Numerous school shootings show that, despite being gun free zones, the bad guys simply don’t care. Their decision to cross onto that property with a firearm is the least of their crimes, after all, so what do they care if they pick up yet another charge?

The only thing that keeps school incidents from becoming another Parkland is the presence of a good guy with a gun, as seen at Great Mills High School a short time after the Florida shooting. In that incident, the attacker was met with lethal force by a school resource officer, ending the tragedy before it could become the true nightmare.

But what about schools that don’t have resource officers or ones that hide outside as they did in Parkland? What about a killer who takes the officer as their first victim? In those and any number of other incidents, you’d want responsible adults such as teachers armed and ready to protect themselves and the students they teach.

But in New York state, the war against guns continues as it looks to ban teachers from carrying guns.

New York would ban teachers from carrying guns in school under a broad gun control package set to pass the Legislature on Tuesday.

Following the 2018 Parkland, Fla. school shooting, President Trump and the NRA called for teachers and school staff to be armed.

Vice News recently reported that at least 466 districts across the country adopted policies to allow it.

New York wants to go the other way.

“Right now under New York law, if a district decides it wants to arm school personnel, it can,” said state Sen. Todd Kaminsky, the Nassau County official sponsoring the bill to outlaw such moves. “I believe it’s misguided. It’s not focused on the real problem.”

Of course, Kaminsky doesn’t say what he sees the real problem as.

But no, arming teachers doesn’t tackle “the real problem.” It’s not meant to, though. It’s a bulwark to protect students in the event something happens. It’s a wall.

The real problem is much more complex. It’s one that very little study has been conducted on. We have people who think shooting up crowds of people is a good idea. That is the real problem, and for anyone who doesn’t want to engage in that sort of thing, it’s impossible to understand just why anyone would want to do such a thing. It makes no sense to any of us.

While we understand so little about “the real problem,” it’s impossible to actually address it.

Meanwhile, New York state continues Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s growing war against guns and gun rights by trying to outright ban teachers from carrying.

Kaminsky says, “Teachers I talk to just want to teach.”

I get that. I applaud that. But no one is telling those teachers they have to carry a gun. No one is talking about issuing each teacher a firearm when they sign their contract with the school board. No one is talking about making it a job requirement. We’re talking about allowing teachers who are interested–often the same teachers who are carrying after work without any incident–to carry at work as well. It should be a choice, not a requirement.

If they don’t want that, then fine. It’s the right to keep and bear arms, not the duty to do so, after all.

Unfortunately, that’s not what we’re talking about here. Kaminsky and his fellow travelers don’t want to allow anyone to make that decision. They want to make it so no teacher can carry.

Then, when New York state is hit with a mass shooting, they’ll pretend this had no bearing on what happened, that the problem was not enough gun legislation.

Once again, the anti-gun zealots will pretend there’s no blood on their hands, just as they’ve always done.