AL State Senator says Ten Commandments in public schools could potentially prevent school shootings

[DonViejo]

By Chip Brownlee
Alabama Political Reporter

The Alabama Senate on Tuesday approved a bill by Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, that would authorize a state referendum on whether to allow the display of the Ten Commandments on public property and public schools — a proposal he says may prevent some mass shootings.

The bill passed the Legislature’s upper chamber by a vote of 23 to 3 after Dial told lawmakers that displaying the Ten Commandments might dissuade some school shooters from carrying out an attack.

“I believe that if you had the Ten Commandments posted in a prominent place in school, it has the possibility to prohibit some student from taking action to kill other students,” Dial said. The East Alabama senator’s comments come just a few weeks after a 19-year-old shot and killed 17 students and educators at Parkland High School in southern Florida.

“If this bill stops one school shooting in Alabama, just one, then it’s worth the time and effort we’re putting into it,” Dial said.

The bill calls for a constitutional amendment to approve the displays and would require a statewide vote on November’s general election ballot.

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https://www.alreporter.com/2018/02/28/senator-says-ten-commandments-public-schools-potentially-prevent-school-shootings/

[gratuitous]

1. Weapons grade stupid

I can just see Nikolas Cruz, striding through the halls at Stoneman Douglas High, spotting a Ten Commandments display and saying, "Holy Carp! 'Thou shalt not kill'?! Well hoocouldanode?" Tossing his weapons aside, he lays prone on the ground and waits to be taken into custody.

Something like that, Sen. Dial?

So glad there's nothing else on the agenda in Alabama that they can waste so much time and money on this unconstitutional foolishness.

[rurallib]

2. Get me some of what he is drinking. I want to leave reality for a while.

[haele]

3. Not this shit again...

1. Which version of the 10 commandments?

2. The shooters who might be stopped by a public show of "Religion" are also the ones who are typically planning to shoot for God. In fact, posting the 10 Commandments on the school ground might actually encourage them to "shoot the unbelievers" and save the poor beleaguered school for the few "Real Christians" that are attending.

Because that's the way hyper-religious, fear and hate driven nutjobs think. They think they've got a command to fight evil, destroy the sin, and bring righteous retribution on the sinners as if they were slaves of some sort of drunk, abusive, self-hating father figure fighting for crumbs from His table.

Haele

[Stallion]

4. The Stupid--it BURNS!!!

better yet take that money and fund a history class on the Constitutional mandates of the First Amendment concerning the establishment of religion and the separation of church and state. And once they learn the First Amendment keep going

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Oh, FFS.

Religious symbols don't seem to have done much good in actual church shootings, so why would one change anybody's mind in a school? Like a shooter will come in and see the thing and think, "Oh! There's the Ten Commandments! It says 'Though Shalt Not Kill.' So, never mind," and walk away.

Do these nitwits actually believe their own bullshit?

[atreides1]

6. Saw a picture of the Senator

He looks as if he were there when the original commandments were given to Moses!!!

[jberryhill]

7. But will it stop them from coveting their neighbor's wife?

[Crunchy Frog]

31. Or their neighbor's ass?

[jberryhill]

35. Yeah, that...

I always used to puzzle over that one. Don't covet your neighbor's wife, or his ass, etc., which kind of leaves your neighbor's wife's ass fair game.

[Crunchy Frog]

37. You can't covet your neighbor's wife,

And you can't covet your neighbor's ass, but you can covet your neighbor's wife's ass.

[jberryhill]

38. Which, in my neighborhood, is not that much of a draw anyway

[lpbk2713]

8. Hang a horse shoe over the front door.

And issue every student a lucky penny.

Same amount of good will be derived.

[blake2012]

9. Elected Republicans from Alabama have no standing in any argument after Roy Moore

Hey AL GOP knuckle draggers! Shut the fuck up.

[Initech]

10. Fucking morons!!!!!

No, the Ten Commandments displayed at schools isn't going to prevent mass shootings. You know what will prevent mass shootings? Less guns. It's that fucking obvious!

[sinkingfeeling]

11. Only if they're a foot thick and solid iron and big enough for the entire

school to hide behind.

[Yonnie3]

12. I can say (without any research) that it might increase shootings.

Consider the armed student with a deep resentment of authority having ten commandments in his face every day.

