On Valentine’s Day 2018, a 19-year-old named Nikolas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He killed 17 adults and children and left dozens wounded and traumatized. High school students – American children – hid in closets, locked themselves in classrooms, texted their loved ones and tried to tweet out their locations for first responders. A football coach was shot as he tried to protect children. The shooter Cruz was said to be a Trump-hat wearing outcast who was suspended from the same school. His former classmates say that there was always something “off” and “creepy” about him.
This is the 18th school shooting of 2018. Even though we’re only 46 days into 2018, there have already been 29 mass shootings and 1,796 gun deaths this year. What does that matter though? As I’ve said before – as many have said before – Sandy Hook was the turning point. That was the “there’s no going back” point. After Sandy Hook, nothing was done. After Sandy Hook, the NRA and the Republican Party decided that they would always prioritize gun sales and stoking fear among gun-toting white people rather than doing anything about the corpses of children being taken out of schools.
Donald Trump didn’t speak to the nation as the tragedy unfolded or in the hours that followed, because he doesn’t think this was a national tragedy. He’s probably mad that he can’t find a way to blame this on Muslims, although we still have time for that. Hours after the tragedy unfolded, Trump tweeted this:
My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018
The NRA spent $30 million to get Trump elected and about $70 million to get Republicans elected in 2016. The FBI is currently investigating whether shady Russian “bankers” funneled money to Trump’s campaign through the NRA.
Some tweets:
2018 is watching children live tweet mass shootings while other kids who've survived school shootings talk them through it
— Muna Mire (@Muna_Mire) February 14, 2018
Today’s terrible school shooting shouldn’t have prompted @PressSec to cancel her briefing. It should have moved her boss – the president – to walk thirty feet to the podium and address what is an American crisis.
— Pat Cunnane (@PatCunnane) February 14, 2018
It's a sad statement that 15 Americans are reportedly killed in a school and no one expects or wants the President of the United States to say or do anything in response.
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) February 14, 2018
Wow, Philip Mudd, a former FBI agent who has interviewed terrorists broke down crying talking about the latest school shooting pic.twitter.com/Kp4rMfcS3L
— Salvador Hernandez (@SalHernandez) February 14, 2018
daaaaaamn @NYDailyNews. pic.twitter.com/Yhv2JN4j7K
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) February 15, 2018
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Of course he doesn’t. Nothing that doesn’t affect him directly is irrelevant to him. He is a sad excuse for a human being.
To be fair, the only thing worse than Trump not responding to the massacre would be Trump responding to the massacre.
Absolutely. His speech was disgraceful, hollow garbage.
Vile. Ignorant. Narcissist. Disgrace.
Yup. He basically blamed the shooter’s friends and neighbors for not preventing this. Absolutely unf*ckingbelievable.
ETA: the students at that school who have spoken have ALL been more articulate and reasonable than any of our elected officials.
Actually EVERYTHING affects him, the orange toddler lunatic. He cares about what his lunatic constituents think and the bottom line of regulating gun control. It does not benefit him. Besides, look what we have here; mentally unstable people with easy access to guns and a mentally stable genius having access to nuclear codes.
And his war on opiods? Sure, addiction is tough and so difficult to go through. That said, if I saw someone walking down the street with a bottle of pills in their hand, I would have a FAR FAR FAR different reaction than if I saw someone walking toward me with a gun in their hand. But, priorities!! DON’T forget about THE E-MAILS, Gay marriage, THE E-MAILS!!
Trump is used to blood on his hands. It blends with the Orange.
His “tweet” is setting the stage for Government funded armed guards in schools. More $$ for gun companies.
Over and over, these suits have proven that they’re willing to choose their wallets over our children’s lives. When will we get angry enough to vote them out?
Hopefully by the next election.
Let’s add in a popular vote on gun control regulations — start with all sales and trades having to go through official registration (I can’t sell or trash an old junky car without doing official government paperwork!), no high capacity ammo mags, and no assault weapons. (Rant—These are military-grade weapons! I can’t just go buy a rpg or missle so why can I buy an assault rifle?)
In my state, having a radar detector in your car is illegal, but buying an arsenal of military grade weapons…no problemo! I have to have a license and register my dog, but a gun, nevermind. EVERY YEAR I have to register my home alarm system and pay for a permit, but if I want to have a machine gun to play with, have at it.
The gun lobby represents the weapons industry. They say they are defenders of The Constution for good, decent, hardworking folks who want to remain free and brave! You can be sure the gun lobby would be just as vociferous if they could make more money by regulating guns. Maybe we can all chip in and pay them to stop.
I own and know how to use a gun and I am all for *any* level of gun control. I would be willing to wager that most gun owners agree, but a popular vote would hopefully let people say what they really want.
This country is not free and brave at the moment. The Constution allows for amendments for a reason.
“These suits”? These suits only have power because of people who vote for pro-gun politicians. So let’s stop being politically correct. It’s time to recognize that every person who votes republican shares the blame. The blood is on the hands of every republican voter. I can only hope they pay for it when judgment day rolls around.
Yes, my thoughts exactly. We’ve used organizations and political parties as scapegoats for too long. It is the citizens who support them through vote and $$ that need to be held responsible for the current lack of action.
Perfectly said. I have no more words. Nailed it.
You’re totally right about citizens and voting, but the suits are the ones taking NRA money to buy ads that confuse and make it harder for people to figure out what’s real. They need to go.
Gun worship has become the religion that overrules every other right or religion in this country and those who cling to their objects of harm are zealots and heretics of the worst kind. It is also people who don’t want anything to interfere with their gun sales profits.
Watch now to see if more of these wretches run out to buy yet more guns because that is their sickness.
I read that gun manufacturer stocks immediately rose.
After Sandy Hook, I’m afraid I became numb and have zero expectation of GOP lawmakers ever doing anything to reduce the obscene number of guns in this country. And right now hearing so people on the right so disingenuously express concern that mental illness is the problem, not guns, just horrifies and disgusts me beyond anything Trump does or doesn’t say. Way, way too many of our leaders have been bought and paid for by the NRA.
Wait for it:
@realDonaldTrump
4h4 hours ago
So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!
I am in the same place Esmom.
I have purposely turned off my emotions to this and not let it sink in because nothing will be done. I can’t be outraged anymore or hurt. As long as hunters and fearful white people think their hobbies and fears are more important than human life and the GOP can capitalize on it for the NRA it won’t stop. When they didn’t care about sweet innocent babies, I knew it was over.
So I innoculate my feelings and wait until they are the victims of their own greed and beliefs. Then maybe someone will care.
The RAGE inducing thing is that Trump signed a bill in 2017 that revoked regulations that would make it harder for people with mental illness to purchase a gun. He is putting the blame on something he himself has encouraged through his power and actions.
