Breaking the cycle of school shootings

[SecularMotion]

When the detective arrived at my home, he had a folder in his hand. “We just have some paperwork to take care of first,” he said. After I signed his forms, he gave me a box with the clothes my mother was wearing when she was murdered. It had been almost a year, but I needed to touch them, to know how many times she was shot, to see where she had been hurt.

My mom, Dawn Hochsprung, was the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Recently, I told a woman that my mother had passed away just over a year ago. I was trying to be polite, but I instantly felt disgusted with myself for using the term “passed away.” My mother was shot to death through no fault of her own. That is not “passing away.” She was killed, gunned down in what I would normally have called her haven — her school.

There have been at least 39 school shootings since the massacre in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012. Already this year there have been 10 school shootings, including one Thursday at Eastern Florida State College . Sadly, Americans seem to be getting used to seeing our nation’s youth, parents and educators gather outside schools, waiting to hear if their loved ones are safe.

This past December, the holiday season felt wrong. There was an empty place at our table, and traditions didn’t seem to matter anymore. My daughter was not yet 6 months old when my mother was killed. I tuck her into bed each night with a stuffed doll that was the first and only Christmas gift she’ll ever get from her grandmother. The doll is a nightly reminder that my daughter will never know my mother.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/breaking-the-cycle-of-school-shootings/2014/01/30/0eaffa70-853a-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html?tid=hpModule_6c539b02-b270-11e2-bbf2-a6f9e9d79e19

[oneshooter]

1. Another Google Dump, no comment, no ideas, just a dump.

I believe that the only reason you dump here is that your own kind don't even want to read it.

[SecularMotion]

2. The post speaks for itself.

Do you have anything to add other than disrupting and derailing the thread?

[oneshooter]

3. What thread?

[rrneck]

12. These are not posted to prompt discussion or dispense information.

They are posted as a sort of sacred text. For some, anti gun fervor is much like any religious fundamentalism. Some believers feel that if you are exposed to the sacred text that's all it takes to convert you.

I've had many discussions with religious fundamentalists and whenever I have them backed into a corner, they invariably flee to the authority of their sacred text claiming that it has all the answers. Often they will refer me to some theological scholar who they claim can "explain it much better than them."

Is Sec on of those? I dunno. People do lots of things for lots of reasons. But it would be helpful if he would discuss the issue, or at least allow others to discuss it in the forum where he hosts. It's just languishing over there doing nothing.

[SecularMotion]

13. Yet you have an opportunity to discuss it here and you don't

The total lack of compassion and empathy among gunners for victims of gun violence is disgusting.

[rrneck]

14. There's not much point really.

In every gungeon debate there are two winners and two losers. The anti gunners win the emotional debate by feeding on their own sanctimony, and the pro gunners win the logical debate by confirming reality. That means the anti's lose the reality debate and the gunnies lose the sanctimony debate.

I am under no obligation to post in any thread at all. You posted the OP. You made an assertion, and it's your responsibility to support it. But you know you can't, so you don't. It's just a lot easier to post and run. Or maybe the objective is to "claim ground" on DU. You got a protected group you never use, you still post Google dumps here and now you're working on GD.

The entire process is fascinating to watch.

[gejohnston]

15. what about knife violence victims?

To people like Bloomberg, gun violence victims are props for propaganda, nothing more. Victims of knife violence are statistics, nothing more. Only a few days after Sandy Hook, MAIG was pissed off that the Brady Campaign was poaching their celebrities. They are disgusting. Cheap appeals to emotion is disgusting.

The larger context of Goodwin's law: When you call names and appeal to emotion, you lost the argument.

[beevul]

4. Heavy on the google dump, light on the "discuss".

Our SOP says:

"Discuss gun politics, gun control laws, the Second Amendment, the use of firearms for self-defense, and the use of firearms to commit crime and violence."

[Duckhunter935]

5. SOPs only matter in one

group. That group is scrupulous in enforcing theirs. I guess some just follow the rules they like. I do not ever see this poster ever discussing his posted stories.

[SecularMotion]

6. I guess I'll try posting this in GD

The gunners just aren't very compassionate towards victims of gun violence.

