Courtesy of Raw Story:
NRA commentator Billy Johnson this week proposed that children be forced to learn shooting skills in order to graduate as part of a plan to enact “gun-required zones” in the United States, and use taxpayer money to subsidize firearm purchases.
In a video title “Everyone Gets A Gun” that was released on Monday, Johnson complains that U.S. gun policy was focused on limiting access to firearms.
“As a country we have an education policy. Imagine if that policy was about limiting who has access to public education,” he argued. “I mean, let’s be honest, the danger in educating people to think is that they might actually start to think for themselves. Perhaps we should think seriously about who we give access to knowledge. They could use it to do a lot of damage.”
“We don’t have a U.S. gun policy. We have a U.S. anti-gun policy,” the NRA commentator continued. “Gun policy driven by people’s need for guns would seek to encourage people to keep and bear arms at all times. Maybe it would even reward those who do so. What if instead of gun free-zones we had gun-required zones?”
In order to make his plan work, Johnson said that children would need to be introduced to firearms at a young age.
“Just like we teach them reading and writing, necessary skills. We would teach shooting and firearm competency,” he explained. “It wouldn’t matter if a child’s parents weren’t good at it. We’d find them a mentor. It wouldn’t matter if they didn’t want to learn. We would make it necessary to advance to the next grade.”
Seriously, WTF?
I suppose following this line of logic that we can reduce the number of fires by giving children access to matches and gasoline as well.
Or reduce the spread of disease by exposing them to patients under quarantine in the hospital.
And hey, lets reduce head injuries by taking away their bicycle helmets and sabotaging the brakes on their bikes.
More guns in the community, and in the hands of young people, means more gun deaths. How is that so fucking hard for these people to understand?
Hey, NRA, how about "gunfights to the death"?
ReplyDeleteHalf the kids advance to the next grade, half the kids expire, bullet riddled, in pools of their own blood on the playground. It's a win-win for everyone except for the gun-deficient children, probably the raised by libtards.
The whole school year could consist solely of gun training, a sort of "duel to the test", no-child-left-alive approach to childhood education.
Don't laugh, it seems to work very well in certain tribal areaa of rural Somalia. Why not here in common sense conservative Amercia?
Also too, let's solve playground arguments via duels! Meet at the playground before 1st period, back to back, 50 paces and then boom! May the best shot win!
DeleteHey, that can be a new reality show! Oh wait, didn't they just make a sci-fi movie of a sci story about that?
DeleteHunger Games anyone?
Total insanity. So glad to be living in another country where the utterings of these gun zealots would be laughed at and given no credit, whatsoever. To know that this idiot would have a segment of the American public actually agree with this idea makes me feel ill.
ReplyDeleteIf the right-wing nutjobs get their way, it will be illegal to tell a child about their own body, but mandatory to teach them how to slaughter with a gun.
Delete@11:13 precisely well said. thnks
DeleteKid running out door before school:
ReplyDelete"Mom, where's my gun"?
Mom:
"It's in your lunchbox"!
Just imagine it: a bright 16 year old, a straight-A student but lacking hand-eye coordination, held back since 2nd grade because he can't shoot straight...
ReplyDeleteBetter to be held back in 2nd grade, than to be shot dead by one of your less than reliable classmates.
DeleteRussian Sanctions Spark AK-47 Buying Frenzy In U.S.
ReplyDeleteIn an effort to keep arms away from Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine, the United States may have kicked off something of an arms race back home.
The Obama administration last week announced a new round of sanctions against Russia that it says are intended to discourage Russia from continuing to support rebel groups in eastern Ukraine. Companies blacklisted by the U.S. include Russian banks, energy firms and eight weapons manufacturers -- including Kalashnikov Concern, a maker of what is arguably the most popular weapon in the world, the AK-47.
The move sent American gun buyers into a frenzy, seeking to buy the AK-47s that are already for sale in the U.S. While there’s no hard data showing an uptick in Russian gun sales, gun sellers around the country say they’re seeing big business in AK-47s and other Russian firearms.
