Wisconsin schools end Veterans Day program over 21-gun salute

A Wisconsin veterans group canceled its long-running Veterans Day program at Eau Claire area schools after facing objections over its 21-gun salute.

“Now, as the last few years have gone on, with the school shootings and everything, it’s getting harder to do our veterans programs like we want to,” vice president of the Patriotic Council Kaye Olsen, told a local NBC affiliate. “I was hoping maybe we could find a compromise, but when it comes to the weapons, there was no compromise.”

The Eau Claire school district said that while it wants to honor veterans, it’s getting more and more difficult to defend the group bringing guns on campus.

“We like to honor the veterans; we bring them in on a regular basis,” said Tim Libham, the executive director of administration with the district, the station reported. “There are just some conditions that we have to adhere to, and the shooting of guns, even with blanks, is something we don’t feel is appropriate given … the concerns that we have, and that the community has, on school premises.

“We’d had family and students that were uneasy, even with blanks being fired on school premises,” he added.