THE HOCKEY PUCK STORY IS A REMINDER THAT THE GUNNERS ARE STILL WINNING

Hey America, how can you tell you're failing to deal effectively with your violent-sociopath problem? It's obvious when you're resorting to responses like this one from Michigan:

To prepare for an active shooter, faculty and students at Oakland University are arming themselves — with hockey pucks.

The idea of using the quirky self-defense tool grew out of a training session Police Chief Mark Gordon led in March for faculty members on what they should do if a gunman enters their classroom.

A participant asked what people could bring to campus to be better prepared in case they need to fight back. The university has a no-weapons policy.

Gordon's advice? Be ready to throw something — anything — that could distract a shooter, even a hockey puck, as a last resort if fleeing or hiding aren't an option....

Following up on the suggestion, Tom Discenna, a professor of communication and president of the faculty union, spearheaded an effort by the union to purchase 2,500, 94-cent hockey pucks — 800 for union members and another 1,700 for students. Distribution of the pucks on campus began earlier this month.

"It’s just the idea of having something, a reminder that you’re not powerless and you’re not helpless in the classroom," Discenna said.

I thought this story might go viral on the left, but I see that it's being eagerly spread on the right.



Breitbart, the Daily Wire, the Blaze, the Daily Caller -- and also the College Fix, where the headline

Michigan University Gives Professors Hockey Pucks to Fight Off Shooters

is followed by this subhead:

Instead of, you know, guns

How can we argue? The message of the pucks is that we have no answer for gun violence in America except to assume that it's inevitable and find a way to defend ourselves. If that's the case, of course the conservatives are going to say, Well, obviously, the best way to defend yourself against a gun is a gun.

There is one proposal that doesn't involve defensive weaponry:

The little black discs have a dual purpose: They are also part of a campaign to raise funds to install interior locks on classroom doors. Some doors are only lockable from the hallway.

The pucks are imprinted with a number that people can enter on the university's website to donate money toward the new locks....

The American Association of University Professors union has donated $5,000 toward new inside locks for the 37 classrooms in South Foundation Hall. The student government, Oakland University Student Congress, has made a donation in the same amount for new locks in an as-yet-to-be-determined building.

Why not just make it a priority to fund the locks and get them installed on every door? Oh, right -- Oakland is a public university, in a state with a Republican-majority House, Senate, and (until January) governor. So I'm sure money is kept as tight as possible. Hey, it's only life and death!

I don't care how much money the NRA lost in 2017 -- it's still the gun lobby's country, and we just shelter in place in it.