JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A Democratic Missouri legislator is playing a version of the old game “rock, paper, scissors” when it comes to the question of school security.

He’s willing to allow potential killers to have the equivalent of the rock, while leaving teachers to defend themselves and their students with a much less effective weapon.

State Sen. Jason Holsman is sponsoring a bill that would allow school teachers to arm themselves with pepper spray instead of firearms. It’s in response to Republican efforts to allow qualified educators to carry guns.

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“These six-ounce containers of bear spray shoot 30-feet in a 10-foot wide radius,” Holsman was quoted as saying. “It is conceivable that would could blast the hallway, if it was on lockdown, and if the perpetrator was to run into that mist, it would disable him.”

But could the pepper spray mist prevent an intruder from firing his gun randomly, even blindly, and potentially hitting a staff member or student? A bullet from the gun of a school employee almost certainly would.

But what about when a gunman bursts into a classroom, like the killer did in Newtown, Connecticut last December?

By the time the teacher had a chance to release his pepper spray, how many students could be shot, particularly if the intruder was using an automatic weapon?

Predictably the anti-gun teachers union gave a thumbs-up to Holsman’s idea.

“It is non-lethal,” said Andrea Flinders, president of the Kansas City Federation of Teachers. “If a teacher would accidently let the pepper spray go, at least people won’t die.”

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Flinders said she would prefer to have security guards and metal detectors at schools. She did not indicate whether or not the security guards should be armed.

But if they weren’t, what good would they do against the challenge of an armed intruder?

Get real, people. If only the bad guys have guns, only bad things are going to happen.