HB 1147, a bill pending in the Texas house of representatives, is strikingly graphic. It proposes that schools across the state should provide “bleeding control stations” equipped with “tourniquets approved for use in battlefield trauma care by the armed forces of the United States”. Under the terms of the bill, the bleeding stations would deal with “traumatic injury involving blood loss” – in other words, casualties from a mass shooting. School staff would be trained to use the equipment, in turn passing on such battlefield skills to pupils in third grade upwards. Third grade typically involves eight- or nine-year-old children....