We’ve had an issue with guns in school for years. Teens already involved in a criminal lifestyle have carried firearms on campuses for decades. Laws that ban guns on school grounds were focused primarily on these students as they were an issue long before mass shooters became a significant problem.

However, over recent years, some states have gone a slightly different direction. They’ve opted to empower teachers to carry firearms to protect not just themselves, but students as well.

Ohio is one such state. However, some there clearly don’t understand it.

The idea of attempting to protect children in schools by putting more guns into schools won’t seem to go away.

It should go away.

Good politics, or popular politics, do not make good laws. House Bill 99, now to be considered by the General Assembly after passing favorably out of the Criminal Justice Committee last week, is such a bill. Perhaps well-intended, perhaps a political statement. The bill does not have the makings of a good law.

The bill guts current requirements for those who would carry handguns in schools. You’d think to protect kids you’d want a person with more training carrying a gun in school, not less. Current law requires that carrying a gun in schools by security personnel not on active duty requires either 20 years of service as a police officer or completing a basic peace officer-training program. That requirement makes sense. The vast majority of witnesses testifying on the bill opposed it, including some law enforcement organizations,

H.B. 99 would significantly reduce those requirements to those required for a concealed carry permit and about 20 extra hours of training.

More guns in schools is not the answer, and in fact, could lead to disaster. In poorly trained hands, guns could add to the chaos in an emergency and threaten the very children needing protection.

OK, then show me where that’s happened.

Show me anywhere that’s happened in a similar environment. Go on, I’ll wait.

See, the problem here is that the editorial above treats all guns as if they’re created equal; as if a law-abiding citizen who doesn’t have police-like training is somehow just as much of a danger as the criminals who may bring a gun onto the campus in the first place. That’s not even remotely true.

Meanwhile, Utah has had armed teachers for years and all that’s required is a state-issued concealed carry permit. To hear the editorial board of the Toledo Blade tell it, there must be so many issues that have arisen because of that, but guess what? There’s been no issue to speak of anywhere in Utah.

It’s a non-issue.

Now, if the state were talking about putting guns in every school desk, then maybe they’d have a problem about more guns in schools not being a wise idea. Some students wouldn’t be an issue, but others would, thus making such an idea extremely idiotic. However, that’s also not what’s on the table.

Instead, what the editorial board is saying is that the teachers we trust to educate our children are too untrustworthy to protect them.

Look, I get that stories of heroic teachers dying to try and protect children make great copy for newspapers, but I’d much rather that teacher live while the bad guy doesn’t.

Maybe that’s just me.

Regardless, the Blade is completely off-base with their fears.