Bowling For Oklahoma

When our soldiers in Iraq waited in vain for body armor, the Pentagon could have just sent them school textbooks for protection. Big books stop bullets. It's that simple.

One of Oklahoma's nominees for state superintendent of education has proposed a unique idea for protecting students from outbreaks of violence. Bill Crozier, a Union City Republican going against incumbent Democrat Sandy Garrett, said he believes old textbooks could be used to stop bullets shot from weapons wielded by school intruders. If elected, he said he would put thick used textbooks under every desk for students to use in self-defense.

He gave Eyewitness News 5 a videotape showing he and others shooting weapons, such as an AK-47 and a 9 mm pistol, at books in a field near Minco. They conducted the experiment to see how far bullets would penetrate the books. "We are doing this as an experiment because at Fort Gibson, many young people were shot in the back," Crozier said in the videotape, referencing a December 1999 middle school shooting in eastern Oklahoma, in which a student wounded four students with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun.

Using textbooks as defensive shields could be a lifesaver, Crozier believes. However, he's enough of a realist to know that the plan isn't perfect:

"Not [all pupils] would be saved in that situation, of course. But many of them would, and instead of running away or being lined up ... this is a way for the children to fight back," he said.

Extra sensitivity points to Crozier for merely shooting calculus and language books, and not, say, a Koran.

Video goodness here. I bet Michael Moore is biting his pillow that he never got to include this in Bowling For Columbine.

Comments

[Martin Owens]

This idea is not actually as bananas as it might seem on first examination.

Fact is, the school textbook racket has been dumbing down and diluting the actual information in their texts, while inceasing the size of pictures, margins, sidebars, and other filler - for DECADES,

Result: a math course that could once fit in a book 8" by 6" and three hundred ordinary paper pages ( cost - $1.00 each circa 1934, weight 1 lb), is now spread across three VOLUMES, 10" X 14", 400 pages, shiny gloss paper, with a double thick binding and cover, weight 4 lbs each- cost $50 each, circa 2000)

I tell you for true, my kids textbooks COULD stop a bullet. I'm bitterly sorry to say- that would be the first time they did anything useful..