Another school shooting in Seattle, the third in the last two years. Since 2010, these type of shootings, killings, have increased threefold in the US.
I read an article in the Seattle Times this morning, the most recent update at the time. Then I went to the comments, at that point there were 714. The first, last and 90% of those between were variations on 'it isn't guns' , 'it's our morals', etc. Most were laced with 'this is just another example of the liberals trying to disarm us.'
The current rate, nationally, is one like this every three weeks. So, 18 days and counting.
I read a column in the NY Times today, the writer made the point that even if we instituted much more stringent gun control laws little would change for 5 years, and it would take decades to match the statistics of deaths per populations of Europe. Yet, they did it. We're saying that this is acceptable, the deaths of our children, it's an acceptable loss.
What I'm saying here is nothing less than a Canadian/UK/Germany/Japan style of gun control will actually work. Handguns need to be under such strict control as to be almost impossible to possess. It will take decades, decades. But if not us, who? If not now, when? (I feel I can use RFK's words, I was 15 feet from him listening to his words 6 hours before he was killed).
Yet, here we are, unable to have banned assault weapons that have no purpose except to kill lots of people quickly. Two years since Sandy Hook, and here we are. So just wait, less than three weeks.
The problem is more than guns, but clearly improved stringent gun regulation is the first place we should start. I can't tell you the names I have been called for voicing that opinion.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine, Joe. After reading the comments from newspapers online from everywhere, NY Times, SF Chron, Seattle Times, etc., people are seemingly fixed on the notion that guns aren't the problem, and that any notion to control them is the first step to the black helicopters hovering over their house.
DeleteProblem has to be more than guns --not least because guns are easily got thru illicit means, like street drugs. I suspect some improvement in attitude and coping skills may help provide alternatives to violence. I remember something better. In the mid-1960s my high school held a Conference Day once per year, during which each classroom was devoted to teacher-moderated student discussions of everything from dating to anxiety, things political and social, and brought all ages of HS students into quarters and subjects they wouldn't ordinarily share. It amounted to a lot of listening, contributing, questioning, learning. It broke up a lot of tension. It changed minds. In other words, it accomplished what more formulaic peer counseling was too primitive to do. I don't know when the program was dropped. My own kids, eldest graduated in '88, never heard of it but I always thought it had promise and would reward expansion.
ReplyDeleteP.S. re. your previous post: If you consult blogroll on "Trainrides..." you'll find a blog called "PINECONE STEW". It's author, Harry Goaz, portrayed Deputy Andy on "Twin Peaks" --and might again soon!
DeleteGeo
DeleteThey have something similar now, facebook, twitter, etc. With facebook they can say things that they might not say in public.
One response I've noted more than once (not from you) is that people have had guns for over 200 years here, and they drove to highschool with a hunting rifle in the car, etc., and these problems didn't happen. True, but it's such a different world now.
Probably if we banned the internet these incidences would drop drastically, since some of them seem to be in the 'copycat' vein. But we're not going to do that. Nor will we do other things, like improving mental health care, or programs that would decrease significantly alienation kids feel at that age. Those all take money, taxes, and that's verboten.
I think many people simply shrug, and say 'well, that's just the way it is.'
Perhaps it's time to face the fact that for a majority of our population the world is so unyielding it can only be resolved with a gun before moving on. The only good opponent is a dead opponent. It's time to realized that famine, disease and accidents won't kill one of our children before adulthood, but guns will. This last youngster actually ambushed his victims. "Meet me in the cafeteria." Will the horror return a majority to Congress who will tackle the arms issue. Hell no. We'll just teach our children how to go into lockdown when one of their own opens fire.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, you're probably correct.
DeleteI agree with you and would like to add that I think it's the normalization of violence that contributes as well. We ask, as a society, so little of ourselves. The bar is exceedingly low in so many areas, and it starts with those in charge, with our CEOs and our executives, our lawyers and such. We can do better, and we must.
ReplyDeletePearl
How? That seems to be the rub, eh?
DeleteI have to agree with Joanne especially with "We'll just teach our children how to go into lockdown when one of their own opens fire"
ReplyDeleteI admit that I don't have the answer, I do think it is a shame that we have gotten to this point and like has been mentioned, the only gun control that would work is for them to come in and strip the entire population of their weapons, otherwise it's just another law being ignored.
I expect, if the unlikely happens and we start down this track, it'll take years, decades. We have a lot of gun to get rid of, and a population that a significant part has a fetish for them.
DeleteA few days ago when I talked to my sister-in-law who's a teacher in RI, she told me about the lock-down drills the kids have to do. Apparently, the new rule isn't just to lock the door and hide, but to actually leave through the windows. I guess one has to hope the classroom they're in isn't above the ground floor.
ReplyDeleteI'm so disgusted with the pro-gun faction in the US. The problem too is that these attitudes and the madness that follows with such tragic results is endemic. Earlier this year three RCMP officers were murdered by a young gunman in Moncton, NB and two others seriously wounded. Just last week a mentally ill wannabe Isis recruit shot a young soldier guarding a war memorial in Ottawa.
Canada will never be close to being the US's equal in this dubious category. Yes, they are barking at the moon, certifiable looney.
DeleteYour photograph pretty much sums up the long time view of the NRA crowd. The only thing that seems to get reinforcing the status quo these days is promoting irrational fear....:(
ReplyDeleteYep, you are correct. Witness the ebola hysteria.
DeleteI have some thoughts about the lockdown drills. I think it might be useful in high school and possibly middle school, except of course that most of the shooters in those schools will also have gone through those same drills, and are likely to know where the kids are hiding.
ReplyDeleteBut when it comes to elementary schools, when T.A.O. gets to Kindergarten next year, if her school does them, I'm going to ask to keep her away from school those days. The fear that teaches, the fear thaat they're Not Safe Anywhere, is not something I want my five year old to feel. We don't do these drills anywhere else in their lives, and I don't want her to feel it at school. School needs to be for learning, and learning to rule your peers, er, I mean, to make friends. There is a really small risk of there being a shooter at her school in her lifetime, and an even smaller chance that the kids having done repeated lockdown drills will save her life. But there is a HUGE risk from that kind of fear coloring her budding worldview for life.
I do, however, think the TEACHERS need to be prepared. But they can play stay-silent games without scaring the shit out of the kids. And hey, give a classroom of kids each a giant chewy caramel if you really need them to keep their traps shut and not cry.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rehearsing-for-death-a-pre-k-teacher-on-the-trouble-with-lockdown-drills/2014/10/28/4ab456ea-5eb2-11e4-9f3a-7e28799e0549_story.html
DeletePoint taken, and agree. With the exception of TAO. Apparently next year I'll be over there more, and she and I will have time to do some stuff....target practice, show her where the hit points are...things like that. Naturally I'll get her a shoulder rig that won't be visible most of the time, and how to exit a building leading other kids, take them to KFC quickly, sit there eating wings as the emergency vehicles go by. Got all this covered, she and I will outline it over thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteGoing to get with Henry to work up the cover squad that will shield her on the way to school, eliminate anybody who looks suspicious...just the usual stuff.
Teachers....some will probably disappear in the first week of school, depending on her evaluations, but we'll worry about that then.
there has been a police presence in my son's elementary school for the last few weeks. Actually, they've been in all the elementary schools. The reason why is because the police received letters, sent a week apart, that threatened violence and a beheading in one of the elementary schools. I guess beheadings are the new cool thing in the psycho murderer set.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. There is no sane reason not to institute strict gun control laws.
ReplyDelete