THE CONSERVATIVE VIEW
BY RUSSELL TURNER
A BUCKET OF ROCKS
With all of the talk about schools and school security, I can think of one course that needs to be added to the curriculum. We need a course on the theory and application of a slingshot. In biblical times there was the story about a shepherd boy named David who was able to kill a giant warrior named Goliath with a little stone and a simple slingshot. I have no doubt that the story was true, but the key reason for his success was the ability to hit his opponent with a projectile while he was out of reach of his opponent. Recently I read an article where a school district in Pennsylvania has placed five gallon buckets of rocks in the classrooms so the children could throw rocks at any would-be shooters who came into the school to do harm.
The superintendent of Blue Mountain School District, Dr. David Helsel, was quoted as saying, "If an armed intruder attempts to gain entrance to any of our classrooms, they will face a classroom full of students armed with rocks and they will be stoned." Whether this highly educated superintendent was serious or just trying to get publicity I do not know, but putting forth such a ridiculous idea does no good to solve the school safety problem. Unlike the story of David and Goliath, the bad guys will have the ability to shoot someone at a greater distance than anyone could ever throw a rock. Even though many schools have evacuation drills for active shooters, I have often said that the best solution would be to search for retired police offices and veterans who know how to use a gun safely and who have the ability to put down a shooter before he has the ability to inflict death.
I have found that too many people have the attitude that a problem is solved even though the solution they are promoting is completely absurd. If bullets start flying I am sure the last thing the kids will think of is to get a handful of rocks to throw at someone who is unloading a modern firearm at them. If the rock idea is so good maybe we need to have all of the secret service agents who are guarding president Trump have a pocket full of river rocks to fend off any person who would want to do harm to our president. Throughout my life I have used many rocks to kill snakes and other unwanted varmints, but those varmints and snakes didn't have the ability harm me from a distance. Instead of foolish ideas we need to limit entry access to our facilities and use modern technology such as metal detectors to screen anyone coming into the facility. It is a sad fact that in today's society we also need professionals who have the skills to stop an armed intruder. In today's world a slingshot simply won't do.
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