Becoming Annie Oakley

One year, when I was a young girl, my Christmas stocking held a pretty surprise. It was a bar of perfumed soap with the decal of a Victorian beauty on it. This girl was my mother's ideal of the perfect daughter, a thoroughly daunting assignment. Around the same time neighbor caught me in a telling snapshot ... mahogany from sun and surf, limbs as thin as pipe cleaners, a thicket of black hair blowing in all directions, shoeless. It was an accurate depiction. I wore no shoes, took no bath or nap willingly, ate on the run, could not sit still. My mother expressed herself in epithets, from Imp of Satan to Hoyden. She suggested I be returned to the Indians, whose child I must be.  

     My Father, by contrast, grew up motherless and without female siblings. He had no son, so he willingly taught me invaluable life lessons, placing no limitation on what I could achieve. He taught me to ride a horse, fly a plane, sail, navigate by the heavens ... take apart, maintain, load and shoot guns. I can shoot a rifle or hunting bow, clean and skin an elk with the best of 'em. Nonetheless I vehemently disagree with Nevada Assembly Member, Michelle Fiore, who recommends female college students pack guns. Her characterization of college women as "hot little girls," only adds fuel to my fire. Clearly Ms. Fiore has stayed in Las Vegas ... too long. In any event her remarks and her suggestion serve neither men nor women.  

     
    I have taught many high school students, male and female. I have also supervised juvenile offenders in workplaces. I wonder how much the world has changed, in terms of preparing coeds for life in the real world. Few of the young women I taught had more than a brush with formal self-defense training. Absent that exposure wresting a weapon from one of them would pose little challenge to a predator. We cannot all be Annie Oakley. Consider what is required of a sharpshooter: 1) superb eyesight, physical and mental fitness, mature judgment, as well as highly developed self-control. In addition anyone who proposes to carry a loaded gun must be willing to: 1) learn and practice maintaining, loading and shooting the weapon; 2) always secure the weapon; 3) aim and shoot with intent; 4) shoot without hesitation. So, thinking about equal opportunity offenders, how would the Assembly Woman recommend we protect our young men from their gun-toting counterparts? 

     Thank God both the Victorian feminine idol, and Annie Oakley, have faded to historical fantasy. Perhaps I simply do not grasp the romance of Victorian England or the American Frontier. (I am more Annie Oakley than Lady Crowley, I must say.) Like it or not, though, my mother held me to standards of feminine behavior in dress, manner and accomplishment, some of which harkened to Victorian times. I have daughters, whose grandmother occasionally outvoted me. As modern as my aspirations were, however, they did not include preparing the girls to pack heat. Of course some young women choose careers in the military or police. Whatever their choices in education and careers, we hope against hope our daughters' life experiences do not make them either femmes fatales, nor ruthless gang members.

Your genetics load the gun. Your lifestyle pulls the trigger. -Mehmet Oz

     What is our last, best hope for ensuring the safety of our college women and men? I believe school safety at any level is latent in the doctrine of in loco parentis. From Common Law to modern school policy, the doctrine has been misunderstood and perverted, and needs to evolve. The original intention was to give educators custody of students. While in school, students cannot avail themselves of the protection of parents or guardians, thus schools become accountable for student safety. The courts never intended school authorities to fully act as parents. Personally I do not believe the courts intended teachers to arm themselves with loaded guns, either.

    A more accurate view is of the school as an extension of the state, rather than as a substitute parent. I read with great interest the findings of the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission. The findings speak to the education system, including institutions of higher learning:

http://www.governor.ct.gov/malloy/lib/malloy/SHAC_Doc_2015.02.13_draft_version_of_final_report.pdf

The following is a link to the "Boston Globe" coverage of the security measures recommended in the Final Report of the Commission: 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2015/02/21/adopt-security-ideas-sandy-hook-report/yiGCGPYHPMo72TIPq5USbN/story.html

What I know for certain is, unless people stop demanding change, public policy regarding guns and the Constitution must evolve. If only our attitudes toward both genders would evolve at a pace greater than that of glacial creep, they could obviate the need for part of the dialog concerning guns on campus.