For all the talk about gun control these days, we’re not hearing much about school security. As per usual, the people screaming so loudly for gun control are acting like it’s a silver bullet for any and all problems at schools. They don’t seem to even be capable of acknowledging the possibility that new gun laws might not make all the evil in the world go away.

At CPAC, however, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre made a really great point.

National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre on Thursday said suggestions to limit guns are “completely ridiculous,” arguing more security measures is what is needed to increase safety in schools.

“Evil walks among us, and God help us if we don’t harden our schools and protect our kids,” the NRA leader told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

“Every day, young children are being dropped off at schools that are wide-open, soft targets for people bent on mass murder. It should not be easier for a madman to shoot up a school than a bank or a jewelry store or some Hollywood gala,” he said.

The top NRA executive promised that the group would provide “immediate assistance” to schools for security consulting free of charge.

“The whole idea from some of our opponents that armed security makes us less safe is completely ridiculous. If that’s true, armed security makes us less safe, let’s just go ahead and remove it from everywhere. Let’s remove it from the White House, from Capitol Hill, and remove it from all of Hollywood,” LaPierre continued, prompting some cheers from the crowd.

LaPierre has a valid point. Armed security is everywhere; we see it everyplace from our banks to Hollywood awards shows. And yes, some of us even see it in our schools.

For example, when I drop my son off for school in the morning, I know he’s protected by more than the metal detector he has to walk through. After all, I’ve figured out a half dozen ways to get around that if I wanted.

My son and his schoolmates are also protected by the school resource officers that work in the school. These are armed, sworn police officers that can respond to a potential problem far more quickly than any of the local police departments. It’s not the metal detectors that make me feel like my son is safe at school, it’s the gun on the hip of a police officer.

Honestly, this idea of armed police officers on school campuses shouldn’t be controversial. Heightened security at schools shouldn’t be controversial. None of these are ideas that should cause alarm, at least not on the surface. Yes, some of the ideas that come up during the discussions may well go too far, but that’s the discussion we should be having.

What we shouldn’t be doing right now is pretending that our schools will somehow become safer if law-abiding Americans can’t purchase AR-15s anymore.