Here’s more information about the legislation.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-joint-resolution/40
“H.J.Res.40
Public Law No: 115-8 (02/28/2017)
This joint resolution nullifies the “Implementation of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007” rule finalized by the Social Security Administration on December 19, 2016. The rule implements a plan to provide to the National Instant Criminal History Background Check System the name of an individual who meets certain criteria, including that benefit payments are made through a representative payee because the individual is determined to be mentally incapable of managing them. (Current law prohibits firearm sale or transfer to and purchase or possession by a person who has been adjudicated as a mental defective.) “
So true. Sandy Hook was/is the biggest indicator of how this government has failed to protect its constituents.
Our government is rotten through and through… look how they all line their pockets with lobbyist money.
You know, they say history repeats itself, and if my studies in Roman civilization are any indication we are witnessing the fall of an empire.
I would not be surprised if we experienced a bloody revolution / civil war in the upcoming years.
Tiffany I know. I know it, and it just makes me sick. It won’t be the last time either. But no one said much then when it was obvious nothing good would come of it. It was paving the way for things like this.
Angela82: “Got it, Dirty Donnie. Who do I talk to about the friggin lunatic in the White House?”
“to buy yet more guns because that is their sickness” — it’s not a sickness, it’s fear. Fear of being victimized. They think having more guns makes them tougher, because without the gun they are nothing. They live in constant fear that someone stronger than them will victimize them if they don’t have a gun. It’s very sad to realize how many true cowards we have living in the USA.
My heart breaks for those families. My anger seethes at those f*cking traitors in the White House & Congress who take Russian money through the NRA and continue to allow this to happen while simultaneously muttering crap about “mental illness” as they gut funding for mental health programs and fight against mental health parity laws.
Exactly, lightpurple. Anyone taking that money or in cutting mental health services, is complicit in these childrens’ deaths. And not ironically, it is bright red.
Yes. It’s heartbreaking and enraging.
I have two teen boys with brain disorders and have many, many concerns, worries and fears about their well being. Them shooting up their school is not one of them. While mental illness can’t be overlooked, the simple fact is the proliferation of guns in this country is the main factor. Full stop.
Thank you, Esmom. So tired of them blaming mental illness.
Now people w mental issues won’t seek help due to the risk of stigma and labeling. In reality it’s the gun industry who should be regulated and reformed.
My exact feelings too.
While these kids lost their lives, the WH cowards drump and Sanders as well as the monstrous Republican Congress curl up in a ball to protect themselves.
You know, for as pissed as I have been about the politicians, I think we’ve overlooked the citizens who support them and who support the NRA. They’re the real problem. If they aren’t pressuring their congressman and calling them and saying “you know, I support gun rights, but something has to be done. As a responsible gun owner, I agree with universal background checks, limits on magazine size, limits on rapid fire power and other safety measures.” , then they are the cause of the problem. The NRA is so powerful in part because so many Americans use their voting recommendations and financially contribute with dues. The GOP knows that the NRA backing a candidate or piece of legislation actually changes the votes of citizens in elections. How do we change the minds of citizens?
The sad thing is that students expect this. They expect a school shooting to happen. They also expect the news to report on it for a day and then forget about it because the next school shooting has taken its place. Imagine after Columbine I had told you twenty years down the line that not only are school schoolings normalized but that nothing has ever been done to prevent them.
Even my preschoolers have become used to the lockdown drills we have every month. It’s disgusting.
These children not only have to endure trauma but endure being forgotten.
The NRA is a terrorist organization.
I said the same thing this morning. This is terrorism. It has the same outcome and causes people to alter their lives. The very same effect.
He didn’t compose that tweet. No exclamation points or all caps.
He’s tweeting about it again this morning and linking the new tweets to yesterday’s tweets about DACA.
His tweet today is vile. He’s blaming friends and neighbors for not reporting this shooter more vigorously. Like it’s their fault they didn’t stop this. F-ck him.
@Rapunzel- I saw that. I’m not surprised he blames everyone else. That’s what narcissists do- blame everyone else instead of what/who actually caused this.
@Rapunzel, saw it too. As I commented on another thread, is a wall built between Mexico and the US or stricter immigration laws going to stop this – NO. The money that he wants for the BS wall should be put into better use. Huffington Post has an article about cuts being made in the new budget to the National Criminal Records History Improvement Program. I don’t get it.
I swear if even $1 of taxpayer funds goes towards building that stupid wall, I will vote against every Democrat once Trump is out of office. How hard is it to place a commercial of Trump on video promising that Mexico will pay for the Wall? Run it 24/7 for a month.? Or that he will fix DACA?
Nobody is as bad at politics as Democrats. They are either the stupidest people on the planet for making a deal with McConnell or they don’t want DACA to pass.
Original T.C. – the Democrats are powerless because that’s how the system is set up. The majority party calls all the shots. They can’t get legislation even voted on because Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are the ones who decide what gets to the floor for a vote. They proposed legislation in Trump’s first government shutdown to make sure military would still be paid and death benefits would still be paid, but the Republicans would not allow a vote even though many Republicans would have voted to pass it. They can’t force a vote on DACA, even though many Republicans would vote for it.
They tried in the first shutdown to get a public promise from McConnell to allow both debate and a vote on DACA in February so they could at least get CHIP refunded for several years, removing 9 million kids from the hostage list. But McConnell is not legally obligated to do anything. He has prevented even debates on important issues and prepared bills in secret with no public hearings. He was able to deny Obama’s nominee for Supreme Court even a confirmation hearing for almost a year, making me wonder if he knew the fix was in for the next election. That made no sense if he believed the polls, all of which were saying Hillary would win.
Even if there are 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans in the Senate, the Republicans can vote on party lines and have VP Pence break the tie. We are screwed unless the Democrats at least get a clear majority in the Senate. Threatening to never vote for another Democrat will simply put us in the same situation again and again because we have a binary system. If you don’t vote for the Democrat, then you are voting for the Republican either explicitly or implicitly. Considering how seriously the Republicans blocked everything that Obama tried to do and how they have been covering up the Trump crimes and scandals – we cannot assume the Republicans will miraculously become cooperative and honest once we lose Trump. Trump is a symptom and not the disease.
So if you don’t want the legislation that Democrats would likely pass, then go ahead and refuse to vote for any Democrat. But if that legislation is important to you, don’t assume it will happen if you don’t vote for the Democrat. Third party candidates have zero chance of winning today and so if you vote for them, you will never influence legislation and are likely to end up with a Republican. They have huge gobs of money behind them and have been hacking our elections since 2000. Democrats have to outrun the hackers to have a chance of winning, so every vote counts.
What Rapunzel said. He’s blaming the school and bystanders for not reporting his behavior. THEY DID.
“I swear if even $1 of taxpayer funds goes towards building that stupid wall, I will vote against every Democrat once Trump is out of office.”
That makes no sense. If the democrats were in control of congress and the presidency, $0 would be spent on the wall. It is only because not enough people voted FOR democrats that any funding would go towards that boondoggle.
There has to be a place in the 7th level of Hell for Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. They are traitorous toadies who gleefully sold out their country. Pence and their smiles at the State of the Union Address made me physically ill.
And ask this:
NRA, who dies today?
NRA, who dies today?
NRA, who dies today?
Who gets lost along the way?
I hope this becomes a regular protest chant.
Exactly what I was thinking. Those words were not his.
