(no subject)
These are some of the things that I get in a bi-weekly e-newsletter from the Virginia Citizens' Defence League. Just thought they'd be worth posting, and seeing how people react.
Brady Campaign: Fund-raiser for charity be damned! These people
want to SHOOT at helpless clay plates!
What nice and compassionate group the Brady bunch are:
http://tinyurl.com/gqg5w
DC Million Mom March Chapter Calls on Redskins to Cancel Shooting
Event with NRA
Redskins to Partner with NRA for Second Year in a Row Despite Community Outcry
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The District of Columbia Million
Mom March (MMM) Chapter is calling on Washington Redskins owner Daniel
M. Snyder to cancel a shooting event with the National Rifle
Association (NRA) that has been planned for Oct. 17, 2006. The second
annual "Redskins Sporting Clays Challenge" is being held despite a
public outcry over last year's event. The stated purpose of the event
is to benefit the Redskins' Charitable Foundation.
The NRA is currently lobbying Congress to pass legislation (H.R. 1288
and S. 1082) that would repeal the city's gun laws. The bills would
legalize handguns, semiautomatic assault rifles and .50 caliber sniper
rifles; allow any person to carry, openly or concealed, loaded
handguns and other concealable firearms in houses, places of business,
or other land "possessed by that person"; and, severely weaken the
District's ban on armor- piercing handgun ammunition.
The NRA-backed legislation is vigorously opposed by virtually every
elected official in the District, Democrat and Republican alike. Mayor
Anthony Williams, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Charles H.
Ramsey, and DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton have all spoken out
repeatedly against repealing DC's gun laws. "More handguns would mean
more gun crimes, more gun violence and more homicides, as well as more
accidental shootings and suicides," Ramsey said in testimony before
Congress in June of 2005. "More guns will also mean a greater threat
to our police officers."
Last year, DC youth groups including Peaceoholics and Facilitating
Leadership in Youth delivered a petition directly to Snyder at
Redskins Park opposing the event. They then stood in the rain to
protest when the Sporting Clays Challenge was conducted at the Prince
George's County Trap and Skeet Center. One of the protestors, James
Ford, explained his reasons for being there that day: "We are losing
our black youth at a rapid rate in the city. If our team is willing to
support something that would kill the next generation of fans, then I
need to protest."
"It's sad to see the Redskins holding this event again when DC youth
so emphatically spoke out against it last year," said DC MMM President
Ladd Everitt. "We have already lost 15 of our young people to gun
violence in the District this year and- despite their assertions to
the contrary-the Redskins can do no good for DC youth by partnering
with an organization that wants to flood our community with more guns,
including assault weapons."
MMM DC is urging residents of the District, and concerned citizens in
the greater Washington area, to call the Redskins' front office at
703-726-7000 to encourage them to cancel the Oct. 17 event with the
NRA immediately.
Oh heavens! They're starting out with clay pigeons! They'll soon be on to dogs, cats, and fetuses later!
Nothing wrong with teaching children to fight back to save their
lives. But to leave teachers disarmed, unable to use the most
powerful life-saving tool - a handgun, to defend those innocent
children is absurd! Little kids throwing books and pencils, hitting
and kicking the criminal is no substitute for a Corbon 40 S&W 140
grain bullet travelling at 1,300 feet per second fired from the
defensive handgun for a responsible adult.
http://tinyurl.com/ydj4rw
CNN.com
Teaching kids to fight back against classroom invaders.
BURLESON, Texas (AP) -- Youngsters in a suburban Fort Worth, Texas,
school district are being taught not to sit there like good boys and
girls with their hands folded if a gunman invades the classroom, but
to rush him and hit him with everything they've got -- books,
pencils, legs and arms.
"Getting under desks and praying for rescue from professionals is not
a recipe for success," said Robin Browne, a major in the British Army
reserve and an instructor for Response Options, the company providing
the training to the Burleson schools.
That kind of fight-back advice is all but unheard of among schools,
and some fear it will get children killed.
But school officials in Burleson said they are drawing on the lessons
learned from a string of disasters such as Columbine in 1999 and the
Amish schoolhouse attack in Pennsylvania last week.
