Just a week after a school shooting in Kentucky, lawmakers are looking for answers. No one wants to see the innocent loss of life, to be sure, but opinions vary greatly on just how to mitigate the risk.

One Kentucky legislator has proposed a bill that might have a real impact. He wants to arm teachers.

A Kentucky lawmaker wants to make sure a school shooting like Marshall County doesn’t happen again, and his proposed law would give teachers a gun.

“You may lose your life in your attempt to save the lives of those children,” says retired Evansville Police detective and firearms instructor, Guy Minnis. It is a trade he believes many teachers will accept.

Kentucky State Senator Stephen West’s legislation would arm some teachers and administrators.

The bill requires teachers to be “in good standing” and have a permit and proper training. Other stipulations include only one “marshal” per 400 enrolled students and staff.

Advocates in favor of gun control believe better security at the door should be a priority.

“Somebody inside the building is not really going to prevent somebody from carrying a firearm and possibly shooting somebody,” says Sean O’Daniel, whose family has been torn apart by gunfire.

He wants to avoid confrontation altogether. But Minnis says quicker response from someone inside can make a difference, in a worst case scenario.

I’m sorry, but Minnis is right.

While the idea of keeping guns outside of schools sounds great, that only goes so far. Someone determined to get a gun onto school grounds can and will do so, and that includes a would-be mass shooter.

By arming teachers, you’re potentially putting guns in the hands of people who are already trusted with the precious cargo that is our children to step up and meet potential threats.

Further, the knowledge that teachers may be armed has to factor into the mind of any potential attacker. It’s another variable in the dark calculus that takes place in a killer’s mind, a variable that may make the difference in whether they attack a school or not.

That’s what gun grabbers fail to understand. The most effective use of a firearm isn’t when you pull the trigger, but when people are deterred from criminal activity because they don’t know who has a gun and who doesn’t. They have to factor for the unknown, and as more and more people arm themselves, it becomes more and more risky to engage in violent crime.

The same is true in schools with armed teachers. Potential attackers have to consider being met with an armed response well before they can make the impact they want to make, possibly dying before they accomplish their goals. This can be enough to dissuade an attacker.

“But if it doesn’t,” some gun grabber will argue, “people will still die. An armed teacher won’t stop that.”

No, it won’t. But neither will a metal detector at the entrance either. Efforts to keep guns out of the school have been around for decades and failed for decades. Yet, once a potential mass shooter has defeated those efforts, there’s nothing to stop his rampage.

An armed teacher, though? They can act right then.

Imagine how differently Newtown would have played out if an armed teacher had met the killer. Rather than so many young children dying, we’d have just ended up with a dead psychopath.