Quote:
Originally Posted by sailingdog
Unfortunately, political correctness and government nannyship has gone to ridiculous extremes.
How many of us grew up carrying a swiss army knife? I know almost all of my friends did... how many kids today do the same thing... probably none.
Are the kids really any safer with all this BS in place... Let's think about that... how many school shootings did you hear about in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s??? How many kids were massacred in school by gun-toting students... Yeah, that's right... basically NONE.
It doesn't really seem to me that restricting guns from school grounds is really doing all that much to promote a safe environment. What it is doing is creating a group of defenseless victims that are all easily located in a single spot.
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You're exactly correct, Dog.
Your post reminds me that the only people I've been around with firearms that made me nervous were those who'd never dream of owning one and were very suspicious of those who did. Simply handing my Marlin 45-70 to my curious girlfriend brought home the long ingrained sense of never pointing a firearm at something you do not intend to shoot. Her lack of familiarity resulted in a swinging barrel that had everyone present either looking for cover or hitting the deck. Humorous only in hind-sight. Those who've grown up in what used to be a more traditional regard to firearms, especially those who've hunted, have little need for any further knowledge or respect of the capabilities of a firearm. Only the unfamiliar treat them casually.
As a boy it was a great and unforgettable moment when you were deemed responsible enough to carry your own pocket knife. That a knife is essential gear for man or boy was never even debated. It was common that even those with office jobs carried a very small lightweight pocket knife for those things where only a knife will do. My first knife was the ubiquitous Swiss army knife and, to this day, it's hard to envision a better or more well-received gift to a young man. It has everything on it to disassemble something he probably shouldn't be disassembling! And it should be needless to say that a seaman without a knife on his person is really only half an effective seaman. I doubt I'm alone in noting that having knives or firearms safely stowed away makes their ownership, in many cases, irrelevant. A knife in your room is of little use to it's owner 800 feet forward of it with a heaving
line wrapped around his ankle. Some might adequately make the point about a firearm locked safely away in one's room while a nutcase is shooting one's fellow students.
Of course we live in an age where the immediate response to such ideas is to decry the notion that everyone might be walking around armed. They miss the fundamental point that were everyone armed, the chances of one individual or even multiple individuals thinking that he can just mow down a bunch of poeple goes down exponentially. The prospect of return fire cools the ardor for homicide admirably. And it's hardly necessary for all to be armed to create that important second thought in our nutcase's head.
That the safety-freaks have taken the discussion down to the level of knives is rather discouraging.