a writer's 'unbiased' opinion.....
Quit Shooting Your Mouth Off
By James Falcon
December 21, 2005
Gun control is a very controversial subject, especially when young children are involved.
In the case of Linnea C. Holdren, a forty-three-year old elementary school teacher in Shickshinny, Pennsylvania, if children are in possession of guns, they should be allowed access anytime, anywhere. Even if the "anywhere" is the classroom.
On November 23rd and 29th, 2005, Holdren's eleven-year-old son brought a loaded handgun into school. Because of his show-and-tell tendencies with weaponry, Holdren faces felony child endangerment charges, as well as the possibility of losing her teacher's license. (Possibility??!). Her son faces expulsion (so his off-school hours can be devoted to target practice).
"I can't lock up his guns.", Ms. Holdren cried out to police when they offered her a gun lock. "They [the guns] belong to him, and he has a right to use them whenever he wants to use them."
And this, from a teacher/parent? It was attitudes like this that may have helped aid past school shootings (Jonesboro, Columbine, et al.) A woman (or any person) in her position as a teacher should understand the strong benefits of gun control and children. Would she feel the same for any other child, for children who may use guns fore more than show-and-tell? Would she justify her feelings in the same way if she a student pointed said gun in her direction?
It sends a shiver down my spine to know that a teacher - a person who is entrusted with the care of young students - has such loose ethics when it comes to gun control, especially when youth are concerned.
The combined efforts of a parent who doesn't have a high regard to the safety of her son and others, and an eleven-year old boy (who knows better) who brings a loaded gun to school is trouble ahead.
First of all, what is an eleven year old boy doing with a .22-calibre pistol? It would be a different story if he was using the guns for hunting, but a .22-calibre pistol is a small gun (Holdren's son had it in his pocket). It certainly is not a rifle or another common hunting gun. While I am not saying that the story would be different if he did bring a rifle to school, the fact remains that her son had access to guns, period. Any teacher worth her salt can tell you that children + guns = danger.
Getting back to what I had said earlier, Holdren should indeed lose her teacher's license. Holdren, who must have graduated from the Charlton Heston School for Teachers, is not teaching wise life lessons.
In addition to her relaxed attitude towards keeping guns in the access path of children, she also encouraged her son to lie during a police interrogation. Her son had told police that he had been conducting target practice before school and had forgotten that he still had the gun on his person. A likely story, even if conceived by a forty-three year old woman.
Perhaps when Holdren looses her teachers license (which she most likely will), she could go on to bigger and better things, given her history on gun control and lying to the authorities. The White House is always looking for fresh-faced interns.
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James Falcon is a freelance writer based in Rolette, North Dakota. He is also a Co-Editor and Staff Writer for the Tanasi Journal. Falcon can be reached for comment at:
[email protected]
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=4338
I think the writer soiled his dress when he first read the story....
