West Side Story Weapons Of Mass Hysteria

Click on the picture to enlarge.

I have to laugh about better times in our country’s schools. Schools were never really a safe haven. There were always bullies and various threats that are really a part of life. In many American schools carrying a little insurance against a superior force was normal behavior. The gangs were always here. They’ve existed since the beginning of time. Until recent times We did not have a system to spread bad news quickly to every American.

That soon changed with radio and the television that followed. Americans learned the gory details about murders and soon copycat criminals emulated the media created celebrities who got caught harming others. Today there is no escape from instant media notification about every school kid with a bloody nose.

When I was a first grader I remember the corner candy store by my school. Prominently displayed on the counter was a cardboard sales rack with those gleaming, Italian stiletto knives. You know the push button variety where the blade flicked open with the help of a spring. These knives were no more dangerous or deadly, but they were impressive to watch as they flew open. School kids had them and they were no big deal.

Then came the 1960s and that damned Broadway play, West Side Story was turned into a movie seen by everyone. Young singers, dancers and actors formed the Jets and the Sharks on stage to choreographed gang fights and tragic death of the romantic characters.

West Side Story creators, Robbins, Sondheim and Bernstein brought that wonderful and poignant entertainment project to America sending legislative imaginations over the edge. I’ve seen and enjoyed the film version and a few plays over a period of time I don’t want to admit.

Within two years of West Side Story laws banning switchblade knives were passed in 47 of 48 states along with a federal ban on their importation. West Side Story brought mass Hysteria to America’s politicians and many parents.

Did the bans on these weapons in our high schools accomplish anything at all? The rate of stabbings and such simply went up ever since. Parents and politicians were satisfied with the false sense of security these laws brought. The kids with evil intentions still had whatever weapons they wanted.

Comments

A 40 Caliber Nightmare Is Caught On Tape.

So you’re confident that that .40 caliber S&W service round will keep you safe. Maybe you’ll have second thoughts after you see this video. One hot summer night in 1994 Tempe and Mesa Arizona police were involved in a pursuit with this suspect who ran into a stranger’s apartment to hide after being shot TWICE in the chest. He was shirtless and you can see the blood pumping out of those two wounds. What’s really frightening is just how agile this fellow is as he struts to the ambulance. If he was not handcuffed and had a knife or a gun, ask yourself if he could still hurt you, your partner or a hostage? If your jurisdiction demands that officers carry either the 9MM or the .40 Caliber S&W it’s time to show this video to your bosses and lobby to have the .45 ACP round authorized. The switch may well reduce the screaming by self-appointed community activists about how many rounds police had to use on a suspect. The really talented and courageous video journalist, Karen Ke...

The origin of the feature film, COME FRIDAY…

CLick On the pictures to see full size versions. Long ago there was a young lady I had the hots for in a big way (Yes, I know that hots is not a word). She was pretty, incredibly bright, and had some real elegance about her. She had a love for children and basic kindness that you don’t often see in someone her age. I met her parents and could understand she came from a much more stable home than mine. I was raised by a single, welfare mom and suddenly found myself way out-classed. For whatever reasons things did not workout they way I had hoped. Sadly for me, we went on our separate ways. From time to time I’d run into this lady in various places where our job had taken us. Whenever this happened my heart would skip a beat or two. I left my hometown Chicago, and moved to Arizona where I founded my detective agency. As a private eye and soon a TV news producer too, my career took me to the highest profile criminal events in Arizona and throughout the country. There’s no question that ...

Tyranny, Government Corruption and Democide

Americans like to think they are exceptional. Yet most couldn’t tell you the first thing about how governments, like clockwork, repeat the same bloody cycles of tyranny and collapse. Everyone assumes the Nazis hold the crown for worst government in history. Sure, Hitler’s crew were sadistic thugs who industrialized murder. But “the worst”? Not even close. They just happened to do their killing during a time when cameras, film, and bureaucratic obsession with record-keeping made their atrocities impossible to hide. If Goebbels had been working with the technology of Genghis Khan, you’d barely have a postcard left to prove it. History is littered with tyrants who weren’t so kind as to leave photo albums of their mass murders. The Turks tried to erase the Armenians. Stalin starved Ukraine into submission during the Holodomor, then doubled down by purging his own people until the bodies stacked higher than Lenin’s promises. Mao made Stalin look like an amateur, turning his “Great Leap F...

Search This Blog