Posted: 11/22/2006 4:20:22 PM EDT
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Scenario: Jack pulls into school parking lot with rifle in gun rack. 1973 - Vice Principal comes over, takes a look at Jack's rifle, goes to his car and gets his to show Jack. 2006 - School goes into lockdown, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers. Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school. 1973 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best friends. Nobody goes to jail, nobody arrested, nobody expelled. 2006 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it. Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students. 1973 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by Principal. He Sits still in class. 2006 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability. Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his father's car and his Dad gives him a whipping. 1973 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman. 2006 - Billy's Dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. Billy's sister is told by state psychologist that she remembers being abused herself and their Dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist. Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some headache medicine to school. 1973 - Mark shares headache medicine with Principal out on the smoking dock. 2006 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons. Scenario: Mary turns up pregnant. 1973 - 5 High School Boys leave town. Mary does her senior year at a special school for expectant mothers. 2006 - Middle School Counselor calls Planned Parenthood, who notifies the ACLU. Mary is driven to the next state over and gets an abortion without her parent's consent or knowledge. Mary given condoms and told to be more careful next time. Scenario: Pedro fails high school English. 1973: Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college. 2006: Pedro's cause is taken up by state democratic party. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he can't speak English. Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed. 1973 - Ants die. 2006 - BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again. Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary... Mary, hugs him to comfort him.. 1973 - In a short time Johnny feels better and goes on playing. 2006 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator, and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. I wasn't alive in 1973, but hearing from my family/friends who were... times have changed, and not so much for the good. |
not even that long ago. in 1987 several of us had long guns and hand guns in our lockers and would walk to the public shooting area (not sure it was a range, to formal a word, just where the town went to shoot) during lunch. of coure I grew up in Nome, Alaska. but still... |
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Well put... In 1978 I used to take a shotgun to school there was never a question… went dove hunting after school with one of the teachers. |
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Sadly you are correct. Some of us (damn few it seems) understand it and plan accordingly with our eyes open. The other 90-95% just stumble forward like zombies, saying "Well, it could be worse" or "It's always been like this, hasn't it?" or "Nah, never happen".  I can't see it self-correcting without a MAJOR world crisis along the lines of WWII or a WMD attack on American soil with casualties in the hundreds of thousands. Even then it's not the same world it was 50 years ago, people are conditioned to beg for the government to "fix it" are willing... EAGER to hand over their rights, their freedoms for perceived "safety". 
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Everyone still had gun racks and rifles in their trucks when I went to high school about 15 years ago. When I was a senior it became a new policy that all firearms had to be "out of sight", the county deputy that stayed out at the school just told us to lay them on the seat with something over them or tuck them behind the seat of the truck. We all went hunting straight from school so they weren't that strict about it. I was hunting by myself in a treestand at nine years old with a Winchester 30-30, killed two deer that year. Probably illegal now, might have been at that time, probably get charged with child endangerment or something  I still doubt anyone would say anything here if someone showed up with a gun in the rack in their truck to pick their kid up at school, I think there is even an exemption in the Florida law that allows one to have a firearm in their vehicle if they are simply picking up their kids. I saw more fights in high school than I can count and I never remember arrests being made, things got broken up by the teachers and maybe the SRO if he was around. Nobody ever got arrested or tased and let the "courts sort it out", things were dealt with on a lower level I guess. Just the times we live in, it damn sure ain't gonna get better, I'll bet you money on that one. |
Me too. The America I grew up in is gone. 30 years from now? I don't think I'll live that long, and that may be a good thing. |
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I went to grade school in the mid 90's in inner city Chicago. A kid brought a toy gun to school, he got it taken away(this was maybe 94 or 95, maybe 96.) In 2005 there was a news story about a kindergartener getting suspended over bringing a water pistol to his school in the suburbs. Same year a kid was suspended for rolling up a paper into a tube, walking up to a classmate in art class, and saying "bang bang". |