Opinionline: Putting cops in schools a proven solution?

• The reaction of liberals to this proposal was remarkable.
• It isn't like the deputy (at the school) was sitting around eating doughnuts during the Columbine massacre.
• NRA 'solution' requires far greater government intrusion and coercion.

Daily News, New York, editorial: "Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association will forever now be known as America's maddest gunman. In style and substance, his performance Friday in delivering his organization's response to the Newtown massacre revealed the obsessive, lunatic paranoia behind its worship of firearms. A week after a gunman armed with an assault rifle murdered 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut ... LaPierre lashed out at everyone and everything but the weapons that were used to kill. ... Exhibiting a level of insanity that qualifies people for commitment as a danger to themselves or others, he called for stationing armed cops at every school in the United States."

John Hayward, Human Events: "(LaPierre) went on to offer the NRA's resources, 'as America's pre-eminent trainer of law enforcement and security personnel for the past fifty years,' to aid in the endeavor, announcing that the organization would 'bring all of its knowledge, dedication, and resources to develop a model National School Shield Emergency Response Program for every school that wants it.' The reaction of liberals to this proposal was remarkable: Within a matter of minutes, the hot new lefty meme on the Internet was that the notion of protecting school children is crazy."

Daniel Foster, National Review: "It isn't like the deputy (at the school) was sitting around eating doughnuts during the Columbine massacre. He traded fire with Eric Harris for an extended period of time, during which Harris' gun jammed. The deputy, and the backup he immediately called for, exchanged fire with the shooters a second time and helped begin the evacuation of students, all before the SWAT teams and the rest of the cavalry arrived, and before Harris and Dylan Klebold killed themselves. ... In this highly chaotic tactical environment, the deputy acted both bravely and prudently, and who knows how many lives he saved by engaging Harris."

Ned Resnikoff, MSNBC: "The state, according to LaPierre, should permanently deploy an armed security guard to every public school in America. Furthermore, it should create a national database to keep tabs on the mentally ill. ... It should now be basically obvious to everyone that the NRA, for all of its pious genuflecting in the direction of the Second Amendment, is not a civil liberties organization. Civil liberties organizations support neither pre-emptive surveillance on the sick nor perpetual pseudoparamilitary lockdown in elementary schools. While the NRA and its allies may oppose gun control on the grounds that it inhibits liberty, their 'solution' requires far greater government intrusion and coercion."

Michael Tomasky, The Daily Beast: "An armed guard in every school doesn't guarantee anything. Schools are big buildings; often they are campuses, not just buildings. What if the guard happens to be in the gym when a gun nut shoots his way into the shop? In fact, exactly this happened at Columbine High, which had an armed guard. He was out monitoring the Smoker's Corner, which every high school has, while the shooters did their work inside."

John McQuaid, Forbes: "In this critical moment, the NRA chose to disengage itself from the political dialogue. LaPierre sits outside it, above it, off to one side, and puts his finger in the eye of those who choose to participate and have an interest in action."