Oakland University to fight shooters with hockey pucks

It’s a potential faceoff between bullets and thousands of hockey pucks at Oakland University.

The Rochester Hills and Auburn Hills university began equipping its faculty and some students with hockey pucks this month as a “last resort” precaution to throw at any active shooters on campus, officials say.

Oakland University Police Chief Mark Gordon said the idea emerged during a training session he was giving earlier this year on surviving an active shooter situation.

Gordon, a former youth hockey coach, said since the university has an ordinance against weapons, one attendee asked what staff and students could bring to prepare themselves for a fight. He recalled once being struck in the head with a puck and said it “caused a fair amount of damage to me.”

Well a slap shot in hockey will launch a puck at 100 mph.  If I am doing my math right, a 6 oz puck moving at 100 mph hits with an energy of 125 ft-lbs.

How fast can a student throw a hockey puck?  How much damage will that really do?

The university faculty union’s executive committee took part in one of the training sessions that included the concept in June and soon after, decided to begin purchasing and supplying the pucks, said Tom Discenna, president of the American Association of University Professors.

Discenna said he’d heard that tossing items — like billiard balls — at a possible assailant is well received in the law enforcement community, and when the chief suggested hockey pucks, the union decided to get on board.

This is dumber than the school in Pennsylvania that told students to throw rocks at a shooter.  At least the rocks are harder, heavier, and free.

We thought ‘yeah, that is something that we can do,'” he said. “We can make these available at least to our members and a fair number of students as well.”

So far, the union has spent $2,500 on an initial batch of pucks. Each costs 94 cents to make and they are printed with the union’s logo, Discenna said. They are being distributed for free.

Tuition money well spent.

The union began passing out the pucks on Nov. 9. So far, 800 faculty members have them, and another 1,700 are expected to go to students. The university’s student congress has ordered an additional 1,000, he said.

This has to be a conspiracy cooked up by the Puck industry and local law enforcement to rip off a college.  No school administrator can be this dumb on his own.

Gordon said there’s been no studies or research on it, but a puck is an adequate defense posture along with the use of chairs, staplers or anything else that has weight and can do damage.

Of course there have been no studies on this.  How could there be.

I want a grand from the Federal Government to determine what is the best sporting equipment to throw at an active shooter to stop a massacre.  More money well spent.

This effort, he said, will “empower faculty and students to have a plan to have something to defend themselves rather than just freezing in place.”

Ideally, Gordon said, dozens in a single classroom could be armed with pucks — or other objects — and could all throw them at the same time, if necessary.

A dozen hockey pucks.  Yep, that’s a fight stopper.

At least the students will feel empowered as they die.

Garry J. Gilbert, director of the journalism program at Oakland University, said when he first heard the idea, he was skeptical. But he signed up two weeks ago for the training held in a classroom on the university’s campus.

“My first reaction was: You are talking about facing an assault weapon and asking us to fight back with hockey pucks? It sounded silly,” Gilbert said. “Then I went through the training session, and it all made sense. None of us want to face an armed assailant. Students will look to us for leadership in a situation like that.”

In the training, Gilbert noted that the faculty was told to run first. If they can’t run then hide. And “then realize it’s in your classroom, you need to be prepared for a fight,” he said.

“If we have to do that (fight), Chief Gordon has shown us you can surprise or disarm an assailant with an object. Grab anything you’ve got … a stapler or book … anything you’ve got and be prepared and charge him,” he said. “Maybe he can be distracted by having things thrown at him, and you can limit injuries and loss of life. It won me over.

Those are great if you are not prepared.  If you are prepared bring something useful.

Gilbert said his wife, Holly Shreve Gilbert, who is also on the OU faculty as an adjunct journalism instructor, has a puck with her.

“We both said, ‘Let’s hope we never have to do this. If we fight back, this idea makes as much sense as anything else,'” he said.

No, it pucking doesn’t.

I have an idea of what works better than a hockey puck.  A 45 ACP.  That makes more sense.

Separately, the union is hoping the pucks can help bolster a fundraising campaign for interior door locks for university classrooms. Each one has an identification number for voluntary donations to the campaign. The union and student congress each have contributed $5,000 toward that initiative.

For pucks sake, they spent half that on the pucks.  I know you have to spend money to make money but this is just stupid.

“As far as the hockey pucks are concerned, I expect eventually we’ll run out of money to give them to people,” Discenna said. “Maybe students will buy their own. It’s just the idea of having something, a reminder that you are not powerless and you are not helpless in the classroom.”

At least one person understands this is a waste of resources.

All I learned in this article is not to send my kid to Oakland University.  The people who run that snowflake daycare have their heads up their asses.

If I was a professor and this is why my administration did to me, I’d invest in  deep carry.  Let them fire me after I stop a school shooter with a couple of well places shots.