Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
In my last letter, (“The moronic idea to arm teachers”) on March 5, which I might add was edited by the Bulletin before publication, I assume was for length, (All my un-edited versions of my letters can be found on the Bulletin blog page), I stated I was curious as to what Frank Aquila thought about the idea of guns for teachers. I didn’t have to wait long because another one of his letters was published along with my edited version. (Aquila: “Ban assault weapons”) March 5. To his credit, he did call for the elimination of assault weapons such as the AR-15 and to raise the age of an individual to purchase any gun to 21. It did not come as a surprise that Aquila was all for guns for teachers, siding with Trump and the NRA to arm 700,000 to 1.4 million teachers.
What did surprise me was the letter, (“Which world do you want to live in?”) March 3 by Scott McComas. In his letter, McComas sided with the GOP’s all too frequent response, “thoughts and prayers”. McComas warned that it was no use in enacting any laws in an attempt to stop mass shootings because they were going to happen anyway so we should just “. . . find solace and comfort in God to help deal with it”. Nothing else, that’s i. ! At least Aquila had something, as flawed as it was on the “Guns for teachers” idea. But to do nothing? The GOP and the NRA would be so proud.
But that wasn’t the end of the “thoughts and prayers” team. Another letter soon followed (“Result of ‘garbage, in, garbage out”) Machr 6 by Jeff Morrow. Morrow takes McComas one step further and states “...we will not be able to rein this in until we stop attacking the one true God.” and we should not look to our elected leaders for action because they are apparently just there for “fixing roads”. Like McComas, Morrow suggests we “. . . .hit our knees and look to the Lord Jesus” apparently switching from God to his son Jesus. I assume he was referring to the Christian God and not one of the other thousands of Gods that Man has invented over the centuries. Then we get another “Thoughts and Prayers” entry. This time it was Chuck Root (“Where the blame is”) on March 8. Root blames the whole thing on the Supreme Court’s decision to remove prayer from our schools and side with abortion. Root calls for us to fear God again. Yeah, right, throw in a little religious fear tactics that should do it. Root then claims America isn’t alone, people kill people all over the world and cites some worldwide killings. Yes Root, people kill people all over the world but they don’t use assault weapons to commit mass killings in schools. This only happens in America. Stop blowing smoke for the NRA you will only end up with black lung disease or something.
Then there the letter (“Implying police would kill teacher because he’s black”) March 7 by Amy Sullivan, who took no stance, offered no solution, only showing her complete lack of reality by taking offense at my scenario:
“One of my government jobs required a working knowledge of actuarial mathematics where you use statistics based on known factors to determine a statistical result. Now here is a little Actuarial math problem for you: The scene is a school hallway with dead and panicked, scrambling students and an active shooter armed with an AR-15 and 800 hundred rounds of ammunition left in his weapon and extra-large capacity magazines. Also in that same hallway a Black Teacher armed with a 10 shot Glock. Suddenly a 6 man SWAT team, armed with Assault weapons, each with 50 round clips storm the hallway. When the whole thing is over, how many bullet holes will be found in the Black School Teacher’s body?
Now if you still think Trump’s asinine idea is a good one, maybe not having a working knowledge of Actuarial Mathematics is not your biggest problem.
Notice I didn’t say where the bullets came from, that was part of the math exercise. Amy failed the test miserably.
Amy claims that scenario was racially insensitive and apparently would never happen. Apparently Amy doesn’t watch the news or read a newspaper or she would be well aware of national statistics of Black men with guns. Based on those statistics and data from such entities as The Guardian, black males between the ages of 15 and 34 are nine times more likely to be killed by police than any other demographic. Amy, have you not heard of the “Black Lives Matter” movement? What do you think that is all about? Abortion? Maybe Amy should climb out of her overly perfumed bubble and take a whiff of reality. Amy, shame on you for being so ill informed about reality, especially in this time of Trump when all manner of racism has been emboldened because of his actions supporting White Nationalist groups and the support he enjoys from the likes of the KKK. Shame Amy Sullivan, shame.
Larry Baca
Manteca