[sarisataka]

7. Good luck

I posted a thread about a school that wanted to be pro-active and teach children guns are dangerous. It was locked as being outside of GD SOP. Apparently there were some SOP alerts.

I guess those gun nuts are trying to shut down guns in GD.

[ManiacJoe]

8. Alternatively, you could try starting such a thread here.

Your problem is not the linked article or the topic.

Your problem is that you purposely choose not to start a conversation by adding comments about your linked article. Why should we do your job for you? If the article is not worth you commenting on, why bother posting it?

[SecularMotion]

9. If my posts upset you so much, please put me on ignore

Many other DU members find the articles I share to be worthy of discussion. Not everyone needs to be told what to think.

[ManiacJoe]

10. We are not worried about you telling us what to think.

What we want is for you to tell us what YOU think. Be part of the conversation.

[NYC_SKP]

16. Well that's going well. I replied once, but I'll reply here since I think it's the right forum.

As much as it's all teary and heartfelt to hear from a victim, it makes little difference in policy.

Work with facts, they're more reliable, and remember that there are other voices:

http://www.npr.org/2013/09/19/223965801/mother-of-colo-mass-shooting-victim-becomes-gun-control-advocate

[SecularMotion]

17. These are facts

From the article

But since Newtown, more than 12,000 Americans have been killed by gun violence. Last April, a majority of senators voted for a bipartisan bill to expand background checks and keep guns out of the wrong hands — but a minority caved to the gun lobby and was able to block passage.

I thought Congress’s failure to pass gun-safety legislation would shatter my hopes. But it did the opposite: I and others who make up the 90 percent of Americans who support comprehensive background checks aren’t going away. We’re here to share our stories and fight for our future.

[NYC_SKP]

18. Everybody on DU supports UBCs, still, gun violence continues to decline.

Most members of this community are on the same side and support sensible safeguards.

But the rhetoric machine on both sides doesn't help.

There are assholes on both sides, and they seem to be the loudest and, often, the least well informed.

Take California congressdude Kevin De Leon.

Have you seen his silly rant about ghost guns?

[SecularMotion]

19. The video of California Democrat Kevin De Leon is a big hit on RW pro-gun websites

Unfortunately, some assholes post it on DU in an attempt to smear other Democrats.

[gejohnston]

24. smear means telling lies about the person

ridiculing ignorance isn't smearing. Nor isn't his support for racial profiling, especially when it comes out of his mouth. What he is saying is if you look like half of Harvard University's shooting team, the cops will be in your ass.
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~shooting/
I care what party they belong to, stupid is still stupid. Mormonphobia is just as bigoted as Islamaphobia. You either believe in basic principles or you don't.

[Bazinga]

21. Of all the arguments used in favor of gun control...

The characterization of those who argue for armed self-defense as "not very compassionate" is the one that irks me the most. The juvenility of this argument is surpassed only by its patent falsehood. I, for one, held my little boy for hours the day of Sandy Hook as I prayed for peace and comfort to come to those who were suffering. Not only is your ad hominem offensive to those it targets, it is also disrespectful to those very victims upon whom you claim to have compassion. To use their graves as soapboxes and their deaths as battering rams to insult those who disagree with you does not honor them.

You claim to want to discuss this topic, but isn't the point of an insult such as this to discredit the opposing party so that you don't have to address what they're saying? If you truly want to discuss solutions to gun violence and mass shootings I would be happy to hear your ideas, until then, let's dispense with the insults and false superiority.

[SecularMotion]

22. It's not an argument for gun control.

It's an observation on the opinions of gun lobbyists who attempt to disparage the victims of gun violence in the name of their holy 2nd amendment rights.

[Bazinga]

23. So, then, is this an admission that your goal is not to argue for gun control

But rather to misrepresent the opinions of those who disagree with you in the worst possible light?

[ileus]

11. Wanna break the cycle? why do we value courthouses more than school houses?

Funny we value lawyers more than children in society...


How many court house shootings were there before they took security seriously?

What are we trying to prove when we argue no security in gun free zones is our best defense?

[Eleanors38]

20. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) advocated mobilizing the National Guard to every school...

...do you back that?