Last week the Nashua Board of Education approved a request by the Nashua Air Force Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps for air-rifle practice on a field behind Nashua North High School. It didn’t take long for the snowflakes to melt.
In a public post on Facebook, a student has announced a meeting to object formally.
The Nashua School District Board of Education recently gave permission for an air rifle shooting range to be made at Nashua North. Students and faculty are appalled. My friend <redacted> and I set up a meeting with the principal and I was so happy that an impressive amount of students came and spoke about how they feel unsafe and uncomfortable having this on school grounds.
The justifications are predictable. We know people who have been at schools where shootings have occurred. Even though these are air rifles, we oppose the gun culture they perpetuate. And, of course, the unsaid point of it all; what’s to stop someone from sneaking a real gun on campus and shooting up the place?
I can answer that. Armed teachers and administrators (who carry concealed) trained to defend students. A conspicuous armed security presence. Signs and a PR campaign that promotes the fact that yours is not a gun-free zone. That illegal behavior can and will be met by force.
In other words, a gun culture built on education, training, and respect for the tools and the law. Which is exactly what programs like JROTC provide.
Reality Check?
School shootings a result of the failure of the anti-gun culture perpetuated in the minds of students by teachers, administrators, anti-gun politicians, and the press. The promised protection of forced disarmament (gun free zones) failed. The idea that the school or local law enforcement would protect them failed. The idea that counselors and community experts would see it coming failed. Students and faculty died because they had to wait for an armed response. The longer the wait the more people die.
That reality doesn’t even apply to air rifles, but the objections are based on the presumption that the promised protections are adequate and they are not. Politicians and celebrities used armed guards. Targets of opportunity for kidnapping use armed guards. Secure facilities use armed guards. School districts not only demand no protection at all; they want to advertise that circumstance. And they then wallow in despair at the loss of life that results from their policies and demand more of the same.
We NEED to make a difference. Please show your support by coming to the Board of Education meeting Monday the 13th at 7 pm in the Nashua North Lecture hall. Help us speak out against having these rifles on school campus.
You are sending a message that your goal is to create a target rich environment for criminals looking for attention who intend to ignore the law. But, you are entitled to make that case. And I suspect the board will reverse itself at some future date if parents and students who oppose the anti-gun culture and its narratives do not also make their voices heard.
Education is the key. These programs do not create killers nor do they invite them. To suggest otherwise is an insult.
But if you choose to engage in a counter debate on this issue please be measured and respectful.
Note: a previous version of this post included a sentence that inferred that students carried concealed. The correct statement is teachers (who carry concealed) protect students. The text has been edited.
