Historic guns cause unease

[biermeister]

This caught me by surprise considering VT is pretty liberal when it comes to guns plus the historic & educational aspect


WHITINGHAM -- When history buff James Dassatti was asked to do a presentation for a U.S. history class at the Twin Valley Middle School, he wanted to pull out all the stops.

As a Revolutionary and Civil War re-enactor and executive director of the Living History Association, Dassatti owns elaborate, historically accurate costumes that he wears for such occasions.

One of his goals is to help people imagine what fighting in a war must have been like, and his presentation isn’t really complete without allowing the audience to see live replicas of old firearms, he said.

So he was disappointed when, while making preparations, he was notified by the eighth-grade teacher that the Twin Valley School Board would not allow him to bring the historical muskets to school.

Dassatti said that with permission from school administrators, he had brought muskets into many schools over the years and only ran into resistance once.

www.reformer.com/ci_14014405?source=most_viewed

[eqfan592]

1. That's just sad. (nt)

[beevul]

2. Utterly ridiculous. N/T

[tburnsten]

3. Wow. Just wow.

So they ask him to come to the school to deliver a presentation on Civil War history/life of a Civil War Soldier, but he can't bring one of the more important pieces of history with him? That's just backwards. How insulting to him can they get? "we want you to teach our students about Civil War Soldier's life, however, you can't bring an unloaded musket-rifle with you because you might murder a student".


The administrators and teachers at that school need to get some sense bitch-slapped into them.

[Euromutt]

4. Possibly the dumbest quote from the article:

"These are functioning weapons, even though there is no ammunition, and basically we feel that times have changed," <Twin Valley School Board chairman Ed> Metcalfe said.

A firearm without ammunition is not functional; it cannot function. The purpose of a firearm is to propel a bullet by means of expanding gases resulting from combustion of the propellant. If there's no bullet and no propellant, the firearm cannot function.

Idiot.

[tburnsten]

5. I guess it could function as an akward and fragile club... N/T

[Jackson1999]

6. I think the dumbest part is the last part

"basically we feel that times have changed,"

Isn't that the whole point of a HISTORY class? To educate on how things once were?

[GreenStormCloud]

7. zero tolerance = zero sense. N/T

[virginia mountainman]

8. And people wonder, why many kids act the way they do..

When they find a gun...


It is because, they never where given the chance to see and hold one under control conditions.....