I had an opportunity to tune around various radio programs recently and heard a lot of conversation around what can be done to make our children safer at school. Several callers from all walks of life including truck drivers, teachers, police officers, and even IT professionals were recommending a combination of armed security guards, metal detectors, bullet proof doors, and safe rooms. These ideas, in my opinion, are making the situation far more complicated than it has to be. These ideas are merely treating the symptoms and not addressing the root causes. In addition, solutions like those suggested would cost school districts millions of dollars and have nominal results over the long term as the costs to sustain added security personnel and equipment maintenance increase over time. In my opinion, this is just throwing good money after bad and a money trap just waiting to happen.

After listening to many of these ideas I kept coming back to a K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple Silly) and have concluded that there are two, simple steps that would have the greatest long term impacts on school safety. Unfortunately, these two, simple steps are probably the most controversial steps and, as a result, politicians may never have the courage to implement them in their various states. These two simple steps are not controversial for any practical reason. They are controversial only because our culture has been so deeply infected with 'progressivism.'

As a bonus, the two simple steps that could have the greatest short and long term impact to the safety and security of our schools would NOT cost a single penny to implement.

Step number one: let God back into ALL of our schools. This would not cost any school district a single penny. All they would have to do is allow pastors and lay people to come to every school and offer free Bible classes and prayer sessions for any students and faculty who are interested in participating. Sessions like this take place in nursing homes and hospitals all across America already. Why not in our schools too? Teaching our children and school faculty about God's love and the true nature of morality and loving each other as He loves us will have the greatest long term impact to preventing future evil deeds. Unfortunately, our sick modern culture would levy an enormous price on the head of any politician with the courage to propose such a measure. He or she would be vilified by 'progressive' media and smeared in every public setting so much so that the politician would face an uphill battle to keep their elected position.

Step number two: enact a BAN on ALL gun free zones. This step is, by far, more practical than the first and will have immediate impacts as well as very positive long term consequences. Enacting a BAN on ALL gun free zones will not require a single penny of expense and merely allows good guys in our society to BE the good guys and it stops treating them like the bad guys.

Stop treating the good guys like we are the bad guys.

Good, law-abiding citizens who already hold concealed carry licenses will be allowed to carry on school premises any time without anyone even knowing about it or raising alarms. Maybe it's the janitor. Maybe it's the Science teacher. Maybe it's the principal. Maybe it's a parent who happens to be dropping off or picking up their student. It's no one's business and each good, law-abiding citizen doesn't have to go bowing down before the school board or principal since they have already gone through the necessary steps to become a concealed carry license holder in their state. The immediate impact of this will be a very serious deterrent to any murderous thug who wants to attack a school. Even deranged murderous thugs will think twice about acting on their ideas knowing that maybe someone at the school will shoot back. This might prevent them from acting on their murderous ideas all together but if they do, then there will be a small army of good, law-abiding citizens with the capacity to put down the threat before it can become another massacre.

Unfortunately, as with the first step, any elected official who has the courage to propose this will have their career destroyed. The 'progressive' media will call them 'cowboys' and 'blood-thirsty' and you'll hear idiotic phrases like 'it'll be the Wild West all over again.' Just go back to news articles around the time when your state passed it's concealed carry legislation to get an idea of the inane rhetoric you can expect from a culture so deeply infected by 'progressivism.'

I am under no illusion here. I realize that there are very few politicians in office who have the courage to propose these extraordinarily simple yet controversial solutions. It's sad really and I pray that perhaps more Christians will get off their knees and push ideas like this. If enough good, law-abiding Christian citizens put enough pressure on elected officials then maybe our culture can be cured from the progressivism that has infected it and return to America's founding traditions of Judeo-Christian morality.

------------- UPDATE -------------
I wrote this on Friday last week and it's been all over the Internet this weekend and it didn't take long for this brilliant idea to catch on:

The legislation would establish a pilot program for schools in Wisconsin which would allow concealed weapons in private, parochial, or tribal schools. Kremer hopes it is eventually expanded into public schools statewide.

Read the whole story here