Blaine Bunting, president of Maryland gun distributor Atlantic Firearms, said Tuesday that orders for their AK-47-style rifles and shotguns have "tripled, if not quadrupled" since Obama announced the sanctions.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/24/ak-47-sales-russia-sanctions_n_5610909.html
My first thought is this is just insane.
ReplyDeleteMy second thought is I have never seen a clearer reason why the US needs single payer healthcare that a person receives automatically at birth.
Dee
He'd make a perfect Nazi.
ReplyDeleteStart with the reality that we live in a country where there are a hell of a lot of guns, kids get their hands on them, and lots of people don't know how to safely handle them. What's wrong with teaching kids how to safely and properly handle, unload, aim and shoot a firearm? Kids should be taught firearm safety just like they are taught internet safety, bike safety, and other basic rules to keep them from being harmed. It's a valuable skill in a world where they are going to encounter firearms. That way when their idiot friend decides to show them their dad's gun older kids can say "hey, point the muzzle in a safe direction...let's make sure it's not loaded...and can protect themselves rather than ending up a victim of an accidental shooting.
ReplyDeleteIf they're choosing to use guns, then training is obviously good. If they don't want to use guns, they shouldn't be penalized by a bunch of crazy people.
DeletePoint taken. But isn't it much simpler for the dad not to have a gun?
DeleteWhat's wrong with "make sure it's not loaded" that causes all these "accidental" deaths at gun shows and around the neighborhood?
DeleteBecause, for some F'ing reason, those "unloaded" guns still expel a bullet that wounds/kills.
That actually sounds somewhat reasonable until you remember that there is no such thing as gun safety. Handling weapons results in accidents, even among trained professionals. The more guns are handled, the more accidental shootings. "That way when their idiot friend decides to show them their dad's gun older kids can say "hey, point the muzzle in a -" BANG - the poor kid is dead before he could finish the warning.
Delete"What's wrong with teaching kids how to safely...shoot a firearm?"
DeleteOf course, we should start with teaching them to safely throw knives. And every curriculum should cover Molotov Cocktails. Add in plastic explosives and how NOT to test your bullet "proof" vest, and you get a well-rounded kid ready to get a job bagging groceries at the local supermarket.
Sorry, but any gun in any hands is a death waiting to happen. I do not want my grandkids exposed to guns, in school or anywhere else. I and my kids survived just fine by never laying eyes on a gun...anywhere. My daughter was taken to a shooting range in law school and made to fire a gun, just so that if she ever had to prosecute or defend in a weapons case, she would know what firing a gun feels like. We have nephews very proud of their rabbit shooting process from one of their front porches at night. Both boys are now married with kids, and I pray that the guns are locked up somewhere, but knowing those two, I have my doubts. So I suspect that sometime in the next 15 years, I may be attending a funeral for some family member 'accidentally' shot to death.
DeleteI thunk this whole thing came about because the gun manufacturers finally ran out of customers. I mean, how many assault rifles does one need? Who better to sell to than cash-strapped schools? Yes, let's MANDATE guns and gun classes. Shooting ranges on every elementary and middle school campus...look what schools are doing for the computer makers!!! Greed and idiocy is all this is.
Handling weapons does not result in accidents. Mishandling them does. I had gun safety training at the age of 12 in a school program. It was an NRA hunter safety curriculum. It was 6 weeks of training before we were allowed to touch the rifles. Rules are drilled into you until they are second nature - never load a gun until you are ready to shoot, always point the muzzle in a safe direction, always know what is behind what you are shooting at, never point the muzzle at anything you don't intend to shoot. Never handle a gun until you have visually confirmed that the action is clear and the gun is unloaded. Never handle a gun when under the influence.
DeleteIn the safe muzzle example if he's holding it you step out of the way while giving the warning. Your training has taught you that is an unsafe situation and you recognize what your friend doesn't.You don't rely on a verbal warning only.
