zero tolerance. they knew. he knew. suspended. ain't life grand? this is way more fun than playing diplomacy with a bunch of cheaters, at least.

"no one will do anything stupid. " - You underestimate the level of stupidity found in the typical American teenager.

" The school has had a pervasive problem with play shooting and this has been going on for weeks."

There is actually no such thing as a pervasive problem with finger-formed guns.

The only way this is a pervasive problem is if the issue is causing a distraction in the classroom. Then it could be kids sticking their tongues out at each other. It ceases to be about what the finger gun represents and becomes an issue of distracting behavior dirupting the learning environment.

If the fucking Libtards hadn't taken corporal punishment out of the schools, the little misbehaving asshole would have misbehaved once, maybe twice, and then the Principle would put a fucking paddle to his ass, and the classroom would be laughing their asses off at him when he tendered retook his seat....and neve raised his fucking "gun finger" again.

Yet another example of moronic Libtards fucking *everything* up with "good intentions" and make-everyone-a-feel-good-pussy mentality...

# of incidents of school violence provably stopped by zero tolerance policies: 0

# of second graders punished for chewing a pop-tart into the shape of a gun-- no wait it was actually just a mountain: 1

pls

You can't prove what zero tolerance has stopped. Sorry, but that statement was patently moronic.

Agree with Gunfighter about firearm instruction. Schools put so much effort on teaching children 'safety', yet leave out this crucial instruction.

@ Draugnar

"You underestimate the level of stupidity found in the typical American teenager."

You have surely disassembled and reassembled firearms during your time. Tell me how someone could possibly:

1) partially disassemble a firearm to the point of being able to access the slide/bolt (and therefore the firing pin)
2) insert the correct type of firing pin
3) reassemble the firearm
4) load a live round
5) aim and fire the aforementioned live round

... all without the other students in their group or the instructor calling attention to them and stopping them. Also, no one has spare firing pins lying around. Why sneak in a single live round and a firing pin when you could bring your own fully-loaded gun?

Sure you can, Draugnar, you do a study of the correlation between the enactment of zero-tolerance policies and episodes of school violence after checking for other factors.

"Besides, these kids would be under constant supervision the whole time, obviously."

This is where I thought something else. I thought donating a gun without a firing pin actually meant *giving* it away to the school, meaning the school presumably locks it up.somewhere.

Also, who's watching the teachers?


Presumably it's illegal to bear arms at schools in America, and there might be some control, and otherwise a kid is presumably not allowed to bear arms outside of school either, so this way he's not bearing arms until he goes crazy. I imagine bearing a firing pin is not a felony, and I don't know about a bullet, but they're all much easier to hide than a gun, and presumably people don't go 'watch out, he's got a firing pin and a bullet!' if they find it.

Same counts for teachers who can access the gun I'd say.

Also, if a terrorist comes to teach how to fire a gun, and someone doesn't notice there's a pin...

Just don't I'd say, but not my country of course.

"Sure you can, Draugnar, you do a study of the correlation between the enactment of zero-tolerance policies and episodes of school violence after checking for other factors."

Did you do that?
I thought so.

Thought our American friends might be interested in this, given the nature of this thread.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/jan/26/ukguns.schools

Apparently we do things differently here...

Yeah, we do actually have shooting ranges in Europe :)

"Did you do that?
I thought so."

The burden of proof lies with the affirmative, this is silly. I've advanced the null hypothesis.

Anybody who seriously thinks that stopping pop-tart boy might have saved lives isn't worth your time and intellect, PE.

You think I think that semck? Or are you talking about someone else?

I think that you think it's apparently worth discussing, steephie.

eh it's just a couple of webDippers being contrarians

nothing to see here, tbh

Teaching firearm safety in school would have the pacifists up in arms as bad as when they first started teaching sex ed back when I was in school.

Has there never been a tradition of teaching people to shoot in American schools, then? It has always been popular in the posh end of British schools. Far less so with state schools though.

@ Octavious

Teaching gun safety and proper firearms handling was a big thing in American schools until the 1980s anti-gun wave.

I went through public school from Fall 1970 to Spring 1984. There was never a firearms class. Gun either didn't go to school then or is generalizing based on his one experience. I seriously doubt though that it was this "big thing" bullshit he proposes.

@ Draugnar

Or you went to school in a region that didn't have gun safety in the 1970s and 1980s. No, I didn't go to school during the same time as you, and no I never had a gun safety class in public school.

I know for a fact that many/most American schools had rifle teams for much of the last century.

Gunfighter is correct about the prevalence of rifle teams, although it has little to do with any anti-gun sentiment and more to do with the sport being very expensive for cash-strapped high schools to keep up.

Gunfighter, the idea of functional guns of any kind in school is repulsive. You're free to think what you will but when you simply expect that "no one will do anything stupid," you are basically killing all hope of convincing me, because I know teenagers (not just American teenagers - ALL teenagers) - we're idiots. We will do something stupid. It's ingrained in us.

Gun - Please provide evidence of these so called rifle teams in most American schools. If you can find even 25 states that had rifle teams in the 70s, I will accede, but if not, them you are a blowhard of the highest order.

In my own quick research, New York State had, at it's height, 80 school districts with Rifle teams/clubs. New York has nearly 600 school districts. Even assuming a moderate growth in the last 40 years, that would be less than 25% of the districts. So unless virtually all of California had rifle clubs or teams in the 70s, your most or even many is a bit off base. At best it would be a "some".