The second sentence about “No child, teacher, or anyone else…” He would never say something like that because he doesn’t spend one second thinking about anyone but himself.
The BBC hardly reported it in the morning news other than the basic facts 🙁 It’s so common place now and what else is there to say? It’s just too too awful. I can’t bear it, this shouldn’t happen, this should not happen to children.
Rose: Australian TV has covered the tragedy all day. We are not used to this horror, and more especially since our strict gun control laws came into effect around 20 years ago. In contrast, the big local stories (in Sydney) today were the shooting death, in broad daylight, of a former bikie gang boss “known to be involved in serious criminal activities”, and the latest in the sordid goings on of Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce.
To us, Dump is wrong: EVERY teacher, child and anyone SHOULD feel unsafe in every American school. My god. This is unbelievable. So, it appears that to Dump, not only do Black Lives Not Matter, but neither do those of the nation’s children and educators. What hell has the world been plunged into when Earth’s superpower can allow innocent children to become collateral damage in their determination to maintain their icy grip on “the freedom to bear arms”? Such freedom should be tightly wound with great responsibility onwards innocents and the defenceless.
And, what?? Dump prays? He’s taking the p!ss. If he actually tried praying, I’m pretty sure he’d self-combust.
Trump doesn’t actually pray, he just likes to talk about praying and God to score points with his psychotic Evangelical base.
He likes to talk about how, to him, his multiple golf courses and piles of money are proof that god exists. He thinks he is god.
What, Kitten? I can’t believe that you’d say Mr. “two corinthians” is insincere in his Christianity!
/s
Hi Rose, it’s been on every South African news channel, online and newspaper. And we’re not a country exactly known for its lack of violent crime. Most of the news we are hearing is gun related death stats and how many mass shootings have occurred in America in 2018. Apparently its 1 in every 2.5 days (to date). It will never be commonplace. We will always break down and sob every single time. Maybe its because we understand violent crime, but not even we (South Africans) can understand kids shooting other kids. I can’t imagine ever worrying about a gun shooting at my kids school. My heart absolutely breaks for all the victims and families of those affected by gun related deaths :'(
As has been said before, if nothing changed after Sandy Hook – nothing is ever going to change.
No price is ever going to be too big to pay for people to be able cling to their guns with feverish, paranoid devotion. Usually while wrapped in the flag and clutching at the bible at the same time. The unregulated use and purchase of guns is worth gallons of blood of your children, apparently.
I always wonder who the tiny penised kings of the NRA and their fanatical followers are going to rule over after everyone is dead from gun violence?
I think things can change. But people need to protest, vote (not just in general elections) and condemn this culture of gun worshipping.
As soon as the signal is given that the majority of people are fed up with this, politicians will also find it easier to not stay mild in their tone towards guns but really work towards getting them banned.
And honestly, they can ban them completely for all I care. I don’t care if there are people who only use them to hunt, or keep them locked up really well. This is not working, and I think anyone sane can agree that the lives of all these victims are more important.
If you think that’s radical…well, I think this situation is much more radical. People in many advanced nations are not allowed guns, and they’re not miserable.
The only thing that Donald Trump feels sorry for right now is that the killer is not Muslim or an illegal Mexican.
100%.
Or even just a plain, ordinary, garden variety Democrat…
My thought exactly. He is such a disgrace! When will our elected officials realize that gun control is a first step to stopping these shootings, whether in schools, concerts, etc. I am sure the NRA will push for legislation that we need to arm everyone, even our children. What a mess!!!!
Add White Antifa member to Muslim and Illegal Mexican. Lots of Trumpsters we’re claiming the shooter was part of Antifa once they learned he was a white American.
Yup. They are all over Twitter, lying their faces off and saying he was Antifa. They think that every American is as gullible as they are, apparently.
From CNN: Suspect had ties to local white supremacist group, ADL says
The spokesperson for a Florida-based white supremacist groups says the Florida shooting suspect has ties with the group, according to an Anti-Defamation League report.
According to the ADL, a spokesperson for the “Republic of Florida” was reached on the group’s hotline and said that Nikolas Cruz as associated with the group and “was brought up” by another member. The spokesperson said Cruz had “participated in one or more ROF training exercises in the Tallahassee area, carpooling with other ROF members from south Florida.”
The ROF spokesperson told the ADL that the group “had not ordered or wanted Cruz to do anything like the school shooting,” according to the report.
They really make their own realities.
I wonder sometimes if this is also a result of a failing education system.
My prayers and condolences for the victims and their families. It’s times like these that I miss President Obama the most. He always found a way to say the right thing and attempt to comfort us in times of grief and sorrow. Now we have no one.
Even Obama couldn’t change this with logic and reasoning. No one can. America is lost in this regard. Shooting up kids (and adults) en masse is the new normal. Unavoidable. Mental illness’s fault. It’s beyond sad.
Yep. How dare common sense prevail and assault-type weapons and the sale of high-capacity magazines be banned, full stop, and tighter gun control measures be put in place on buying guns? No one is taking away guns. We want to better gun control and no assault weapons and high-capacity magazines sold to the public who has no business having that. I listened to a retired general on a morning radio show locally saying assault weapons with high-magazine capacity are for the military, not the public, and should be banned.
The deplorables couch it, and the NRA, into a fear tactic, the left is taking away our guns. No. We are trying to incorporate common sense measures that need to be in place.
I’m disgusted by how NRA controls this narrative with their deep pockets, and the hypocrisy of the right on this issue.
I’m Canadian and alot of US gun culture is lost on me but from what I see alot of the gun rights crazies are also right-leaning, “pro-life” (anti-choice!) folks – I guess I don’t understand why they lose their minds over abortions but seem totally ok with children being murdered in schools? how is that “pro-life”?
They’re not really pro-life. Pro-life is a term they use to hide behind the fact that they are anti-women. They don’t want women making choices, having control over their bodies. Why some of these people actually ARE women is beyond me, though. They call themselves Christian, too, but it’s not as though they abide by anything. All they can tell you is that the Bible says marriage is between a man and a woman.
The hypocrisy is outstanding isn’t it?
It drives me crazy. I think it really hit me when I was a teenager during the 2000 presidential campaign when George W Bush’s people were going after John McCain because he had an adopted daughter from Bangladesh. I remember thinking, “Oh my GOD these people are awful.” And they have done nothing to change my opinion.
They are “pro-birth.”
Can anyone tell me how come that the evangelical Christians ***no offence to anyone!!!*** hold so much power in the US? The country is so diverse and advanced technologically, rich, progressive in general terms at the macro level, *yet* it seems to be hostage at the hands of hardcore Christians in important matters re: women and girls’ rights, and safety from gun violence. Thanks.
Simple SoulSPA they show up to vote, and they do so every election. They get pandered to as a result.
And also, they’re only pro-guns for white people.
@”hmmm” You must have donated to Stanley’s gofundme. Isn’t that precious of you.
