By Arthur Weinreb
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
A U.S. company, MJ Safety Solutions is manufacturing a bulletproof backpack that will protect students from a hail of bullets should that situation ever arise. Students can hold the backpack in front of them to protect themselves from gunfire should shooting, random or otherwise ever breakout at their school.
Like all good capitalists here and there, mostly there, the company wants to expand their market and is trying to get permission to bring their product into Canada.
Toronto Sun columnist Innocent Madawo is against the idea that Canadian kids might end up going to school with a bulletproof backpack. In his words, "what a stupid idea". While acknowledging that there are isolated violent incidents in Canadian schools, those institutions are fairly safe places to be and therefore children do not need to bulletproof themselves. According to the columnist, to wear a bulletproof backpack would somehow imply that schools are similar to war zones such as those found in Iraq. Madawo ponders how school kids would feel if they were told every morning, "hey, don't forget to carry your backpack, otherwise bad guys will shoot you".
Madawo makes some good points although like all arguments they can be countered. He's right when he says that Canadian schools are generally safe but then, contrary to the perception created by the media with its "if it bleeds, it leads" credo, Canada is generally safe. Although there are areas in some major Canadians cities where it seems is that it would be hard to make it out of there alive, the chances of being the victim of a gun crime are extremely remote. The vast majority of police officers go through their sometimes lengthy careers without ever being shot at. Yet they all have bulletproof vests and never leave home without them.
Nevertheless Innocent Madawo of course entitled to his opinion which he expressed in his column. What is disturbing about the column is that he goes further than arguing that parents should not purchase bulletproof backpacks for their offspring. He thinks that they are a bad idea and therefore the Canadian government should ban them and not allow M J Safety Solutions to export their product to Canada.
No one can ever accuse the Zimbabwean native of not assimilating to life in his adopted country. This attitude of "I don't like something so the government just has to ban it" is so typically Canadian. Children wear backpacks; if some of them happen to be bulletproof, it is difficult to see how anyone else in society will be harmed. Yet Madawo and his fellow travelers would not allow Canadians to make that choice for themselves. If we really want to have government legislation regarding backpacks we should consider banning wearing them on public transit during rush hour; it would make a lot more sense, at least to those who have had the pleasure of being on a crowded public transit vehicle and was constantly being struck unintentionally with backpacks.
Unfortunately choice in Canada is too often limited to a woman's right to decide whether or not to have an abortion. Whatever happened to freedom and the right to make decisions, even those that ultimately turn out to be not particularly beneficial? Sure, some children might become traumatized if forced by an overly concerned parent to wear a bulletproof backpack. But there are undoubtedly some kids who are traumatized now by the fact that they feel, however unrealistically, that they will ultimately meet their end in a shootout in science class. To those children, the wearing of a bulletproof backpack might allay their fears. But according to Madawo, those families have no right to make that choice. Parents cannot be counted upon to act in what they perceive to be in their best interests of their children. The government has to be relied upon to look after their children for them. There are too many Canadians who look to governments to do everything except what they are mandated to do such as fix potholes and fix our crumbling infrastructure. Madawo isn't asking the government to ban something that is inherently dangerous; only something that he doesn't like. It's a typical Canadian response to look first to the government to solve a real or imaginary problem.
While some people may worry about the presence of guns on Canadian streets, at least no one has to worry that the nanny state will disappear anytime soon. It's alive and well.
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