Douglas J.  Buege--Various Articles

#1

"Society defends its weapons more than our own children"

Appeared on the editorial page of the Capital Times, September 16, 2004

A single day after the bullet-ridden assault weapons ban sang its death rattle on Capitol Hill, our quiet Madison high school experienced its first gun-related crime of the year.

At 1:15 p.m., the La Follette High principal used the PA to inform the school's occupants that they were under "yellow alert." He alerted teachers to remain wary and to post an eye on any exits to make sure no students slipped out during the late lunch period.

Earlier in the day, a fight outside had created a surge of students screaming and elbowing their way to see the incident. Then the rumors started to fly. Someone mentioned some gang violence. Another spoke of some feuds started at a weekend party. In my classroom, another fight broke out, and tensions remained strained. I looked out at the freshman algebra class, hoping that the boil might cool to a simmer before something serious happened.

To understand the tension in a typical American school, you need to mix a knowledge of gun culture portrayed in "Bowling for Columbine" with the machismo bravado of rap music and gangster culture. Kids today have the ability to move from relative tranquility to violent intentions with the mention of a word.

The anger level in a room might best be compared to a pressure cooker - too much pressure and it blows, taking down innocent and guilty alike. Average teachers work miracles to stem the tide of violence. When they fail, a safety net of security and police floods the building. While such conditions might arise only once or twice a year, they do happen.As I sat in front of the class, though, all I wondered was: What happens when Junior gets an assault weapon? I have no doubt that some of the teenagers would love to mow down a class or two of their peers, preferably taking a principal or two down in the mix. When they learn about the newly legal availability of assault weapons, they might start saving their allowance for that Uzi they've dreamed about.

Raised in a culture of violence, whether portrayed on DVD, a video game or in the deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq, children simply do not understand the implications of violent gun crimes. Given the prevalence of mental illnesses in the general student population and their families, which includes emotionally disturbed, highly unpredictable individuals, I wonder why more violence doesn't occur. Some kids have seen people killed firsthand yet lack the understanding to curb their own impulses. Others want to defend their friends at any cost in a rabid effort to belong. Whatever the reason, these kids could become hair-trigger killers given the right circumstances.

Obviously, one of those circumstances involves availability of weapons. The damage from the arsenal Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris hauled into Columbine pales in comparison to what an AK-47 or other popular assault weapon could really do. A crowded lunchroom or classroom multiplies the number of potential casualties while passing time fills the hallways to the brim.

President Bush, in an apparent attempt to garner votes from NRA members, refuses to act to staunch the flow of deadly arms in our streets and, ultimately, our schools. Like an extremist free speech advocate who fights for the right to scream "Fire!" in a crowded theater, gun extremists and the politicians they pay for refuse to employ their higher reasoning skills in determining sane limits on the availability of guns and munitions.

As I sat in La Follette, I considered how easy it is to prioritize the Second Amendment over the safety of our children, how simple to favor theory over actuality, how mindless to fall for the slippery slope argument. Gun lobbyists are simply out of touch. They need to spend more time in America's classrooms to understand the immediate and long-term threats their dogmatic policies create. Though, as is the case with any fundamentalists, I doubt their minds retain the ability to change.

At the end of the day, a letter from the principal explained that a look-alike weapon that turned out to be a paintball gun had been found on school property. Some student had stowed it in a backpack perhaps in an effort to threaten or scare another student. All students were directed to take the letter home to their guardians. Sighs of relief reverberated, from students as well as faculty, as the school closed for the day and all sought the relative safety of the outdoors.

As I biked home, I wondered how we came to tolerate such a hateful and violent culture that defends its weapons more than its children. Where will our inability to negotiate our differences take us in five, 10 or 20 years? Perhaps the next generation of terrorists sits brooding in our own classrooms, waiting to empty their clips for a shot at posterity.

Douglas J. Buege is a Madison school district staff member.

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