The NRA's suggestion to put "a gunman in every school"

[JDPriestly]

reminds me of the experience I had when I was a child. It was during the Eisenhower administration, and, when I brought the morning paper in and looked at the front page, there was a picture of children being taken to school surrounded by what looked like soldiers with guns. They might have been national guard.

I think that was in Little Rock, as I recall.

I cried. Real tears streamed down my face. I was so upset by that picture.

And now, I am an activist, a liberal activist for the Democratic Party. It all started with my reaction to that picture. That is what woke me up.

The NRA will rue the day it suggested putting gunmen in the schools. Children do not like that. They want to play cops and robbers, but their play is the way they cope with their fears. Putting real people with real guns in schools will terrify children. And childhood can be terrifying enough.

PTSD is not just caused by violence in war.

[Little Star]

1. exactly! k&r

[alsame]

2. Not just schools. Eventually, they

will tell us we also need armed protection in malls, movie theaters, supermarkets, churches, etc. - any place where mass shootings have or will occur.

Basically, any time you leave your home you should be prepared to be shot. So we'd better have armed protection in all public places.

Who cares about the psychological effect this has on the public...there's too much money to be made.

[tblue]

3. I teach K-2. It terrifies me too.

1) Just because you can teach or serve as principal doesn't mean you can shoot a gun or want to, or are psychologically fit for it.

2) Faculty members in any school are only human. They have traumas and crises too. They can snap. And many, many students are provocative by nature.

3) There have been multiple cases of sexual abuse of students by teachers in the Bay Area. These teachers abused their position of power, over numerous years in some cases, to take advantage of children. Either no one knew or they didn't want to believe it. And now we want to give teachers guns?

Again, I am a teacher and I am also a parent. I don't want a gun for many many reasons and I don't trust anyone with a gun anywhere near my child.

[Pachamama]

6. Our teachers need to educate & teach. Our Principals and adminstrators need to manage and administer

....to the schools and communities they serve and are employed by. They SHOULD NOT BE ARMED!!!

Police and law enforcement are properly trained and regulated. They are armed. What we need is more funding for law enforcement (and mental health care) and having a school resource officer is not a new idea, its just that it requires funding.

I say fund it by taxing ammo....a dollar a bullet...with that kind of tax, we can fund programs that truly keep us safe and care for our communities and to all the gun lovers who want an arsenal, its going to cost them.

[Coyotl]

4. Fire up the gun factories, we'll be needing another million guns for this plan.

That's the whole idea, I suspect!

[Pachamama]

5. JD - Im still sickened & revolted by Wayne Lapierre & NRA and what he spewed this morning....

They are death peddlers....they are paid lobbyists for the Gun Manufacturers....but hide behind the premise that they are defending the 2nd amendment for America....

This mornings press conference (in a gun-free zone ironically) was really the new marketing/sales launch for Gun Manufacturers for 2013....It was a slap in the face of all the families still burying their babies and who lost their loved ones this week in Newtown....It was....revolting...

But all that said, I have to say is that Joe Biden years ago promoted the concept of "School Resource Officer Programs (SRO)" that involves trained law enforcement officers that are funded to provide patrols and community policing and safety at schools. I dont oppose this...in fact, my childrens school had this type of SRO who was at the school for 15 years....he knew the kids, consulted them and looked over them. He was cut last May from the local police budget. I was one of the people who felt that was a a big mistake. I felt good having him there. I think an SRO funded in a national program (maybe by taxing all Ammo - a dollar a bullet for example) and announced by VP Joe Biden as part of his task force Obama assigned to him, is not a bad thing. But to hear it spewed from the mouth of NRA's Wayne Lapierre made me want to throw up. I dont want the NRA anywhere near our schools and any program. My personal opinion is that they purposely "announced" this idea today because they know this is a past idea of Joe Biden's and they want to make it sound like its their idea and then twist and pervert it into some kind of militia/para-military group trained and funded by the NRA.....

I suggest that DU members recognize what this sick mofo was doing today and realize that the idea of an SRO is not the NRA's and that they are trying to hijack the program that Biden will likely be proposing.

[Care Acutely]

7. K & R