I’ve blogged in the past about allowing school employees to voluntarily carry firearms for self-defense, given the rise of school violence. Finally, local state senator Bob Beers is now proposing new legislation to make the school-carry option a reality for Nevada.

“I would expect enough teachers would be interested (in taking guns to school) so it would serve as a deterrent,” said Beers, a failed gubernatorial candidate.

[Ah, there's the rub. Sadly, the R-J is inferring that Beers is doing this to garner attention to himself, being that he's a 'failed gubernatorial candidate'. Frankly, they wouldn't slap that moniker on Dina Titus (or would they?). Moving on...]

Beers concluded teachers should be allowed to carry weapons after reading about several incidents of gun violence by students this fall in the Clark County School District, he said. More than a dozen guns have been confiscated from district students so far this year, an indication that laws prohibiting guns in schools do not work, he said.

“We have banned guns in schools in Nevada and most of the rest of the nation for the last 20 years,” Beers said. “Part of the problem is a small percentage of the population is brought up without a knowledge of and respect for guns.”

In summary, the collective response from Nevada school officials, the teachers’ union, and the usual anti-gun suspects amounted to “you’ll shoot your eye out!” or “it’ll be the Old West all over again!”.

Meanwhile, unstable kids (and sometimes unstable adults) are bringing guns to school, and using them to endanger the lives of students and staff. School police officers are few and can’t be omnipresent in every classroom. Right now, passive safety procedures only serve to cheapen the lives of innocent students and school personnel who risk being killed or maimed in a possible school shooting.

Will it take another tragedy similar to the Columbine High School massacre to seriously address the problem of school violence? Quite frankly, I’m not willing to wait for another incident to happen; teachers and support staff deserve to have a fighting chance in deterring violence in the classroom.

Beers’ proposal should be given serious and well-reasoned consideration. If Nevadans are serious about taking steps to reduce school violence, they should welcome such a modest proposal to the debate.

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Update (12/16): Healthy debate about the issue over at the KLAS-TV News Blog.

Update (12/17): Chuck Muth lists a history of school shooting victims for the past decade. (link via NoisyRoom.net)