WAVE Responds to Rep. Lasee’s Warped Plan to Arm Teachers
WAVE: Wis. State Rep. Lasee Exploits Tragic School Shootings to Promote His Extremist ProGun Agenda
10/5/2006 4:20:00 PM
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To: State Desk
Contact: Jeri Bonavia, 414-351-9283 or 414-510-7594 (cell); Web: http://www.waveedfund.org
MILWAUKEE, Oct. 5 /U.S. Newswire/ — Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort Executive Director Jeri Bonavia released the following statement today in response to State Rep. Frank Lasee’s warped plan to arm teachers as a means of preventing school shootings.
“We’ve heard these same arguments before. Almost every time there is a terrible tragedy involving gun violence, one of the gun lobby’s favorite legislators comes out clamoring about the need for more guns. The fact is putting guns in our schools isn’t the answer. The day of the Columbine massacre there was an armed guard present, and that didn’t deter the shooters, nor did it stop the worst school shooting in American history.
“It is absolutely perverse for a state lawmaker to exploit the recent school shootings in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and right here in Cazenovia, Wisconsin in order to push forward an extremist agenda to allow hidden, loaded handguns inside our schools.
“Representative Lasee made this disgusting show of opportunism even worse by inventing facts and grossly distorting events to justify his radical and misguided idea of arming teachers. In a Badger Herald article today, Lasee claimed that arming teachers ‘is working in Israel and Thailand. In 25 years, they haven’t had any incidents.’
“The claims made by Representative Lasee simply aren’t true. While Lasee has the right to disagree with the vast majority of Wisconsinites, who are opposed to the legalization of concealed weapons, he shouldn’t have the right to try to fool the people of this state.
“With a matter as important as the safety of our children, it is critically important that we are dealing with facts, not distortions or lies. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the former senator from New York, once said, ‘Every man is entitled to his own opinion, not his own facts.’
“The truth is Representative Lasee wants to put hidden, loaded handguns everywhere — not just in our schools, but also on our playgrounds, public buses, in our hospitals, shopping centers, even inside our children’s daycare centers. Lasee has made it clear that his first priority is doing the gun lobby’s bidding, even when it means ignoring or twisting the facts and disregarding the safety of our children.
“The people of Wisconsin deserve better.”
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/© 2006 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/