The US 'right to bear arms' has a lot to answer for
Ok, here's where I whip out my red neck. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. People were killing each other with rocks and sticks long before guns (or gunpowder) were invented. When I was 5 or so, we lived in a barrio, and the Hispanic gangs went after each other vigorously with tire irons and chains and knives. People still kill one another in areas where guns are not as accessible to the general public. Humans are violent savage animals, especially when they're kids and don't have the same kind of social inhibitions that most adults do (I say most because my coworkers seem to enjoy verbally abusing one another).
This really kind of got off the point - I'm not sitting here trying to write up some kind of term paper about the negative sociological impact of violence in schools. All I was saying is that the media focus on who perpetrates mass murder inthe classroom is going to end up targeting the kids who are isolated loners, goths, emos, etc. for pre-emptive strikes.
I don't think many parents send their kids off to school telling them, "Ok, if you see a fat kid, a kid who wears glasses, a kid with braces, a kid who dyes their hair and wears dark clothing you torture them mercilessly, every time you see them, every chance you get". I know for a fact that parents can be racist, sexist and practice open gender-discrimination in front of their kids, be it consciously trying to instill those attitudes or subconsciously, but kids can pick up these kind of prejudices and behaviors all on their own. Then you mix in the hormones and angst of jr high/high school along w/the instinctual desire to preserve genetic integrity and soon you've got some poor kid killing themselves and others because they just can't take the abuse any more. Guns are just a handy tool, but some of these kids knew how to make pipe bombs and molotov cocktails. (My dad showed me how to make napalm and told me how to kill masses with horsehair (or tiger whiskers) - I guess he assumed it would never go past 'science class experiment' but it's stuff I've hung onto for many, many years).
Re: School Shootings
Ok, here's where I whip out my red neck. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. People were killing each other with rocks and sticks long before guns (or gunpowder) were invented. When I was 5 or so, we lived in a barrio, and the Hispanic gangs went after each other vigorously with tire irons and chains and knives. People still kill one another in areas where guns are not as accessible to the general public. Humans are violent savage animals, especially when they're kids and don't have the same kind of social inhibitions that most adults do (I say most because my coworkers seem to enjoy verbally abusing one another).
This really kind of got off the point - I'm not sitting here trying to write up some kind of term paper about the negative sociological impact of violence in schools. All I was saying is that the media focus on who perpetrates mass murder inthe classroom is going to end up targeting the kids who are isolated loners, goths, emos, etc. for pre-emptive strikes.
I don't think many parents send their kids off to school telling them, "Ok, if you see a fat kid, a kid who wears glasses, a kid with braces, a kid who dyes their hair and wears dark clothing you torture them mercilessly, every time you see them, every chance you get". I know for a fact that parents can be racist, sexist and practice open gender-discrimination in front of their kids, be it consciously trying to instill those attitudes or subconsciously, but kids can pick up these kind of prejudices and behaviors all on their own. Then you mix in the hormones and angst of jr high/high school along w/the instinctual desire to preserve genetic integrity and soon you've got some poor kid killing themselves and others because they just can't take the abuse any more. Guns are just a handy tool, but some of these kids knew how to make pipe bombs and molotov cocktails. (My dad showed me how to make napalm and told me how to kill masses with horsehair (or tiger whiskers) - I guess he assumed it would never go past 'science class experiment' but it's stuff I've hung onto for many, many years).