School shooting thread

26 comments

1. [removed]

2. What is the Republican plan to address mental health?

3. This is a genuine question as someone who leans fairly left, but I know this subreddit tends to lean a little more conservative than a lot of Reddit so I’m hoping for some good answers:

   Republicans frequently say that these mass shootings are a mental health issue, but what are Republicans lawmakers actually doing/want to do to help people struggling with mental health in this country?

4. [removed]

5. The girl was transgender. So reddit is gonna be on fire for the next week or so.

   Conservative media will have a field day, and liberal media probably won’t even mention the shooters identity as it doesn’t fit their narrative.

   Congress will give thoughts and prayers, then move onto the all-important tik tok ban which is the only damn thing congress agrees on for some stupid reason.

   Edit: Liberal media does acknowledge her transgender status, just not as blatantly as conservative media.

6. Posted this earlier today, but its relevant here too.

   Unless you’re involved in crime the chances of being shot are something like less than 1%. Mass shootings are even less likely to impact you.

   https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/03/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/

   1060 in 1000000 to be shot, using stats that include suicide, leads to a .01% chance.

   https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/in-some-countries-the-odds-of-getting-shot-are-1-in-a-million-in-the-u-s-its-1000-times-higher/

   To put that in perspective perfect use of oral hormonal birth control is 99% effective with perfect use. So 1% chance of getting pregnant, people take that risk often.

   A non copper IUD is .2%

   This is also important.

   FIREARM VIOLENCE IS HIGHLY CONCENTRATED WITHIN IMPACTED COMMUNITIES OF COLOR

   ● Gun violence is the leading cause of death for Black males under the age of 55, and the second leading cause of death for Hispanic males under the age of 35.

   ● Each year nearly 7,800 Black Americans are murdered by a firearm.

   ● 60% of firearm homicide victims in the United States are Black Americans, yet Black Americans account for less than 15% of the population.

   ● Young Black males ages 15-24 are 22 times more likely to be murdered by firearm than their White counterparts and young Hispanic males are over 4 times more likely to be murdered by firearm than their White counterparts.

   ● Young Black females ages 15-24 are over 6 times more likely to be murdered by firearm than their White counterparts and young Hispanic females are nearly 2 times more likely to be murdered by firearm than their White counterparts.

   ● In 2015, 26% of firearm homicides in the US occurred within census tracts that contained only 1.5% of the population.

   ● Over the last decade (2009-2018) the firearm suicide rate among Black Americans increased by over 31%; in 2018 1,569 Black Americans died by firearm suicide.

   THE ROOT CAUSES OF GUN VIOLENCE https://efsgv.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/EFSGV-The-Root-Causes-of-Gun-Violence-March-2020.pdf

7. Why do people who support gun control not support a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for any crime committed with a firearm? It seems like that would be a good deterrent and would do a lot towards ending violent crime.

8. I find it sad that people are talking more about the shooter and their identity as opposed to the innocent victims of this awful tragedy or passing laws to ensure that events like this don’t happen as frequently.

9. I own a gun. I’m in California so I had to go through thorough background check and 10 day waiting period. I think Americans should be able to own a gun if they meet a certain criteria.

   I fully support any type of law they can pass to prevent irresponsible people from getting their hands on guns.

   I would be in support of registering ammunition.

   I would support mental health checks for people pursuing gun ownership

   I would support a sort of licensing program to ensure gun safety

   I don’t support nra lobbying in politics

   I don’t support going door to door and collecting every gun in America.

   I do think a lot of others agree on my points.

10. Is this a new one, or is this about yesterday’s school shooting?

11. Something I find interesting is how for the 1994 assault rifle ban, numerous representatives crossed party lines. [38 Republicans voted yes for the ban (including John Kasich), 77 Democrats voted no.](https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/103-1994/h156)

    When the House passed an Assault Weapons ban in 2022, [only 2 Republicans voted yes and 5 Democrats voted no.](https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/103-1994/h156)

    Just goes to show you how much the American political landscape has changed in the last 3 decades.

12. It’s interesting when you look and see in the 1960s and prior the amount of school shootings doesn’t go above 20 for *the entire decade* whereas in the 2010s there are over 200 school shootings.

    Does anyone know why despite having stricter gun laws than the 60 the amount of school shootings has only gone up? Did the definition of how a school shooting is defined change from the 90s to now? Or is this another piece of evidence gun laws don’t work as intended?

13. Twitter is falling all over itself to make fun of Christians/Christianity. And all of this is coming from people who claim that they’re the tolerant and progressive “right side of history.”

14. If this is another case where the Feds missed blatant warning signs, and heads don’t roll as a result….

    well I’d say I’d go ballistic but since it hasn’t happened the DOZEN OTHER FUCKING TIMES THE FEDS HAVE STUCK THEIR HEADS UP THEIR ASS AND IGNORED REALITY, I guess I shouldn’t be needlessly getting my hopes up.

15. Do we have any answers from the source as to why these wack jobs shoot innocent people? There are enough that have been caught alive. Has there been any interviews, studies, psychological evaluations on these guys since prison?

