Charlotte Allen on National Review
There was not a single adult male on the school premises when the shooting occurred. In this school of 450 students, a sizeable number of whom were undoubtedly 11- and 12-year-old boys (it was a K–6 school), all the personnel — the teachers, the principal, the assistant principal, the school psychologist, the “reading specialist” — were female. There didn’t even seem to be a male janitor to heave his bucket at Adam Lanza’s knees. Women and small children are sitting ducks for mass-murderers. The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, seemed to have performed bravely. According to reports, she activated the school’s public-address system and also lunged at Lanza, before he shot her to death. Some of the teachers managed to save all or some of their charges by rushing them into closets or bathrooms. But in general, a feminized setting is a setting in which helpless passivity is the norm. Male aggression can be a good thing, as in protecting the weak — but it has been forced out of the culture of elementary schools and the education schools that train their personnel. Think of what Sandy Hook might have been like if a couple of male teachers who had played high-school football, or even some of the huskier 12-year-old boys, had converged on Lanza.
. . . Parents of sick children need to be realistic about them. I know at least two sets of fine and devoted parents who have had the misfortune to raise sons who were troubled for genetic reasons beyond anyone’s control. Either of those boys could have been an Adam Lanza. You simply can’t give a non-working, non-school-enrolled 20-year-old man free range of your home, much less your cache of weapons. You have to set boundaries. You have to say, “You can’t live here anymore — you’re an adult, and it’s time for you to be a man. We’ll give you all the support you need, but we won’t be enablers.” Unfortunately, the idea of being an “adult” and a “man” once one has reached physical maturity seems to have faded out of our coddling culture.
Literally! RT @buzzfeedandrew: The first two sentences in this Charlotte Allen piece contain five factual errors. twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew…
— James Hohmann (@jameshohmann) December 19, 2012
The school was K-4. There was a male janitor there. There were male teachers employed at Sandy Hook. This article is disgusting.
~ comment by Gina F.N. on National Review
OMG CHARLOTTE ALLEN YOU'RE INSANE! ("Women and small children are sitting ducks for mass-murderers") And, men are what, soaring superhero eagles? They have firearms implanted between their eyebrows? A genetic spidey-sense that allows them to anticipate the outbreak of violence? OH, and Adam Lanza's mother SHOULD HAVE KICKED HIM OUT OF THE HOUSE? How do you even remember to breathe?
~ comment by Suzy Cakes on National Review
Ah, yes, had a man been at the school, he could have thrown a bucket at a heavily armed killer. That would have stopped EVERYthing.
~ comment by Cartoon Peril on National Review
LOL for Ms. Allen's remark that we have to keep our troubled kids from getting into our cache of weapons and that we need to show them the door. Lord knows that if the choice is between the child and the guns, the kid has to go.
~ comment by padfoot on National Review
It shouldn't go without saying on this forum that the Ms. Allen's cruel and delusional ideas aren't just about women being "helpless," but about what is right for a 20-year old with horrible psychological issues. She advocates kicking them out of the house as a solution. Which is ridiculous, if not sociopathic.
We're all deep in mourning for these children and adults. We're all casting about for answers. But Ms. Allen's delusional rant is no answer.
~ comment by LacyM on National Review
I have to wonder how the author would explain the Ft Bragg massacre - where there were more than enough big burly men around, and even lots of big macho weapons - and yet it happened, with 12 deaths and 32 injuries. Perhaps her low regard for women's intellect and strength comes from self-observation.
~ comment by Shari Lewis on National Review
Charlotte Allen should be fired. As should the editors who thought this article was a worthy contribution to the conversation. Disgusting, ignorant, and ill informed.
~ comment by sophebe on National Review
Yeah, what a difference that made at Columbine when the entire football team rushed...oh, wait.
Well, Virginia Tech that was definitely better when all the burly men...hmmm, nope, not there either.
Of course Fort Hood is the perfect example because it's full of Miss Allen's dream of
real men so no one died in that shooting rampage...
Nope, this is just another of Miss Allen's attempts at controversy to gain notoriety.
Congrats! You're unfavorables are now on par with those of Westboro Baptist's and the plague. Well done.
~ comment by LLG on National Review
Because there's no way a madman with a Bushmaster could have stood up to a couple of husky 12-year-old boys, right? Allen's is possibly the most foolish commentary yet about this horror.
~ comment by Julie G. on National Review
I think this Ms. Allen's piece demonstrates the level of credibility that the National Review deserves--none.
~ comment by Mary G. on National Review
Is this site just trolling for page hits at this point? This post reads like satire. I'm sitting here rereading it and looking for any semblance of accuracy... or value for that matter.
As an Army Infantry vet, as someone that's worked security in one of the most dangerous parts of Washington DC, as competitive grappler, as someone that's been in physical altercations on the street, as a person that's lived out the male stereotype you're trying to invoke with this trash of a post - you, your publication, and any people that accept what you've written as fact...
You disappoint and embarrass me.
You are part of the problem.
You and the other Anne Coulters of the world are ruining the country my friends and family have served and died for.
You are a disgraceful and unnecessary caricature.
Please stop before someone takes you seriously and gets themselves killed.
~ comment by Shawn Lord on National Review
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A husky 12-year old editor might have prevented Charlotte Allen from writing that column.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) December 19, 2012
Today's McArdle Award Winner
In which we memorialize the dumbest punditry connected to the schoolhouse massacre in Connecticut by measuring it against the thoughts of Megan McArdle, who believes that human-wave attacks by toddlers would have been the best solution.Here we have Charlotte Allen, who thinks the basic problem was that there weren't enough manly men around Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday.
. . . OK. I've thought about it. THEY'D ALL BE DEAD NOW, TOO.
Give Allen credit. At least she's upped the age for the schoolchildren who should be used for suicide missions against armored gunmen into the pre-adolescent range.
. . . American conservatism has been rendered a parody of a burlesque of a puppet show. And Charlotte Allen should be shunned by decent people. Hell, people who think like this should be shunned by bacteria.
~ Charles P. Pierce on Esquire
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