One school system is arming its teachers, and not even the most passionate anti-gun zealot could say it isn’t Okay. The town of Okay in rural Wagoner County, Oklahoma, is becoming one of the first in the state to take the aforementioned action in the wake of a new law allowing certain people to carry handguns on government school property.
And even if criminals don’t read the news, they’ll know to think twice. While schools nationwide have invited trouble with “Gun Free Zone” signs, Okay will erect four campus signs with quite a different message: “Attention: Please be aware that certain staff members at Okay Public Schools can be legally armed and may use whatever force is necessary to protect our students.” Writes the Muskogee Phoenix:
The Okay Public Schools Board of Education passed an “Armed School Employees” policy in August. On Monday, the district publicized that policy with signage in front of the school.
“The signs are more or less a deterrent,” Superintendent Charles McMahan said. “We don’t want to be a soft target.”
McMahan said his administration looks for ways to keep students safe and secure, particularly since the Okay Police Department was disbanded in December 2014. Although Wagoner County sheriff’s deputies are available, McMahan said it is “seconds, not minutes, that matter.”
Student Richard Antosh and several of his peers supported the policy, trusting their teachers should a threat arise.
McMahan strengthened his case while speaking with Tulsa World, which reported, “‘[Okay’s] sign might be enough to send somebody down the road looking for some other soft target. If that’s what it does, it’s helping our school district out.… Having a sign in your front yard saying ‘this is a gun-free zone’ just tells the idiots, ‘Come on in, because we can’t defend ourselves,’ Superintendent Charles McMahan said Wednesday in a telephone interview.”
And even anti-Second Amendment advocates agree. As this writer reported last year:
For evidence, consider a largely forgotten video [shown below] made in 2013 by Project Veritas (PJ) after The Journal News in Westchester, N.Y., printed the names and addresses of registered handgun owners in its coverage area. Posing as “Citizens Against Senseless Violence,” PJ operatives visited the homes of Eric Holder and various liberal journalists to ask them if they’d “support the cause” and post on their lawns a sign stating “THIS HOME IS PROUDLY GUN FREE.”
Not one accepted.
At the home of The Journal News’ Greg Shillinglaw they were told, “In this neighborhood that nobody puts out stuff like that” (except maybe at the schools?). The person at the Shillinglaw home concluded with, “I do believe in it, but I think I’ll pass on it.”
Translation: he believes in it for others.
Next was the Journal’s Mike Meaney. A woman answered the door and tersely said “I’m sorry, I can’t help, but good luck…. I have other reasons [for refusal] I can’t get into right now.”
…The next one, the Star Ledger’s Bob Braun, offered tremendous support. Without missing a beat he said, “I agree with you and I am on your side on this, but I’m just wondering if that’s not an invitation to somebody with a gun!” as he emitted a chuckle. His wife chimed in, “I agree with you, but I’m not sure about the sign.” Braun then said moments later, “The problem in this town is, you know, somebody driving around here might think it’s a — seriously — might think it’s an invitation to come barging in.” But Braun did offer this consolation: “Well, if the sign said “Citizens Against Senseless Violence” without “THIS HOME IS PROUDLY GUN FREE,” I would put the sign up.”
Because a Gun-free-zone is a bad idea.
Except at schools.
Question: What kind of people advocate for America’s children a policy so bad that they won’t apply it to themselves?
One of these people, no doubt, is New York University Professor of Psychology Ken Corbett, who in 2013 penned a Slate article entitled “Three Reasons Why Guns in Schools Are a Bad Idea for Kids.” After introducing number one, “Kids get their hands on most everything,” and right before citing a silly study, Corbett believed he was strengthening his point by writing “My father kept his unloaded shotgun in the right corner at the back of his clothes closet. The ammunition was in an orange box on a shelf in the same closet.” In other words, even a child destined to grow into a head-shrinker was able to figure out where the big, bad, dangerous weapon was. But the obvious question is, how was Corbett still around to write his enlightening material? And he wasn’t alone in being a child of gun owners who didn’t kill himself or, presumably, anyone else; countless millions of American children have been or are being raised with guns in their homes. Only a minuscule percentage ever hurt themselves or another with them.
Corbett’s second reason is “Kids will be afraid,” which he explains thus: “And they should be. When violent force is upheld as safety, fear and silence creep in.” Perhaps, then, we should disarm the police and military to reduce fearfulness. Maybe, as in this Finnish anti-rape video (shown below), we can just use a Jedi mind trick and hold up our hand yelling “Stop!” and the miscreants will flee, completely cowed. If only Neville Chamberlain had known of this technique.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ4EQFcFQQo
Again, millions of American children are raised around guns; it has been not the exception but the historical norm, and they weren’t shaking in their boots. In fact, economist Dr. Walter Williams just wrote a bit about this very topic on Wednesday:
Youth involvement with guns has a long history. The 1911 second edition of the Boy Scout Handbook made qualification in NRA’s junior marksmanship program a prerequisite for obtaining a BSA merit badge in marksmanship. In 1918, the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. established its own Winchester Junior Rifle Corps. The program grew to 135,000 members by 1925. In New York City, high school gun clubs were started at Boys, Curtis, Commercial, Manual Training and Stuyvesant high schools.
Going back further in history, we know that even Jesus’ apostles carried swords. And WWJD? He allowed it.
In his article, Dr. Williams cited an e-mail letter stating, “Back in the 1950s and even later, many high schools had shooting ranges. Students even brought their own rifles to school” (in the case of NYC, via the subways); the letter then asks, “What changed in society that we could trust such activities then, but not now?”
Here’s a hint: The guns haven’t really changed. But the entertainment, media, psychological counseling, and college professors certainly have.
