Arkansas State Senator Jeremy Hutchinson won’t let his experience get in the way of arming teachers and janitors in schools:
After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, Hutchinson became interested in arming school personnel, he said. He was invited to attend an “active shooter” training and – using a rubber bullet-loaded pistol – he mistakenly shot a teacher who was confronting a “bad guy.”
The experience gave Hutchinson some pause, but he still supports giving schools the authority to decide how best to secure their campuses.
(via)
kdaug
When the lasers are finished being installed in my eyeballs, all you fuckers are dead!
GRRR! PEW-PEW!
(Don’t really know how to type a low, guttural growling sound, but that’s close).
Montysano
We need a “Not the Onion” tag.
Woody
This is because these fools have seen lots of Mannix/Starsky&Hutch/A Team/Hawaii Five-O et al. These characters were always able to identify and shoot the villains cleanly, regardless of how many bystanders there were.
Hey, these numbnuts think Leave It To Beaver was a Fifties documentary.
Patricia Kayden
Yes because that’s all public schools need right now — teachers accidentally shooting other teachers (and students).
kdaug
@Woody: Wait, what?
(And Father Knows Best. Great show, that one.)
Brendan in NC
What should give Arkansans pause is uttering the phrase “State Senator Jeremy Hutchinson”. But it won’t
Botsplainer
@Woody:
With a .38 police special from a shoulder holster, which they aim on the run by punching their shooting hand forward with each round.
At the end of the episode, they drink with all their male buddies.
Linda Featheringill
@Botsplainer:
Freud would say . . . .
Baud
Reminds me of that All in the Family bit. Archie says they should mount machine guns in banks to shoot bank robbers. Meathead asks, what if the gun misses and shoots a little old lady. Archie responds, it’s ok, the other guns won’t miss.
Bobby Thomson
For Republicans, shooting teachers is a feature, not a bug.
c u n d gulag
Once you’re mainlined the “TEH STOOOOOOOOPID!!!”, you’re addicted for life.
And the only intervention that will get a “TEH STOOOOOOOOOOPID!!!” addict’s attention, must be done with voters.
And that’s why the Republican Party, instead of trying to wean their politicians off of “TEH STOOOOOOOOOPID!!!”, or outlawing “TEH STOOOOOOOOOOOOPID,” are trying, instead, to outlaw voting.
Ash Can
Hey, at least he went from “arm ’em all” to punting on the issue. I suppose that’s the best we can expect from these cretins.
barbara
It turns out that the real story is more complicated and much more interesting:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/08/jeremy_hutchinson_arkansas_shooting.php?ref=fpblg
Poopyman
@barbara: THANK YOU!
c u n d gulag
@barbara:
Yeah, that does put things in a different light.
He’s not the mindless Conservative cretin I had imagined him to be.
Thanks for the info.
Too often, I jump to conclusions, without double-checking things – and – *cough-cough* – I’m not alone.
Sometimes the rush to get a glib comment in, leads one to ‘rush-to-judgement,’ too quickly.
Baud
@c u n d gulag:
If you want my glibness, you’ll have to take it from my cold dead hands.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I assume the news worthy bit is Senator Hutchinson personal experience actually caused him to pause at all. I am also shocked Senator Hutchinson would think he would need to attend the class.
Buckyblue
What I don’t get is why republicans have to have a personal experience with something before they can see it the other way. No sense of ‘walking in the other guys shoes’. Who was the senator who was against gay marriage until his son came out, and now he’s all for it? A little empathy and reasoning can take you a long ways.
NotMax
What the bloody heck is anyone doing shooting rubber bullets at a person? That is not what they are to be used for, and can quite readily cause fractures or permanent disability.
In crowd control situations, where people are involved, they are supposed to be fired at the ground, which absorbs some of their kinetic energy before they bounce up to impact the legs or torso, causing pain and even contusions but mitigating the chances of more severe injury or death. Rubber bullets are also sometimes used for target practice.
shortstop
He used to be his victim; now he’s not the…wait, he’s an Arkansas Republican. He was never, ever the only one.
ericblair
@Buckyblue:
A lot of Republicans couldn’t give a shit about anybody’s problems until it effects them or their loved ones personally. If you’re outside their circle you don’t matter.
Another issue that’s not exclusively Republican is how hard you have to shove something in their heads before it registers. Some people you just have to tell them there’s shit on the floor and not to step in it; some people you have to show them the shit on the floor; and some people you have to jam their faces in it before they actually figure it out.
50cent
@c u n d gulag:
knowing a bit about your employment situation, have you looked into the Work Force Improvement Act?
training and other stuff provided by federal funds, administered by your state labor department….
c u n d gulag
@Baud:
Sure, if I can find it. ;-)
c u n d gulag
@50cent:
No I hadn’t.
Thanks!
.
Chris
@Buckyblue:
This. Talking to them on virtually any subject is like listening to a teenager who’s had a sudden epiphany that made him realize that oh yes, Mom and Dad were right about X, no, they weren’t actually trying to keep me down, people actually have thought this through and come up with it for pretty good reasons.
Glocksman
Back in the early 90’s, the local PD was having ‘Citizen’s Academy’ classes where interested people could go through a 16 day (spread out over 8 weeks) course on how the local police operated.
It was very interesting.
As part of it, they ran us all through a shoot/no shoot scenario with a deactivated .357 revolver.
I was one of three people out of 25 who correctly ‘held fire’ on a good guy.
Though I will admit that I was about 3/4 of the way through pulling the trigger when I realized it was a ‘no shoot’ scenario.
That experience is what helped me arrive at the conclusion that arming half-trained teachers is a bad idea.
Now if the school wants to send teachers through a bona fide training course like the one at the ISP Academy, along with paying for periodic refresher training, arming teachers might not be that bad of an idea.
Unless said teacher loses the gun or lets it get stolen, of course.
The other things I remember about the classes are the Drug Squad commander who expressed the opinion that eventually marijuana would be legalized, and the good looking female cop who gave the vice squad presentation.
I remember her because I saw her a few months later walking the local hooker alley while on my way to work.
That just confirmed my opinion that the only good looking hookers on Fares Avenue were the undercover cops. :)
mrmike
@NotMax: What the bloody heck is anyone doing shooting rubber bullets at a person? That is not what they are to be used for, and can quite readily cause fractures or permanent disability.
In crowd control situations, where people are involved, they are supposed to be fired at the ground, which absorbs some of their kinetic energy before they bounce up to impact the legs or torso, causing pain and even contusions but mitigating the chances of more severe injury or death. Rubber bullets are also sometimes used for target practice.
According to the report I read somewhere, they were actually simunitions, not rubber bullets. I’ve been shot with simunitions, and they’re painful but they’re not as dangerous as baton rounds.