A white male got away with murdering an Indigenous man. A decision that came from an all white jury because Canada is racist too. Don’t come here talking about US gun culture like it doesn’t exist in Canada too amongst whites!
wow ok. I never said that at all! I said that specifically US gun culture is lost on me. I’m very aware about racism in Canada and think what happened to Colten is horrific and I was out protesting the verdict. But thanks for assuming the worst in me.
Tania be careful with what you say. You haven’t stated the facts correctly in your statement. I’m Canadian and I do not for one minute see racism the same in Canada and the US.
@Tania, another Canadian here and believe me I’m fully aware of our huge issues with both racism and violence….however…and there’s no way to put this delicately…we are not the ones with our children being slaughtered like animals in their own classrooms on average every 60 hours. Not to mention the verdict you mentioned? Has already provoked political response, protest, and public discussion on reform, rather than just useless “thoughts and prayers”. The USA is burning down, there is no comparison, diversion is complicity now.
@Realitycheck I’m Canadian too. I currently live in the states but I grew up in Canada. Don’t tell me that my lived experience with racism in Canada isn’t common. That’s your privilege speaking.
My first memory of racism was when I was 4 years old and a white guy slammed my Dad in a gas station telling him to take his bratty indian kids back to the reservation. Until then I didn’t know I was “indian” in the derogatory sense and I didn’t know living on a reservation was bad. This was a common experience from many people.
@Mia4s our kids were slaughtered in our schools by our government. My Mom had friends in residential school that disappeared. My Dad heard cries from his friends while they were being raped.
For a country that claims to be moving towards reconciliation, it sure is slow. They’re only now moving forward because of the outcry of the warped justice system. They knew it existed before that verdict but didn’t fix it. Now that Indigenous Peoples have been active with #Idlenomore and have been asserting their rights has the government started “making policy changes”.
But they’re not doing it because it’s the right thing to do, they’re doing it because they’re being forced.
When the murderer that shot Colten has friends who have raised over $100k on gofundme for his “pain and suffering” Canada is no different. So don’t preach to be about the great Canada. Look at any post on twitter. Sure, there are allies that are woke, like there are in many human rights issues, but there is a lot of racism in Canada. Don’t let your privilege cloud you.
@Tania,
Yeah, arguing a false equivalence is really helpful. I’m Canadian, too, and you’re talking through your bitter nether bit.
Your personal experience doesn’t make what you say fact about all Canadians or most of Canada nor is there a racist mindset.. Meanwhile, you live in the US. How’s that working for ya?
@Tania
10 days ago an Italian fascist has opened fire against 6 PoC in the streets of Macerata, central Italy. Nobody died but they were all seriously injured.
Racism is everywhere (as fascism).
I doubt Canada is anything special in that regard but comparing Canada (or UK or Italy) to USA in matters of school shootings and deaths due to guns is really a false equivalence.
@Tania – you are speaking of racism, not mass murder and the need for gun control. Yes Canada did and continues to treat our first nations people unconscionably but racism is a pervasive thing in almost every country in the world. The issue is that America still has a frontier mentality where differences are settled by shooting someone. The entire country has become so inured to senseless mass murder while the NRA has the GOP by the collective short and curlies that in just 6 weeks there have been 1,260 gun deaths, 2,308 gun injuries, 57 children shot/killed, 245 teenagers shot/killed,132 incidents of defensive gun use,163 unintentional shootings, 190 armed home invasions, 23 mass shootings and 25 officers shot/killed. This does NOT happen in Canada.
WOW. Those replies though. Yikes.
Stay strong, Tania, and keep speaking the truth.
This podcast was a HUGE eye-opener for me: https://theintercept.com/2017/10/18/intercepted-podcast-canada-is-racist-too/
Look guys, I get that it’s hard to hear your country criticized but the truth is that the “Canada is a Utopia” narrative is so incredibly overhyped. Great country with a lot of offer? Sure. Better than the US? Unquestionably. But let’s stop with this idea that Canadian society has no issues with the same “isms” that other countries deal with.
I hear similar comments from Europeans. Just exhausted with the “othering” of racism, as if it’s a problem that belongs solely to Americans, when it’s a problem created mainly by white Europeans.
Also, all the replies to Tania’s comments remind me of shit Americans would say to a WOC who is speaking of HER personal experience with racism here in the US. I’m guessing y’all probably didn’t mean to prove her point, though…
You’re nuts Tania. How on earth can you say gun culture is the same in the US and Canada? Are you kidding me? Are you a troll?
In the states people who aren’t police are allowed to walk around with guns! You can buy guns at Walmart! You can legally hoard ammo and assault rifles. It’s a completely different culture than Canada.
https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/03/americas/us-gun-statistics/index.html
“You’re more likely to be shot to death in the United States than you are to die in a car accident in Canada.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/2378037/gun-violence-by-the-numbers-how-america-canada-and-the-world-compare/
Find me a country without racism (among other things) and I’ll show you a country where unicorns roam. In this case, comparing Canada to the US IS a false equivalence.
False equivalency? How?
Regardless, we could have had this discussion without everyone above invalidating the OP’s very real lived experience. It’s ok to have pride in your country, it’s not ok to dismiss the experiences of those who maybe didn’t have same idyllic experience in favor of patriotism.
@Kitten
Just because you choose to misinterpret things and deny logic (false equivalency) doesn’t allow you to go all ad hominem (idyllic experience)- you’ve got a nerve; You’re not even Canadian and she doesn’t live here since she grew up (how long ago?). Nor do I tell Americans about their own experience of their country’. That is one failed argument and there are NO victims here of this argument only reasoning become reductive and arrogant.
BTW, patriotism is not a salient ideal in Canada. We certainly don’t judge each other by that measure.
So sorry Tania. Those must have been really difficult experiences. I wish you hadn’t been hurt like that as a child and I wish that every child could feel safe and respected all the way through life. The response to the shooting has been hypocritical and callous, and it makes me really sad. But I don’t think that comes close to the pain you’ve experienced.
“False equivalency? How?”
Because @Kitten we are talking about US gun culture in comparison to Canada. I don’t come into conversations about fundraising for cancer research and start yelling about heart disease. It’s absurd. A direct quote from @Tania’s post “Don’t come here talking about US gun culture like it doesn’t exist in Canada too amongst whites!”.
You want to talk about racism in Canada? Sure, I can talk for days about the massive problems we have and need to confront. You want to talk about gun culture in Canada being equivalent to the USA? No, because that is patently absurd.
Tania you are full of ****. I am Canadian and the gun culture there is NOTHING like it is here. There is racism there too, but that is NOT the same thing as gun culture. DON’T claim Canada has the same problem with people being slaughtered en masse every other day. They don’t, and for you to even imply it is a lie.
@hmmm are you from Newfoundland ?
I am also Canadian. It amazes me how much we are like Americans to some degree but sooooo different in other aspects (like gun control and abortion).
RWNJ’s on gun control: we can’t have gun laws! people who want them will still find a way to get them! there’s no point!
RWNJ’s on abortion laws: laws will stop all of them from happening forever! Because I care about innocent lives!
Logic.
@Kitten Thank you. I’m used to the push back from Canadians who don’t like holding up a mirror. Instead of reflecting on my comments, they choose to say my experience is small (every Indigenous person I know has experienced something similar) or unimportant.
