Seemingly insane stories of young children being suspended from school for making a gun with their hand or dropping a "pinecone grenade" seem to be popping up in the news more and more. Why are we suspending six-year-olds for playing cops and robbers at recess but letting them play violent video games at home? Glenn explained the backwards thought we are ingraining into our children this morning on radio.
In Alexandria, VA, a young boy was suspended for bring a toy gun with an orange tip to school. Glenn points out that at this day in age, when school shootings are far to frequent, it's understandable that a teacher would call the police.
Glenn held up up an example of the type of fake gun you can find now. These guns don't always look like toys. In fact, the one Glenn held up looked like a the real thing.
"Unless you touch it, you have no idea it's not the real thing," Glenn explained. "What am I supposed to do? As a teacher, you call the police, right? But if you can see that it is a fake gun — stop it."
Glenn explained that we need to start using common sense when we are teaching kids right from wrong and to have a healthy respect for firearms. There is no reason to suspend someone over something that is obviously fake or if they make a gun out of their finger or a piece of paper.
This time of reaction is giving children an irrational fear of guns — one Glenn believes to be intentional. He explained that he knows people, that if they are in the room with an unloaded gun, will be terrified.
"If I tell them that it's real, and unloaded, they will not pick up the gun," he said.
Now look at that fear through the eyes of a young child.
Many families across the country will watch violent movies with their kids. They'll watch TV shows where people are using guns, shooting each other, etc.
"Many people in this country will have no problem showing them this, because they'll say, 'my kids know the difference'," Glenn explained.
But when a tragedy. like the horrific Sandy Hook massacre, occurs, they will not talk to their kids about it or let them watch the news stories about it on TV. They shield and protect them.
"We'll show them the fake violence in movies and on TV, but we'll protect them from the real violence," Glenn said. "Which one, in the big scheme of things — if you had to pick one — which one is more important to show your kids?"
"The real life scenario obviously," Pat responded.
But that's not what they see. Glenn explained that kids are shown the horrible consequences of real violence, only the entertaining versions. Kids go to toy stores with their parents and buy fake guns, but then, when they're in front of their teachers or other authority figures, they get into trouble.
"So now, this and every other kid at the school have been taught that what mom and dad bought for them at the Toys "R" Us — that you can brandish a toy and you can go to jail," Glenn explained.
"So now, when Dad says, 'let's go to the shooting range', do you thing this kid is going to have a healthy respect for guns? Or an irrational fear of guns?" Glenn asked.
He went on to explain that it is important for kids to have a healthy respect for guns. It's important that they know how bad guns are when in the hands of a mad man and how powerful that they are. But kids aren't shown the bad side of guns — only the entertaining "fun" side.
"It's all acting. It's just a game. You get points. It's a good movie. It's entertainment," Glenn said. "And then we have our police and our school systems teaching them that guns are bad. But they're teaching them much more than that."
Our society worships teachers. So while they're not telling the kids that "Mom and Dad are stupid," it's what the kids are learning. They're learning that 'Mom and Dad' don't understand.
"Our kids aren't trusted with the choice of apples or french fries. Our kids aren't trusted with a 16oz. soda. But our kids are trusted with the 'morning-after' pill and birth control," Glenn pointed out. "And that doesn't need a consultant. You are creating and killing life — you can make that decision at 13. But you need a license for a gun, and a psychological test."
To own a gun, they want you to have a license, have psychological evaluation, they want to know who's living in your house. But if you want an abortion, no problem, here's your pill. Kids are being taught that the values their parents are teaching them at home are irrelevant, because "teach knows best."
"I mean, if there's not a case to pull your kids out of school I don't know what it is."
