Alan Korwin And The 51st State

Alan Korwin is an out of the box thinker when it comes to debates over gun control. His letter to the editor below illustrates that. He equates teachers to the 51st state for concealed carry. Blood didn't run in the streets when other states got shall issue concealed carry so why, he asks, should armed teachers be any different.

Alan has given permission for this letter to circulate far and wide as well it should.

Dear Editor,

I knew this sounded familiar -- I've heard this whole fear-factor argument about the danger of arming teachers against known classroom hazards 49 times before. It played every time a state enacted a discreet-carry CCW gun law for its citizens. It was met with the exact same prejudice, scorn and derision.

But those blind fears about people exercising their right to arms have been proven wrong time and again. They were the empty paranoid rantings and bigotry of the news media, elected officials and ignorant masses. Their wildly promoted fantasies of death and mayhem desperately needed correction. What we got, and are getting again, is repetition.

The sky never fell, remember? Brainless bubbas left no pools of blood. Instead, crime dropped as millions of decent citizens armed themselves against crime. Only Mr. Obama's crime-riddled Chicago holds out one state from the national tidal wave of peace.

So -- do we really need to go through the old Dodge-City nonsense again now? Should you in the ethical media remain complicit? Are our schools' teachers, their staffs and principals so hopelessly incompetent and without judgment that even with training they can't match the performance of toothless gun-toting hicks in torn T-shirts, or even doctors, lawyers and professionals with CCW permission slips in their wallets?

America is not having a debate about guns, America is having a debate about hoplophobia -- morbid fear of guns. The preposterous disarm-the-innocent proposals from the left are a false flag. Guns are good. Guns protect us. Guns save lives. Guns stop crime. Guns are why America is still free. That aspect of this debate is missing in your narrative.

The errant behavior of a psychopath is not grounds to disarm or infringe upon innocent people who did nothing. That is an irrational, sick, hoplophobic response that cannot work, and cries out for compassion and counseling -- for the person who suggests it. You don't want hoplophobes setting gun policy any more than you want aquaphobes as lifeguards.

Infringing upon the innocent to protect the innocent will not work. Denying a teacher the right to arms is a perverse policy choice fraught with ulterior motives and is constitutionally forbidden. Its very suggestion is a violation of the oath of office for elected officials and should be grounds for removal from office. Reporters should recognize this simple fact as swiftly as half the public does. The tearful emotional frenzy incessantly whipped up by the media does not change this.

Baby boomers universally remember rifle teams in high schools, varsity letters awarded for competition, bringing firearms to class to go hunting afterwards. The notion that guns and schools don't mix, and that gun ignorance should supplant gun education is a modern one whose origin is murky and suspicious.

The disarmed-teachers policy currently in place has caused grievous harm. Those responsible for this gross denial of a specific enumerated civil right should be identified and held accountable, and the disarmed-teachers policy should end without delay.

Denial of human rights never advances the cause of freedom or the human condition. It is almost as if we are fighting the civil-rights battles of the 1960s again. A bill to reverse the egregious discrimination against the people responsible for our children's safe education should be drafted and introduced immediately before further harm ensues.

Alan Korwin, Author
Gun Laws of America
The Uninvited Ombudsman