In the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the guns-in-schools debate in Texas has focused on teachers: whether to arm them; what training they should receive; whether it's better to shoot or ask questions first; etc.
But limiting the use of firearms on campus to trained, presumably responsible adults just seems un-Texan, which is why state Rep. James White would like to up the ante. On Friday, he filed legislation calling for gun training to be offered in public schools. To students.
"The origins of liberty in our great nation reside in large part with the idea espoused in the Second Amendment," White said in a statement posted on his website. "As a conservative, I want Texas students to have the option to learn more about both this critical part of our Constitution, and the practical knowledge of how to safely operate the common arms Texans use for hunting and self defense."
Such a course would offer instruction on the Second Amendment, presumably with a heavy emphasis on an individual's right to bear arms, gun maintenance and safety, and, last but not least, hands-on training with "common firearms such as pistols, revolvers, rifles, and shotguns."
Whether to offer the class would be up to individual school districts. Whether to take it would be up to students though, this being Texas, it would only be a matter of time before a fourth 'R' (as in rifle, or maybe Ruger) is added to the standard curriculum.
Putting guns in the hands of angsty teenagers in a country with a troubling history of school shootings is, according to White, "common sense." Because what on earth could possibly go wrong?
It's also a way to help "ensure that Texas leads the nation on standing up to the Obama Administration's troubling rhetoric on gun control." Because if there's one thing that will scare the pants off the federal government, it's legions of armed Texas school children ready to make like David Koresh.
