Linwood Park

[pinstripers]

http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article2032390.html

[SHOCKvalue]

Sounds like the poor coach got the short end of the stick here. What was he supposed to do when confronted with an angry pack of armed Obama voters, hand out gummy bears?

[Dave Stalwart]

Let me get this straight. If you get attacked 6 on 1 with brass knuckles, you can't defend yourself with a gun because kids will see the gun? Kids seeing you use a gun to potentially save your life or prevent great bodily harm is bad for the kids? I sort of do get it, honestly, but what else can you do when getting beaten 6 on 1 by thugs. Is the idea that you just have to accept the beating, hope you live, have minimal permanent bodily damage and hope that the police find the guys involved so they can receive their citations?

I'm not even a gun owner, myself, because it weirds me out knowing what it means when you own one for self defense, but I also am just as weirded out knowing this coach can get scolded in this situation.

Here, we have a kid who stole league equipment and probably sold it, and his family and friends come attack the coach for not letting him play as a result. Wow. And the coach gets dismissed because he and his wife allowed the other children to SEE a gun being used for posturing only in a very necessary way. I wonder how many of his players will result to gun violence in their lives because of this display of non-shooting and successful self preservation? On the other hand, I wonder how many kids will result to gun violence in their lives who are raised by families like the troublesome kid? Families where you can steal something, blow off the consequences and them bully/threaten people with shooting them if you don't get your way. Which is the truly bad example? Guns being used to threaten people when you don't get your way and guns being used to protect yourself from in-process physical violence are two different things.

Let's also not forget that the thugs showed the first gun. What if running them off with a legal, conceal carry gun after the beating began also prevented the kid who was playing in place of the troublesome kid from getting shot by the thug? You never know. The guy brought a gun to a youth football game to USE it on the coach (even if using it only meant to threaten him). The coach had to go to his vehicle and find his gun. Way different.

[Kung Wu]

What's more, aholes that would jump a coach 6 v 1 with brass knuckles (two very clear examples of "disparity of force") are low enough in the pecking order of life's species that they will also jump a kid that disses their kid. Don't doubt that for one second. Arguably, those pistols are also for the protection of the children not just the coaches.

[DUShock]

Thuggery pure and simple.

[RoyalShock]

Despite that background, Burris said, “you can’t take weapons out around children.”

Apparently the league director believes it would have been better if the thugs had beaten the coach to death, while his wife watched, than to dare defend himself by evening the odds.

“We pride ourselves on zero tolerance for anything that goes on.”

That’s why they released the boy from the team last year and why they dismissed the coach following the altercation Monday night, he said.

And another person in "authority" hiding their lack of reason, common sense and balls behind a zero-tolerance policy.

I hope the kid who's mother and extended family initiated this are banned from that league and black-listed from any team in the area (as well as spend some time in jail). And I hope that league folds due to backlash and lack of participation (but it won't). A teachable moment has been lost because, OMG, a gun!!!

[Dave Stalwart]

I think where the debate loses me is that it sounds like one side believes "casualties will happen" but the greater good is that less of them will happen if we remove guns. It's a very broad argument that does make sense, but it doesn't account for the fact that the casualties happen to real people who don't want to be attacked. To me, every individual person matters. The gun control side of the debate is willing to let people face danger with no way to protect themselves...playing odds like gambling. It doesn't give those people any hope.

The freedom side of the argument says it should be an equal playing field for everyone. As I said earlier, I don't own a gun because it's a choice I make. If I carry that all the way out, that is me saying that I am willing to face the odds that no one will attack me and if it does happen, I will do my best to fight, but I may get killed. I CHOOSE that. In a sense, the playing field is still equal for me even if someone breaks into my house because I chose not to have a gun. You can't choose that for me, though. That's why I don't understand the other perspective. It seems like they want to tell me or my friends that we CAN'T have a gun to protect ourselves because OTHER people in the country have done bad things. Now, if people who want guns to go away can offer me a permanent solution that eliminates evil people, I would be all for removing guns. We wouldn't need them to protect ourselves.

I just don't see how you can tell this coach, with a straight face, that he did something wrong. What should he have done instead? Receive the beating? Let kids watch? I just don't follow how you get all the way out to a point where you are saying he shouldn't have done what he did. What is the thing he should have done? Now, I can see why you go ahead and dismiss him because that sets the example that guns coming out at this game is met with a complete amputation of pretty much everyone involved. I am not necessarily against dismissing him, but I don't think he should be made to look bad. I have a feeling most people will support what he did.

Having said that, I will probably have to eat my words if it comes out that ALL of these people had a personal history and he was a troublemaker, too. Who knows...

[DUShock]

I have a 1911 with hollow points secured in my night stand and my trusty Fairbairn-Sykes that has been around the world and back again several times over between my mattress. Having had the unfortunate occasion of less than stable individuals allude and/or threaten I have decided it is better to have and not need than to need and not have. Secured but accessible is the key.

I respect those who chose not to own a weapon.

[WuDrWu]

Some 20 years I was involved in this league and went to games every weekend. And practically every weekend a near brawl broke out during or after the game. The amount of hate and confrontation was astounding to me. As hard as it is for me to imagine, I'm sure it's 10 times worse today.

I'm not saying it's all the parents or the kids, but it's enough to cause a serious problem. Something has to change.

[Dave Stalwart]

A little more on it. Not much more, though. This one is mainly his cousin's perspective, who is apparently also a coach of another team

http://m.kwch.com/news/coachs-family-sets-record-straight/27992302