Mission statement:

Armed and Safe is a gun rights advocacy blog, with the mission of debunking the "logic" of the enemies of the Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms.

I can be reached at 45superman@gmail.com.You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/45superman.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Raising the next generation of placid herbivores

This Washington Post op-ed piece, by Jonathan Turley, discusses the culture of cowardice a growing number of parents want their children (and everyone else's children, as well) raised in. He became aware of this phenomenon when other parents reacted in shock and horror upon discovering that his sons were permitted to play with toy guns (which were obviously toys).

Turley is not himself a firearms enthusiast, and although the piece does not come out and say so, I get the strong impression that there are not, and never have been, real firearms in his house. Still, he is struck by the ridiculousness of "protecting" children from toy guns, as if they were loaded heroin syringes. His piece lists some examples of the bizarre extremes to which the "zero tolerance" policies are sometimes taken.

· In New Jersey, an 8-year-old boy used an L-shaped piece of paper in a game of cops and robbers during recess. School officials called the police, saying the child had threatened "to kill other students" by saying "pow pow" on the playground. He was held for five hours and forced to make two court appearances before charges were dropped. Two 8-year-old boys were charged with making "terrorist threats" after they were found pointing paper guns at classmates. Charges were later dropped.

· In Texas, a 13-year-old girl was suspended and transferred to a school for problem kids after she brought a butter knife to school with her lunch. Her parents had packed the dull knife so that she could cut her apple to make it easier to eat because she wore braces.

· In Arkansas, an 8-year-old boy was punished for pointing a cooked chicken strip at another student and saying "pow, pow, pow."

· In Georgia, a 5-year-old student was suspended after he brought a plastic gun the size of a quarter to his kindergarten class.
How far we have fallen--a few short generations ago, our men braved murderous fire to storm the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima--now, an 8-year-old saying "pow, pow" is enough to terrorize us.

There is hope, though--even in my own herbivore-ruled state of Illinois, a bill has been introduced in the legislature that would require the school system to offer weapon safety education to children.

Synopsis As Introduced
Amends the School Code. Requires the State Board of Education, in cooperation with the Department of State Police, to develop a weapons safety program designed to protect children from the risk of gun-related death and injury. Provides that the program must be designed to teach children to follow an effective safety procedure when they are exposed to a gun and shall specifically warn children that contact with guns can result in serious injury or death. Provides that a school district may incorporate the weapons safety program into its curriculum. Requires the State Board of Education to submit a report to the Governor and the General Assembly as to the status of the program no later than January 1, 2009.
That's the kind of thing that will probably put the "zero tolerance" folks off their feed--sales of tofu burgers with kiwi slices are going to suffer.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey there 45, I agree whole-heartedly with this one. And you know what the biggest influence is for our kids?? Television, movies, DVD's, and games. If you want to talk about assault weapons and weapons of mass destruction you only need to step into your family room these days. Parents need to start being real parents again. Most seem to be too busy to pay much attention to there kids these days and have no clue as to what they are watching, playing or being exposed to.
I have in the past asked at the school where my daughter who is 6 goes to school if I could interest them in bringing some firearm safety information to the school. My reasoning was that I am a law abiding firearm owner who keeps his firearms safe at home. I also take a moment every time I handle them to talk to my kids about them and how to handle them safely. Part of my talks always include the piece about when they are at school mates homes playing. That if one of the play mates comes out with his mommy or daddy's gun and trys to show it to them how to properly handle that situation. I know I keep my fireams safe however I have no idea what is at anyone elses home.
The Principal was not too excited about the idea and told me that I needed to take the issue up with the district. I did that and as of yet have no response after nearly 3 months.
Go figure...they state that the childrens safety is extremely important to them and they take it very seriously. I asked how that could be i they scoff at the idea of teaching firearm safety to the children. The teach fire safety, safe sex, stranger danger, drug awareness...why not firearm awareness and safety? It truly concerns me that the kids of today are to put it as Kim duToit says....Pussified by a bunch of GFW's...
mack-IllinoisCarry

Kurt '45superman' Hofmann said...

Well said, Mack. These people seem to want their kids (and your kids) to take an ostrich's approach to "danger." If something scares them, they want to try to hide its very existence from their kids.

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with your post. The biggest tools of the anti-gun left are fear and ignorance. Education, allowing people to think for themselves is ALWAYS better than politics of fear.

As the previous comment said, schools teach sex education, fire safety, and drug awareness (though with skewed "facts") I fail to see how it is seen as responsible to teach such things to children, but when applied to guns they say it "encourages the use of weapons."

I'm only 21, but its incredible how parents now try to shield their kids from the world. All that does is make them incapable of dealing with the real world as they get older.

Kurt '45superman' Hofmann said...

Thanks for reading, Anon, and for the comment.

Yep--if ignorance is bliss, then disarmed ignorance is frikkin' nirvana to these people.

Chuck Butcher said...

I put ear protection on my 3 yr old, put a capped water filled 1 gal milk jug on a target stand. I said, "this is something like a person's body," and popped it with a 185 gr JHP .45ACP w/7.2gr Unique. He understood. I also taught him with his toy rifle to open the action whenever handing it to someone and to keep it pointed in a safe direction.

He's 19 now, he's never been an angel, but he could've been a poster boy for gun safety.