If something bad goes down such as a mass shooting, you don't want to have to wait for the police to show up and save you. We saw how that can go in Uvalde. 

In fact, you really don't want to have to wait for help no matter what's going on.

The best-case scenario is to have someone on the premises who can react to whatever's happening. That's why people learn things like CPR or first aid. It's why they have fire extinguishers everywhere.

In a potential mass shooting, an armed good guy takes it from a national tragedy to something we talk about for a few days. Look at the Greenwood Park Mall shooting or the church in White Settlement, Texas, for examples.

In Nebraska, lawmakers there seem to feel the same way. They just advanced a bill that will allow school staff to carry firearms.

Nebraska’s smallest school districts could authorize security staff to carry guns in schools and at school activities under a compromise amendment added to a package of education bills.

...

Heading into Wednesday’s debate, the firearms provision promised to be the most contentious part of the proposal. It included provisions of LB 1339, introduced by Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon.

His portion of the package would give school boards the power to authorize trained security staff to carry firearms on school grounds and would remove criminal penalties for off-duty and retired law enforcement officials who carry weapons on school grounds, including concealed handguns.

As introduced, his bill would have applied to all school districts in the state. The measure generated stiff opposition, particularly from the state’s most populous areas. To reduce the opposition, Brewer worked with Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha on a compromise that limited the bill’s application to districts with fewer than 5,000 residents.

Yeah, that's the bad news. It doesn't apply to Lincoln and Omaha, which means those kids are more likely to be vulnerable.

Oh, those schools might have school resource officers, which can help, but it also might not. We all remember where the school resource officer was during Parkland, do we not? That's right. He was outside waiting for "back-up" while kids were being gunned down--kids he'd seen every day that school year at least.

Still, this is better than nothing, and a lot of the smaller schools are going to be more open to armed staff anyway. They don't have the anti-gun animosity that seems to infect people who live in larger cities.

For kids In those school systems, things are a step closer to being much, much safer.

Some claim otherwise, but they're wrong. Armed school staff will have the means to protect themselves if no one else. That means, by extension, they'll protect students' lives.

Further, some espouse concerns based on fears that have never come to fruition.

All in all, this is a win for Nebraska, though not as big of a win as we might like to see. For that to happen, though, I suspect people in Lincoln and Omaha will have to get over themselves and their unfounded, idiotic fear of armed citizens and come to realize that good guys with guns save lives.