Should juveniles be allowed to also carry weapons both in and out school for self defense?

[Dallas Williams]

We who train in the SDC are taught to carry weapons as long as they are legal in our jurisdiction and use improvised weapons if the need arises for self defense if our life is in danger. If we as adults can carry things such as various knives, pepper spray, a roll of quarters, a yawara stick, even guns, etc. to protect ourselves shouldn’t young people especially teenagers be allowed the same rights? I can understand not allowing kids to carry handguns until they are 21 since guns are so lethal and require a great deal of responsibility in the carrier to be trusted with use. But I don’t believe that things such as knives should be prohibited for children especially older ones to be able to carry at all times to protect themselves should the need arise where they are facing someone who also has a weapon, multiple attackers, or a much bigger or stronger opponent. The argument can also be made that knives aren’t necessarily exclusively weapons only, they also have practical uses as a tool to cut open packages that can’t be opened by hand or can be used as a working tool in shop or agriculture classes.
Back when my father was in school he said he and his classmates were allowed to carry pocket knives in school back in the days before so much violence occurred so frequently among youth and in schools, even if they weren’t necessarily in a class that would require the use of a cutting tool. I myself see nothing wrong with this even these days as long as the child is taught and trained how to use it properly that it is not a toy and only to be used for practical purposes or in self defense when there is no other option. I was introduced by my father to both guns and knives at a very early age and through many hunting outings with him or helping him do carpentry work was taught how to use both effectively, safely, and responsibly and I turned out fine lol. It all goes back to the point that weapons no matter what they are don’t kill people, people choose to kill people and use whatever means they can find to do so. You see weapons are banned in schools now and even outside of schools the general public is under greater gun and weapon restrictions than have ever existed in our country’s history, yet the rates of violence are higher than they’ve ever been. It’s clear that weapon control and restrictions don’t solve things, if anything makes them worse by disarming law abiding mentally stable individuals which constitute the vast majority of the population, both youth and adults. Until our modern day liberal government and society as a whole sees that these laws are harming our country and doing the opposite of what they are intended to do nothing will change and we will continue to hear about one incident after the other day after day of violence and death occurring until people are allowed to be armed and taught how to defend themselves effectively and responsibly.

[Damian (Instructor)]

Gun control and weapon control will never work as long as there are criminals on the street. Even back in the 80s and 90s I brought my trusty three blade Old Timer to school in my pocket. Now this was just a small little pocket knife but I’m sure it could’ve done some damage in the wrong hands. Now personally I do believe that a mature teen should be able to have something on them, a roll of quarters would be excellent, defense and snacks at recess lol. A knife is questionable these days only bc some of the kids would grab the biggest one legally allowed but a small pocket knife, sure I believe they should be able to carry one and for more than self defense. As Dallas said a knife is used for way more than a defense tool. If the kid is in shop class or art class or any other class that may require cutting something. Now my son does carry a kubaton to school with the house keys on it and the one time he was questioned about the “weapon” he just told the teacher it’s a key ring and they let him keep it. Now that was prolly just someone not realizing it is a weapon bc they have never seen one before. But this also brings up if kids can not carry, teachers need to know what to look for as far as weapons and not just knives and guns. So in short Dallas I gotta agree with ya kids in school in 2013 should be able to defend themselves with something other than a book, well that works too lol. Also growin up in the south a lot of us were introduced to guns at an early age, my dad got me a 20 gauge at age 9 and I was properly shown safety and use, and hours later I was poping skeet out the the air. And also my son has been out hunting with me and his step dad since about age 6.

[James Goolsby]

Hmmm…

As a cop and a father, I gotta say, I’m a bit torn on this one. I’m all for kids protecting themselves, but I think I would hesitate making this an across-the-board recommendation. I think it best to take it on a case by case basis. There is no denying that many kids simply lack the maturity level to handle something like this properly. I can see a small squabble taking a bad turn in a hurry. Kids that aren’t able to see the difference shouldn’t be allowed to carry weapons (except for, perhaps, pepper spray, but even that…) Then again, I suppose one could make this same argument about a lot of damn adults, too!

I think I would be more comfortable starting my children out with some basic, non-aggresive SDTS tactics (i.e. Mod 5), see how they do, and move up from there. Should they demonstrate that they can handle it, then we may get into some of the weapons training, but not before. That sounds like a solid plan. Oh, wait, that’s what I’m doing with them now! LOL

[Young Wang]

The bad ones already do regardless of what laws are passed…that’s why they’re “bad.” But the good ones who are both smart enough to know their Constitutional rights and the spirit behind how this nation was founded already know how to conceal weapons and carry responsibly and will continue to carry regardless of what laws are passed and simply do their best to avoid situations where they would be searched in violation of their 4th amendment rights. A VERY SMALL MINORITY of juveniles understand that unconstitutional law is not law. The bigger issue is that the way public education is set up, the MAJORITY of juveniles are raised to look for authoritarian figures for protection as well as how they should live their lives and need instructions for everything. The trend seems to be that in kindergarten and elementary school, children are given too much freedom in the sense that “there are no wrong answers” and “everybody gets a gold star/participation trophy” and that it’s more important to talk about feelings and self-esteem than it is to memorize facts and arithmetic. This is why our kids suck at math and science especially as compared to kids in China and India…they have such a weak foundation from elementary. By the time they get to high school, right when they’re actually starting to be capable of free thought and making their own decisions, this gets flipped 180 on it’s head and now it’s all about memorization of “facts” aka the liberal worldview, your grades are based on how much you agree with your teacher, a bell rings to tell you when you can move to the next “station,” eat lunch, etc. just like an industrial factory in China, you have to raise your hand in order to speak even though by this age you likely have a point to make that is equally if not more valid than the core state standards that this lower middle-class socialist teacher is indoctrinating everyone with. And for God’s sake, teens who are smart enough to be enrolled in multiple AP college level classes still have to ASK PERMISSION to go take a shit and teachers have the AUTHORITY to make them hold it in for “5 more minutes until the bell rings.” So after all these years of state sponsored police enforced prison time, they are finally released back into society to be workers and the MAJORITY become subservient to the idea of an authoritarian big brother government police state that has to tell everyone what to do, how to be safe, and how to take care of your fellow worker via communism. The MINORITY who survived the state sponsored indoctrination and were smart enough to NOT get totally brainwashed are just that…the MINORITY of voters. Ron Paul’s home schooling curriculum is sounding more and more appealing as time passes.

[Dallas Williams]

Young Wang you just expressed my exact thoughts on what public education has come to these days and why we lag behind other countries in Asia and Europe in education namely critical areas such as math and science and that public education these days is indoctrinating our youth with dangerous liberal agendas and encouraging them to give up more and more of their rights in the name of the “greater good” to big brother government. No wonder the past few decades our country has deteriorated both morally and economically, we are now seeing the fruits of years of liberalism and big government and loss of traditional family values and the detrimental effects it is having on society as a whole.

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