Candidate seeks textbooks as shields (Oklahoma Republican)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/10/19/candidate_seeks_textbooks_as_shields/?rss_id=Boston.com+%2F+News

A candidate for state superintendent of schools said Thursday he wants thick used textbooks placed under every student's desk so they can use them for self-defense during school shootings.

"People might think it's kind of weird, crazy," said Republican Bill Crozier of Union City, a teacher and former Air Force security officer. "It is a practical thing; it's something you can do. It might be a way to deflect those bullets until police go there."

Crozier and a group of aides produced a 10-minute video Tuesday in which they shoot math, language and telephone books with a variety of weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle and a 9mm pistol. The rifle bullet penetrated two books, including a calculus textbook, but the pistol bullet was stopped by a single book.

Crozier said the demonstration shows that a student could effectively use a textbook as protection in a school shooting.

An Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokesman was skeptical.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Red States

I guess that red states have to worry about these things.

[brentspeak]

19. You guessed wrong -- blue states have to worry about them too

What state did the Amish schoolchildren massacre take place?

[TygrBright]

2. What IS it?!? Something in the water?!? Something genetic?!?

I do NOT get the "fiddling while Rome burns" thing...

Or does the DNC really have that secret weapon, the "nutty distraction ray?"

amazedly,
Bright

[casus belli]

3. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall...

for that meeting of the minds.

Superintendent wannabe: "No, seriously Bill, hear me out. We take lots of these here books and then if someone comes a shootin', all they gotta do is hold the book up like this here."

Bill, the skeptical OK patrolman: "Well, what if the shooter shoots 'em in the chaist while they're holdin' it up to cover their haid?"

<crickets>

[newyawker99]

12. Hi casus belli!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[struggle4progress]

4. Republican candidates needed to test textbooks as shields

No experience required. Job involves simulating a student protecting himself or herself, by holding a textbook in front of head or chest as firearms are discharged. Simulations will include handguns, rifles, and various available semi-automatics.

Employees provide own health insurance and sign liability waiver, indemnifying other parties including gun and textbook manufacturers from any claims in the event of accidental injury following unexpected penetration of the textbook by projectile. No retirement plan is needed.

[Suich]

5. Maybe everbody could just throw

the books at the guy with the gun.

:banghead:

[Kiouni]

6. oh yeah thats the solution

when i was a paramedic there was the argument of whether or not we should wear bullet proof vests. on one hand we could be more protected in situations but on the other hand we would be more apt to run into a gun fight. it creates a false sense of security and thats it.

[HuffleClaw]

7. *snicker*

what a buffoon. i wonder if he wants say, only SCIENCE books to be used.

[NMMNG]

8. Great idea!

And better yet, let the kids keep Bibles under their desks--because nobody would shoot a kid holding a Bible. :sarcasm:

[NOLADEM]

9. What the hell are they putting in the water in Oklahoma??

Wow, this guy is fucking retarded.

[Supersedeas]

16. what next--text books for target practice--learn them childrens some self-

defense

[benEzra]

10. That's idiotic. (n/t)

[benEzra]

11. Some gun-owning DU'ers have been conducting experiments...

:D

and this won't work. From the other thread:

ThomWV

I Just Tried It With A 9mm On A Thick Hardcover Book

I just took my Beretta Cougar 8000F (INOX), loaded with CCI "Blazer Brass" 115 grain full metal jacket bullits and shot a copy of John Gunther's "Inside South America"; 1967, Harper & Roe, 608 pages, hardcover.

The bullit passed completely through the book with enough residual energy to penetrate the endgrain of a chunk of white oak firewood. It is burried so deep in the wood that I can not see it, only its entry wound to the wood

rkc3

Did the same thing to a paperback copy of Anna Karenina with a 30.06 from about 50 yards. The book, about 700 pages, was basically blown in half.

For non-gunnies, 9mm is a pistol cartridge of moderate power, and .30-06 is a deer rifle. I'm not surprised that a book won't stop .30-06 (even a softnosed hunting bullet from a .30-06 can penetrate a half inch thick steel plate, and will go through Kevlar body armor like Saran Wrap), but if a 608-page book won't even stop a 9mm round, then it's fairly useless as cover.

[cap]

18. did you try "War and Peace"

I heard it's a bigger novel.

/irony

[yellowcanine]

13. If Dan Burton gets wind of this some more watermelons are gonna die.

Burton will be testing the protective power of those textbooks using watermelons.

[karlrschneider]

14. Why not pumpkins!...they're plentiful around here!

:eyes:

[Dr Fate]

15. Next they will be sending them to troops in Iraq. n/t

n/t

[daleo]

17. Maybe they should have copies of "Bonfire of the Vanities"

It's pretty thick, and that way it would be useful for something.

[MonteSano]

20. HAHAHAHA!!