@pinetree I didn’t say that Canada has a gun culture similar to Americans? If you see my comment, I said that a man got away with murdering an Indigenous person by a jury of his peers and how many Canadians have helped fundraise over $100k for him because he had hardships getting away with murder.
If you want to point out statistics, look at how many missing and murdered Indigenous women there are. Look at how often it makes the news. Are you telling me if the numbers were of non-Indigenous women there wouldn’t have been a task force assigned ages ago? Look at how long Pickton got away with murder because they weren’t blonde girls he was killing.
I always wondered about that in Canada. I asked a question during a tour once in Ontario as a child. A youth group trip to the Hudson Bay. Someone in the group kept asking about the Native Canadians (early 90s). It didn’t seem like a subject they wanted to discuss. A short time later I saw a film Map of the Human Heart that explained a little about Inuit culture in Canada and touched on the racism.
I haven’t seen it in 20 years, but I remember crying and being angry while watching it. Since then it doesn’t seem to be a subject that is covered much or at least not as a wide release and not readily available.
American History discusses it more perhaps? Although not nearly enough and watered down to the point of being offensive and full of inaccuracies.
Is it the same in Canada? Are the Indigenous people treated like they are invisible? If you look at pop culture exports from there, New Zealand and Australia, it seems so.
Just observations but I am not familiar enough to be any sort of authority. I was curious.
Direct copy and paste from your original post: “Don’t come here talking about US gun culture like it doesn’t exist in Canada too”
I didn’t disagree with your comments on racism but I strongly disagree with your statement that gun culture is the same in Canada when it is definitely not.
Exactly @Pinetree13. She’s looking for an argument, that’s fine, but this is getting ridiculous. Canada racist? Hell yeah we are. The acquittal in Colton Boushie’s murder because of gun culture? Nope! It was a combination of racial prejudices and peremptory challenges as a right in jury selection leading to little to no Aboriginal representation on juries. Neither of those things having a thing to do with guns. If we had USA gun laws? Colton and all his friends would have been shot 3 or 4 times (without the farmer having to reload) and no charges would have been laid due to stand your ground laws and/or “castle” protection presumptions.
You don’t have to be from a perfect country to call out the INSANITY of a school shooting every 60 hours in the USA. The end.
@Magnolia & Pinetree Have you seen the posts and comments about how now all these farmers in the middle of Canada can use their weapons to kill Indians because it’s now legal? Tell me that isn’t gun culture backed up by systemic racism. You might be safe, but if I got a flat tire in Saskatchewan or Manitoba, I would probably keep driving on it now.
@hmmm are you from Newfoundland ?
Congress is so toothless even the banning of bumpstocks, that were used to lethal effect in the Las Vegas shooting, hasn’t happened. It just fell by the wayside. And yet the slaughter of the nation’s young people continues. All Americans, especially the POTUS, should all be ashamed that they have traded their children’s futures for a few pieces of silver. At this point, the NRA should be considered a terrorist organization and be banned IMO. The world is stunned and weeps for those kids….. Unbelievable.
While this was happening yesterday, Dana Loesch was whipping her minions into a frenzy against Elizabeth Warren.
“At this point, the NRA should be considered a terrorist organization and be banned IMO. The world is stunned and weeps for those kids….. Unbelievable.”
THIS. All this. Brava, Chrissy.
There are no greater innocents than children. Nothing justifies the sacrificial slaughter of children. And this is what is is- deliberate sacrifice on the altar of the NRA by a bunch of psychopathic barbarians in suits.
People need to vote different people into congress. If people who usually don’t vote would, it would make an enormous difference.
This will never change. After watching Sandy Hook unfold live from my university crying and seeing nothing change after I knew it was over.
My friend who I went to middle and high school posted about how she couldn’t remember us ever learning active shooting drills. And she’s right. But my cousins who are all school aged have learned active shooting drills. It’s horrific. But the party of family values don’t give af about your kid after they are born.
Another thing: another white male was the perpetrator and surprise he was taken alive. Amazing how that happens
I was in high school when Columbine happened and, though it shook the world, it was rare enough that we didn’t have any assemblies or training. It seemed so once-in-a-lifetime. Not once a week.
Exactly. I remember reading a book about Columbine in high school (10 years later) and thinking about how scared people were and how glad to not have experienced that. Now its the norm to expect to experience an instance of gun violence
Keep posting NRA and gun statistics: who they’ve bought, which politicians are in their pockets. Keep writing letters. What if we had a national letter writing day? What if every child wrote a letter to the NRA about how they live in fear in their own schools? Several copies, one to the White House, one to your congressional and senate reps. Send them photos and mementos of people who have died. Make it real to them! I want to see them buried in a pile of mail up to their heads. At least they won’t be buried in a coffin like these poor kids and their teachers.
I’m glad he said nothing. Because:
1. Trump has zero empathy for anyone but himself. He doesn’t care that 17 people are dead.
2. Whatever he did say we know would be a lie.
3. If he did say something, we’d have to listen to the media call him “presidential”.
Nothing will change. I remember when Columbine happened, and it was a 24 hours new cycle on the horror of a school shooting. Last night, this story was reported on between the weather and the traffic report. This is who we are. We are a country that doesn’t give a sh*t about dead children.
Yes, to all of those. I’m grateful that he’s not out there saying anything. I don’t want to see him grit his way through a phony statement full of bile and blame. The silence of the administration speaks volume and that’s all I need to know.
All presidential norms and responsibilities are being ignored and Congress will do nothing about it because they have their tax breaks.
He won’t say anything against what the NRA want him to – lets not forget the $21million they donated to his campaign. The families of the 17 dead should sue Trump for a share of the blood money.
My condolences to the injured and families of the dead – the sports teacher who died protecting a student is a true hero.
As a European I can’t understand the obsession in the US with owning guns. I always thought the ‘right to bear arms’ relates to protecting the nation from foreign invasion.
It did, as composed in 1791. It also insured the right to bear arms to protect one’s home, usually a farm, and family from frontier marauders. As the nation & society have developed & changed, the biggest thing many people remember is “it’s ok to have guns.”
Trump’s dodo sons enjoy big game hunting, as do many of his rich friends. Golf & tennis, once pastimes of the wealthy have become pursuits available to middle-income folk. Most areas have golf courses & tennis courts as part of the publicly-funded recreation departments. If one spends lots of money to travel & hunt endangered animals, some people see that as a new demonstration of elitism. They are big supporters of the NRA & donate heavily to political groups & candidates who’ll support their hobby, which they justify in the name of patriotism.
Sadly, leftover military or cheap new automatic weapons are available to people who’ve never heard of the NRA & couldn’t care less about the Constitution. These are troubled males like Cruz, the Sandy Hook killer, and the Columbine murderers as well as drug-gang criminals.
Please, will everyone write to a congressperson demanding a ban on automatic weapon sales & a penalty for owning them?
I’ll add that gun ownership and NRA membership was on the decline when the NRA started pushing the Second Amendment narrative purely as a marketing strategy. It worked.
