There is an article in CNN written by the head of the school district of Harrold, Texas in which he defended his schools arming certain teachers. He says the teachers will be well trained and their identity won't be revealed so that a bad guy would not know who to shoot at first. Also it will be more unlikely for someone to steal the guns since he won't know who has them. Chances are that in this small rural school district nothing will happen as a result of teachers carrying guns to school. Chances are also good that nothing will happen in this small school district if nobody carries guns to school. I will bet, however, if teachers all over the country are carrying guns then the chances of accidental shooting or a teacher going rogue and shooting somebody will be greater than a teacher stopping some gunman with a gun.
This is one step beyond the NRA's idea that every school has armed guards. Never mind that Columbine had an armed guard and that didn't stop the tragedy there. In fact I would bet that a school heavily armed will be a target for someone who wants to go out firing. In that guy's mind, shooting it out with armed guards and killing will be a final boost to his demented ego. But beside that, the NRA thinks that to stop bad guys is to arm good guys. Who decides who is the good guy? A person may be good today but his mental status may change. A divorce, problems at work etc can change a person. Overwhelming percentage of teachers are good people. But it is not unheard of that a teacher is a criminal. For example a teacher who had sex with a student may be blackmailed. If he is facing losing his job and going to jail, he becomes possibly dangerous with a gun. A few years ago we had a teacher in our area who was convicted of having sex with students and went to prison. He was considered a very good teacher before this revelation. I certainly would not want him to be carrying a gun when the police came to his classroom.
The answer to gun violence is not more guns. Are we going to arm all postal workers to prevent someone going postal? Some will say that we arm pilots. I am not sure that will stop hijacks but I am not worry about a crazy pilot using his gun on the plane. If he wants to kill, he can just crash the plane. Giving a gun does not make him more dangerous than before. Ultimately, you have to ask: when everybody had guns back in the wild west, were we safer than today. If you think so, you should have ask the Hatfields and the McCoys.
On a lighter note, New England is still alive but GB is out for me. I will give Jim Harbaugh credit. It would have been easy to stick with Alex Smith, who had done a good job. But it took a lot of guts to play Kaepernick instead. I don't think they would have beat GB without Kaepernick. So there is a chance for the Harbaugh bowl. But I think New England will keep that from happening. New England to win the Super Bowl over SF.
Michigan lost its chance for #1 ranking by losing to OSU. But I am not upset. Michigan came all the way back from a 21 point deficit on the road against a very good team even though their top 4 scorers shot a combine less than 30%. The comeback is a good sign for the future. This is a good wake up call and I think in particular the two freshmen, Robinson and Slauskas will play much better next time under hostile conditions.
Monday, January 14, 2013
3 comments:
Use the following html code to make a clickable link in your comment (instructions in the sidebar). You can test the link by previewing your comment.
<a href="http://angryyellowman.blogspot.com">Angry Yellow Man</a>
The above example will display as Angry Yellow Man
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I don't think arming teachers is the answer and I doubt that every teacher would be willing to carry a gun in class and have to be trained.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind having security at every school, but I wonder if there are cost constraints to doing so. Also, who is to say that anyone hired to do security is not a security risk as well?
What about taxing ammunition? Would a higher cost in bullets and supplies to make bullets stop anyone?
Did you hear that Ann Romney was asked to be on Dancing with the Stars, a show, which I do not watch? It would have been interesting to see her out there. Maybe she is waiting until the next election to do it and help boost her husband's ratings.
I figure if Palin can make it far, Ann Romney should get a ton of votes from Republicans.
As far as NFL goes, I stand by my pick of the 49ers making it to the Super Bowl. My head says that the Patriots will join them, but why do I get the suspicion that there's a conspiracy of having both Harbaugh boys go against each other?
So I will say SF vs. Baltimore, just because I can't agree with you all the time...agreed?
Either case, I will be rooting for the NFC team to win, since I like both teams.
I was impressed by how Michigan came back in their game against OSU. I think we saw two teams that are close, though I think OSU has a bit more talent and experience.
I also think that OSU played horrible the last 3 minutes of the game since they didn't even bother to run the shot clock down and made poor decisions.
As far as UM goes, they will continue to live and die by the 3. They do have enough guys that can shoot it to get far and make up for off nights. I am concerned that the freshmen you mentioned, along with McGary, will hit the wall in March.
Right now, they are playing on a high level, but it's hard to maintain that level, especially if you play a lot of minutes like they do.
We will see in a couple of months!
-LBOAYM
I wrote a comment yesterday but it did not get published. Maybe the NRA is monitoring me. So I will write a shorter version today and see if it gets thru.
ReplyDeleteHaving armed security at all schools seems to me to be against what conservatives want: big government out of our lives. How are we going to pay for hundreds of thousands of armed guards and cut into the deficit?
Taxing ammunition would be a good idea except it will never pass Congress since it is both anti-gun and raising taxes.
Ann Romney would be a good candidate for DWTS. She has multiple sclerosis, a debilating neurological disease. To be able to learn to dance at a high level with this disease is a great inspiration. Sort of like having cancer and then winning the Tour de France. Hopefully without performance enhancing drugs!
So I am picking NE to beat SF in the Super Bowl and you are picking SF to beat Baltimore, right? We will see who is right.
I wrote yesterday that how Michigan respond against Minnesota will tell a lot. Today they beat them on the road by 8, so I feel good about it. You are right that 4 wins will win the Big Ten as this is the deepest and best conference in the nation. I don't think that the freshmen will have problems with playing a lot. They are only playing 20-25 minutes a game, two times a week. That should not be problems for young legs. I think they should get better as they get more experience. I don't agree that OSU has more talent. They had a 21 point lead at home and almost lost. Michigan is a younger team and the next time they play in Ann Arbor I think they will beat OSU. Basically to win the Big Ten you have to hold serve at home and then eke out a couple of wins among M, MSU. OSU, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois on the road. Wisconsin and M have slight advantage having beaten Indiana and Minnesota on the road respectively. But it is going to be a dog fight. Hopefully it won't hurt the teams for the seeding in the NCAA after beating up on each other.
Very good win for Michigan against Minnesota. They are getting a lot of scoring from everyone. I really thought that Minnesota was the best team in the conference going into last night, but as much as it pains me to say this, I might be leaning towards Michigan right now.
ReplyDeleteI am not a big Ray Lewis fan, but I just think that if these games are fixed in any way, that we will see a Baltimore/SF Super Bowl.
The allure of Lewis playing his last game and it's in the Super Bowl and then the Harbaugh brothers going after each other is Made For TV stuff.
-LBOAYM