Thursday, December 27, 2012

Mark Steyn on Gun Controls in Schools: the Arizona Connection

State Seal of Arizona.
State Seal of Arizona. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
"Instead of having these namby-pamby gun-free zones, it would be much better to have a situation where a school district designates somebody -- a member of the community, a teacher, a custodian -- to be the person who is armed. They would make a huge difference." - Mark Steyn

Speak of the devil...


I kind of like the idea. It would have come in handy back in Canada a bunch of years ago when the fatherless son of a Muslim immigrant, Marc Lépine, took his legally obtained Mini-14 rifle and went on his murderous rampage -- an event immortalized in Canada's annual remembrance of the risks of Muslim immigration and being raised fatherless (just kidding on that last dreadfully politically incorrect comment -- the event has been appropriated by perfectly politically correct forces).

Having spent time in both Arizona and New Hampshire (channeling Bill Murray now... "New Hampshire?!), I would say Arizona lives closer to New Hampshire's "Live Free or Die" motto. In Arizona, we get Groupons for gun training.

It would certainly give a would-be villain pause to think the citizen he's thinking of ripping-off may be packin' heat. I know it makes me stop and think twice before rolling a guy.

Arizona's motto, by the way, is Ditat Deus. In keeping with the spirit of the season I am offering an annual subscription, free and postage-paid, to the first Ball Bounces reader who can tell us what this motto means without Googling it.

Even if you don't know, go for it -- how wrong can you be?

Happy 3rd day of Christmas!

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5 comments:

Anon1152 said...

Ditat Deus?

I'm guessing Word of God... or Dictate of God... or something like that. To be honest, I need to Google.

... I was wrong.

You can see where I went wrong though, right?

*

As for the content of your post, I think you are mistaken when you call Lépine a "Muslim immigrant". According to Wikipedia, he was born in Montreal. His father was the Muslim immigrant.

Wikipedia also claims that his father was horribly abusive. Perhaps if his father was completely absent, things would have turned out differently.

*

As for armed guards in the schools... I'm not sure that would make much of a difference. Wasn't there an armed guard at Columbine? http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/columbine.cd/Pages/DEPUTIES_TEXT.htm

BallBounces said...

Anon1152. I'll update the post and split the royalties with you 50-50. Make that 40-60.

I'm with you on the motto.

You're also right about armed guards not necessarily making a difference.

Anon1152 said...

I'm afraid that if you start issuing me royalty cheques, Stats Canada will come after me.

MadTrucker said...

Google Translate sez "Ditat Deus" means "god enriches". Nice.

BallBounces said...

It is nice.

"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"