Rep. Larry Pittman is no stranger to public school advocates and those who have been calling for changes in North Carolina about how we treat our citizens.

Remember when he wanted to give teachers guns in schools?

A North Carolina lawmaker says allowing teachers to bring guns to school would save lives in situations such as the deadly school shooting in Florida.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports Republican State Rep. Larry Pittman of Cabarrus County told colleagues Thursday that he met with a police officer who wants to talk to lawmakers about training school personnel.

Remember what he said about the Stoneman-Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, FL in 2018?

He even told all of his NCGA constituents in 2018 about arming all teachers. From an email he sent to all NCGA members on April 16th of that year:

“We need to allow teachers, other school personnel and other citizens, who are willing, to be screened and to receive tactical training and bring their weapons to school, in cooperation with local law enforcement who would need to be informed as to who is doing this.  We should give them a fighting chance.  Otherwise, when they die, and children die whom they could have defended, their blood will be on our hands.  I cannot accept that.  I hope you will think this through and find that you cannot accept it, either.”

And just this week he published this post on social media:

As was reported in the Charlotte Observer via WBTV.com about this post,

Frustrated by weeks of protests, a North Carolina lawmaker has lashed out at what he calls “gutless wonders in public office who are bowing down to Black Lives Matter.”

Republican Rep. Larry Pittman of Cabarrus County called protesters “ignorant thugs,” “criminals,” “domestic terrorists” and “vermin.” If they resist and attack police, he said they should “shoot them.”

“This is war,” he wrote on Facebook Monday. “Our people have a right to expect our leaders to be on our side, not surrender to the lawless, godless mob.”

Pittman, 65, is running for his fifth term. He faces Democrat Gail Young in November.

His Facebook post came in response to the protests for racial justice that have swept the country following the police killing of George Floyd of Minneapolis.

“These vermin don’t care about George Floyd or any other individual, except maybe their financial sponsor, George Soros,” Pittman wrote. “They are bent on destroying our country and our way of life, and they will use any tragedy, any slogan, any excuse to convince clueless people that their radical injustice is justice.”

Let it not be lost that Pittman is an ordained Presbyterian minister. I wonder if Pittman asked himself, “What would Jesus post on his social media account about the Black Lives Matter movement?”

The teacher who wrote this post has protested. I guess that makes me a “thug” and/or a “vermin.” In fact, I teach (have taught) many students who protested and students who are children of protesters.

But I already was a “thug.” Rep. Mark Brody defined me a couple of years ago.

And, I am a “loser” according to our own president’s son. From a 2018 rally in El Paso, Texas:

“You know what I love? I love seeing some young conservatives because I know it’s not easy. (Crowd applauds and shouts.) Keep up that fight. Bring it to your schools. You don’t have to be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism from birth. You don’t have to do it. Because you can think for yourselves. They can’t.” 

So, having had protested and marched and taught in public schools, I am now  a “loser communistic democratic teacher thug.” And “vermin.”

If that is what they are defining it as, then I will gladly wear that label.

But Pittman’s circular reasoning also says that if I “resist” after practicing my First Amendment rights then I should be shot which is odd because he never really defines what “resisting” is. Yet, doesn’t he already want me as a teacher to have a gun to keep “blood off of our hands” and protect the students, many of whom are protesting or are children of people who are protesting?

Again, let it be known that Pittman is a “Man of God.”

But I don’t think what he is saying is very much in the spirit of Jesus.