They really need Florida the state of to clamp down because Florida is guns guns, and people from other states come here to buy them. The problem when you talk to people who are pro gun, first words out of their mouth is second amendment. The video from the school was horrible just the sound of the shots made it seem so frightening. But I know nothing will change.
The second amendment states that US citizens have the right to keep and bear arms within the confines of a “well-regulated militia”.
It actually specifies “well-regulated”!
I am done… I am just done. I can not. These stupid and ridiculous people in Congress let this happen and they have no regards to human life. Don’t tell me that they have a heart and believe in the Bible, they should have their good sense to come to this and just pass a regulation bill on gun sales and these traitors NRA are letting that happen. NRA are just evil sob and they should be called terrorist as well.
As for Donald ‘Idiot’ Trump. I am not surprised that he will not say it is a tragedy unless a person of Islamic faith is involved that he can use tyranny for his own agenda to put through his disgusting immigration bill. He has no conscious or sense to have seen what he is doing to his country.
My deepest and heart felt condolences towards the families who lost their loved ones in this gun shooting tragedy. No child or in this case no one should not expect anything like this that could bring harm to their lives.
Has anyone seen the tweets by Bess Kalb? She’s a writer on Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel. She drops the receipts on all the GOP senators and congressmen, who are essentially funded by the NRA, offering their “prayers and condolences.” It’s savage and awesome. F*ck those people and f*ck Trump! I’m so, so done!
Her tweets on this have been awesome.
F*ck it. We are left to dropping our kids off at school and fingers crossed that it doesn’t happen at their school. We suck.
Letter writing on a massive scale. What do you all think? Could we do it?
I had to double check when I saw this was the 18th mass shooting in less than two months.
EIGHTEENGH!
And school shootings during the same time period in Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Germany, France combined? ZERO!
Even here in Brazil! And I can testify I live in an ultra-violent country.
And, yet, we call ourselves the “greatest country in the world.” Sure, aside from killing off our most vulnerable citizens one mass shooting at a time I guess. The fact that it’s become so common place is beyond terrifying & disturbing. Neither of my kids are school-aged yet and I’m dreading the day I have to send them off to what is no longer a safe place for children. What has happened to us?? How have we fallen so far?
Two friends of mine, a married couple, recently returned from the US. They loved it there and had always wanted to leave Germany but she said she wouldn’t have a baby there. From pregnancy all the way to college, she said she had seen the German health care and education system and she had seen the American ones and no way in hell would she risk going broke from complications during pregnancy/birth or have her kid be shot before they lost all their baby teeth. A few months ago I thought she was being dramatic but … yeah. I see her point.
And to all these “politicians” who take NRA money: F*ck your prayers. F*ck you and your f*cking prayers. Burn in hell.
@littlemiss
The most challenging part of America is that there are many beautiful things here that I have never found anywhere else. There are things about it I love with all my heart, but it has to get worse to finally clean out this cancer that has been growing for 400 years. Some older people with archaic ideas have to die off, sorry to say it so that they can’t vote their beliefs into office anymore. The full corruption has to come into the light to be seen clearly. Patriarchy needs to die a final and swift death.
Then out of that, we can rebuild into what the promise of America has always been. Not perfect but hopeful and open to innovation and new people.
It will get better.
But it will take a massive disaster or something to shake people out of their apathy and exhaustion before anything significant changes.
I have a bad feeling something bad is going happen, and I can’t shake it. I just don’t see how this doesn’t lead to a reckoning.
Actually it’s 18 school shootings and 29 mass shootings overall. We are on our 45th day of the year (yesterday was 44)
@ Nicole:
Thank you. I was about to correct that.
29 mass shootings in 44 days!!! Unf*ckingbelievable.
Ooops! I meant EIGHTEENTH in my original comment.
Boy, do I hate when I make spelling mistakes.
Eve, I am also just speechless at the 18th school shooting a month and a half into the year. I’m crying typing this. I’m scared for my toddler when he gets into school. I’m seriously debating homeschooling and that was never my plan.
And yet you almost never make spelling or grammatical errors, Eve. Your English is better than most Americans’, including that of the orange shithole currently residing in the Oval Office.
Also, hello sweet friend. You are missed greatly around here.
@ HeyThere:
I’m not a parent so I don’t think I’m in the position of offering any advice. However, I can understand you thinking about homeschooling them. I can feel your fear.
@ Kitten:
It’s one of my pet peeves.
And it’s good to “see” you again, too.
Campaign finance reform is the only thing that will stop this, ultimately.
Yes, Citizens United needs to be revisited and overturned by SCOTUS. Fat chance of that happening . . .
I feel such OUTRAGE that yet another school shooting has happened and that an assault rifle, an instrument for mass murder of children and others, was in the hands of a nineteen year old.
How idiotic, how greedy and evil of the NRA and those who claim it’s all about amendment “rights” to allow assault weaponry in public hands. It’s aggravating, painful, evil, stupid, terribly misguided and tragic beyond belief. Those people who don’t want to limit weapons and are not interested in common sense gun reform or the banning of military style weapons … well, all I can think of is that hell must surely be waiting because people who allow for it have played a big role in the unspeakable misery to the families of victims. If I hear another word about “thoughts and prayers” without action, I will gag. Perhaps these gun promoters/enablers will choke on their own words. Anyone who votes for someone who doesn’t want to protect their citizens from assault rifles or rifles that can be rigged to kill hundreds in seconds is complicit in the suffering.
People who love their guns love to say they are “patriots” but that’s been proven false since they don’t give a damn about Russians invading their democracy. In fact, I have read that the Russians have been aiding and abetting the NRA over the years and stoking this flame.
I’m honestly talking to my husband about moving to Canada. I’m nervous to send my four year old to the public elementary for pre-k next year. This is insanity.
I have taught a four year old class where I was ready, should the need arise, to pile all of my sweet little students into the bathroom and beg them to be silent in case there was a shooter. What madness is this?!?!
When I go to the movies I pick my seat based on not being the easiest target. I don’t like being in crowded places. I avoid Christmas events at the mall. One of my close friends recently had a panic attack at a concert and had to leave due to a sudden fear of shooting, and I wouldn’t even go to a concert myself. I’m a normal American and this is how my mind works.
It will not change. I don’t want to be here anymore. Yesterday when the death count came in on this shooting I felt like I was having an out of body experience. This is not normal and it’s not alright and I want OUT.
I hear you. I teach preschoolers, too, and lockdown drills are part of our routine. The whole afternoon after Sandy Hook was an out of body experience for me. I’ve since become numb, sadly.
On the flip side, this summer a couple kids in my town (8th and 10 grade, I think) posted photos of themselves with guns on social media and made a vague reference to “something happening” that day at summer school at the high school. The school went on lockdown, the boys were arrested. We didn’t get much detail because of their juvenile status but the ultimate takeaway seems to have been that people “overreacted” and that these boys’ lives have been “ruined” because of a “youthful joke.” Smh.
Patricia, your comment resonates with me. I’m always checking exists as well.
