Keeping Our Children Safe At School With Grenade Launchers?

Militarization of our police forces has been a hot topic off and on. It became a very hot topic after the Fergusun, Missouri fiasco and, as a result, the federal government has initiated another “investigation” into to their own role in supplying military equipment to police forces around the country. Interestingly, the negative reaction has come from both the sides of the political spectrum.

I’m wondering why we haven’t seen this same bipartisan outrage over the militarization of our public schools? You’re not aware that public schools are also being militarized? Maybe that’s because the story is being under reported by President Obama’s propaganda machine, also known as the main stream media. Had this happened under a Republican president, the MSM talking heads wouldn’t stop attacking that president.

Well, the Wall Street Journal did run the story. Access to the article requires you have a subscription, which Asylum Watch doesn’t have. However, Zero Hedge does and they did quote the WSJ story. Allow me share a few:

A federal program that has drawn criticism in recent weeks for supplying surplus military gear to local police has also provided high-powered rifles, armored vehicles and other equipment to police at public schools, some of whom were unprepared for what they were getting.

What “other” equipment might they be unprepared for using?

The Los Angeles Unified School District stocked up on grenade launchers, M16 rifles and even a multi-ton armored vehicle from the program. But the district is getting rid of the grenade launchers, which it never intended to use to launch grenades or use in a school setting, said Steven Zipperman, chief of the Los Angeles Schools Police Department. The launchers, received in 2001, might have helped other police in the county disperse crowds by shooting rubber munitions, he said.

Well, that’s a relief. They intend to get rid of the grenade launchers. They will give to the county please,who, if needed, can be called-in to fire rubber munitions. What were these people thinking in the first place?  Oh! They decided to keep one of these:

MRAP:

In July, the district received a massive MRAP armored vehicle. Mr. Zipperman said his department thought it could be useful for evacuations and to save lives in a “sustained incident.”

Some parents choose to send their children to military academies. Mos, however, do not.

Less you think L.A. is the only case public schools being militarized, the WSJ has more to report.

In Texas, near the Mexican border, the sprawling Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District has 34,700 students and operates its own SWAT team, thanks in part to military gear it received in recent years from the federal program. The gear included two Humvees and a cargo truck, as well as power generators, said district Police Chief Ricardo Perez. The district applied for weapons, too, but wasn’t given any, so instead purchased its own M4 and AR-15 assault-style rifles, he said.

The weapons are given to schools through the 1033 Program, created by Congress in the early 1990s to allow law-enforcement agencies to obtain excess Defense Department supplies, paying only for shipping. The program has transferred $5.1 billion in items, including $4.5 million worth in 2013.

Among recipients are more than a dozen school police departments, according to a spreadsheet from the Defense Logistics Agency, which runs the program. But for security reasons the list excludes districts that received only “tactical” gear such as weapons, as opposed to other types of supplies. That means the list likely understates the number of districts that participated.

Following the killing of twenty children and six staff at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 12, 2012, by Adam Lanza, the debate over gun control raged for weeks, if not months. Those on the Right argued that if the school’s Principle and/or the security guard had been armed, maybe some of those children would not have died that terrible day. Those on the Left, of course, argued that all guns should be banned.

So, where is the outrage from the Left over the militarization of our public schools? Or, is it just the citizens they want to disarm?

Well, that’s what I’m thinking. What are your thoughts?