Well Shoot, Maybe Guns and Schools Just Ought To Get Along

Some of us are strung pretty tight and fail to see the humor amidst the pathos. I think I am unwinding as the years get along. After my morning rituals of winding the cat and putting out the clock, making coffee and going to McDonald's because I didn't get breakfast food this week, I settled down to read about the world.

I don't usually burst out laughing but I did when I read this:
US state weighing gun lessons for schoolchildren


What is missing is the slick marketing. No slimy backwoods camouflaged buttering of one's side of the bread here. No sir-ee bob. This guy Billy Wayne Bailey just comes right out and says it straight: "Hunting is an economic and cultural thing". And the state needs money.

I have to think that Mr. Bailey as a kid was probably called "Bee Dubya". All we southern boys know we were given nicknames of initials so our parents would be proud we could spell our name when we went off to the big school. I went to school with A.J., L.B. and C.W.. Girls had it tougher, especially Mary Lou Ellen. I digress.

I am wondering at what point West Virginia is going to address the zero tolerance policy of guns and weapons on a public school site. Maybe the promise of money will just blow that issue to smithereens. Also, why have gun class during P.E. If we are going to make it educationally relevant (and what isn’t), why not have gun class during History or some type of Political Science class? Or maybe during physics. The best hunters I know can tell you the drop per distance ratio of each of the different cartridges they will be using. Elevation and windage are critical variables to understand and must be calculated instantly without a computer.

I once took my shiny, cut-paper-without-slicing sharp XXX Case knife complete with fancy leather sheath to high school. I used it as a prop for my character in Macbeth. That was in the late 60’s. I doubt that would fly today, no matter how engaged in learning a student may be. The only time I took a gun to school was when my first grade teacher told us she was going to teach us how to draw.