Monday, January 28, 2008

My Letter to Sen. Aboud

As an educator I was absolutely appalled by your statement that you might be able to support Russell Pearce-Karen Johnson proposed bill that would allow teachers to carry guns in schools.

The actual cases where a gun in the hands of a teacher could have possibly prevented violence are few. Incidents at Columbine, Va Tech, UofA College of Nursing could possibly been mitigated by a teacher had they been armed. But only if the armed person had actually been close by and been able to get off a good, clean shot.

There is far more danger, however, in having teachers in a school carrying a firearm. Just last week at Rincon/University High School (where you used to teach) there was an incident that could have been deadly. Image that the assistant principal was one of those teachers that was carrying a firearm. She was knocked out when she fell and hit her head. Had she been armed, that would have left a gun within easy reach of some of the students who were fighting. What had been a fight between several girls could have quickly turned into a tragedy.

Imagine an over-worked, stressed out teacher with a gun. On a regular basis teachers that are otherwise caring educators 'go off' on a student or students. Teachers are human, and a confrontational situation could easily escalate into a deadly situation.

I have 3 kids in school here in Tucson (oldest is a junior at Rincon) and I sure as hell do not want them attending a school where the teachers might be armed.

Please re-think your support of this proposal.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Aboud owes an explaination.....

Russell Pearce is well known for sponsoring or supporting asinine legislation, so his latest legislative proposal should not come as to much of a shock. What is shocking is that there is a legislator from Southern Arizona that says she could possibly support it.

According to the Arizona Daily Star, the proposed piece of legislation from Rep. Pearce and Senator Karen Johnson would allow teachers, and some students to carry guns on campus. This is completely insane on so many levels. This, however is not the worst of it.



Paula Aboud, State Senator from LD28 seems to agree with Pearce:

But Sen. Paula Aboud, D-Tucson, said she might be able to support such a plan — but only if carrying guns were limited to teachers.

"I can see where she's coming from in light of the tragedies that we've had on the campuses," Aboud said, referring to incidents at Virginia Tech and Columbine High School.

But she said parents rightly would be concerned for their children if other students were carrying guns. Armed teachers present a different situation, Aboud said.

"I think teachers, depending on where they are teaching, experience a tremendous sense of fear," she said. "I think there's a potential for violence almost anywhere."

So Paula, a former educator, thinks that arming teachers would be a good thing. Many site incidents like the Virginia Tech shootings as a good reason to arm teachers. I don't buy it, but don't have the time to go into the problems with this part of their argument for arming teachers. Instead, I am going to use a recent local incident to show how deadly having teachers carrying guns on campus could be.

This past Wednesday there was a fight at Rincon/University High School. The fight started out small, but grew to involve 8 girls. Responding to the incident, one of the Assistant Principals went to break up the fight. She was either shoved, bumped or hit, which caused her to fall and hit her head. She was knocked out. Now imagine if she had been carrying a gun. One of the students could have easily grabbed that gun, quickly turning an simple fight into a tragedy.

I think that Senator Aboud owes us an explanation of why she would even think of backing this stupid and dangerous piece of legislation.

This explanation needs to be a good one, or I will work to get someone to oppose her in the primary.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Good Christian?

These days many politicians, especially Republicans, try and promote themselves as good Christians. Nothing wrong with that. But far too often this is just a facade, and like all things built on poor foundations, the facade comes crumbling down. A state legislator in Colorado is the latest to show his true colors.

A photographer for the Rocky Mountain News took a picture of this lawmaker praying during the opening prayer prior to being sworn in. The legislator, Douglas Bruce, then kicked the photographer, Bible in hand the entire time.

AP Story: Colorado Lawmaker Kicks Photographer

He must be stuck in the Old Testament, with all of that smiting of enemies!......