Three weeks after armed sheriff's deputy Scot Peterson refused to engage accused school shooter Nikolas Cruz in Parkland, Florida, a New York state Senate Democrat wants to make it illegal for anybody but cops like Peterson to possess a firearm on school grounds in New York State.

New York law already makes it a felony to possess a firearm on school grounds for 99% of the public, including those who hold a concealed-carry permit (which is harder to get in New York than anywhere else in the country).

However, current law does allow schools to grant specific, written exemptions to individuals authorizing them to possess firearms.  These exemptions are extremely rare, since most school faculty and administrators are anti-gun liberals barely more mature than the children they are supposed to instruct.  But Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Island) has sponsored a bill that would outlaw even that slim possibility of self-defense.  The bill forbids schools from issuing written exemptions and forbids "any teacher, professor, administrator, or other person who is not primarily employed as a school resource officer, law enforcement officer or security guard" from possessing a gun in school under any and all circumstances.

In other words, if Deputy Peterson & Co. cannot – or will not – save you, you're dead.  Guaranteed.

The old saying that "a gun in the hand beats a cop on the phone every time" is true.  When your life is in immediate danger from a killer in close proximity, an armed cop ten minutes away – or even one or two minutes away – is too little, too late.  Parkland isn't the only case where armed security failed to protect; there were armed guards at the Orlando and Columbine shootings, too.

President Trump is right – the only solution to school shootings is to arm faculty and administrators.  No one can defend your own life, and the lives of people immediately surrounding you, better than you can.

Self-defense is a natural right, articulated in the Declaration of Independence.  The only governments that deny people the right to self-defense are tyrannical dictatorships, which, in the words of James Madison, are "afraid to trust the people with arms."

Like the government of New York.