The Israeli example

Last year, my own Nevada state senator, Republican Bob Beers, proposed a law which would have "allowed" Nevada government-school teachers to carry concealed weapons on school grounds -- if they wished to do so -- after passing an arduous training course.

Needless to say, there was a public outcry, and not the outcry one would have expected if one were under the impression Nevada and America are still freedom-loving states with governments whose powers are limited by the written Constitution. Since we must apparently spell everything out, slowly, what I mean is that the outcry should have been: "What? Teachers need some kind of special 'permission' to carry firearms, in a nation with a Second Amendment guaranteeing the right to keep and bear arms 'shall not be infringed,' and an added 14th Amendment prohibiting local authorities from infringing those federal rights?"

If it had been me, I suspect a legislative decree ordering the immediate arrest of any administrator of any government building who made any effort to prevent otherwise law-abiding adults from walking in bearing pistols or Browning Automatic Rifles would have been more to the point.

Instead, Sen. Beers' modest proposal was met with howls of outrage and quickly laughed out of the building. My favorites were the cogent letters mailed in by local schoolchildren -- am I the only one who suspects a little coaching by the schoolmarms? -- protesting, "No, no! Now the teacher will shoot me for being late with my homework!"

I was reminded of this when a reader wrote in, last week: "Dear Mr. Suprynowicz: Funny, you'd think that with all the press coverage of that terrible shooting at Northern Illinois University, there'd be some mention of the one the previous month." The writer was referring to the two Palestinian terrorists, recently released from an Israeli prison, who on Jan. 25 infiltrated the Mekor Hayim High School Yeshiva in Kfar Etzion, south of Jerusalem. The incident was reported in the Jerusalem Post of Jan. 26:

The day before, the daily paper reported, "Two terrorists ... armed with knives and a pistol, infiltrated the kibbutz -- in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc -- and sneaked into a building used by the high school, run by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz." The kibbutz is surrounded by a fence, but the terrorists had been able to cut a hole through the fence undetected, a paramedic in Hatzallah Judea and Samaria told The Post.

"They entered a classroom where counselors were holding a meeting, and stabbed two of them," the Israeli newspaper reports. Good heavens. And once the counselors were out of the way, how many students were massacred? Oh, I'm sorry. Were you not paying attention? This was in Israel.

"Two of the counselors were armed and managed to overpower and kill the terrorists, without giving them a chance to fire their pistol," a Hatzallah spokesman said. They plugged 'em. The wounded teachers? They suffered "non-life-threatening injuries."

A little happier ending then in any of our own recent school attacks. And why? Come on, you can do it. The teachers in Israel are different ... how? For some reason, no reports so far of any of the students of the Mekor Hayim High School Yeshiva in Kfar Etzion being shot by their teachers for failure to turn in their homework. But we'll keep our ears open.

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Kentucky: Burglar shot: "A suspected burglar has been released from the hospital after a homeowner shot him in Harrison County late Sunday night. The sheriff says a man who lives on Old Lair Road came home to find two burglars on his property. The owner shot one of the men, Thomas Terysian, 25, while the other suspect got away. Terysian, who's from Paris, went to the hospital with gunshot wounds to a hand and forearm. He's expected to be all right. Police don't have a name for the second suspect. Police say two other homes on Old Lair Road were broken into Sunday night and burglars tried to break into two more homes. The sheriff says the homeowner won't be charged."


Georgia man tells police he shot woman in self defense: "A southwest Macon man reported shooting a woman who lives nearby in the abdomen on Saturday, after she came at him with a butcher knife, according to a police report. Tyrone Woodard, of Deeb Drive, told police he fired two warning shots into the ground after Candice Hughes, of Leone Drive North, threatened him in his yard Saturday. When she charged him with the knife, Woodard said he shot Hughes in the lower abdomen, the report states. Hughes left, but police found her at her Leone Drive address. She was taken to the Medical Center of Central Georgia, according to the report, but an update on her condition was not available from the hospital Monday. The report indicates that the shooting is under investigation, but Hughes is listed as the suspect and Woodards as the victim."


WV Self Defense Statute Adds Car Invasion: "The West Virginia Legislature has extended civil and criminal immunity to individuals who use proportionate force on an intruder or attacker. The bill passed on the final day of the regular legislative session extends protection for victims beyond their residence or in defending themselves. Previously, the state law provided immunity for property owners who use reasonable or proportionate force upon an intruder. The new amendment adds motor vehicles "or any location where another has the right to be" to the list of protected locations. Individuals entering such spaces for the purpose of engaging in criminal conduct assume the risk for their injury or death from a property owner or their agent resisting the commission of a criminal act."