Posted on 10/20/2006 6:43:30 AM PDT by ShadowDancer
Candidate: Use Textbooks As Shields From School Shooters
UPDATED: 9:39 am EDT October 20, 2006
MINCO, Okla. -- One of Oklahoma's nominees for state superintendent of education has proposed a unique idea for protecting students from outbreaks of violence.
Bill Crozier, a Union City Republican going against incumbent Democrat Sandy Garrett, said he believes old textbooks could be used to stop bullets shot from weapons wielded by school intruders.
If elected, he said he would put thick used textbooks under every desk for students to use in self-defense.
He had a videotape showing him and others shooting weapons, such as an AK-47 and a 9 mm pistol, at books in a field. They conducted the experiment to see how far bullets would penetrate the books.
"We are doing this as an experiment because at Fort Gibson, many young people were shot in the back," Crozier said in the videotape, referencing a December 1999 middle school shooting in eastern Oklahoma, in which a student wounded four students with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun.
Crozier's experiment began with shots fired at a calculus textbook from an AK-47 Russian-style assault rifle. The shot penetrated two textbooks at once.
"We need to look at protection of young people that sometimes people may think you are a little smarter than everybody else or a higher IQ or whatever. They need to look at what the end result would be," Crozier said.
However, when the shooters took aim at textbooks with handguns, the books stopped bullets. Crozier said he acknowledges his idea might seem a bit unusual, but he's sticking with it.
"This would be to protect the children in an immediate situation. This is something that any student, any classroom in the country could do immediately," he said.
Crozier acknowledged his test was not scientific. Instead, he said, he wanted to demonstrate what might happen if a student used a textbook as protection in the event of a school shooting.
"Not everybody would be saved in that situation, of course. But many of them would, and instead of running away or being lined up ... this is a way for the children to fight back," he said.
Representatives for current Superintendent Sandy Garrett said they had no comment on Crozier's ideas.
Please tell me this is from Scrappleface.
OLD:
IN CASE OF FIRE, THROW THIS IN.
NEW:
IN CASE OF SHOOTER, HOLD THIS UP!
That could be a great shield, but they are only 8x11?
I'm not sure if this guy should be allowed to push a broom.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
This is a wonderful idea. We should ask our police forces to do the same thing. I'm sure it would be a cheaper solution than those expensive bullet proof vests. Not only that but you could easily move the book to any area of the body that the bullet was going to hit.
Golly these guys are smart.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME???
What a frickin' GENUIS!
Yeah,let's leave all them old textbooks under the desk so that they MIGHT be available to shocked, surprised, frightened kids to use as shields who, of ocurse, will be thinking clearly in such a emergency.
Certainly, lets keep tons more paper and other flammable materials in the classroom, creating fire hazards and possible obstacles to an evacuation in an emergency.
Why, it's so positively brilliant, it kills two political birds with one stone: no guns in the school and we're recycling!
MORON doesn't even begin to desrribe this person....
I like this. Not because it's very practical, but because it signifies (along with that Texas district's effort to have kids fight back) a shift away from student and teacher passivity.
While teaching my Ed. Leadership class a couple weeks ago, one of my African American students raised the question as to why there are few or no "massacres" in urban schools. We hashed this around for awhile and eventually he suggested that school shooters look for soft targets: "white middle class schools." He pointed out that black boys would never just follow a gunman's orders, e.g., "all you boys leave, all you girls stay," etc. They'd rush the guy and probably kill him if they could.
I've an idea, "Teaching Tanks".
< /s >
If it wasn't a Sooner, I'd be inclined to believe it had to be fake.
No offense to any Sooners out there :)
A Webser's dictionary used to be standard desk issue. What's wrong with that?
And teach your children to understand the path of a bullet and estimate exactly where it will hit so you can move the book around and 'catch' it.
I've heard some stupid ideas...
and the guy is a Republican too. Sheeesh I guess we have our own fair share of idiots too..
Well, I know for a fact that my Torts book couldn't stop a .223 round from my AR-15. My .50AE shredded it. My Contracts book did stop a 9mm round, however.
This is gonna give a new definition to "being booked".
People tend to laugh at unusual ideas but get past the old texts under the desk and I think it is a good idea for kids to put anything between their head and a bullet. It might not work but it sure can't hurt IMO.
I got it. He thinks this is the Matrix and we can all move books around faster than speeding bullets...
"Misterrrr Crozier..."
"The names Neo!"
This guy has been watching too much TV
This idea is in the same league as "Duck and Cover."
What a marroon!
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