16. The largest elephant in the room, that I don’t think most of Reddit realizes, is just how hard it is to confine someone for mental health reasons. We used to have plenty of mental health institutions (and on a totally related note, an extremely low homeless population) but they were almost all closed in the 40’s and 50’s after a series of high profile cases of abuse made the headlines. Basically, the pendulum swung waaaay to far the other way and we threw the baby out with the bath water. Now, if you can wipe your ass and operate a fork it’s _extremely_ difficult to get someone committed unless they’re actively committing violent crimes, and even then they’re often treated like regular criminals and sent to regular jails…which do their best to release them as soon as possible because they’re problem prisoners and the jails are ill suited for mental health cases. I spent nearly 20 years as a firefighter, and I saw several cases that needed to be institutionalized, one way or the other. Eg. we had an unmedicated severe schizophrenic chick that would call 911 roughly 3 times a week for bullshit reasons. We were actively working with her family to get her help. We finally got her in a facility after she nearly burned down her apartment building _the second time_ and it still took 6 months.

    It’s not always about funding either, mental hospitals don’t have to be government funded. Back when they were still around many were private hospitals, just like today. It’s also worth pointing out that neither party is interested in getting serious about mental health. The Democrats have been in total control of the government for the first 2 years of two of the last three administrations, they did little or nothing. Certainly nothing noteworthy.

17. While I do think that more gun laws would be sensible, I am always so annoyed by liberal takes on this subject despite largely agreeing with the main point.

    The US largely didn’t have school-shootings sufficiently many decades ago either, so you need to have more nuanced ways of rationalizing why liberal gun laws are the main problem instead of spending all your energy to find ways of saying that republicans are evil and simply don’t care that kids are dying

    American media is driving me nuts.

18. Although some men commit awful violent rapes, it is not a good idea to remove the penis of all men to prevent them. Same thing with guns.

19. It’s not just a mental health issue and a gun control issue. Republicans talk about mental health, but don’t do anything to fix mental health care. Democrats talk about banning certain guns, and while that may bring down the overall number of shootings, I just see it as a bandaid that’s eventually gonna fall off.

    Expand and improve mental health care. Improve our education system so that school doesn’t make kids want to kill themselves and others. Pass laws that make it harder to buy a gun, and if necessary, ban certain guns. Teach about gun safety in school. Reform our police department so that a clusterfuck like Uvalde doesn’t happen again.

    It’s a whole load of issues other than just mental health or guns.

20. can we have a petition to get major news networks to not reveal the identity of the shooter themselves for like, at least some period of time. They WANT to be talked about and immortalized and idolized, and future shooters will take inspiration from them, and their sex/race/whatever no matter what it is will be weaponized into a gotcha card that drags us all into an identity politics mudpit with no winners.

    And ultimately the problem will never be fixed.

21. I think the quickest, simplest way to improve safety in schools is to get rid of the restrictions preventing teachers and staff from carrying. Every day we are surrounded by millions of people lawfully concealed carrying, but because they can’t do so in schools it makes those places an attractive target. Note that several states have permitted concealed carry on college campuses, ensuring that any mass shooter will be stopped in short order.

22. I will say the footage we saw from Nashville PD as they cleared the building was well done. Well coordinated and clear and cool headed leadership, communication, and teamwork.

23. Every time the knee jerk reaction is “ban guns, country x did it etc.”

    1) Firearms have been a part of American culture since it’s inception. School shootings with the exception of a few one offs began in the 2000’s. The problem lies at home with useless parents, and zero tolerance school policies. Let kids scrap within reason, get the anger of a confused teenager out, and move on.

    2) School shooters are cowards, and should not dictate the laws for the masses.

24. I’m shocked as to how fast they released the police body cam footage. It’s interesting to see the police at work clearing rooms before they locate and take out the shooter. Definitely seems like it was better handled than Uvalde.

    Not to mention, seeing how the shooter was able to get in so easily, I think schools need to seriously consider heavier security at the entrances. I don’t mean armed guards or metal detectors, but just having heavy metal doors and staff to lock them at the beginning of the day.

25. It is a good time to remind people that the horrible abuse of a constitutional right does not nullify the existence of the right for the other 99.999999999999999999999999999% of people that don’t commit mass shootings.

    Also Republicans have control of the House of Representatives, so there will be no gun control law, and even if there was SCOTUS would then set a precedent banning any future assault weapons bans (because they inherently violate the second amendment). So you will not see any federal assault weapons ban until the makeup of the Supreme Court changes, which isn’t going to happen any time soon.

    Mass shootings are a mental health and even more importantly a cultural issue anyway. Also note that I’m sure it will come out that this person had made threats before, and that people had suspected they might be dangerous, and they did nothing about it (because that is the story in basically every case of a mass shooting).

26. I’m glad the one thing people agree on is that the police response was exemplary. I watched the full bodycam footage and they did exactly what they are supposed to do in that situation.

    They neutralized the threat in less than 4 minutes from when they arrived to downing the shooter.

    I’m very impressed with all of those officers and they all deserve serious praise and accolades.