Shooting, Killing, Murder!!!

[JadeBlackOliveParticipant]

Rex Huppke in the Chicago Tribune:

A slaughter.

Seventeen dead. At a high school. In America

It has happened before, it happened Wednesday and it will happen again.

Why? Because nothing. We do nothing.

School shooting. Nothing.

School shooting. Nothing.

School shooting. Nothing.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/huppke/ct-met-florida-hi…

[.Spectator]

The link is broken

[JadeBlackOliveParticipant]

Try this one…

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/huppke/ct-met-florida-high-school-shooting-20180214-story.html

[.Spectator]

Absent fathers is the root of the problem. Not guns. Guns are objects. It’s the individual who holds the guns that is dangerous. Put a mentally ill person together with a gun and you have problems. But if it wasn’t guns it would be something else. Don’t believe me? Just ask the prison guards who have to constantly do shakedowns to make sure the inmates are not creating shanks out of toilet paper.

[DavisModerator]

Some people go:

Hey you can have guns responsibly…it happens all over the world. In most Canadian provinces you can have a gun just as you can drive a car. Only you have to demonstrate your ability to use it, be knowledgeable about each weapon and the risks involved and keeping it in your house, have a gun safe, submit to inspections, no serious mental illness, no history of violence or  crime, renew the license every so many years and even in some provinces to target practice from time to time. The kinds of guns allowed are limited and you are also limited to the number of guns you can have. Multiple round shooting weapons are universally prohibited.

As you can see…the prevalence of gun ownership is less than the US…though still notable (though most weapons are hunting weapons not in cities) but more than most of Europe. Yet despite having a notable amount of guns….the murder rate and accident rate is quite low. It isn’t due to how many guns are out there, but the regulations to make gun use as responsible as driving a car. This is all considered, for the most part, a total no brainer by the overwhelming majority of the country and most people have never seen a civilian gun in their lives, nor want to.

Having said all of this…the response by gun adoring americans are:

Yeah but the second amendment

or

You just don’t understand American freedom and liberty.

or

Well I am responsible with weapons (just as everyone thinks they are the best driver around

 

___

As if those statements some how dismiss everything said and end the conversation. One side goes: here is how we can still allow gun ownership but reduce the misery that comes from it…while the other goes MORE GUNS!!!!!

Zheesh

[MattParticipant]

Absent fathers is the root of the problem.

That’s a pretty bold claim… I think you would have a hard time proving that absent fathers is the root of the mass shooting epidemic in the US. More likely the problem is some combination of the following:

• Extremism bred in echo chambers
• Disenfranchisement with “the system”
• Easy access to firearms

Absent fathers can certainly contribute to the first two, but to say they are the root of the problem is a bit inaccurate.

[.Spectator]

@matt

Absent fathers contributes enormously to violent crime. It’s a well known fact that the majority of criminals serving in prison as we speak have a strained or non-existent relationship with their father, or their fathers is dead. There are very few criminals in the criminal justice system who have strong healthy attachments to their parents, and for boys the absence of their father is a HUGE determining factor to all of the environmental factors that contribute to criminality, such as poverty, school failure, peer rejection, single parent household…etc. If I’m not mistaken the kid who did this crime fits all of the above criteria. Wouldn’t you agree?

[JadeBlackOliveParticipant]

We have plenty of absent fathers here too!

[.Spectator]

And their sons are committing violent crimes there too!

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by  ..

[ZweifelParticipant]

The bedrock reality beneath all the faux pearl clutching and non-debates is the fact that sale of lethal weapons, from Saturday night specials to nuclear devices, is one of the most lucrative enterprises known to humankind. The ultimate explanation was given by Bob Dylan long ago: “We’re idiots babe. It’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves.”

[JadeBlackOliveParticipant]

Not to the extent that it is there, & the ones who are, are learning it from there!

[Tom SarbeckParticipant]

The shooters may be mentally ill, or very angry, or very something else.

They may be doing as coal mine canaries once did, warning miners of deadly gases. Shooters may be warning some of us of our serious and worsening overpopulation problem. Add their numbers to the many others engaged in killing us.

Are we sapient enough to understand the danger?

 

[.Spectator]

Here are parts of an open letter I received today:

 

~~~~~~~

I’m writing to share my thoughts regarding the horrific tragedy in a Florida high school. First, my heart goes out to the families who lost loved ones and to the entire community affected by this event.

As I watched the news on last night and this morning, all I saw was discussions about gun control, active shooter school policies, mental health, and proper law enforcement protocol. While these are all valid issues to discuss, I believe the most important issue continues to be overlooked. We aren’t looking at our students from a social/emotional, heart-centered perspective. This shooter’s history was rampant with experiences of rejection. He was adopted and then lost BOTH his adoptive parents. Then he was expelled from school. That is three experiences of severe rejection and loss: 1) the loss of his birth family, 2) the loss of his adoptive family, and 3) the loss of his school family. As humans, we are a social species….we are designed to live in families, especially as children.

Additionally, we have failed to teach our children how to deal with their emotions and how to process big feelings. Traditionally, we have been a culture that has intellectualized life experiences, simply asking our children to “get over it” and to move on without giving them emotional space to process the feelings that come with devastating experiences. Emotions are energy and when they aren’t processed or discharged, they build up and they build up. Unfortunately, the release of this build up will come through rage filled acts with horrifying consequences.

We must begin looking at this from the child’s perspective rather than from a political debate or moral issue of right or wrong. When the family falls apart, the solution is to have the school become the family. The school was originally designed to be an academic institution but times have changed and we have the ability to change the course of history now. We need to connect with our students. We need to make sure they feel connected in their school families. We need to discipline in a way that teaches rather than rejects.

Strong, loving, and caring human relationships cost nothing yet are a powerful tool in the fight against school violence. And with this, I can only see that there is no coincidence that this horrifying event took place on Valentine’s Day–the day we celebrate love and relationships.

The circlular discussions we are seeing on the news are changing nothing. Let’s join together to wake-up the nation to see the real issue behind these horrible stories! I am asking for your help in contacting the national news with me to grab their attention.

Would you be willing to share your thoughts to any or all of the following news outlets? I would be honored to be a spokesperson for this movement, so feel free to give them my contact information

[.Spectator]

The real way we can prevent school shootings-

One Teacher’s Brilliant Strategy to Stop Future School Shootings—And It’s Not About Guns

 

My son has already fallen through the cracks of our broken system. The society has failed us. And I know we aren’t alone.

[_Robert_Participant]

Did you know that 3x more kids died of starvation and disease around the world in the 5 minutes that asshole with $150 dollar sneakers was shooting up a school?

This coddled generation of ‘mericans is so out of touch with the hard cold realities of life. As a result they can’t handle shit. Belle is correct. This is not a gun issue. There are loads of self-pitying. medicated pricks. That is the problem. We failed them by not teaching them how to fail.

[Author]

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