School Shooting Incentivized With Tournament

turkce links to original Turkish article

(Sozcu Newspaper, 22 November 2019)


                      Recess just got a little more exciting.

The interesting incident occurred in Toprakkale district of Osmaniye
province.  With District Chief Gursel Temurci's approval, a tournament
called the "Air Gun Marksmanship District Chief-Teachers Cup" was
arranged between 11 and 15 November.  The announcement for the
tournament read as follows: "Under the auspices of the District Chief's
Office, we invite all our teachers to participate in the tournament."

A firing range was set up in the building that houses the National
Education Directorate and the Public Education Directorate.  44 of
the district's teachers participated, with each one taking 12 shots at
the target while their students looked on. The students, aged 11 to 14,
were also allowed to take some shots (!).


                             Happiness is a warm gun.

Mehmet Yilmaz of Dagistan middle school came in first in the
tournament with 73 points, with his fellow-Dagistan middle school
teacher Metin Kiriktas getting 71 points for second place and Omer
Tut of Sehit Ibrahim Etiz Anatolia High School third with 70 points. 

The Toprakkale National Education Directorate is the first school
district nationwide to hold such a tournament.  The Turkey Hunting
and Marksmanship Federation (Turkey's NRA) organizes tournaments
for students at professional firing ranges, with parents' permission.
At the Air Gun Federation Cup Tournament held on 6 October 2019
10 students from Osmaniye won medals



This chart by the gun-control group Umut Vakfi reflects the 
69% increase in gun deaths and injuries in Turkey between 2015-
2018.  Each day 10 people die, one a child, from guns. 85% of the
25 million guns in Turkey are unlicensed. (!)


Meanwhile, Expert Pedagogue and Family Advisor Soner Kosan
commented that "kids look at their teachers as role models so its quite
wrong to indicate to them that gun use is a good activity.  At an age
when children are susceptible to manipulation, bringing them together
with guns is a form of child exploitation."

Similarly, Umut Vakfi psychiatrist Dr. Ayhan Akcan stated that
"It is unacceptable for such training to be conducted in a National
Education facility.  Violent scenes normalize violence in a child's
mind and make it alluring.  The goal of the firing is to take deadly
aim at a target. This is very risky. An investigation should be opened
and this kind of activity abandoned."