Response to a Local Editorial / Guards in Schools

[Pizza Bob 1,488]

There is a series of small community specific newspapers published by a company called Mercerspace. The current issue of the Ewing Observer (there's a biggie) carried an editorial column titled "Jaunty Angle" and the subject of the editorial is "Gun Lobbyists' Arguments Backfire", where he endeavors to prove that the NRA's suggestion of armed personnel in our schools is ridiculous, on its face. He plays on the ridiculous / ridicule angle.

 

I really wanted to provide a link to the column, but apparently Mercerspace does not think enough of the author, one Diccon Hyatt, to even include it on their site, so you will have to figure out the gist of it based on the context of my response...

 

 

Ah, yes – ridicule, I know what that is. That’s what hoplophobes resort to when they have no valid argument against a conclusion arrived at via logic. As opposed to their usual modus operandi of a knee-jerk reaction based on emotion, hyperbole and zero evidence backing their position.

 

The NRA made sound recommendations that could be incorporated now – not at some distant future point after a committee has hashed through various feel-good, do-nothing pipe dreams of those that seem to think nothing of breaking their oath to defend and uphold the Constitution. The most salient point made by Mr. LaPierre was that we have no problem using armed personnel in defense of our money, our sports complexes, our government institutions, our politicians, but when it comes to this country’s most precious assets – our children – we choose to not only leave them defenseless, but advertise that fact to the world at large by boasting of our “Gun-Free School Zones”. The only people that obey that stricture are the law-abiding. Criminals, by definition, do not obey the law.

 

You seem to attempt to make political capital by using Columbine, Virginia Tech and Fort Hood as failed examples of the presence of armed guards. The paradigm for dealing with an “active shooter” has changed since Columbine & Virginia Tech. Even with the presence of armed guards, the operational paradigm of the day was to wait for back-up and go into the scene en masse. That allowed the actor too much time. Current strategy calls for immediate entry into the scene, even if only a single officer is present. It has been shown that an active shooter, once confronted by an armed presence, will either surrender, or turn the gun on themself. As for Fort Hood, again you show your ignorance of the facts (don’t ever confuse a hoplophobe with facts). A military base is as much of a “gun free” zone as our schools. The only armed personnel on a military base are the military police – just as in a civilian population. Personal and issue weapons are under strict lock and key.

 

Response time is the key to dealing with an active shooter. I have heard several variations on what the response time was at Sandy Hook – from five minutes to twenty minutes. Even at the minimum, the damage was already done by the time the police arrived at the scene – not the fault of the police, they cannot be everywhere. An armed presence already on site may have made a large difference in the number of casualties. Five minutes is an eternity – and allow me to pre-empt you, the type of firearm used, or the capacity of the magazines would have made little difference. The same mayhem could have been visited upon the innocents with a revolver in that amount of time.

 

If the presence of armed personnel within our schools, whether they be police, retired police or military or faculty and administration, is such anathema to you, please tell me why the very politicians who rail against this idea and the idea of an armed citizenry, send their children to private schools that employ on-site armed guards?

 

It is truly a shame that the hoplophobic media and politicians have so vilified inanimate objects, and spread so much disinformation, that when a rational, logical conclusion employing those objects in a beneficial role – that of protecting what is dearest to us - is presented, it is ridiculed. You are part of the problem, not the solution.

 

Hardly worth responding to, but the author was just a little too smug.

 

Adios,

 

Pizza Bob

[notmetoo 41]

You write well, Bob. I read that diatribe earlier today and have been considering a response and if it'd be worth the trouble... It is, I believe, worth combating this defective thinking wherever we see it. Otherwise we're giving in.

[TheWombat 67]

Well done!

 

TheWombat

[junkmanted 54]

very good

[voyager9 3,434]

Nice...

And for those like me that had to dig out wiki:

Hoplophobia is a pejorative[1]neologism originally coined to describe an "irrational aversion to weapons, as opposed to justified apprehension about those who may wield them."[2] It is sometimes used more generally to describe the "fear of weapons"[3][4] or the "highly salient danger of these weapons " [5] or the "fear of armed citizens".[6]

[greatgunstatenj 32]

Nice...

And for those like me that had to dig out wiki:

 

Yeah, I was about to +1 Pizza Bob on his knowledge of phobias!

[JimmyAGR 54]

Bob that was a sweet letter.

[NicePants 58]

Damn fine letter. I wonder if he actually read it or just took a glance at the first sentence and tossed it aside.

[Parker 213]

Nicely done.

[Sandy 44]

Bob , that was fantastic.

[mmjr 0]

Perfect response!

[Skyline 0]

Wow, very nice. Impressive! I hope they publish your response!

[bry@n 195]

Awesome Bob.

[blksheep 466]

Fantastic!

[hd2000fxdl 422]

Nice Bob as usual.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Kingsoverqueens 10]

Nicely done, again.

 

Bob wrote a great response last year in response to the Movie Theater shooting. Like this one, that too was spot on.

[Pizza Bob 1,488]

Thanks everyone. I was contacted by the author of the editorial who said that while he disagrees with my position, wanted to know if I wanted it published as a letter to the editor. I responded that, given his lack of knowledge on the subject about which he was writing, I would fully expect him to disagree - and yes, please publish it. We'll see - might get slightly more exposure.

 

Adios,

 

Pizza Bob

[hd2000fxdl 422]

Hope they do Bob, hope they do..

[BlueLineFish 615]

Very well written

[TK421 2]

I love it when you hit them with this:

 

 

And you can tell they are desperately trying to figure out a way to spin it.