Arm and Train Teachers to Kill: Gun Idiots

Some US folks who have had it with the pro-gun lobby intimidating, coercing and threatening its way into an exalted, near religious franchise in their country have responded strongly.

With words of course, because this would be the moment to demonstrate how the pen is mightier than the sword, rational discourse trumps irrational shrieeeking and internet activism might triumph over guns.

There have been many, many admirable and gut-wrenching pieces written in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook School massacre. Blithering glurge has also been produced, typically by those taken with a well-calculated Munchausen by proxy-like blog post.

This one may be my favourite, as it encapsulates the forces at play in the US.

The gun is our Moloch. We sacrifice children to him daily—sometimes, as at Sandy Hook, by directly throwing them into the fire-hose of bullets from our protected private killing machines, sometimes by blighting our children’s lives by the death of a parent, a schoolmate, a teacher, a protector. Sometimes this is done by mass killings (eight this year), sometimes by private offerings to the god (thousands this year).

The gun is not a mere tool, a bit of technology, a political issue, a point of debate. It is an object of reverence. Devotion to it precludes interruption with the sacrifices it entails. Like most gods, it does what it will, and cannot be questioned. Its acolytes think it is capable only of good things. It guarantees life and safety and freedom. It even guarantees law. Law grows from it. Then how can law question it?

Its power to do good is matched by its incapacity to do anything wrong. It cannot kill. Thwarting the god is what kills. If it seems to kill, that is only because the god’s bottomless appetite for death has not been adequately fed. The answer to problems caused by guns is more guns, millions of guns, guns everywhere, carried openly, carried secretly, in bars, in churches, in offices, in government buildings. Only the lack of guns can be a curse, not their beneficent omnipresence.

Adoration of Moloch permeates the country, imposing a hushed silence as he works his will. One cannot question his rites, even as the blood is gushing through the idol’s teeth. The White House spokesman invokes the silence of traditional in religious ceremony. “It is not the time” to question Moloch. No time is right for showing disrespect for Moloch.

Armed with words, compassionate and strong words.

There are sadly though, gun-fetishizing idiots in the US who demand that teachers be armed with weapons, to stop any potential attacks, oh no, wait - to *defend*. That's their buzz-word, their holy mantra. 

This kind of exchange is unfortunately quite typical of that mentality.

The assumption that any armed person can stop someone equipped bent upon carnage with assault weapons is mind-boggling.  Military and police teams train daily, for months and years, in order to develop the finely calibrated responses required to deal with this type of volatile - and deadly - situation.  

Aaron is so convinced that "the lack of guns can be a curse, not their beneficent omnipresence" that he can't see the training and the mindset required for this role is antithetical to what teachers do.  He would prefer that teachers devote their extra time to developing those specific skills deployed by SWAT personnel, instead of coaching, mentoring, nurturing, guiding children?

And then Wayne provides a link to this.  Oh glorious USA, land of opportunities, profits and ever-increasing deaths by gunfire.

Reading the comments that follow Garry Wills' piece is educational - and disheartening.  Yes, there are idiots but some people do still cherish the hope that their murderous US gun culture can - and will - shift gears.

It's all about the bay-beeez. Well, unless. . .

While legislatures in backwards US states are merrily passing infuriating picayune little laws to hinder women's access to LEGAL abortion -- mandatory wait times, mandatory ultrasounds, mandatory bullshit lectures on fetal development and pain awareness -- in Connecticut, the grown-ups are in charge. They just passed a law outlawing diagnostic medical tests for -- wait for it -- non-medical reasons. Specifically, ultrasounds done on pregnant women have to be ordered by a physician or done for a valid medical reason.

Why, you ask? Because back in 2004 those sciencey folks at the Food and Drug Administration warned against them, particularly the 'entertainment' variety
offered by commercial studios that can expose a fetus to up to 45 minutes of high energy in a 3D ultrasound.

Prenatal ultrasound videos called “keepsake videos” and taken by commercial studios may affect the fetus, warns the US Food and Drug Administration. The administration shut down such studios 10 years ago and is again considering regulatory action. Ultrasound is a form of energy and can't be considered harmless, even at low levels, it says.

The studios have been springing up in shopping centres in cities and towns across the United States. Typically they use the latest high powered ultrasound equipment, which can cost up to $100 000 (£54 000; €81 000), to produce videos of the moving fetus.

The studios offer expectant parents one or more sessions at different stages of the pregnancy for $125 to $250. The videos show the fetus's fingers and toes, hair, muscles, facial features, and genitals and show it sucking a thumb or moving about. Some of the studios' websites post testimonials from parents who say that they bonded with their forthcoming baby and recognised features, such as the father's nose. The studios say they are an optional service and do not replace prenatal care. The cost of the service is not reimbursed by health insurance.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' April newsletter to its members says that the studios typically offer “a 30- to 45-minute ultrasound session with as many as eight guests welcome; a video to take home, often set to music selected by the parents; a set of photos, both print and digital; gender determination if requested.”

In contrast, doctors use two-dimensional ultrasound at a low power level to check for size, location, number, and age of fetuses and to check for birth defects, breathing, and heartbeat. The result is a grainy black and white picture.

Well, that just makes sense, doesn't it? Willingly pregnant women go to great lengths to protect fetuses from exposure to all kinds of potentially dangerous stuff. If you don't need an ultrasound, why take a chance?

And you'd think the fetus fetishists would agree, wouldn't you?

And you'd be wrong.

The zygote zealots consider forcing women to look at ultrasounds of the contents of their uteruses a powerful tool in their relentless campaign to lie, manipulate and coerce unwillingly pregnant women out of considering abortion.

Many of the fake pregnancy centres set up adjacent to women's clinics offer such ultrasounds, often performed by poorly trained volunteers.
Here's the whinging at LifeShite:

Pro-life leaders around the country consider ultrasound to be a technological marvel that has saved countless unborn children from abortion. Other states such as New York have considered banning ultrasounds for non-medical reasons.

Weird, innit? They're all for the fetuses, unless exposing fetuses to potential harm furthers their Mission from Gord. They're all A-OK with that.