Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 12/18/2009 6:33:28 AM PST by GL of Sector 2814
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.
(...)
Ed Metcalfe, Twin Valley School Board chairman, said the board decided to stick to its guns when it comes to its no tolerance weapons policy because the precedent had already been set.
"These are funtioning weapons, even though there is no ammunition, and basically we feel that times have changed," Metcalfe said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reformer.com ...
Cars are fine. It’s those evil SUVs you have to worry about.
"(2) Possession and use of firearms or dangerous or deadly weapons if the board of school directors, or the superintendent or principal if delegated authority to do so by the board, authorizes possession or use for specific occasions or for instructional or other specific purposes."
http://www.atg.state.vt.us/issues/gun-laws.php
The board is ignorant and chooses to keep the students that way too!
Why are they upset, these educators? Aren’t they the ones who constantly tell us that these are the type of weapons the Second Amendment was talking about and not those dangerous automatic weapons of today?
In 1995 I and several other reenactors visited a middle school near Columbia, SC with our uniforms, accoutrements, and flintlock muskets (2nd Regiment S.C. Line).
The kids were fascinated with the muskets and my doing the load, present, and `fire!’ drill. But when I first fired the musket (into the air), they all fell to the ground!
The teacher who had invited us explained that most of the kids came from ‘hoods where drug dealing was rife and gunfire was nightly. They had been trained to drop to the floor if a shot rang out, then climb into the bathtub for protection. How sad and tragic.
Later on, though, I reloaded my musket several times and held it while kids grasped the grip and pulled the trigger. It may have been their first experience with firearms where crime was not involved.
I hear the same demonstration is being done at local schools even today. This after all is South Carolina, a gun-friendly state for the most part.
But yes, most school officials tend to be self-important officious P.C. morons with too much power
When I was a kid, they had a musketry re-enactment group that gathered the last Saturday every April and September. There were just a couple dozen on each side, but it was very realistic. They used Civil War uniforms for their April re-enactment, and Revolutionary War uniforms for September. They also used a little muzzle-loading cannon with a 2-inch bore that fired blanks, and was hauled around with a team of horses.
It was not 100 percent accurate. But it gave the kids some idea of what those wars were like. There was also a buck skinners’ rendezvous during the summer, complete with the coonskin caps.
These were farm communities with a lot of creeks and woods for hunting, and game was plentiful, so most of these kids weren’t strangers to firearms or the great outdoors. But muzzle-loaders’ events were very educational. Those days are gone forever. Most of the area is covered with golf courses, expressways and McMansions now.
He actually went on leave a few years later to "find himself" in the desert. turns out he really was crazy in the clinical sense. Still liked the guy.
Ed Metcalf has a small penis too...
Ten years ago and it's already "The good ole days". Back in the late '60s I was with the Brigade of the American Revolution (skirmishers with flintlocks) and on one July 4th we got into uniform and set up a "recruiting station" outside an anchor grocery store. (We sweated like fury as the uniforms were wool.) As each kid came by, we asked them to "Take the King's shilling" and enlist. The kid got a copy of an old English shilling note if he "made his mark".
We also gave demos - no firing but did prime and shoot - introducing them to the origins of some old sayings like "flash in the pan" (misfire), "going off half cocked" (lock malfunction) and "lock, stock and barrel" (the whole Kahuna). Store management didn't have a problem (we got their OK beforehand) and most all the people got a kick out of it.
In 1961, as part of the 3rd South Carolina, we took part in Charleston's 100th anniversary of the firing on Ft. Sumter by marching in a parade down Main Street. As a transplanted Yankee, I got quite a bit of nationalistic pride when I saw people take off their hats when the state flag passed - have never seen that before or since.
Our uniforms were mostly slightly tattered jackets and grey pants from Goodwill held up by suspenders. Not very original, but we added a tin coffee cup, a skillet and in one case, a fake dead chicken and hung them from the ammo belt. After the parade, we had city folks come up and ask, somewhat in awe, "Are you HILL people?" We should have told them "yup" and spit (we chewed licorice as a real "chaw" nearly killed us) but we weren't quick enough and told 'em we were just re-enactors. We did a loading and firing demo at a city park and one old timer came up and said, "When you boys was a-loadin', it sounded like you was a-churnin' butter."
Because of that exposure we were invited to do a demo at one of the races at the Darlington race track. The damned announcer came on and said "And now, the CRACK DRILL TEAM, the 3rd South Carolina!" (I could have killed him as we barely could march in cadence.) We winged it, all five of us, and marched out into that gigantic stadium that was filled to the brim (I got some idea of what a gladiator felt like) - fired two volleys AT THE CROWD (everybody cheered) and marched off.
How times change! Thanks for giving me a chance to go down memory lane.
You're right, Metcalfe. Back in the day, they didn't let hoplophobic girly-men be principals of schools. But you're still wrong.
Ooh, excellent point!
M.O.R.O.N.S.
The folks in Iraq, Afghanistan and other such places have found "interesting" ways to use cars. We could do the same if we needed to.
>”These are funtioning weapons, even though there is no ammunition, and basically we feel that times have changed,” Metcalfe said.
Isn’t that the WHOLE POINT of bringing in the whole historical assembly? </exhasperation>
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