The school system in this working-class suburb of about 26,000 is
believed to be the first in the nation to train all its teachers and
students to fight back, Browne said.
At Burleson -- which has 10 schools and about 8,500 students -- the
training covers various emergencies, such as tornadoes, fires and
situations where first aid is required. Among the lessons: Use a belt
as a sling for broken bones, and shoelaces make good tourniquets.
Students are also instructed not to comply with a gunman's orders,
and to take him down.
Browne recommends students and teachers "react immediately to the
sight of a gun by picking up anything and everything and throwing it
at the head and body of the attacker and making as much noise as
possible. Go toward him as fast as we can and bring them down."
Response Options trains students and teachers to "lock onto the
attacker's limbs and use their body weight," Browne said. Everyday
classroom objects, such as paperbacks and pencils, can become weapons.
"We show them they can win," he said. "The fact that someone walks
into a classroom with a gun does not make them a god. Five or six
seventh-grade kids and a 95-pound art teacher can basically
challenge, bring down and immobilize a 200-pound man with a gun."
Change in mindset
The fight-back training parallels the change in thinking that has
occurred since September 11, 2001, when United Flight 93 made it
clear that the usual advice during a hijacking -- Don't try to be a
hero, and no one will get hurt -- no longer holds. Flight attendants
and passengers are now encouraged to rush the cockpit.
Similarly, women and youngsters are often told by safety experts to
kick, scream and claw their way out during a rape attempt or a
child-snatching.
In 1998 in Oregon, a 17-year-old high school wrestling star with a
bullet in his chest stopped a rampage by tackling a teenager who had
opened fire in the cafeteria. The gunman killed two students, as well
as his parents, and 22 others were wounded.
Hilda Quiroz of the National School Safety Center, a nonprofit
advocacy group in California, said she knows of no other school
system in the country that is offering fight-back training, and found
the strategy at Burleson troubling.
"If kids are saved, then this is the most wonderful thing in the
world. If kids are killed, people are going to wonder who's to
blame," she said. "How much common sense will a student have in a
time of panic?"
Terry Grisham, spokesman for the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department,
said he, too, had concerns, though he had not seen details of the
program.
"You're telling kids to do what a tactical officer is trained to do,
and they have a lot of guns and ballistic shields," he said. "If my
school was teaching that, I'd be upset, frankly."
Some students said they appreciate the training.
"It's harder to hit a moving target than a target that is standing
still," said 14-year-old Jessica Justice, who received the training
over the summer during freshman orientation at Burleson High.
A better option?
William Lassiter, manager of the North Carolina-based Center for
Prevention of School Violence, said past attacks indicate that
fighting back, at least by teachers and staff, has its merits.
"At Columbine, teachers told students to get down and get on the
floors, and gunmen went around and shot people on the floors,"
Lassiter said. "I know this sounds chaotic and I know it doesn't
sound like a great solution, but it's better than leaving them there
to get shot."
Lassiter questioned, however, whether students should be included in
the fight-back training: "That's going to scare the you-know-what out
of them."
Most of the freshman class at Burleson's high school underwent
instruction during orientation, and eventually all Burleson students
will receive some training, even the elementary school children.
"We want them to know if Miss Valley says to run out of the room
screaming, that is exactly what they need to do," said Jeanie
Gilbert, district director of emergency management. She said students
and teachers should have "a fighting chance in every situation."
"It's terribly sad that when I get up in the morning that I have to
wonder what may happen today either in our area or in the nation,"
Gilbert said. "Something that happens in Pennsylvania has that ripple
effect across the country."
Burleson High Principal Paul Cash said he has received no complaints
from parents about the training. Stacy Vaughn, the president of the
Parent-Teacher Organization at Norwood Elementary in Burleson,
supports the program.
"I feel like our kids should be armed with the information that these
types of possibilities exist," Vaughn said.
I nevr thought I'd say it, but maybe Texas is onto something here. What's the next step?
I won't go into the "guns on school grounds issue" here, but I do (naturally) have my own opinions on that score. Maybe I'll post them next time. For now I'll leave you with these little morsels to chew on.
