A Scary Thought

It was reported in the local evening news today that the people who organize the National Service Program for secondary school leavers are considering to add weapons training into their program modules. They are saying that this addition to the training modules is prompted by many requests from the public for the program to train these 18 year olds how to handle a loaded weapon to increase their self-discipline.

I don’t think so.

It is scary to think that they are willing to consider to train these people how to handle a weapon when they are not yet even allowed to vote. These people are not even allowed to buy cigarettes from a shop and yet they think that they can trusted with ammunition live or otherwise. No doubt that they would teach safe gun handling techniques as part of the training module but do these secondary school leavers really need this knowledge?

Teach them unarmed combat by all means if they want to instill self discipline but lets consider the wisdom of putting guns into the hands of children. The thought of these trainees leave the programs with knowledge of how to handle a weapon is very frightening. I thought that the National Service Program was establish to prepare these secondary school leavers for either life in tertiary education institutions or the general populace.

Since when did the National Service Program start training these children to be part of the military?