The Good and the Guns at the Fair
I love the Trumansburg Fair, and am deeply grateful to the people who spend time to organize the event. I take my kids every year.
To see the National Guard, however, at the front gate, encouraging children to pick up guns, many children so young that they weren’t even tall enough to go on most of the rides – that greatly reduced my feeling of comfort with the event this year. Men in uniform stood, watching as young children picked up a variety of guns, swung them around wildly, and even pointed the guns at each other, pretending to shoot.
It isn’t about whether you support the military, or even whether you think it’s appropriate for the military to target elementary school kids for pre-recruitment. It’s about basic gun safety. Every year children are killed, and kill, because they’ve been taught to treat guns like toys.
I was taught that it’s never okay to point a gun at somebody, even if you think it’s not loaded. What are these National Guard recruiters being taught?
Q: Ummm. Where were the parents?
A: Turning over their responsibilities to the Nat’l Guard?
Good question.
Some of the children had parents there at the recruiting stand. Some didn’t. It’s not uncommon for upper elementary school children to move around the Trumansburg Fair on their own, checking in with their parents every now and then.
Q: “Upper” Elementary school kids? That’s 3rd and 4th grade, 8-10 year olds, right?
A: True, they’re young, but it’s hard to supervise them all the time and it must be ok if the Nat’l Guard-types are supervising.
Q: Why is there a serious drug problem in middle and high school in T-burg?
A. Parents who not only ignore and cover up the issue, but actually support it.
Q: How is this related to parent allowing kids to misuse guns at the fair?
A: Think about it.
What do you expect of these people and this place? It is a rural ghetto. Nothing more, dont delude yourself. The people are poor, uneducated, without options. Give them a gun and they feel less powerless. Its a downright shame the schools have to take them all.