So, I’m a single dad with a teenage daughter. Like so many of us, I’m terrified of school shootings. However, we all know that congress will do nothing that doesn’t suit themelves and the owner donors and that even the most minor gun reform is a total non-starter. While social action and unionization efforts have been ways we’re using to sidestep the necessity of government intervention, on this issue, we’ve been essentially helpless.
To that end, I think I’ve devised a way to get some action to be taken, and I think the connections TYT has fostered over the years will be enough to get it rolling.
The idea is: if the majority of politicians across the country have finally just thrown up their hands and said, “I’ll be re-elected no matter what, so, too bad, we’re doing nothing about guns or school shootings,” what if, instead of going after the guns themselves, we get a bill introduced for funding to provide Kevlar backpack inserts to every single student in America?
Think about it:
- Nobody is touching anyone’s “gun rights” with this approach.
- We could request the money come from our bloated military budget.
-Speaking of which, who’s going to make the inserts? One of the many military contractors, of course (I know Raytheon is important in Elizabeth Warren’s state, for example) - It can even be pitched that soldiers hand them out to students for the PR (we know recruitment is hurting)
- It’s “bipartisan!” Everyone should be able to get behind a military-sponsored children’s protection initiative that saves the lives of our kids AND keeps everyone’s “Constitutional rights” untouched, right?
Here’s the sneaky bit. The inserts have to be “level 3.” Those are the only ones that actually withstand AR rounds. Anyone doing the news circuit who’s actually on our side could shout that from the rooftops. “If they’re not Level 3, they’re just asking for more dead children!”
But ALSO they’d have to be light enough for 1st graders, making it a contractor’s dream contract. Imagine the positive PR to come from developing “school technologies to protect children.”
ALSO ALSO, it forces a very public conversation that, “Oh my god, this is what we’ve come to in this country.” AND if any politicians oppose it, the attack ads write themselves: “These people won’t regulate the guns AND they won’t help kids survive the guns they didn’t regulate???”
There’s really no downside.
Well, there’s, “Who’s going to pay for it?” Um, I’d bet the American people are willing to put our taxes towards that, blue state or red.
Finally, pass or fail, just the publicity the legislation would create in the process would be a win for progressives. This isn’t even considering how it would make our “leaders” look on the international stage.
I just want something, anything, to be done for our kids, and I think this could be a clever, roundabout way to make it happen. I hope this idea can help.
TS