

Sunday, Dec. 17, 2006 | 8:35 a.m.

Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, has moved from proposing unworkable financial policies to proposing an unworkable - and dangerous - school safety measure.

This past week Beers told KLAS Channel 8 that he is proposing a bill that would allow qualified schoolteachers and staff to carry guns.

"The theory is that insane people don't go on shooting sprees around people who have weapons," Beers said.

Put that theory into practice on school grounds and it will be dangerous. People who receive concealed weapons permits are taught that if they carry a firearm, they need to be ready to use it. Putting guns in the classroom increases the likelihood of something terrible happening, such as a teacher shooting in the wrong situation or being disarmed by a student or intruder. The proposal would put an awful burden on teachers who are already in a difficult job, not to mention creating a terrible learning environment for students.

We pay teachers to teach, not to patrol like some Old West lawman with a gun on his hip. Is that what we want, to turn our schools into some sort of O.K. Corral Elementary?

Beers thinks more needs to be done to protect students on campus, and we don't disagree. A good place to start would be protecting them from Beers' crazy ideas.