By: Teresa Mull

Oakland University, located in suburban Detroit, Michigan, is distributing hockey pucks to students to use against active shooters.

Oakland University Police Chief Mark Gordon told Fox 2 Detroit:

“The first thing that came to my mind was a hockey puck. I was a hockey coach for my kids growing up. I remember getting hit in the head with a hockey puck once and it hurt.”

Oakland University has a no-weapons policy. Instead of allowing Campus Carry, the school has purchased 2,500 black plastic assault rocks and has given 800 of them to students so far.

Gordon, the result of whose hockey-puck-to-the-head incident remains unclear, said hockey pucks will “empower faculty and students to have a plan to have something to defend themselves rather than just freezing in place.”

Professor Tom Discenna, president of the faculty union, is leading the campaign to put hockey pucks in the hands of Oakland students. Discenna said these weapons are ideal because they’re portable in a backpack or briefcase and, “It doesn’t roll around.”

Oakland University’s “hockey pucks as weapons” plan is an anti-gun control argument in itself. Anything can and will be used as a weapon, and banning firearms will only lead those bent on destruction to find alternate means, be it a knife, car, acid, or hockey puck.

“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.

Some Oakland students seem better informed than their teachers, expressing skepticism in regard to the effectiveness of throwing a plastic disk at a gunman firing bullets.

NPR reported:

“If I was to give you a puck, and I had a gun, would I be able to take you out?” senior Jacob Gora told WXYZ with a laugh. “Easily, yeah. I mean, a puck is not going to distract me or stop me from shooting someone.”

“I find it, at first, absurd,” echoed student Adam Kalajian. “If there’s an armed person coming in, why would you chuck a puck at them?”

Teresa Mull is editor of Gunpowder Magazine. Contact her at [email protected].