So, I know a lot of people. Some of them love them some big guns, some faint dead away at the sight of a plastic ray-gun. Some believe that the hallowed second amendment guarantees the right of private citizens to own air craft carriers and tactical nukes; others want to tiresomely harp on that dratted "well-regulated militia" clause.
Some of them see absolutely nothing wrong -- see it as a solution so obvious that no one could possibly disagree -- with mounting armed guards in elementary schools.
One of those folks recently said this, within my hearing: It has baffled me for years that folks must send those who are most precious to them - children and grandchildren - to locations that have been identified in advance as easy targets without proper protective details.
So, I have a question, below the squiggly thing.
As previously established, I'm an old lady. How old? you ask. I entered first grade in 1957. This was, I'll note, back in the age when parents told their kids to ask an(y random) adult for help if they (the kid) was lost or in trouble away from home.
I attended a Catholic School in my first years. With the exception of rulers and the big wooden crosses worn on their belts, the good sisters were not armed. As students, were were required to do the stupid nuclear attack drill where you tucked up under your desk and pretended that it would stand between you and a nuclear explosion; and we did fire drills. But we didn't do "crazed gunperson with high-power weaponry randomly shooting students and teachers" drills -- by which I deduce that this was not a danger that was on the school's radar.
In fact, I made it all the way through elementary (private, then public) school, junior high school, and high school without ever doing a "crazed gunperson" drill or hearing any adult express concern about our peculiar vulnerability to such dangers.
So my question is, out of true ignorance, because I have no children, or grandchildren -- when did it become the natural order, that of course crazed gunpeople are going to target schools, and the children in the schools?
And, bonus question -- when did the simple wish that I/you/us could go to the movies, the mall, school without fear of getting shot become unAmerican?