The latest school massacres
 

I'm surprised there is no general current event thread about school killings.
They keep happening, so we should at least acknowledge them.

Today is Oregon's 15-minutes of fame.
This is my reaction. It sounds familiar doesn't it ?

HEY HEY HEY ... N R A
How many kids did you kill today ?

Oregon: (10/1/15 3:00 pm): 13 dead and counting, with 20 wounded

.

That'll help the school overcrowding problem, and since the teachers work load is reduced cut their pay.

I'm not a gun nut, but the NRA didn't kill anyone today.

Young wippersnapper --- neither did LBJ, but that didn't mean he wasn't responsible.

That's what happens when a State makes euthanasia legal. Kids who don't know any better think that makes it OK to euthanize others whether they want to die or not. The shame that is Oregon's citizens-killers.

Bullshit. Having guns around doesn't stop this shit.

Here are the rules in America. These rules are followed by all media.

I didn't make the rules, the culture did, so don't blame me. The rules are racist because the culture is racist. You are racist too.

- When a white person kills a white person, it's because of guns.

- When a white person kills a black person, it's because of race.

- When a black person kills a white person, it's a terrible event.

- When a black person kills a black person, it's expected behavior and doesn't require any explanation.

NRA aren't responsible for school shootings - but they are partly responsible for the creation of a culture that glorifies, indeed all but sanctifies, guns and gun ownership.

It's a political fight, and the NRA is the largest and most powerful member of the guns rights side. That guns are so easy to obtain and so difficult to regulate is due largely to the efforts of the NRA.

The responsibility of the shootings lies with the shooters, just like the responsibility for accidents caused by drunk drivers lies with the drunk drivers. We have common sense regulations for bars regulating who they can serve, and when they can serve them, and how much they can serve them. It would be smart to have some common sense regulations for guns. I don't pretend to know what those would look like, but fighting every regulation is what the NRA does. If that organization got in front of the problem of guns being used in these mass shootings and proposed some common sense solutions, they could actually do some good. You know, like they used to when their main focus was gun safety and education instead of political fundraising. It would be nice if the NRA was part of the solution.

The problem as I see it, is less about controls (though I think some controls might be a wise move), it's the rhetoric around guns and the cultural place of guns in America.

Guns have always had an important part to play in American culture, but in recent decades the fight for gun rights -v- gun control, has over-emphasised that role. Guns are up there with Jesus - they're not just a right, they're an essential expression of patriotism and nationhood. They've become sanctified, and fetishised. Hollywood plays its part - but the NRA have done a great deal to imbue guns with far greater significance at an identity level, than they should ever have.

This issue is clearly not just about proliferation of weapons. Many countries have widespread gun ownership and minimal gun control but they don't seem to experience the same level of school massacres.


[eta] I am aware I am commenting on something I am only able to view from the outside and as such may be missing certain nuances.

Or maybe viewing from the outside allows you to see certain nuances.
You're spot on with the culture being the primary problem. The NRA could be a big help by taking the position that the laws would help the law biding gun owners by keeping the weapons out of the hands of baddies. But they've staunchly maintained a fer us or agin us position, because that makes them the most visible leader of the fight for the common man against the big bad government/eastern eggheads, which makes the money flow into their coffers.

Trump learned to tap into that same common man defense to attract the disgruntled, but for personal aggrandizement rather than wealth. While the NRA wants to turn back the clock to the 1880s, Trump's promising to turn back to the 1950s, it says so on his hat. :haha:

Of course nobody in either camp mentions the 1880s was an era of lawlessness and high personal danger, and 1950s was an era of big government, and strong unions.

I'll agree with that.

The problem with that is determining who the "baddies" really are.

Not really, "baddies" is enough to get people's support, because it instantly triggers what their own fears have determined who baddies are. Might be inner city thugs, motorcycle gangs, drug dealers, Immigrants, gangsters, etc. Promoting, if the gumint don't take your guns, you are safe and invincible, it just folly.

Perspective gets distorted by headlines.

The problem is that they're "goodies" right up to the minute they massacre a bunch of innocents.