Chronicle of Higher Ed and NOLA Guns

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Glenn E. Meyer

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Being an educator, I sometimes come across a professorial bias against firearms. Why would one want to do something so icky? I do have a set of shooting buddies at work and several liberal arts professors have asked me to take them to the range. But the majority are probably not gun enthusiasts.

Today I get the Chronicle of Higher Education which is the business newspaper for colleges. They have some harrowing tales of escapes.

The one that struck me is that of a professor and wife who decided not to evacuate (so it wasn't just poor folks who didn't get out).

As their neighborhood flooded, they had to escape on a boat 'requisitioned' from a neighbor who fled. They were frightened by looters and saw drug addicts floating by and getting high in a kids inflatable pool after raiding a drug store.

In the boat, they had a friend and guess what - their friend had a gun.

An object lesson for those who think that a polite society will always prevail. I think I will point this out to those gentle souls at work tomorrow.
 
Does my heard good to see reports like this. Thanks for reporting, Glenn.

Small steps, but they're in the right direction.
 
I remember "Moses" (Charleton Heston) in an interview after the L.A. riots. He said how his hypocritical fellow "entertainers" were asking to borrow his arms during that trying time.

I am an elementary school teacher. I lived and worked for two years in Northern AZ on the Navajo reservation. 80% of the (non-Native, non-local) teachers were gun owners, and I am sure several of my Native colleagues had firearms as well. I moved down last year to Yuma, and the majority of my fellow teachers were women, so gun ownership was not discussed in the teacher's lounge.

This school year, I commute into California, and I have just begun to get to know my co-workers. Just to be on the safe side, I won't discuss my guns.
 
Side bar: Another teacher here

Elementary Special Education teacher for 5 years. Just left for a consulting job for a company that produces software for special education plans (IEP's).

I've seen the bias among my coworkers, but I attributed the difference to gender.
 
Working with predominantly women, I could say the same. But it seems to depend on who the women are married to. Last year, working in Yuma, the women were much more conservative, but having a classroom of students with emotional disturbance did not leave me much time to socialize in the teacher's lounge during my "breaks," so I never got to know my co-workers' stand on, well, any issues. A few years ago, in the L.A. Unified, both women and men were surprised to know I owned a firearm (they did not know I owned a few), but since they knew me, did not make too big an issue. The riots were only a few years prior, so this might have played a factor in their opinions. My wife was a witness to anti-gun propaganda from the public schools of Camarillo, Ca.(surprising since Ventura County is a much more conservative county than L.A. County to the south). When we went to a gun store before the 2000 ban, she was surprised to hear people joking and talking like normal people do. From the propaganda she was fed, she thought that gun shops were supposed to be very quiet and solemn. It took a few trips to different stores to warm her up to the experience. (No, she was not anti-gun). I figure, I'll just keep my mouth shut. No one needs to know all my business.
 
I did the "EBD" thing for my first 3 years. I had an aide get her nose broken. I had a kid cut my arm open with scissors. Spit was always flying. Hair pulling.....chairs flying...... They were usually sweet when they got their meds, but more often than not....

I agree, their spouses often imparted some to their politics. I taught in a very conservative area and most of the female teachers there lean to the right. It wasn't usually the topic of conversation though.
 
Glenn,

I've always wondered, why are so many learnered people so adverse to a simple tool?

Is it the NEA and they believe that they must "toe the line" in order to keep their jobs or just a sense of peace?

I tell you what (that's a Southern thing so please don't beat up on me too badly), if all I owned guns for was to hunt, to target shoot, and to hit flying clays I couldn't be more happier to use them so.

Yet, living in reality, I know that I have to protect against our own home grown criminals to those that are not Americans if they decide to come upon our soil. That in reality, no gun law, no gun ban, not even the disinvention of guns will make this place, or world, safer.

Yet even the most intelligent among the teaching community fails to grasp this simple concept, that the world isn't a nice/good place and that tools were developed because of this one simple fact.

Basically, I'm a simple man. I am not as learnered as most, moreso (not better) than others, yet I simply cannot understand the thought process of these people. I understand that we all want peace, I fully understand that we want to have safety, but I cannot understand why making people less able to defend themselves will bring this peace and this safety.

I simply don't understand it, and I figure that I never will.

Wayne
 
When I taught at college, my cohorts were liberal anti-gun types. I was a young hell raising biker type. My gun views did not matter much to these folks. They were anti, I was not, but it wasn't discussed much.

When I was in the Navy, most of the guys I knew were very pro-gun. Some only thought those "qualified" should be allowed to own guns, but they usually got duct taped up and had Hank Williams Jr. pumped into their ears through headphones for a 12 hour shift. After 12 hours of "A Country Boy Can Survive" they either saw the light or never spoke on the matter again.

When I became a nurse, I noted that many nurses in the political/teaching sphere of nursing are anti-gun. Nurses who have to walk through hospital parking lots at night or go make house calls on patients in crack houses are very pro-gun. Figures. I train nurses in on the job safety as a sideline. If they desire, it also includes range time. Most want to go to the range, and then want advice on what to buy.

It is easy to be anti-gun when you feel safe, or are not threatened. It's a lot harder when you have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
 
One of the lines in my sig describes more in detail my experiences as an academic shooter.

Anyway, I decide to look at the bright side - I have students who are interested in my experiences when I talk about them. I took a class to the range. I have female colleagues who want me to teach them to shoot.

Most people are clueless about everything so that probably explains most.

We had a picnic for the department and I mentioned the NOLA article. One young student said people could have a gun but not assault rifles. I said - I have one - so there. Oops. I said, if you need to defend yourself why not have something efficacious.

So, I don't hide my interests or beliefs.

Xavier, nursing and public health journals continually run articles on firearms as a public health problem. Pretty crappy research.
 
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