There was an article in Slate Magazine about ten years ago, A couple of psychologists suggested to a mother, whose young son had an interest in guns, that he should be taken to see a psychiatrist.

We all know where this is going.

"Does she also get all freaked out when she sees a kid using a knife ..." ~Amy

YES! Do you not remember the kids expelled over using steak knives to cut up their food? How about the kid disciplined for eating his sandwich into the shape of a gun? This 'lately' you speak of is over 40 years old.

That teacher isn't ready to teach fourth grade. She isn't even ready to be in fourth grade.

School Board member Simeon Dickerson, a former teacher, asked Nyron Harrison, Ku'Mauri's father, to think of how his teacher felt seeing a gun on her computer screen.

Now, ask her if she's ever watched a TV police show. How about asking her if she's ever seen an action movie. Or played a video game.

She was watching a 14-year-old move an BB gun out of the way of his younger brother, not stick up a liquor store or torment the family pet.

PS I shot a BB gun as a kid when we went to Camp Michigania (U of M family camp). I have yet to commit a triple murder as an adult.

My dad gave me a BB gun when I was 10. I was taught and expected to obey all standard firearm safety rules, even though that BB gun couldn't have hurt a squirrel at point blank range.

I shot .22s on a Boy Scout camping trip. On that same camping trip, we took a Hunter Safety Course taught by a woman who laid it out without sugar coating; she taught us that tampons are handy in gunshot first aid.

If the boy obeyed standard firearm safety rules while moving it, I don't see the problem. And he's right, he didn't bring his BB gun to school. The school came to his house.

That teacher isn't ready to teach fourth grade. She isn't even ready to be in fourth grade. ~ Patrick at December 12, 2020 7:11 AM

What could have been a useful teaching experience on gun safety was turned into a witch-burning of a 14-year-old.

She thinks she's making the world a better place, schooling a gun-owner. She's not. She's making it more difficult for kids to learn safe gun handling.

I see it differently. What better way to indoctrinate a school full of kids to hate/fear guns than for all teachers and admin over-react to just the picture of something?
If you are in 4th grade, you have been told many times to respect and obey the teachers, so if they are freaking out over the mere picture of a toy gun a real gun must be so evil it's unthinkable. And in 12 years you'll vote gun rights away.
What really should have happened is anyone that scared of a picture should be committed/fired.

...who got suspended because he allowed a BB gun to briefly appear on his computer screen when his school was in session (virtually) on Zoom

My advice to anyone using Zoom is to use a background picture. That way, nothing in your house is visible to anyone else unless you specifically bring it to the foreground. Zoom provides several backgrounds, or you can upload one of your own.

"My advice to anyone using Zoom is to use a background picture. "

My first Zoom meeting:

"Is that your art? Behind you? On the wall? Where you live? Do you own that? That's what you like? Really? Did you put that up?".

No, of course not. I've never seen those before in my life. Someone must've broken in and hung 'em up just before our meeting.

Lesson learned. Generic backgrounds ever since. People am dum. And nosy.

That reminds me, one of the activities I would like my kids to learn is shooting. Gonna ask the local gun club if they have lessons for kids.

Just the basics to get a feel for it. Guns are a part of the culture here and it would be fun for them to do a shooting contest or something.

We're vegetarians so we won't be hunting animals obviously...

That reminds me, one of the activities I would like my kids to learn is shooting. Gonna ask the local gun club if they have lessons for kids.

Just the basics to get a feel for it. Guns are a part of the culture here and it would be fun for them to do a shooting contest or something.

We're vegetarians so we won't be hunting animals obviously...

NicoleK at December 12, 2020 9:28 AM

Remember this is an Olympic sport. To get good at it, requires lots and lots of practice.

That said, if you have relatively calm kids, that can take instruction, shooting at its best is very zen like, and can teach some of the same control skills, and stress management as music or Yoga.

It is important to have a decent instructor from the beginning.

I don’t hunt either. Not because I am vegetarian, but because I don’t enjoy tramping thru the mountains on cold days, or killing animals. Target shooting is totally different, and a lot more fun, in my opinion.

Also. Today is the day. GO ARMY! BEAT NAVY!

I actually do enjoy tramping through mountains on cold days. Beats tramping through them on hot days. The best is sunny weather, cold enough for a polar fleece and jeans but not a parka.

But yeah, I'd like to get the girls to try it. I feel like it's one of those sports like tennis, where you can meet people all over the world over it.

"That said, if you have relatively calm kids, that can take instruction, shooting at its best is very zen like, and can teach some of the same control skills, and stress management as music or Yoga."

Ballistics being one of the oldest sciences, the mechanics of shooting can get you as deep in classical physics as you care to go, even as you are burning processed tree bark to push a piece of metal out of a pipe. There is an astonishing amount to learn.

Importantly, there are no participation trophies (this might be why some hate shooting). The target will tell you when you are correct!

“I actually do enjoy tramping through mountains on cold days. Beats tramping through them on hot days. The best is sunny weather, cold enough for a polar fleece and jeans but not a parka.”

I would call that a cool day. 7500 feet in elevation in Wyoming in November is a bit less pleasant than that. You can get some good weather but it is iffy. Not like Europe, or even New England.

If you want to know how far this can go, look no farther than England where knives are illegal. Tradesmen who need knives in their work are routinely arrested. You can't take knives on a picnic to cut your food. It is not even clear how you can buy a knife and take it home without being arrested. So now hoodlums stab you with a screwdriver. Progress.
And of course they are even worse about guns. A man found a gun in his back yard and picked it up so kids would not find it. Called cops. They came and arrested him for possession.
It is so illegal to defend yourself in England that home invasions are a favorite of criminals. Just knock on the door and when they answer force your way in. No guns and if they resist they will go to jail. Lovely.

My fifth-grader is taking shooting lessons with 4H. Her dad got her a shotgun for her 11th birthday. He has been taking her to the meetings and is really happy with the safety lessons and protocols. And the first-grader has a Cricket.

Well if it's a cold day then I'm skiing not hiking.

Don't care for snowshoeing, though I do like x country skiing... which will turn a cold day into a heat wave.