December 27, 2012
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Shooting
Michael Tremoglie on the Italian website, Academia Res Publica, offers some food for thought about the Sandy Hook school shooting. He writes that the worst school killing in history wasn’t committed by a disaffected teenager, didn’t involve a gun, and happened before there was violent entertainment and before God was taken out of schools. In 1927 in Bath, Michigan, a middle-aged farmer blew up a schoolhouse, then detonated a car bomb. He killed 38 kids and six adults, and nobody ever figured out why.
Tremoglie notes that the only scholarly study of mass school killings was published by an Ohio sociology professor in 2007. It found that there is no holistic approach to investigating school killings, where interdisciplinary experts examine every possible angle and share their knowledge. Instead, different groups quickly seize on the tragedy to advance whatever angle they already believe. Liberals blame lax gun control laws. Conservatives blame violent media. Mental health groups say it shows the need for more funding. And so on. The study suggested that until we start investigating these tragedies the way we do other disasters, where experts from many different fields work together to discover the truth, we may never learn what really causes them or how to prevent them from happening again.
So…. lets quit the political games concerning children’s and teachers lives. Thoughts on the politics of this horrible event?
Comments (14)
We all agree that the Newtown shooting as well as many others were senseless and tragic. The argument about it happening because of the removal of God, however, is where many would have to disagree. What about the Birmingham church bombings? What about the woman who was shot outside a church that she was decorating? What about the church attendees who asked a girl to stop spraying graffiti outside?
I don’t think it’s a matter of the removal of God that has to do with these senseless killings; rather, it’s about people and the way they think and act towards others. Sure, guns may be part of the factor (and for me personally) I think more restrictions on certain types of guns as well as stricter enforcement of existing gun laws should be practiced, and that as a result can help lower the number of gun related crimes and deaths. However, those who seriously hold the intent of hurting or killing someone long enough will find a way to do so, regardless whether they can access a gun or not. Mental illness diagnosis and early detection can also aid in reducing reducing access to those not suited to be in possession of a gun, but what about those who don’t suffer from a mental illness, and yet cannot handle their anger or frustration in the moment, who then reaches for their gun and begins firing off?
There are plenty of law abiding gun owners who follow the rules and know how to keep a calm head. Then there are those who can’t, but are still able to legally purchase and obtain a gun. The inconsiderate, rage-filled idiots are the ones who we need to wary of and able to take down at the moment’s notice when they go berserk.
If people want to blame video games (which, by the way, has no real scientific studies or research to support the claim that video games make people violent), they might as well blame movies, tv, books, the news, and hell, even religious scripture that calls for the stoning of those who have committed sin as well as those who do not follow that particular religion.
The solution to solving and lowering gun crime and death is not simple at all. And it will take a very long time before we will start to notice a real (positive change) in our obsessive gun culture.
@laytexduckie - Jesus made an interesting comment concerning a horrible incident that happened in His news. People asked Him about the Tower that fell down on the people. Jesus said, “It’s not that they have sinned any more than anyone else, but if you don’t repent you will be like they are.”
It would be interesting to get a psychologist, gun people (pro and con), a religion expert, a cop, and a criminal profiler to discus this. I should suggetst that to National Geographic so they could make a TV show about it.
@whyzat - That would be interesting
I sometimes think it would be great if rage-prone people were restricted from having driver’s licenses…
It is easy for all to agree that more research is vital. Right after that—the politics begins. Do you have a link to that piece?
Like it or not, there will be those who have knee-jerk reactions on both sides of the aisle. I like what Todd Strandberg of Rapture Ready had to say. He decided to let the dust settle a bit before commenting. The research needs to begin immediately. The knee-jerk reactions need to be done away with altogether (but, I’m not holding my breath for either one)… Great article, by the way…
I find it telling that where once the vast majority of the American people looked to the government to protect them from any foreign threat, an ever growing number now find it necessary to look to the government to protect them from the rest of us. In the absence of any credible external threat, we have all become the enemy, and so many call out for more laws and tougher laws and fewer freedoms, anything to keep them safe from… well, everyone else.
And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. (Lev 26:37)
Interesting, that last part… ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
When asked why the Japanese had not even made plans to invade the U.S. after the successful bombing of Pearl Harbor, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy Isoroku Yamamoto said “You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.” How is it that the same kinds of tools, guns, which once were seen as a threat by enemies of the United States, are now seen as a threat internally?
I suggest we all get back to Leviticus 26 and get real. Taking guns away isn’t going to change the human heart, and that is the problem. The hearts of our people. They’re being poisoned, and it’s time to put a stop to it.
@AOK4WAY - divide and conquer. It is annoying and has become a ritual these days.
They spread chaos and then overthrow the system.
They just use ordinary people. By themselves, us ordinary people are useless. Together, we can tear things up with our ignorance.
@Colorsofthenight - You said it! Divide and conquer is precisely what’s happening, and divided, we’re falling.
Finally, someone else calling for root cause analysis!
People forget there were killings before guns were invented. People forget there have been killings since guns have been invented. That if someone really wants to kill people, they will, gun or no gun, violent media or no violent media.
@laytexduckie -
“Teaching Kids to Kill,” by Dave Grossman
http://www.killology.org/print/print_teachkid.htm
Here is a couple paragraphs from the article :
In his national Presidential radio address on April 24, 1999, shortly after the Littleton high school massacre, President Clinton stated that: “A former Lieutenant Colonel and Professor, David Grossman, has said that these games teach young people to kill with all the precision of a military training program, but none of the character training that goes along with it.”
The result is ever more homemade pseudo-sociopaths who kill reflexively and show no remorse. Our kids are learning to kill and learning to like it. The most remarkable example is in Paducah, Kentucky the school killer fired eight shots, getting eight hits, on eight different milling, scrambling, screaming kids. Five of them were head shots (Grossman & DeGaetano, 1999).
Sad how everything is politics.The USA doesn’t hold the record for school killing or gun crimes yet the USA is the 3rd largest populated nation. The USA has the highest gun injuries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_hostage_crisis