I guarantee that every accident you read about someone has violated one or more of those rules. Now, no safety program is foolproof. But just because it's not 100% effective doesn't mean you don't try. Set this up as a voluntary after school program.
Again, i learned how to shoot competitively in a Jr. High program. We didn't learn explosives or incendiaries because they are illegal and we weren't going to be using them. The reality is even if you don't have guns at some point in their life your child is going to be exposed to them and you want them to have all the knowledge they need to be around them safely.
I was taught to handle guns from about age 9 by a ex-paratrooper sharpshooter that killed many people in WWII. I would stack that training against anything the NRA education program offers.
DeleteAmong the many lessons was the constant demand to be in control of my weapon. My rifle was snatched from my hands over and over again and the butt swung toward my head to teach me that a firearm does not protect you if you don't HAVE it.
Now I am sure the NRA programs make a good start at gun safety. But the programs ASSUME that the student wants to be in the class and wants to learn.
Obviously a required course in a public school would have students that aren't necessarily what the NRA expects. And while they are learning to detect psychologically unfit students, hey, we might only loose a few kids to stray bullets. From the NRA's point of view that is life in the good ole USofA.
I can handle a gun. I can teach people to handle a gun. And, I sure as heck can detect people that I would NEVER let teach a child about guns. Anyone that proposed to enter my child's classroom with a gun would have to pass my very stringent examination. Then every single child in the room would have to pass my very stringent examination. After I ejected the obvious idiots, I would hang around to monitor for the more subtle idiots.
And any whining "gee, they oughta be able to handle a gun because I like my penis extender with me at Burger King" can just go blithering off to some other school.
@12:36 "....Never handle a gun when under the influence."
DeleteGood heavens, it sounds like your NRA gun safety program was woefully inadequate. Gun safety must cover handling an automatic weapon blasting through your school's doors and roaming the corridors picking off stray students. Gun safety must cover the domestic dispute that erupts in gunfire next to you while you are ordering your pizza with the family. Gun safety is dodging the cross fire between the cops and a "responsible gun owner" that somehow got less so. Gun safety is talking down your teenager with the Glock. Gun safety is shielding children with your body during a school shooting. Gun safety is, above all, deciding whether the guy with gun is a "good guy with a gun" or not.
Hyperbole and nonsense aside, it was a hunter safety course, not an urban self defense course. Automatic weapons are so rare in the US that I don't know of any civilian course that teaches defensive countermeasures. No one is talking about teaching kids defensive shooting. Those classes are expensive and require large outdoor ranges. I'm talking about a real course that taught real skills to real middle school kids. It was a required prerequisite to shoot on the rifle team. These are skills that I still use today (I was sitting outside at a friend's cabin a few weeks ago and asked him to please turn the muzzle of pistol away from my chair) You are talking about some fearful gun fantasy and the course that would be used to address those situations. Those courses do exist just no one would put a young kid through it.
Delete@3:22 "It was a hunter safety course"
DeleteAh, I see. You took a course you liked and you got to be on the rifle team. Which has exactly zip to do with the NRA proposing that every kid in the US should have to pass a gun course in order to move up a grade in school.
I live close enough to the Open Carry lunatics to know there is no fantasy in understanding that people with mental problems have ready access to some pretty hefty firepower. Young kids are just as likely as I am to encounter a "good guy with a gun" that somehow isn't quite as good anymore.
Hope your friend with the drifting muzzle knows enough to have someone take his gun when he gets Alzheimer's, has a bad reaction to a medication, or goes senile. And, of course, you've done the same planning. You understand that your capacity to safely handle a weapon may be diminished at some point. Because they taught you that in the "safety" section of your course.
There are a lot of people here saying training kids to use guns is a good idea but are probably the same people who don't think there should be mandatory training/licensing for adults who currently own or want to own guns.
DeleteI don't have a problem with people owning guns (although I have no desire or need for one) but I want those who own them to be responsible and know how to use and store them properly. They should also have insurance to cover them if their irresponsibility causes an injury or death to some innocent person. And of course background checks for mental illness, etc.
