There was a time in America when we weren’t afraid of our own shadows. One aspect of that time was that schools in many parts of the country had gun clubs – just like the chess clubs, glee clubs, art clubs, and such. Children would bring rifles to school, and after school hours participate in target practice and gun-safety classes.
Boy, does that seem like a fantasy today!
As an example of how being the rulers of the world has turned Americans into frightened, whimpering, simpering, sniveling scaredy-cats, consider this story from Missoula, Montana. A 12-year old boy found a broken BB gun on the way to school. The gun’s handle contained a pipe for smoking drugs. He put the gun in his backpack and took it to school with him. When the authorities became aware of this, the boy was expelled from school for one year, ordered to undergo regular urine testing, and required to attend anger management classes!
Not only that, because of the federal Gun-Free Schools Act, he is forbidden for one year from attending any government school in America. (I didn’t say it was all bad.) I remember the politicians’ assuring us in the 1960s that the newly enacted federal aid to education law would never mean federal control of education. But any school district that doesn’t respect the 12-month expulsion provision will lose its federal funding.
(I also remember that the original Medicare bill said nothing in the bill should be construed to affect the way a doctor or hospital treats a patient.)
The Missoula story isn’t the only recent example of the way America has become an armed state with unarmed citizens. In Clovis, New Mexico, the police were called, snipers were placed on school rooftops, nearby streets were closed, and a school was in panic.
Why? Because an eighth-grade student brought a strange package, 30 inches long, to school.
It turned out to be a super-duper-sized burrito – created as part of a school project.
May 9, 2005
