Wording is everything!
Correia--Any time a referendum is put up for a vote, how it's worded almost guarantees what outcome occurs. In this case, the wording is as scary as possible, so the public imagines Miss Petite First Grade First Year Teacher being "provided" with Dirty Harry's Smith & Wesson Model 29, "The most powerful handgun in the world." Of course Miss Petite knows nothing about firearms and is simply scared of the thing, and rightly so. And the public votes it down 2 to 1.
Now, if the framers of this referendum had wanted it to pass, OTOH, it would have been worded something like, "For the safety of the children, should education professionals who elect to do so be given proper, rigorous, training and certification, regularly updated, and allowed to carry concealed firearms in schools?" If it were a local referendum, the phrase "at their own expense" would have to be added.
But then it might pass, and that's not the outcome that MSNBC wants. Simple as that. I once voted on a referendum where if you wanted what the referendum covered, you had to vote "no." Wording is everything.