Three security/safety experts were interviewed after the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Florida. One of them stressed hard the need to find 3 ways out of every room, building, situation you are in. He said make it automatic, drill it into your kid’s heads too because it just might save their life in a shooting. All three of them when asked what to do when the shooting started said the same thing at the same time, “run.” It’s what they would do and apparently it’s safer than hiding.
I have my local grocery store, drugstore, dr office and pet store mapped. I’m in trouble though if I’m in a bank or credit union.
It’s amazing what has become normal.
Oh my god. This is no way to live. i’m sorry for you. I wanted to visit two of my friends in L.A. this year, but I don’t know, I can’t for now.
Me too. I’ve been telling my husband I want to go. We saved money from our taxes last year so we could move and get a house, but I’m seriously considering selling most of our stuff and using that saved money plus tax money from this year to go to Canada. I just want to cross the border and never come back. My daughter starts kindergarten this year. I shouldn’t have to have to fear sending her to school and her possibly being killed while trying to get an education. This is insanity.
PATRICIA, I feel the same. I wouldn’t take my toddler to our states largest street festivals because I was terrified someone would start shooting. I was scared to go to this big Fourth of July celebration with fireworks because what if someone started shooting?! We would be sitting ducks and not even realize because of the noise of the fireworks. Ugh. We didn’t go to either event. I hate being like this but this is now my brain works now. I’m always looking over our shoulder, checking for exits at places and looking for people who seem up to no good. It is an awful way to live but I do not know any different.
Yesterday I drove by Planned Parenthood and there were protesters waving signs and shouting. Too bad these supposedly “pro-life” people don’t use their energy and political clout to do something to protect the lives of actual real children.
Those people can f*ck off honestly! They are some of the most hypocritical people I have ever seen.
Thats because most of those people arent really pro-life. They like to say they’re on the side of the children but as soon as they’re born they no longer want to help that mother who now has to rely on food stamps to feed her family.
And they now want to cut access to those food stamps.
When I got my abortion six weeks ago, it had just snowed more than a foot and it was -10 degrees with the windchill here in Boston–about 5 degrees Fahrenheit. I had one of the first appointments on a Saturday morning and the area of the city we were in was a ghost town. I didn’t see any protestors when we were walking in (I was actually shaking because I had heard the horror stories) but my BF said he saw a small group of them when he left to go feed the meter and get coffee an hour and a half later.
I honestly CANNOT believe that these aholes would be out in subzero temperatures and snow just to torture women who are already feeling awful. Absolute monsters.
When I was recovering in the post-surgery room one woman was crying so hard, sobbing hysterically. I just wanted to go over and hug her…..
Sorry to interject with my random thoughts 😉
Don’t those people have somewhere else to go? Someting more meaningful to do ? There life seem so filled up with hate they can’t enjoy anything in life without hurting other people by judging them and shaming them. This really blows my mind.
BIG Hugs, Kitten. I swear those people are monsters. I put them in the same category as the vile people who protest veteran funerals.
Hugs.
Those people are lunatics.
@ Kitten:
A big hug to you, my dear. I sincerely hope you’ve had (or are still having) a nice recovery.
Agree with the poster upthread- when nothing happened after Sandy Hook, that was the end. Good grief, there are even crazies who think the shootings at Sandy Hook never happened!
And what is the deal with protecting AK-whatever’s?? No one hunts with these-unless you call shooting high school students en masse “hunting”. That would seem to be so mild a change-restrict it’s sale or at least the ammunition- but who am I kidding?
I agree. That should have been the tipping point. I was so sure that would do it.
Nope.
The comments for this horror are heartwrenching, heartbreaking and elicit a feeling of hopelessness for humanity. I feel sick. Perhaps it’s time to rip it up and start again.
After millions of years, a perfect planet to sustain life evolved and it was beautiful until mankind set out to destroy it and themselves. Look at what we’re spewing into the environment. That was my feeling when this senseless shooting happened. That humanity can’t even agree to curtail the use of dangerous weaponry after all the evidence is in that it doesn’t solve problems is beyond heartbreaking and aggravating … it’s scary and breeds a sense of hopelessness. Look at what’s happening now with the uptick in “nuclear” talk. Fanatics seem to be running the world everywhere and people are voting them in because of their fanatical beliefs or because they are tricked into thinking these people with selfish agendas will do good. I have no answers. The terrorists are not just “out there” they’re within. Thoughts and prayers … such empty words. The world needs people with GUTS, not guns!!!
Well said, Robyn.
And our elected representatives did nothing when some of them were targets on a softball field.
Demons walk among us.
One of them shot up a Florida school yesterday.
One of them is in the White House.
#deliverusfromevil
My son is in the Air Force and my daughter is a first grade teacher. I am more concerned about my daughter going to work than I am about my son. It’s beyond sad that it has come to this.
It’s terrible. My middle son is also in the Air Force, and I just dropped my youngest off at middle school. We were both solemnly quiet having listened to the morning news. We’ve been talking a lot this past year about so many serious things, (politics, #MeToo, et frakkin’ al), and while communication is important, he’s such a caring little thing he tends to carry around emotional weight like it’s his burden to bear. I simply don’t want that so while I don’t sugarcoat anything, I definitely have to change the course of conversation veering more toward hope, happiness and love of family, friends, life… I’m such a cynical bs’er, rolling my eyes at most everyone and every thing, but I feel, lately, I really have to shelf that side of me around my little man. Damn. Everything is SO SAD AND YET SO ANGERING!
I don’t even know what to type I’m so heartbroken and fed up with our gun violence. I can’t even wrap my head around this is the 18th school shooting of 2018?!?!?!?! It’s mid Feb! This is not okay and this has to stop. This town was voted FL safest town last year. It can and it will happen anywhere if sometthing doesn’t change. How did Sandy Hook not change anything? I’m done today. I can’t take more.
And another thing, what the [Long string of swearwords] was up with all those “journalists” contacting people trapped inside the school with an active shooter going “Hey! Can I use your video/name/picture? I’ll credit you! Stay safe thx k bai!”
Sheriff is asserting that the man is mentally ill. Yeah, sure, the guy who planned with calculated precision like a pro.
Mentally ill people can be very good planners, maybe you should google it a little.
If this teen struck students as creepy beforehand as Ive been reading sounds like he had needed help for a while.
I don’t think anyone is implying that the guy wasn’t deeply troubled but as I’ve said before, the single factor that separates us from other countries where this doesn’t happen is guns. Way too many guns that are way to easy to obtain.
Mentally ill people who are aware and cognizant enough to make well planned and coordinated attacks on a school are not undermined by their mental illness enough to not be able to make moral and ethical decision.
I am a mentally ill woman. I would never do something like this. It’s not an excuse, and it’s not a reason. Conflating mental illness and violent behavior is beyond irresponsible.
This was an intentional choice made by a young man who was in control of his mental faculties. Millions of people in America are depressed or anxious. They aren’t murdering people.
Hmm was implying that very thing. Questioning the ability to plan vs being mentally ill.
