by Tom Kando
That’s it. We are there. We have reached the point of insanity. I’m referring to the “gun debate” in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting.
There is now a SERIOUS conversation about arming teachers!
That the President and the NRA most prominently make such a proposal is not what strikes me as the most insane aspect of this. We are used to Donald Trump and Wayne La Pierre saying crazy things.
What I find insane is that there is a conversation about this, that there are people who think about this seriously. While most teachers (I think) would still find this idea abhorrent, there are already some teachers who are sort of warming up to it...
As my sister Madeleine says, the press isn’t doing its job either: Recently on the NewsHour, Judy Woodruff interviewed a couple of pro-gun rights high schoolers. One of them offered the imbecile argument that we have security at airports, banks and government facilities, so why not at our schools?
As Madeleine writes, this country seems to be going mad, and she (and I) don’t envy our children who have to raise their children at this time in our history. Can you imagine having to go to school and knowing that your teacher is armed? What if she doesn't like your homework? I cannot believe this is happening. It feels like we are living in an alternate reality.”
The NewsHour, of all places, who, in the name of 'impartiality', has these 'guests' come on its show! Why didn't they invite Charles Manson and defend his side of having killed Sharon Tate?
Right. Insanity. From bad to worse. From the frying pan into the fire. It’s not enough that we are the most heavily armed country in the world, and that this is taking us back to the conditions of the 19th century Wild West. There are, in addition, those who want to double down and who feel that the solution to gun violence is MORE gun violence...
So let me propose an even better solution: Because women are so often the victims of sexual assault, we should have a new federal law mandating that all women carry a firearm.
Furthermore, not only should all teachers carry firearms, but so should teaching assistants, deans and other school and university administrators.
Also, all the firearms carried by these professionals and by women should be loaded and ready to fire. After all, what’s their use if they cannot be activated on the spur of the moment, whenever a bad guy suddenly begins his attack?
© Tom Kando 2018;All Rights Reserved
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8 comments:
I agree, we have a deep problem in our country and kids are caught in the middle of it! You are correct in that no one envys being a parent these days -it's challenging and stressful.
Gail
Thanks, Tom. Your solution let me begin my day with a great burst of laughter.
Gallows Humor
THANK YOU
I TOTALLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
AGREE
Thank you for your support, folks.
Just a couple of thoughts:
I came across a new article by Michael Moore, where he calls the NRA a terrorist organization. So I’m thinking, wow, what clarity! That’s exactly it.
Just think about it: ISIS and its affiliates have killed 79 Americans so far. Meanwhile, the guns that are sold, peddled and disseminated in this country by the NRA and the politicians it bribes, have killed 1.2 million Americans since John Lennon was murdered. That’s right, 1.2 million. This is equal to the combined population of Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Las Vegas! It’s ten times the number that died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s equal to the total number of Americans killed in ALL of our wars TOGETHER. And that’s just since 1980!
I’ll say it again, and again: The simplest and most fundamental truth about the gun problem is this:
THE MORE GUNS THERE ARE, THE MORE PEOPLE WILL DIE FROM GUNS.
You want more American children to be shot to death? Make sure you arm teachers.
There is no need for a lot of bullshit, a “conversation” about this “complex” problem. It’s not a complex problem. All you have to do is OUTLAW, nationwide, the use and ownership of all rapid-fire guns (call them “automatic,” “bump stocks,” “semi-automatic,” “assault rifles,” old-fashioned “machine guns,” or whatever you wish).
It’s not rocket science. Most countries have been able to do it. Take Australia: The last mass murder there was the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, which killed 35 people. Thereupon, the country simply OUTLAWED all automatic and semi-automatic weapons. Period. Done. The authorities bought back hundreds of thousands of such weapons from the citizenry. Since then - 22 years ago - Australia has experienced TWO “multiple shootings” at a combined loss of SEVEN lives.
All you have to do is do it. Switching topics to things like mental illness is a ruse. There is no more mental illness in the US than elsewhere. There is no “concomitant variation,” (as statisticians say) between the rate of mental illness and the rate of mass murder.
Obviously, once you outlaw all rapid-fire firearms, it’ll take some time to significantly reduce our vast national arsenal. But the beneficial effects will begin immediately! So start it already. Within the first few weeks, the murder statistics will begin to decline, meaning at first hundreds and soon thousands of lives saved.
“Complex” problem my ass!
if a child hits a classmate with a stick will you give a stick to all children? or a stick to the teacher to hit back? Or take the stick away? Trump would seem to want to distribute sticks to all, including their parents..!Is this the judgement of a grownup?. Sounds like this is what another volatile crazy kid would do with sticks
How right you are.
...and here is another thought that came up in a recent conversation. A friend reminded me of a metaphor attributed to the great social critic Paul Goodman:
America’s gun problem is not a difficult problem to solve. But the country cannot find the solution.
Goodman used the analogy of a lab experiment with rats: There is a whole bunch of rats crowded together in a cage. They go crazy; they can no longer find their way to an easily accessible supply of water a couple of feet away.
You wouldn't have to give all the children sticks, if you gave the teacher a sword and she simply cut off the hand of the guilty child!
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