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Gun play: 'Zero tolerance' toward schoolkids could backfire, says expert
FoxNews.com ^ | 6-11-2013 | Perry Chiaramonte

Posted on 06/11/2013 11:41:40 AM PDT by servo1969

Elementary educators trying to discourage children from settling pretend beefs with pretend guns is nothing new. But in the aftermath of the Connecticut school shooting, and with the grownups increasingly polarized over the Second Amendment, rules for recess, on the bus and in the classroom have become stricter than ever.

Some say too strict.

“These zero-tolerance policies are psychotic, in the strict sense of the word: psychotic means ‘out of touch with reality,’” Dr. Leonard Sax, a Pennsylvania psychologist and family physician, and author of “Boys Adrift,” told FoxNews.com.

***

“Out-of-touch policies such as these, which criminalize behaviors which have always been common among young kids, are contributing to the growing proportion of American kids, especially boys, who regard school as a stupid waste of time and who can’t wait to get out of school so that they can get back to playing their video games,” Sax said.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: backfire; banglist; boys; discipline; guncontrol; leftismoncampus; school; secondamendment; tolerance; zero; zerotolerance
I hope there is a huge backlash. More and more people are buying firearms lately because they feel something is up. Many of these people have children and will teach their children to respect firearms instead of being frightened of them. Hopefully it will soon be cool to rebel against gun control the way the Marxists who have taken over the educational system thought it was cool to rebel against 'the man' when they were radicals in college.

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"Strobridge Elementary Principal Charles Hill said he hopes rounding up the toy guns will stop kids from growing up to play with real ones.

“Playing with toy guns, saying ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ desensitizes them, so as they get older, it’s easier for them to use a real gun,” Hill told the Mercury News."

***

Really? Playing with toys guns and water pistols makes you think it would be fun to actually murder someone? Really? You really honestly believe that?

Like Dennis Prager once said, "The stupidity of that statement I can only attribute to higher education. You have to have gone to college to say something that stupid."

1 posted on 06/11/2013 11:41:40 AM PDT by servo1969
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To: servo1969

If kids and teenagers are the same as they were when I was young, the very best way to get them interested in something and want it, is to absolutely forbid them from having it.


2 posted on 06/11/2013 11:46:49 AM PDT by apillar
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To: apillar

Exactly. Under my mother’s administration, toy guns were forbidden. Visiting other children’s homes, guess what’s the first thing I would look for.

To this day, about to begin my 50th year, I still pause to admire the toy guns— especially the ones that shoot projectiles, such as nerf darts— on display in toy departments and stores.


3 posted on 06/11/2013 11:53:25 AM PDT by ExGeeEye (It's been over 90 days; time to start on 2014. Carpe GOP!)
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To: servo1969

“”Strobridge Elementary Principal Charles Hill said he hopes rounding up the toy guns will stop kids from growing up to play with real ones.

“Playing with toy guns, saying ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ desensitizes them, so as they get older, it’s easier for them to use a real gun,” Hill told the Mercury News.”

If one wants a clear demonstration of the vapidity and lack of intellect in our modern public school officials, this dork is a prime example. “Education”...the college major for those who cannot possibly pass anything else (except for perhaps womyn’s studies).


4 posted on 06/11/2013 11:54:46 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: apillar

Exactly.


5 posted on 06/11/2013 12:00:05 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: servo1969

How can they expect kids not to laugh at this when they are subjected to a continuous show of guns on the TV news, TV programs, the movies, and of course, video games? It only decreases respect for those in authority when they act stupidly and hypocritically.


6 posted on 06/11/2013 12:00:55 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: servo1969

a snippet from a book I read by John Eldredge.......... Capes and swords, camouflage, bandannas and six-shooters–these are the uniforms of boyhood. Little boys yearn to know they are powerful, they are dangerous, they are someone to be reckoned with. How many parents have tried in vain to prevent little Timmy from playing with guns? Give it up. If you do not supply a boy with weapons, he will make them from whatever materials are at hand. My boys chew their graham crackers into the shape of hand guns at the breakfast table. Every stick or fallen branch is a spear, or better, a bazooka. Despite what many modern educators would say, this is not a psychological disturbance brought on by violent television or chemical imbalance. Aggression is part of the masculine design; we are hardwired for it. If we believe that man is made in the image of God, then we would do well to remember that “the Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name” (Ex. 15:3). Little girls do not invent games where large numbers of people die, where bloodshed is a prerequisite for having fun. Hockey, for example, was not a feminine creation. Nor was boxing. A boy wants to attack something–and so does a man, even if it’s only a little white ball on a tee. He wants to whack it into kingdom come. On the other hand, my boys do not sit down to tea parties. They do not call their friends on the phone to talk about relationships. They grow bored of games that have no element of danger or competition or bloodshed. Cooperative games based on “relational interdependence” are complete nonsense. “No one is killed?” they ask, incredulous. “No one wins? What’s the point?” The universal nature of this ought to have convinced us by now: The boy is a warrior; the boy is his name. And those are not boyish antics he is doing. When boys play at war they are rehearsing their part in a much bigger drama. One day, you just might need that boy to defend you.


7 posted on 06/11/2013 12:12:57 PM PDT by showme_the_Glory (ILLEGAL: prohibited by law. ALIEN: Owing political allegiance to another country or government)
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To: servo1969
I was educated at public school in California during the '70s.

