(Most folks either remember the spiritual as a Rod Stewart/Jeff Beck tune or as Bob Marley's basis for One Love, but I originally heard it from The Chambers Brothers. It was a Curtis Mayfield tune & The Impressions recorded it the same year that The Chambers Brothers did so I'm not sure who came out with it first.)
Via The War On Guns I learned that Bush is planning a summit on school violence.
"The Bush administration plans to bring education and law enforcement experts together for a conference on coming to grips with the problem and discuss federal action that can help communities prevent violence and deal with its aftermath, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters."
Part of Bush's quotes in the above linked story were made as he visited an elementary school. I wonder if he had his Secret Service agents disarm while on school grounds so as not to de-sanctify the "gun free zone'?
"Perino said participants on the education side would include groups like the National Parent Teacher Association, school principals and teachers' unions. The Federal Bureau of Investigations would be among those representing law enforcement, she said."
The Brady Campaign has already released a statement approving of the proposed summit.
I have a feeling that the Brady Campaign & possibly a few other anti-gun groups will weasel their way into this summit while pro-gun groups won't get an invite. Probably not even the NRA will get to attend.
John Caldara of The Independence Institute has a radio show that I listen to when I can. The other night he was discussing school shootings, particularly the one in Pennsylvania. A few callers made mention of arming the teachers. After he succinctly pointed out that in Pennsylvania it wouldn't have worked as the Amish are pacifists by religion he explored the idea briefly in a general sense. He surmised that we would arm teachers in government run schools after a terrorist attack occurred. His reasoning was that random individual acts of violence would not impress upon the people a need for armed teachers but an attack by an organized group would.
I can't say I disagree with his logic. If we had a Beslan-style tragedy here then people would be easier to convince of the need for arming teachers. Until then most folks simply won't have a serious discussion about it. I don't know quite how to explain why this is. It seems to involve equating individual defense against individuals as a bad thing but arming individuals as a group against another group as a good thing, though there's more to it than that.
In the meantime though what we are likely to see is a big push for more gun control. No it won't do a damn bit of good to solve the problem at hand. Most gun control never solves the problem at hand - it only creates more problems. But that little tidbit has never really stopped anyone before now has it?
& before you say that the Republicans will stand up for gun owners let me put it to you this way; if you were up for re-election or you cared about your party would you want a campaign sign wielded by the enemy to say anything about you voting against protecting kids from guns in schools? Emotional rhetoric can be very powerful, especially in elections.
In a Chris Rock movie called Head of State Rock plays a character running for president. His opponent decides to smear him. Rock is in a bar & looks at the ad on TV. It says that Rock's character wasn't at a cancer rally/benefit then it asked why? Is Rock's character for or against cancer? Since he didn't show up at the rally there's only one conclusion - Rock's character is for cancer.
That's likely what politicians will be looking at if anything serious comes down the pike. Logically it won't hold up but emotionally it could be a devastating tactic.
It may come to nothing. There might not be enough momentum to push anything anti-gun through, or there might not be a close enough relation to make any anti-gun push appealing. But it looks like the anti-gun groups are ready to take full advantage of anything they can take advantage of.
Read The War On Guns link above to find out what the NRA response will likely be.
Right now is a very dangerous time, as politicians want to find something, anything to do to make it look like they're doing something about school violence. Well except of course arming the teachers.
Again I'm not saying the mother-to-end-all-"assault-weapons"-bans is on the calendar. It just looks like the anti-gunners have found a convenient rallying point & politicians may succumb to their whining. If nothing happens nationally then pay very close attention to what comes out of your state & local governments.
I can't tell you what to look for specifically. It may come in the form of a ban on certain arms or it may come as increased licensing or registration requirements. I'm sure there's twisted logic that could claim any &/or every type of gun control is the solution to the violence in schools. & hopefully it may not come at all.
I'm just saying to watch what's going on very carefully as now is the best opportunity our opponents have had in some while.
Posted by Publicola at October 4, 2006 04:58 AM | TrackBack