After the tragic child murders at Sandy Hook Elementary, the NRA proposed a plan to put armed guards in each school. There are about 99,000 public schools in the country according to National Center for Education Statistics.

NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said:

I call on Congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation and to do it now to make sure that blanket safety is in place when our kids return to school in January.

A few days later (on December 23) he added on Meet the Press:

If it’s crazy to call for putting police and armed security in our school to protect our children, then call me crazy. I’ll tell you what the American people– I think the American people think it’s crazy not to do it. It’s the one thing that would keep people safe.

And the N.R.A. is going to try to do that. We’re going to support an immediate appropriation before Congress to put police officers in every school. And we’re going to work with Asa Hutchinson, who has agreed to work with us to put together a voluntary program, drawing on retired military, drawing on retired police, drawing on former Secret Service, and all these people that can actually go in and make our kids safe.

So he clearly calls for both volunteers and armed police. It is unclear how the numbers will work but with almost 100,000 schools we are clearly talking about a large numbers of jobs and a big federal expenditure.

There would be details to work out and these are by no means trivial. How do the volunteers work with the police? How volunteers will be recruited? How will they screened so we are not creating a worse situation by putting armed people into schools who may themselves cause a problem?

Could there be problems with students or others taking guns from the guards and shooting? This may sound crazy too but a weapon was taken from a police officer is the police station and 3 officers were wounded. (see Police station shooting story).

Just a few months ago, police shot 9 bystanders while killing a lone gunman. Since these were trained police officers, we cannot dismiss the possibility that students or teachers could be shot accidently by the guards.

Many schools will need multiple guards as one person can’t see everything and may not be sufficient to repel the attacker or attackers. Should we depend exclusively on volunteers or police here or have a mix?

Should we think about something similar for other places where the public gathers? Does the private sector need to add an armed presence in shopping malls, private schools, movies theaters, churches, etc.

Do governments need to post armed guards at other facilities open to the public? The Post Office and motor vehicle offices come to mind but there are many others.

This plan is clearly a dilemma for many politicians. Some will like the idea of armed guards in schools as proposed by the NRA but will not like the idea of a large federal program particularly one that uses federal money to create jobs and stimulate the economy. Others will like the idea of a federal stimulus but oppose armed guards in schools.

But it gives each side a bit of what they like. So maybe it is a potential route for compromise. Maybe throw a few more contentious issues into the mix and we’ll have something.

I think the plan will not work but rather than dismissing it as crazy, we should think it through.