Every moment in school was liberal indoctrination: We had guitar-playing hippies singing 'One Tin Soldier' to our classrooms, we read books about boys playing with dolls, science fairs were all about wind power and solar energy, a busybody liberal teacher got our whole 3rd grade class to petition the city council to register bicycles (I was chosen as the spokesman, of all people), we learned that Cinco De Mayo was the most important day in the history of mankind, we were taught that Governor Jerry Brown and President Jimmy Carter were the most important people on Earth, and when California's Prop 13 passed into law when I was in 6th grade they had a teacher's strike and the teachers got us to make little handmade signs with loops of yarn to wear around our necks in support of the teachers who walked a lap around the school yelling union slogans while TV news cameras taped the event. How exciting!

None of this liberal horseshit worked on me or anyone else I know. We all pretty much grew up to be conservatives.

I credit the Heavy Metal music of the '80s for saving our teenage souls from the demonic clutches of liberalism.

8 posted on 06/11/2013 12:17:52 PM PDT by The KG9 Kid (Demand Common Sense Nut Control.)
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To: servo1969
Government school is child abuse for the purpose of tyranny.

Public schools will continue to deteriorate as taxpayers, parents and finally kids learn this and take the actions that humans always take.

9 posted on 06/11/2013 12:21:42 PM PDT by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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To: servo1969

People are pulling their kids out of public schools or not bothering to enroll them at all, and I bet that’s due in large part to zero tolerance rules. No parent in his right mind is going to want his kid’s life ruined because of some stupid, brain-dead administrator’s “handling” of a “gun” matter. Public schools are not worth it.

Kids who suffered under these policies themselves are probably going to think really hard about whether they want their kids to attend these schools.

Since this has been going on since the 90’s, I would imagine a lot of parents have children who are ready for public school or soon will be. I would imagine there will be a huge increase in homeschooling. I know there is in my town where our schools are just absolutely positively wonderful.


10 posted on 06/11/2013 12:22:13 PM PDT by goldi
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To: servo1969
“Playing with toy guns, saying ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ desensitizes them, so as they get older, it’s easier for them to use a real gun,” Hill told the Mercury News."

It works the opposite way with me.

I spent a lot of time in SE Asia "playing with" real weapons, shooting at real people. Because of that, I will not play at shooting people with paintball play guns.

I grew up playing "cowboys & indians", even using an old hammerlock double barrel shotgun at times. (obviously NOT loaded)

just my 2 cents worth on the subject.

BTW, I am very pro-2nd Amendment.

11 posted on 06/11/2013 12:22:30 PM PDT by BwanaNdege ("To learn who rules over you simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize"- Voltaire)
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To: showme_the_Glory
Your post reminded me, parenthetically, of a quote - source long forgotten, doubtless transformed by failing memory from verbatim to paraphrase, but absolutely on point re genetic male assertiveness and its usefulness :

    If you don't wake up angry, you're not paying attention !

12 posted on 06/11/2013 12:29:15 PM PDT by tomkat
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To: servo1969

Yep. Its messed up. How is one supposed to feel the pride in teaching his son to shoot great grandpa’s old squirrel gun? A gun that is passed down and will eventually be passed to the son? How is one supposed to take his kid on his first duck hunt? How is one supposed to teach their children how to be responsible gun owner? ...when the kid goes to school and hears “guns are bad, guns are bad, guns are the boogie man”.
They treat guns like poison or drugs. “don’t touch them, don’t look at them”
Its stupid and ridiculous.


13 posted on 06/11/2013 12:30:27 PM PDT by envisio (Its on like Donkey Kong!)
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To: showme_the_Glory

That was beautiful. A breath of fresh air. Reality for all those who want to turn boys into girls. Thank you for your clarity.


14 posted on 06/11/2013 12:48:07 PM PDT by He'sComingBack!
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To: servo1969

Yes they are psychotic. They are meant to criminalize the thought of a gun.


15 posted on 06/11/2013 1:19:39 PM PDT by I want the USA back (If I Pi$$ed off just one liberal today my mission has been accomplished.)
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To: showme_the_Glory

Now you’ve done it...another book I gotta read. Thanks...:-)


16 posted on 06/11/2013 1:56:37 PM PDT by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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To: goldi; The KG9 Kid
Since this has been going on since the 90’s

Read the comment above yours (#8) and you will see a testimony from the 70s.

I graduated from high school in 1963, in a conservative area of the country, where every high school boy who was fortunate enough, owned a pick up, that always included a gun rack with an actual rifle or shot gun on it and parked it on school property.. Nobody shot or even threatened to shoot a class mate or teacher.

17 posted on 06/11/2013 4:15:10 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (_.. ._. .. _. _._ __ ___ ._. . ___ ..._ ._ ._.. _ .. _. .)
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To: apillar

If kids and teenagers are the same as they were when I was young, the very best way to get them interested in something and want it, is to absolutely forbid them from having it.


Liberals are so over the top, they make boys laugh at them. It’s like watching a comedy show of crazy nerds. Also, their parents don’t support the social insanity of school liberalism.

They are pushing homosexuality too hard. That will backfire on them like femenazism did.


18 posted on 06/11/2013 6:37:54 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: servo1969
Gun play: 'Zero tolerance' toward schoolkids could backfire, says expert

Wut? Neurotic overbearing manipulative mind control of children is losing popularity!?! Say it ain't so!

19 posted on 06/12/2013 6:48:35 AM PDT by TigersEye ("No man left behind" is more than an Army Ranger credo it's the character of America.)
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