Brady Campaign: Fund-raiser for charity be damned! These people
want to SHOOT at helpless clay plates!
What nice and compassionate group the Brady bunch are:
http://tinyurl.com/gqg5w
DC Million Mom March Chapter Calls on Redskins to Cancel Shooting
Event with NRA
Redskins to Partner with NRA for Second Year in a Row Despite Community Outcry
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The District of Columbia Million
Mom March (MMM) Chapter is calling on Washington Redskins owner Daniel
M. Snyder to cancel a shooting event with the National Rifle
Association (NRA) that has been planned for Oct. 17, 2006. The second
annual "Redskins Sporting Clays Challenge" is being held despite a
public outcry over last year's event. The stated purpose of the event
is to benefit the Redskins' Charitable Foundation.
The NRA is currently lobbying Congress to pass legislation (H.R. 1288
and S. 1082) that would repeal the city's gun laws. The bills would
legalize handguns, semiautomatic assault rifles and .50 caliber sniper
rifles; allow any person to carry, openly or concealed, loaded
handguns and other concealable firearms in houses, places of business,
or other land "possessed by that person"; and, severely weaken the
District's ban on armor- piercing handgun ammunition.
The NRA-backed legislation is vigorously opposed by virtually every
elected official in the District, Democrat and Republican alike. Mayor
Anthony Williams, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Charles H.
Ramsey, and DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton have all spoken out
repeatedly against repealing DC's gun laws. "More handguns would mean
more gun crimes, more gun violence and more homicides, as well as more
accidental shootings and suicides," Ramsey said in testimony before
Congress in June of 2005. "More guns will also mean a greater threat
to our police officers."
Last year, DC youth groups including Peaceoholics and Facilitating
Leadership in Youth delivered a petition directly to Snyder at
Redskins Park opposing the event. They then stood in the rain to
protest when the Sporting Clays Challenge was conducted at the Prince
George's County Trap and Skeet Center. One of the protestors, James
Ford, explained his reasons for being there that day: "We are losing
our black youth at a rapid rate in the city. If our team is willing to
support something that would kill the next generation of fans, then I
need to protest."
"It's sad to see the Redskins holding this event again when DC youth
so emphatically spoke out against it last year," said DC MMM President
Ladd Everitt. "We have already lost 15 of our young people to gun
violence in the District this year and- despite their assertions to
the contrary-the Redskins can do no good for DC youth by partnering
with an organization that wants to flood our community with more guns,
including assault weapons."
MMM DC is urging residents of the District, and concerned citizens in
the greater Washington area, to call the Redskins' front office at
703-726-7000 to encourage them to cancel the Oct. 17 event with the
NRA immediately.
Oh heavens! They're starting out with clay pigeons! They'll soon be on to dogs, cats, and fetuses later!
Nothing wrong with teaching children to fight back to save their
lives. But to leave teachers disarmed, unable to use the most
powerful life-saving tool - a handgun, to defend those innocent
children is absurd! Little kids throwing books and pencils, hitting
and kicking the criminal is no substitute for a Corbon 40 S&W 140
grain bullet travelling at 1,300 feet per second fired from the
defensive handgun for a responsible adult.
http://tinyurl.com/ydj4rw
CNN.com
Teaching kids to fight back against classroom invaders.
BURLESON, Texas (AP) -- Youngsters in a suburban Fort Worth, Texas,
school district are being taught not to sit there like good boys and
girls with their hands folded if a gunman invades the classroom, but
to rush him and hit him with everything they've got -- books,
pencils, legs and arms.
"Getting under desks and praying for rescue from professionals is not
a recipe for success," said Robin Browne, a major in the British Army
reserve and an instructor for Response Options, the company providing
the training to the Burleson schools.
That kind of fight-back advice is all but unheard of among schools,
and some fear it will get children killed.
But school officials in Burleson said they are drawing on the lessons
learned from a string of disasters such as Columbine in 1999 and the
Amish schoolhouse attack in Pennsylvania last week.
