Guns and ammo
All week the lads from my school who caught the Ambridge* bus had been coming into school with tales of scuffles and fights breaking out between them and Ambridge comprehensive. Since they finished school half-an-hour earlier than us, quite a few of the unsuspecting grammar school boys had been waylaid on their way home. I have no idea what started it, but like all sectarian violence, it escalated in a tit-for-tat manner until an ultimatum was thrown down. On Friday, after school, they were going to send their hardest boys to the bus stop opposite our school and the fight of the century was going to go down. Everyone was buzzing about it, literally the whole school was talking about it and of course the teachers got wind of it.

One of the things that seriously worried us was that Fridays was a special day at our school - it was CCF day, which meant that about a third of the school would attend in army/RAF uniform and stay behind to learn about preparing ambushes, operating radios and aircraft recognition. This was a major blow for our fighting prowess because most of the lads who were into fighting had naturally joined the army cadets - leaving only the 'civilians' to represent at the bus stop.

We shouldn't have worried. The deputy head and a couple of other teachers involved in the CCF gathered together the sixth form cadets just before 4pm. The army cadets were given combat gear, the RAF got the horrible green coveralls they wear (ha!) and each was issued with an L98 cadet GP rifle. They said that afternoon the cadets would learn about patrolling - more specifically, patrolling the area around the bus stop.

When the Ambridge lads arrived, they were greeted by thirty or so of our biggest boys in full military gear, armed with guns.

There was no fight that day.

*Name slightly changed to protect the guilty
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Fri 30 Jan 2009, 12:46, 3 replies)

Tee hee
We used to have a CCF section as well. Children with guns. What an ace combination.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 30 Jan 2009, 12:56, closed)

Oh yes
There was a Daily Maily sort of campaign not long back for every school to have a cadet force because it would "teach some discipline" to "antisocial hoodies" or some other such tripe. I fail to see how teaching them how to kill people will help the situation.

That said, it never did me any harm and after camping with the army and shitting into bags, festivals (even rain-soaked mudholes) are an absolute piece of piss.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Fri 30 Jan 2009, 13:11, closed)

More to the point...
I don't see how you solve a problem with gun-toting children by putting those same children into close proximity with, er, guns.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 30 Jan 2009, 13:26, closed)