After the shooting at a high school in Perry, Iowa, it seemed inevitable that there'd be some kind of a legislative response. It's what politicians do. They see an opportunity to take advantage of an awful tragedy and then they do just that.

Most of the time, that means gun control.

In Iowa, though, that doesn't seem to be the case. Oh, sure, some people are trying to push gun control, but there's no real impetus to make it happen despite years of being a pretty pro-gun state.

What they're doing, though, is something different and sensible. They're looking at allowing teachers to carry firearms.

And at least one op-ed writer thinks this is just a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad thing.

I incorrectly assumed the tragic school shooting in Perry would result in the usual inaction by Iowa’s politicians. However, last week Iowa House Republicans introduced a bill, House Study Bill 675, to allow teachers to be armed with guns.

Predictably, their solution to gun violence is more guns. 

Apparently those who promote arming school teachers believe a solution to school shootings is forcing all students and staff to be comfortable working and learning in a climate with guns.

Iowa has a pretty high percentage of people who carry firearms on an everyday basis. With a population of a little over 3 million and over 405,000 permits issued in a permitless carry state, it's safe to say that people work and exist around guns all the time.

Moreover, what we're talking about are concealed firearms. With guns, out of sight is generally out of mind. There are armed teachers and school staff in a number of states and guess what? Any problems they have with education aren't remotely because someone might have a gun.

This is, for the most part, a non-issue.

However, the writer also has to bring up Uvalde.

That is far from the truth.  If teachers and administrators felt requiring adults in schools to carry guns would make schools safer, wouldn’t they be demanding this? They’re not. Even five trained police officers employed by the Uvalde school district failed to stop the killing of 19 children. It’s foolish to believe school teachers would be more effective.

First, a lot of teachers do want this. They're just not the loudest voices, admittedly, and the teachers' unions that speak for the entire profession have a horrible tendency to push leftist narratives, so I'm not surprised he figures there's no demand by teachers.

And if he's right, good news for him! It means that no one will be carrying a gun in an Iowa school, because this is voluntary, not mandatory. I know that's a hard concept to grasp when you're a firm believer that everything that isn't banned should be mandatory, but it's the truth.

Now, Uvalde. 

This is the specter that will be raised time and time again and for a reason. The law enforcement failures are already well-documented. For the author, a retired teacher, it would seem that it's proof that guns don't help because trained cops didn't help.

Yet that actually undermines the idea that we don't need armed teachers.

If you're waiting for the police to save you, you might be waiting a long time. The rest of your life, as a matter of fact.

Sure, they'll come, but they'll get there in time to draw a chalk outline around your body. They won't necessarily be there in time to save you.

In Uvalde, they were there and just didn't do anything. They should have and didn't.

Teachers and students who lacked the ability to defend themselves were at the mercy of a merciless individual. 

The reason teachers need the opportunity to be armed--and yes, it should be voluntary because some people aren't really equipped to carry a gun--is because the police might not be there to save the day. They might wait outside like Uvalde or even Parkland. 

Iowa is doing the right thing. If teachers don't like it, they can learn to get over it. Let them decide for themselves, which is all the law really does.

What the writer is doing is trying to decide for every other teacher in the state, then pretending he's the moral one.

He doesn't even see how wrong he is.