The US just looks more and more weird and dangerous, like an abusive alcoholic parent who intentionally inflicts trauma on its children because that's how they were raised and they turned out fine.
I see where you're coping l coming from, but don't quite see the connection. I was well desensitized to gunfire before I was even 10, but if shots started popping off right now, I think I'd be able to identify them even faster because of that exposure.
The problems I see is that blanks are still loud enough to damage hearing, and even trained soldiers tend to be more careless with them than if they had live rounds loaded, which has caused injuries that would never had occurred otherwise.
Think about how disconnected you have to become that thinking firing blanks in school is not only a good idea, but a teaching lesson. I'm not saying it's a worthwhile teaching lesson; not two days ago I explained how valuable a lesson it was. Forcing that on a kid because they have a chance of it happening,; due to a .01% occurrence?
Are we just programming them all for battle now? What the fuck?
Being properly trained on how to react to gunfire does not slow your response time. As famousone said, it trains your brain not only to recognize and categorize the sound faster (which saves precious time), but also what your response should be beyond blind panic.
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I've fired guns before and I guarantee I still react anytime I hear anything that resembles a gunshot now.
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I've been in a lockdown in a school before when they gave us no information on what was happening. Everything ended up more or less fine, but I didn't take it any less seriously the next time there was mention of one
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I've heard police sirens a dozen times over and I still GTFO the way when they come roaring down the street.
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Not saying you should agree with the post, but saying teens will stop reacting entirely to a dangerous situation because they've been exposed to it before in a controlled manner doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If that's how it worked, fire drills would have been banned long ago
First things first: this is happening in a high school. Which means, depending on the grading system in that particular school, the youngest would likely be 14 - and that's assuming the school takes students that young.
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Second things second: not the first school to have done this
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Third things third: The point of this is actually to help avoid trauma and minimize damage in the future. They want to expose staff and students to the sound of gunfire* to help them learn to cope and not panic (putting themselves and others at risk) in the event of an actual live shooter.
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They are devoting something like 3 hours to teaching students and staff how to do things like barricade in classrooms, what gunfire might sound like, etc. They are then dedicating the remainder of the day to allow students to ask questions about the drill, as well as providing counselors on site to allow students and staff to talk about any emotions they may have felt and work through it.
Like it or not, agree with it or not, this is no different than teaching children to hide from bomb drops, or how to react to tornado sirens/fire drills etc, or taking self-defense classes. You can debate til you're blue in the face about gun control (with someone else, I'm not the droid you're looking for), but the fact remains school shootings are a thing that happens, and they want students to be prepared to deal with it.
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*Most, if not ALL students have, by that age, been exposed to gunfire in some form or another. Whether TV, movies, video Games, the news, paint ball, Bbguns, hunting, gun ranges, etc. A lot of them actively seek out FPS games. Is that the same? No, not quite. But the fact remains they can and have survived similar sounds in the past, and, at the end of the day, I don't KNOW if this is the right approach. But I can say protecting their feelings won't do them any good if they're dead. It doesn't sound like anyone involved is taking this lightly at all
Why?
Were the drills not traumatizing enough already?
I CAN'T HEAR YOU
The problems I see is that blanks are still loud enough to damage hearing, and even trained soldiers tend to be more careless with them than if they had live rounds loaded, which has caused injuries that would never had occurred otherwise.
Are we just programming them all for battle now? What the fuck?
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I've fired guns before and I guarantee I still react anytime I hear anything that resembles a gunshot now.
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I've been in a lockdown in a school before when they gave us no information on what was happening. Everything ended up more or less fine, but I didn't take it any less seriously the next time there was mention of one
.
I've heard police sirens a dozen times over and I still GTFO the way when they come roaring down the street.
.
Not saying you should agree with the post, but saying teens will stop reacting entirely to a dangerous situation because they've been exposed to it before in a controlled manner doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If that's how it worked, fire drills would have been banned long ago
.
Second things second: not the first school to have done this
.
Third things third: The point of this is actually to help avoid trauma and minimize damage in the future. They want to expose staff and students to the sound of gunfire* to help them learn to cope and not panic (putting themselves and others at risk) in the event of an actual live shooter.
.
They are devoting something like 3 hours to teaching students and staff how to do things like barricade in classrooms, what gunfire might sound like, etc. They are then dedicating the remainder of the day to allow students to ask questions about the drill, as well as providing counselors on site to allow students and staff to talk about any emotions they may have felt and work through it.
.
.
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*Most, if not ALL students have, by that age, been exposed to gunfire in some form or another. Whether TV, movies, video Games, the news, paint ball, Bbguns, hunting, gun ranges, etc. A lot of them actively seek out FPS games. Is that the same? No, not quite. But the fact remains they can and have survived similar sounds in the past, and, at the end of the day, I don't KNOW if this is the right approach. But I can say protecting their feelings won't do them any good if they're dead. It doesn't sound like anyone involved is taking this lightly at all