Bustin' a Cap!!!

The Virginia Tech shootings last month sent another shockwave throughout our nation. As a college student (yes, again), on a very large college campus I was somewhat oddly scared from time to time to be in class. I don’t know if scared is the best word, but I was at least concerned a few times shortly after the horrific shootings. The event at VT led to many “tactical” and “preparatory” procedures and plans being brought about by Michigan State Univ. Administration. Plans in my own head also abounded about what I would do in that situation. To go a step further, the fact that I am studying to be a teacher led to thinking of cause and effect, action and reaction, prevention and intervention plans that could take place at a future juncture.
In October of my sophomore year of High School, my best friend gave me the sad news that his father had accepted a new assignment of Pastoring a new church in Denver. It wasn’t long before the family that I had come to love was moving on. Keeping in relatively good contact, my friend and I maintained our friendship as well as could be expected. When a historically fateful day left me reeling as I wondered if my best friend was alive, my thoughts on this issue began to develop. I tried throughout the afternoon to reach my friend or at least his family, as he attended Columbine High School. As it were, I would finally get ahold of his dad and all was as well as could be. He had been in the cafeteria, which ended up being a bloody mess. He was able to run out of the building to a neighborhood. My thoughts continuously run back to that time in life. They run to when I attended a benefit concert with superstars and athletes at Columbine the following November. Looking at that school was terrifying.
Move to last month. Virginia Tech horribly terrorized. What does everyone start debating? Gun Control. This is where I start to be very challenged with my opinions. I have so many. I come from a rural family, both of sportsmen, as well as self defense promoting people. I also have reservations about fighting violence with more violence. What a broken, backwards system. When I think of gun control, I think of people trying to take away hunters’ rights and the “right to bear arms”, yet I also think about oozies and bustin’ a cap. What a grand canyon of debate.
When applying this to my latest venture and truly new found passion, the question of classroom protection comes to mind. At times, mainly when I think of Columbine, or when Virginia Tech happens, I find myself thinking, “Make it a requirement for teachers to have self defense training and a strategic way of accessing a weapon that could protect the lives of innocent children.” There is never going to be a completely clean system of gun control in America. It will live and thrive much like the drug world. I sometimes think that no matter what, if these things are thought through enough by someone, there really is no stopping them. It ranges from a large college campus, to a Pennsylvania Amish school house. What about gun control is going to stop such things? What can schools and their teachers do? Obviously parents can’t figure it out; obviously the law can’t solve it. Who should? What should they do? Is it just evil that has to be conceded to every now and again, or is there truly an answer?