This isn't about "training", it's about getting guns into as many hands as possible so the gun nuts can make their money. It won't matter to them if a few kids die as long as everyone owns a gun.
The NRA would pay to have each child tested for psychological problems, so that only "responsible", "good guy with a gun" children actually get to touch a gun, right?
ReplyDeleteGot a B on your spelling test, kid? Here, go exercise your 2nd amendment right to stand your ground.
Well, this is one fucked individual.
ReplyDeleteSadly, that is not an individual. That is the face and voice of one of the most powerful political lobby groups in the United States.
DeleteIt is, I grant you, one fucked lobby group.
Since Obama is a 'gun-grabbing tyrant who wants to eliminate the Second Amendment to further the New World Order’s plans for world domination', it is obvious that more people are in jail because of their love of guns…right?
ReplyDeletehttp://aattp.org/gun-grabbing-tyrant-obama-has-prosecuted-far-fewer-federal-gun-law-violations-than-bush/
Under Obama, the United States has seen a sharp drop in the number of cases recommended by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives that have been prosecuted by the Justice Department. The Bureau is charged with reducing gun violence across the country. However, federal prosecutors only acted on a total of 5,082 cases recommended by the agency. When compared to George W. Bush’s last year in office, this is a severe drop: the Bush administration prosecuted 6,791 cases in 2008. In fact, Bush holds the record of 8,752 prosecutions of ATF cases in 2004.
‘Responsible’ Minnesota Gun Owner Shoots Teen Girl For Asking Him Not to Ride Mower in Her Yard (Video)
ReplyDeleteA former Northwestern Minnesota Juvenile Center corrections officer is behind bars after Standing His Ground™ against…being told not to ride his lawnmower in someone else’s yard. This responsible, legal gun owner became angry with a 17-year old girl after she told him not to ride his lawnmower through her yard.
Chad Pickering of Bemidji shot the teen three times as she stood on the deck of her home Monday night, according to a criminal complaint, striking her in the right thigh, left ankle, and chest when the girl stepped out to tie up her barking dogs. She says she noticed the shadow of someone crouching in her yard, then heard gunfire and felt the freedom bullets piercing her body. She was unable to walk, but pulled herself into the house to call 911.
http://aattp.org/responsible-minnesota-gun-owner-shoots-teen-girl-for-asking-him-not-to-ride-mower-in-her-yard-video/
Well, if that teen had been forced through an NRA program in order to move up each grade in school, then she would have known better than gamble that a "responsible gun owner" would shoot her when she went out of the house. The NRA rule book has the answer, right here on page 42, "don't do that".
DeleteWOW.
ReplyDelete...just
...WOW.
The ONLY way a gun-required zone would work is if
everybody within the zone agreed on everything.
Where does such a place exist - outside of this madman's fantasy world?
He wants to give our children - require our children to have - access to guns in school.
He is obviously neither a parent nor a teacher or the folly of such an insipid idea would be slam-dunk obvious to him.
The assumption not stated in this video is that every kid in America has the maturity and mental stability to be safely within 100 yards of a gun. Many, many kids might qualify.
ReplyDeleteBut consider little Gracie who is kept awake at night by the screaming of her alcoholic parents, gets raped occasionally by her "Uncle" and rarely gets enough to eat at home. Maybe little Gracie snaps during gun class. I guess the NRA thinks that the gun instructor who is a "good guy" will take little Gracie down before little Gracie's kill count gets into the double digits. And, all the little kiddies get an unforgettable lesson in gun safety.
How does one "force" children to "learn" ANYTHING? Yeah, Ammosexuals, WONDERFUL idea! Did you come up with this on your own or are the gun manufacturers pushing it?
ReplyDeleteWhy not "Force them to Learn" driving themselves to and from work? One less errand, and more "hunting time" for the ehhhdolts? What a bunch of blathering idiots, lets force them to learn more guns means more death.
'Duck, duck, goose' will never be the same.
ReplyDelete