You could, sort of, maybe, see how a large school district might be able to use a military mine-resistant vehicle. Say there were a really dangerous situation going on once a century or so; the vehicle could move students and staff safely.

But that’s one of the pieces of military equipment that the Los Angeles Unified School District received via the Pentagon’s 1033 program, which provides surplus defense supplies to local police departments, including those at schools, at least according to the news website MucRock.

But my imagination fails me when it comes to thinking up a possible use for three grenade launchers and “61 assault rifles, all M16 5.56 mm,” listed on the site. (You can read the full list of equipment going to California schools here.)

Why on earth would the school district agree to accept such tchotchkes?


Where would it store them, and what kind of liability is it taking on, in owning such things?

What I keep wanting to imagine is that the list is somehow wrong. I have a query in to a district spokesman to find out.

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