The school system in this working-class suburb of about 26,000 is
believed to be the first in the nation to train all its teachers and
students to fight back, Browne said.
At Burleson -- which has 10 schools and about 8,500 students -- the
training covers various emergencies, such as tornadoes, fires and
situations where first aid is required. Among the lessons: Use a belt
as a sling for broken bones, and shoelaces make good tourniquets.
Students are also instructed not to comply with a gunman's orders,
and to take him down.
Browne recommends students and teachers "react immediately to the
sight of a gun by picking up anything and everything and throwing it
at the head and body of the attacker and making as much noise as
possible. Go toward him as fast as we can and bring them down."
Response Options trains students and teachers to "lock onto the
attacker's limbs and use their body weight," Browne said. Everyday
classroom objects, such as paperbacks and pencils, can become weapons.
"We show them they can win," he said. "The fact that someone walks
into a classroom with a gun does not make them a god. Five or six
seventh-grade kids and a 95-pound art teacher can basically
challenge, bring down and immobilize a 200-pound man with a gun."
Change in mindset
The fight-back training parallels the change in thinking that has
occurred since September 11, 2001, when United Flight 93 made it
clear that the usual advice during a hijacking -- Don't try to be a
hero, and no one will get hurt -- no longer holds. Flight attendants
and passengers are now encouraged to rush the cockpit.
Similarly, women and youngsters are often told by safety experts to
kick, scream and claw their way out during a rape attempt or a
child-snatching.
In 1998 in Oregon, a 17-year-old high school wrestling star with a
bullet in his chest stopped a rampage by tackling a teenager who had
opened fire in the cafeteria. The gunman killed two students, as well
as his parents, and 22 others were wounded.
Hilda Quiroz of the National School Safety Center, a nonprofit
advocacy group in California, said she knows of no other school
system in the country that is offering fight-back training, and found
the strategy at Burleson troubling.
"If kids are saved, then this is the most wonderful thing in the
world. If kids are killed, people are going to wonder who's to
blame," she said. "How much common sense will a student have in a
time of panic?"
Terry Grisham, spokesman for the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department,
said he, too, had concerns, though he had not seen details of the
program.
"You're telling kids to do what a tactical officer is trained to do,
and they have a lot of guns and ballistic shields," he said. "If my
school was teaching that, I'd be upset, frankly."
Some students said they appreciate the training.
"It's harder to hit a moving target than a target that is standing
still," said 14-year-old Jessica Justice, who received the training
over the summer during freshman orientation at Burleson High.
A better option?
William Lassiter, manager of the North Carolina-based Center for
Prevention of School Violence, said past attacks indicate that
fighting back, at least by teachers and staff, has its merits.
"At Columbine, teachers told students to get down and get on the
floors, and gunmen went around and shot people on the floors,"
Lassiter said. "I know this sounds chaotic and I know it doesn't
sound like a great solution, but it's better than leaving them there
to get shot."
Lassiter questioned, however, whether students should be included in
the fight-back training: "That's going to scare the you-know-what out
of them."
Most of the freshman class at Burleson's high school underwent
instruction during orientation, and eventually all Burleson students
will receive some training, even the elementary school children.
"We want them to know if Miss Valley says to run out of the room
screaming, that is exactly what they need to do," said Jeanie
Gilbert, district director of emergency management. She said students
and teachers should have "a fighting chance in every situation."
"It's terribly sad that when I get up in the morning that I have to
wonder what may happen today either in our area or in the nation,"
Gilbert said. "Something that happens in Pennsylvania has that ripple
effect across the country."
Burleson High Principal Paul Cash said he has received no complaints
from parents about the training. Stacy Vaughn, the president of the
Parent-Teacher Organization at Norwood Elementary in Burleson,
supports the program.
"I feel like our kids should be armed with the information that these
types of possibilities exist," Vaughn said.
I nevr thought I'd say it, but maybe Texas is onto something here. What's the next step?
I won't go into the "guns on school grounds issue" here, but I do (naturally) have my own opinions on that score. Maybe I'll post them next time. For now I'll leave you with these little morsels to chew on.