A belief based "fact" is, of course, indisputable.

[Greybnk48]

13. It's worked so well for the Churches that have been shot up. n/t

[ProfessorGAC]

14. Breaking: AL State Senator Proven To Be A Blithering Idiot

He just proved it himself.

[sarisataka]

15. Large stone tablets

Above the doors to drop on shooters?

[Aristus]

16. Well, if it doesn't prevent shootings in churches,

how the Hell (literally) could it prevent shootings in schools?

[MurrayDelph]

17. The only way a Ten Commandments monument

would prevent school shootings is if it's used to hide a really big-ass electromagnet.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

24. Now THAT is a suggestion

someone ought to act on.

[mythology]

18. While there are obviously constitutional issues with this

Odd things like a picture of an eye has been found to decrease stealing. Granted different scale of anti-social behavior, but it's something that could be researched to help until we can get greater restrictions around guns.

[jberryhill]

36. A picture of an eye decreases stealing?

Who knew?

[VOX]

19. Alabamians shamelessly using tragedy as cover for putting religious signage on state property.

They seem to be stuck on repeat-play for this losing gambit. See: Roy Moore.

[Roland99]

20. What about the churches?? Fucking idiot zealots

[kimbutgar]

21. I keep thinking back to the Parkland student student saying

People like him are going to die soon and the youth will be around a lot younger. That old pasty dude got maybe 20 years left max. Every time I hear this crap it’s an old pasty white guy, or some over 50 year old white women with blonde hair.

[Weed Man]

22. Yeah, except that Republicans break every single commandment in the 10 commandments

Does that make them hypocrites?

Well, that, and praying to an invisible sky god.

[Blue_true]

23. Yes, if kids can hold the granite slab up between them and a shooter.

Otherwise the Ten Commandments do nothing to prevent school shootings.

[Nitram]

25. They've been saying this crap for years.

Along with"prayer in the schools would prevent gun violence." It occurs to me that they think the 10 Commandments are a magic talisman that will prevent harm from befalling the occupants of a room where it is hanging.

[IllinoisBirdWatcher]

26. When an AR-15 is blasting away, just kneel and recite the Ten Commandments

The bullets will just bounce off of you and hit someone else.

But just remember that the brave NRA heroes won't allow ANY guns in their meetings.

[njhoneybadger]

27. Oh for fucks sake die already you old fool

[C_U_L8R]

28. How about one commandment

Thou shalt not buy, sell or use weapons that can hurt or kill people

[Crunchy Frog]

29. They haven't been stopping church shootings.

[Solly Mack]

30. Pure, unadulterated ignorance.

Happy, blissful ignorance. Stubbornly persistent ignorance. And people cling to it for dear life. Live in ignorance - infecting their progeny with ignorance along the way. Die in ignorance. The halcyon throes of their last ignorant conviction telling them their ignorance will carry them to greatness. It's a mutual admiration society of ignorance. So certain there is virtue in their ignorance. Just.so.certain.

Idiots.

[PJMcK]

32. It's unconstitutional

It's a waste of money and time.

What's the matter with you, Alabama?

[scheming daemons]

33. The 10 commandments didn't help the churchgoers in Texas a couple months ago...

[defacto7]

34. It didn't stop Moses or Joshua from killing

thousands of innocent people thereafter. Why should it stop shootings?

(per that book)

[struggle4progress]

39. The actual bill is for a proposal to amend the AL constitution to allow "ten commandments" displays

in schools and on other public property

The bill itself doesn't seem to contemplate any possible effects on school shootings: it is styled as a religious liberty bill

It is a pointless bill for several reasons:

(1) the proposed change to AL law says "The Ten Commandments shall be displayed in a manner that complies with constitutional requirements, including, but not limited to, being intermingled with historical or educational items, or both, in a larger display within or on property owned or administrated by a public school or public body" -- but why change the law to allow displays that are already lawful?

(2) the bill also says "No public funds may be expended in defense of the constitutionality of this amendment" -- so if what is being done DOES seem unconstitutional, AL won't defend it

"We don't want to do anything. But if we don't do anything somebody might complain. So let's do something that doesn't accomplish anything; and let's be very noisy about it. How about Dial talks about how this will help stop school shootings? Lots of noise!"