A Michigan university has a message for school shooters: the puck stops here.
At least that’s what it would appear as Oakland University, a public school near Detroit, is distributing thousands of hockey pucks to faculty members and students on campus as a defense against school shooters.
The idea for using pucks came from a faculty active-shooter training session that saw a participant ask what items people could use to defend themselves against an active shooter.
Oakland University Police Chief Mark Gordon suggest throwing something hard and heavy … like a hockey puck.
Faculty union president Tom Discenna ran with the suggestion and purchased 2,500 hockey pucks for about a buck apiece – 800 for union members and another 1,700 for students.
“It’s just the idea of having something, a reminder that you’re not powerless and you’re not helpless in the classroom,” Discenna said.
Despite the bulk purchase and the distribution, using a puck to defend against an armed assailant is meant to be a last resort.
“If you threw [a hockey puck] at a gunman it would probably cause some injury. It would be a distraction, if nothing else,” Gordon told local station WXYZ.
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