Saturday, June 26, 2010

Ho Do They Come up with This Stuff?

It is hard being a Utah legislator, the Governor included. In my daily wade through the Utah section of "my favorite newspaper" this stuff just jumps out at me.

This week two things hit my "What the H@!!" button.

The first was that a Utah legislator came up with the brilliant idea that it should be mandatory to teach gun safety in Utah schools. That would be neat to see little Jimmy packin heat.

In all fairness the article did cite as the reason for this consideration a recent death of a 6 year old who found a gun in her parents bedroom and fired it. The article went on to say that the course could be taught as part of health class, would be gun nut neutral and would focus on what a child should do if they find a gun.

That all sounds good but everyone who believes this is the way this will be taught in say Bountiful or Provo hold your breath and stand on your head.

The other bit of wonderment from our esteemed leaders was a call from our grand poobah, Gov. Gary Herbert. After seeing how long it took to get to the execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner (25 years) he wants the appeals process for condemned prisoners streamlined so executions can be carried out more expeditiously.

Ever heard of the Constitution? Guess not.

2 comments:

Max Sartin said...

Whew! I got on to write my morning post and thought you were stealing my thunder. Thankfully, there was more than enough to go around.
I don't know. I don't think there is enough stuff the schools are required to teach. One more thing can't hurt. And you really don't beleive Erdle Nooele down in Utah county won't be completely neutral about gun issues?

A Paperback Writer said...

I'm not too worried about having gun safety classes in schools just yet. There are some 9 million weapons restrictions that were put in place after Colombine. At the moment, a kid can be suspended or safe-schooled for a year for bringing a plastic squirtgun or a cardboard cut out of a gun to school without permission. At the moment, I think someone would even have trouble handing out fliers that told of off-campus gun safety classes (which would be fine with me -- I think everyone who want to own a gun ought to be required to take classes and pass IQ and anger-management assessments first).
But, yeah, sometimes I wonder if there are any sane people in our state government. (I liked Jenny Wilson, but she was just on the city council.)