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Robert Barron column: Assault rifles make me nervous

There has to be a better way than to traumatize the kids in our schools

The sight of RCMP officers armed with assault rifles as I approached the front doors of Cowichan Secondary School earlier this month stopped me in my tracks.

I went to the school when the facility went into lockdown after an online threat was received early in the morning on March 2.

It’s standard procedure for CSS to go into a precautionary lockdown when such threats are received and, considering the increasing number of atrocious attacks against schools south of the border these days, I don’t blame school officials for being cautious.

In this case, the RCMP arrested a 15-year-old connected to the case close to the school soon after the threats were received and the lockdown was quickly lifted and CSS returned to normal operations.

I commend the RCMP for their fast response and the arrest in this case, even if it appeared to be nothing more than juvenile threats that likely would never have been acted on, but I wonder what value there was to entering the school with assault weapons at the ready.

I’m guessing that the intent of such a display of brute force is to intimidate anyone in the school considering a heinous act.

With the police dealing with, at the time, an unknown threat, I guess reasonable precautions were considered justified.

But I know that if I was a young student at the school, the sight of people in the hallways with assault rifles, whether they are police officers or not, would have scared me half to death.

Remember that the kids at the school just recently witnessed the aftermath of the killings of 17 students in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, with 17 others injured, at the hands of a former classmate with an assault rifle that, to an untrained eye, looked frighteningly similar to the weapons carried by the police at CSS.

Then there’s the fact that the shocking attack in Florida was just the latest in what seems to be an unending series of assaults by deranged students at schools in the U.S. who appear to have limitless access to weapons that are designed to be used in battle conditions.

Dozens of young kids have died in the U.S. from these attacks in recent years, snuffing out their youthful lives even before they really began, and there seems to be no end in sight as long as American authorities refuse to grab the bull by the horns and finally put some restrictions on these weapons.

It should be said that I’ve never been a big fan of guns.

I grew up in a relatively safe city and environment that never required guns to feel secure.

When I was younger, even the police in my hometown didn’t carry hand guns so firearms have never played a big part in my life.

However, I have come to understand the value of guns to farmers who have to protect their herds, and hunters looking to provide food for their families and communities, so I’m not totally opposed to them.

But I’m hoping that the local police will come up with a better response than to swarm our schools with people carrying assault rifles every time a threat is received.

There has to be a better way than to traumatize the kids in our schools.

Robert Barron is a reporter with the Cowichan Valley Citizen. He can be reached at Robert.Barron@cowichanvalleycitizen.com.



Robert Barron

About the Author: Robert Barron

Since 2016, I've had had the pleasure of working with our dedicated staff and community in the Cowichan Valley.
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