MPW: "The sad reality of the world we live in" SWAT Assault

We have seen the “new norm” at Glen Allen High School, and it should terrify us.

SWAT teams with riot shields sweeping through classrooms; students barricading themselves with furniture behind locked doors; officers toting assault-style rifles; frantic calls and texts between parents and their children.

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Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of Tuesday’s lockdown was that teachers attempted to go about their lessons as usual, even though students were understandably distressed.

Two decades ago, this show of force might have sparked outrage.

This week, it produced relief, gratitude and sorrow.

“It’s just the sad reality of the world we live in,” said Lori Haas, a Henrico County resident whose daughter was wounded in the April 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech. Students who’ve grown up since the 1999 school shooting at Colorado’s Columbine High School have been so exposed to gun violence that some of them see guns as the solution to their problems, she said.

With the easy availability of firearms, “we have to assume they can get their hands on them,” Haas said. “When police encounter some sort of threat with a firearm, they have to respond.”

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We appear to be resigned to this reality. Better safe than sorry, right? But if Virginia Tech officials stood accused of not being nearly responsive enough to a threat, is there still room to at least consider that Tuesday was a bit much? And is it justifiable to worry that we’re assigning too much power to the prankster who might phone in a threat for the thrill of watching a massive police mobilization?

Are we OK with locked-down schools, redirected traffic and tactical teams combing the hallways, yelling “Hands up!” to alarmed adolescents? And is this new norm preferable to actually keeping firearms out of unsupervised minors’ hands in the first place?

Haas said she was saddened by Tuesday’s events at Glen Allen, but said Virginia’s loose gun laws warrant that type of police response. “We’ve seen school shootings in Virginia. And the criticism would be much greater if they hadn’t responded.

“This scenario is the very reason I do the work that I do,” the activist said. “I don’t want my grandchildren growing up with the shooter drills.”

“Without a war, we are becoming a war-torn country, with everyone armed to the teeth, because of the gun lobby’s desire to sell a firearm at any cost — the cost to our children, the cost to our grandchildren, the cost to our society, the cost to our way of life,” she said.

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Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe appears to be less than sympathetic to the pro-gun point of view.

“I don’t care what grade I got from the NRA,” he said in one of the more memorable quotes of the gubernatorial campaign. “As governor, I want to make sure our communities are safe. I never want to see another Newtown or Aurora or Virginia Tech ever again.”

Such a bold stance will go to waste if we’re willing to acquiesce to each lowered bar or descend each slippery slope, cowering along the way at the treacherous world we’ve helped create.

This new normal is anything but. It is becoming increasingly clear: If we don’t gain greater control of the guns, the guns will control us.

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va_tazdad said:

is it normal for SWAT members to enter a classroom with guns pointed at students while ordering them to raise their hands?

How could parents NOT be outraged by this?

Watch the news video where they keep showing the storm troopers entering the classrooms terrorizing the children instead of assuring them it is ok or safe.

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va_tazdad said:

Watch the news video where they keep showing the storm troopers entering the classrooms terrorizing the children instead of assuring them it is ok or safe.

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Blk97F150 said:

It gets the kids acclimated to militarized police tactics at an early age.... so they know what to expect when they get older, and will 'cooperate'. :uhoh:

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Blk97F150 said:

It gets the kids acclimated to militarized police tactics at an early age.... so they know what to expect when they get older, and will 'cooperate'. :uhoh:

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