h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today at teabreak we got into a conversation about american gun laws and someone was insisting that there is opinion in the USA that in order for kids at US schools to protect themselves they are advocating that they should be allowed to arm themselves before entering the classroom!

Someone please tell me that this is not true! If not the advocates of this surely need locking up.

Hmmm, a bunch of fourteen year olds let loose with semi-automatic weapons. Sounds like a real good idea to me - I don't think.

But these kids will have played so much "Doom" that they'll know you only shoot the guys with horns coming out of their heads, or the ones with only one eye in the middle of their forehead, or the ones with the swastikas on their jackets ...

A lot of the "gun as protection" logic depends on the assailant being unwilling to risk his/her own life. Since most of the assialants in schoolyard shootings have been suicidal teens this logic breaks down entirely.
However, the alternative of banning guns altogether seems to reduce the chances of suicidal teens getting hold of such weapons and thereby reduce the possibility of such tragedies.

I don't think this is right, at least outside a small group. They seem to want to put more metal detectors in schools. But really, what are you supposed to do with the school bully? A Smith & Wesson keeps your milk money safe.

I think kids today are just too hard to play Sstick in the mud and British Bulldog. They need playground games for the 21st century.

Georgy Porgy pudding and pie
Was shooting girls, they screamed and cried,
But when the boys came out to play,
They blew that m****r f****r away.

british bulldog was dangerous from what i remember esp. on concreate playgrounds, many an injury caused by that i'm sure

I'm sixteen, and as a cadet I've been trained to use guns but also been educated as to their effects IRL.

IMHO, arming kids in school would be fine IF they were educated properly in their use and they were shown what gunshot wounds look like.

I actually think that insulating kids from the grim reality of warfare is a bad idea...

Oh yeah, and if everybody was armed, a suicidal teenager would be blown away before he could kill more than a couple of people...

this is so not a good idea. i can think of several peole just right off hand, who should not be allowed any kind of weapon, should not be allowed sharp sticks. besides, people who would probably most need protection likely wouldn't be comfortable with a weapon.

*Speechless*

Krans, do you honestly think that giving children guns will encourage them to realise that killing is wrong? Making children familiar with guns will not help to show them the "grims realities of war" at all. In my opinion, it would be more likely to turn them into gun-toting idiots, who glorify the gun as a symbol of power. In reality, all a gun is, is a symbol of mental, physical and social weakness.

By your reasoning, giving out free bottles of Whisky to our children would alert them to the perils of alcoholism. They would never, ever, actually be tempted to try the stuff. oh no.

on re-reading this thread -
Krans - were you actually being serious, or are you using a subtle form of irony that has succeeded in outwitting us all?

"IMHO, arming kids in school would be fine IF they were educated properly in their use and they were shown what gunshot wounds look like."

Most kids are stupid and their reaction to what a gunshot wound looks like would be "cool".



Arming kids would be good though, as they'd all kill each other and then we'd be free of the little, amoral, selfish, vermin.



Zagreb

"a gun is, is a symbol of mental, physical and social weakness"

Yeah, if some dude pointed a gun at me, he'd look *so* weak. Right before he shot me.

Unfortunately this is true. A while ago there was a minor scandal when it was revealed that John Ashcroft (current US Attorney General and, as we now know, bad amateur songwriter and singer) had links to a group called Gun Owners of America (GOA). This group released a press statement the day after one of the school shootings entitled "Lesson of School Shootings: More Guns Needed at Schools."

[URL Removed By Moderator]
http://www.gunowners.org/pr9803.htm

As Gene Wilder said as the Waco Kid in 'Blazing Saddles',"Oh, dearie, dear..."

Rocket Man, hate is a poor lens to view anything through. It very often becomes a mirror.

To the Brits: Don't worry about it. It is not your problem anymore.

To the Yanks: Vote early and often. Maybe you'll get what you need before you get what you want.

Oops! Sorry, that was a bit abrupt and harsh.

I apologize.

Not hitting 'preview' as often as I should.

Oops, that first URL didn't work because it had a comma in it. Just go to www.guardian.co.uk (or for that matter Google) and search the archives for "Lesson of School Shootings: More Guns Needed at Schools."

I was a cadet, and the main reason we never had an injury, accidental or otherwise, was because the weapons were only given out in controlled conditions. We were allowed to handle weapons and instructed in rifle drills long before we were given any ammo, and even then it was blank rounds except on a couple of shooting ranges. By the time we actally did any shooting, the weapons were associated more with 'heavy' than 'lethal'. At every turn, we were told not to even think of putting that magazine in until we were in the prone position, pointing in a safe direction, and were given the order 'load!'
Without this specific, long term training, guns in the hands of teenagers would be too dangerous in my opinion. For that matter, the training would make the justifications mentioned earlier invalid anyway, because people would be too reticent in using them to save any lives in the rare situation when it becomes what some would call 'necessary'.