Former Education Secretary Calls For School Boycott Over Gun Control

When someone gets named Secretary of Education, you tend to think they’re someone who takes education seriously. After all, it’s not one of those cabinet-level positions that result in presidential aspirations, as a general rule. The only real reason I can see to take the job is that you care something about how people are educated.

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Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not stupid enough to believe no one uses the office for politics. I’m just saying that they tend to believe their politics in the context of education are necessary for whatever reason.

With the idea that educating kids matters to these people in mind, let’s think about what it means when a former education secretary calls for a boycott of schools until gun control is passed.

After the deadly school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas on Friday, former Obama-era secretary of education Arne Duncan said it would be a good idea for students to stay out of school until gun laws are reformed.

“This is brilliant, and tragically necessary. What if no children went to school until gun laws changed to keep them safe?”

Duncan said his own family would be willing to participate if it was possible to make it happen.

“My family is all in if we can do this at scale. Parents, will you please join us?” He said.

Duncan also told the Washington Post that he was “open to different ideas” but that he was “not open to doing nothing.”

“It’s wildly impractical and difficult, but I think it’s wildly impractical and difficult that kids are shot when they are sent to school.”

Well, that’s it. That’s the dumbest damn thing I’m going to hear this week. Yes, I know it’s only Tuesday, so it’s probably premature to make such a pronouncement, but I’m going to make it anyway.

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First, only a complete moron would think that parents would allow their children to completely boycott school over something like gun control. The vast majority of the population aren’t gun control zealots who eat, breathe, and crap gun control. Even many of those who support gun control measures are, at best, lukewarm on the topic. Duncan really thinks people will risk their children’s future in order to score some political points?

Hardly.

Of course, I’m OK with anti-gun families doing it. It means my kids won’t have to deal with their idiot spawn while getting an education. Not that there’s any reason to worry. Duncan makes this right as schools are letting out for summer. By the fall, no one will even remember his crap.

But also note the typical anti-gun idea that the only “something” that can be done has to be some kind of gun control. They’re not willing to talk about other alternatives to keeping kids safe. It simply has to be something that will restrict the rights of average Americans while doing nothing to address these kinds of shootings.

Keep in mind that Duncan is speaking in response to the Santa Fe High School shooting, a shooting where absolutely none of the proposals being pushed by the anti-gun extremists in the media would have stopped the attack from happening. Not a single, solitary one.

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Gun violence protective orders? They weren’t his guns.

Requiring people to be 21 to buy long guns? The kid stole the gun from his father.

Assault weapon ban? He used a pump-action shotgun and a .38 revolver.

What, pray tell, should “do something” look like? Whatever it is, I can tell you that it’s not going to work. It won’t work because people like Arne Duncan are focused on the tool used rather than the behavior that triggered it. They’re not interested in looking into the minds of these people. They might learn that guns aren’t really the problem, then.

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