Friday, February 8, 2013

What’s behind the punishment for fake guns in schools?

- Jon Rappoport
fake-gun

In the latest episode of Ban Fake Guns, we have a boy suspended from school in Florence, Arizona, for carrying, yes, a picture of a gun on his computer. Screen saver. This is surely a sign of complete mental breakdown by school officials. And yet one more reason to home school.

Steve Watson, writing at infowars, runs down the recent litany of fake gun crimes at schools across America, resulting in student suspensions, suspension hearings, and actual school lockdowns:

Transparent toy gun. South Carolina.

Gun built from Lego bricks. Massachusetts.

Two kids talking about a Nerf gun. New York.

An actual Nerf gun. New York.

A pink bubble gun. Pennsylvania.

A paper gun. Pennsylvania.

Pointing a finger and saying “pow.” Maryland.

Playing cops and robbers with fingers. Maryland.

Making a gun “hand gesture.” Oklahoma.

Should we assume that because cops and school officials can’t stop real crimes, they’re settling for stopping fake crimes?

Can you hear the typical response to these school suspensions and lockdowns? “Well, everybody in the community is on edge these days, after Sandy Hook.”

That remark garners a “Mmm, well, sure.”

Then, the follow-up: “It’s unfortunate that school officials and police MAY HAVE overreacted. Suspension from school is PROBABLY too much. These kids need some form of LESSER DISCIPLINE, and, of course, EDUCATION about the dangers of guns.”

And there you have it. It’s a sleight-of-hand trick. Go completely overboard with an officially certified insane action (suspension, lockdown), and people will ask for something slightly less insane instead.

"Well, shooting old Bob in the leg and blowing up his car because he was sitting on his back porch cleaning his rifle was probably a bit much. A few days in jail would have taught him the right lesson.”

In schools, the slightly less insane (but still quite insane) solution to fake guns might go something like this:

“Today, class, we’re going to learn about how dangerous it is to have a picture of a gun.”

“You see, Jimmy, when you build a gun out of lego, you think it’s all right because you don’t know any better. But some other child might be terrified when she sees the gun. And that’s why we’re here. To protect everybody from bad feelings.”

Jimmy scratches his five-year-old head and wonders what world he was born into. He’s just been introduced to “greatest good for the greatest number,” “you have no freedom,” and “least bad for the lowest number,” all in five seconds.

What we’re seeing here is a mandate to change the culture. Teach these kids that any reference to, symbol of, or thought about guns is wrong.

Welcome to operant conditioning.

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