The are very many categories of mental illness, never did I imply that mental illness was the sole reason for his choices- but his ability to perform his plan does not rule out mental illness.
People tend to equate mental illness with insanity. I wasn’t clear- he may have had problems but was completely sane at the time of the murders. However many will excuse his behaviour because he might be mentally ill. The sheriff was inadvertently reinforcing that error.
Lori – I fully admit I’m sensitive to the issue because it gets dragged into the conversation by news outlets every time something like this happens as an excuse to overlook the very real issues that contribute to it (access to automatic rifles, lack of proper education and mental health resources, toxic masculinity, media sensationalism, etc.). If I misread your intent, I apologize.
I get what you’re saying, but we should never underestimate the dedication of a fool with a cause.
What’s funny is how many GOPers screeching “this isn’t about guns! it’s about mental health!”
Then they proceed to deal with neither.
Veronica- I suffer from really bad anxiety, and I take medication for it. I dont think mental illness is the reason this happened, just saying he could very well be mentally ill no matter how well he planned and executed something- but he also sounds like a horrible person, not a kind and empathetic one.
I’m quite sure he is mentally ill. Most of our shooters are. It’s the American pattern.
The problem is that he at the same time had access to any guns he wanted. Look at Trump – a raging vindictive ignorant extreme narcissist with sociopathic traits and he has access to the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world, enough to annihilate another country and cause deaths and damage to crops around the world (including here). Even a sane and mentally/emotionally healthy President shouldn’t have that kind of power, but we have happily handed it over to a Trump. Americans have a long history of thinking it’s okay for anybody, sane or insane, troubled or untroubled, to have the ability to wipe out large numbers of people at once. The only difference between this 19 year old and the President is really just a matter of scale.
I couldnt agree more. This kid had made threats on youtube. He should have been evaluated and lost his right to get a gun, at least until he had been treated and ok’d by a doctor.
Mentally ill doesn’t mean nonfunctional. People can be quite functional and creative while mentally ill, just as they can be when physically ill. The distinction is convenient but not real. It’s all really physical, what we call mental illness simply involves problems within the brain that affect behavior. If behavior doesn’t change, we tend to not call it mental illness but simply a physical problem in the brain such as tumor, swelling, cancer, stroke, etc. But it’s always physical (or biochemical). A recognized physical problem can also induce behavioral changes. We aren’t in such splendid control of ourselves and our personalities as we would like to think.
Certain types of mental illness, combined with certain personality traits and attitudes, are dangerous because the usual inhibitions to killing other people can be absent. Also it can be a type of suicidal behavior, especially in males who like to think they will go out in a blaze of glory. This fellow might be very disappointed that he is still alive. I suspect a lot of (maybe most) American mass shooters are basically suicidal.
This is what I was trying to say- but much more well put 😛
Dear Mr. President,
Come take a walk with me
Let’s pretend we’re just two people
And you’re not better than me
I’d like to ask you some questions
If we can speak honestly
What do you feel when you see
All the homeless on the street?
Who do you pray for at night
Before you go to sleep?
What do you feel when you look in the mirror?
Are you proud?
How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye?
And tell me why?
+1000000
the tragic thing is that Trump could look you in the eye while you tell him these things. And likely he would ridicule you, shut you down and try to knock you out verbally.
Trump completely lacks empathy, which makes him especially dangerous. The seat of empathy in the brain seems to be the amygdala, so whether congenitally or developmentally, by nurture or nature, there is likely to be damage or underdevelopment in that area of his brain. He could be taught to be less violent (I’m sure that was the real reason he was dumped into military school for five years) for fear of losing his freedom. But empathy cannot be taught past a certain age because the brain loses its ability to develop that area. Trump has other problems that interfere with normal human interactions, but probably the biggest problems stem from this lack of empathy.
And yes, he would be totally unaffected by first hand observation of such tragedies. Empathy is crucial for us to react to distress in others. He can mimic concern if needed, but doesn’t do it very well and makes major mistakes whenever he can go off script. That’s why he should never be allowed to talk with anybody who has suffered a loss, such as spouse’s or parents of people lost in combat. It’s a crapshoot as to whether he will cause harm or not.
Republicans will be the death of us all.
I hope my visa to Australia gets approved soon. I can’t bear this.
This is the 18th school shooting of 2018.
Washington, we have a problem.
The Human Development Index of 2012 said, that there were 29,7 murder cases per 1 mio people in the US, 7,7 murder cases per 1 mio people in Switzerland and 1,9 murder cases per 1 mio people in Germany.
Source in ger, last paragraph:
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/trumps-praesidentschaft/in-den-usa-gibt-es-viele-waffen-und-viele-morde-15450533.html
My son turned five yesterday and is excited for kindergarten. I was celebrating a life while that monster destroyed countless families. A thank you to every teacher. I just keep crying little stolen minutes in private.
Just read Trump’s statement today. Nothing that means anything was said. Oh and he’s going to visit this weekend – but then again he was headed to Mar-a-Lago anyway.
Did anyone see the story of the Dad who lost a daughter yesterday? He drove over to the school before he knew she was one of the victims — and he is wearing a “Trump 2020” shirt.
My heart breaks for him and any parent who loses a child, but it just shows the disconnect that many people have when it comes to this issue.
I’m wondering if the dad is self aware enough to realise Trump did not help? Seriously. Cos Sandy Hook didn’t seem to change anything…the politician who got shot also didn’t change anything…and Trump supporters didn’t let anything stick to Trump even if he shoots someone on Wall Street.
I dunno man….
I would bet a lot of money the pro 2nd Amendment people couldn’t write a 2,000 page essay about why the 2nd amendment was put in place to begin with—this has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with having basic understanding of the amendment to begin with.
I am an American living in Canada now and a student I am tutoring had a history assignment learning about propaganda during world war 2. They are teaching the kids up here about this because it is so prevalent for Americans (our neighbors to the south) to believe in propaganda. I think all American teens should learn about this as well so we don’t create another generation of these types of people.
Trump himself, and his illegitimate presidency, are an American tragedy.
Truer words…
The scary thing was that a teacher said the school had regular drills…but people still died. I mean, I don’t know how else to wrap my head around this!
Trump’s most recent words about the mental health of the gunman, and placing the onus on his community is classic Trumpian deflection. Let’s blame innocent family and neighbors instead dirty politicians in the pockets of the NRA, or the people selling killing machines (yes, that’s what guns are. They serve no other purpose. Even used as “protection” their intent is to kill).
I say enact a Federal law that states that if you are a gun shop guilty of selling assault weapons to mass shooters, you should be tried for the murders as well. Certain states do it for bartenders who knowingly serve intoxicated patrons involved in DUI fatalities..
Yes, deflection with no outcome or positive change. Adult developmentally disabled persons in my state are on years-long wait lists for day program placement and subsidies. One woman simply gave up, drove towards St. Louis and dropped her daughter off in a bar. She didn’t know what to do any more. We don’t have enough psychiatrists to work with mentally ill patients and provide them support. The kids in school are bullied and public school teachers with hi class ratios are often too overburdened to react to it. The number of kids I see in this state dealing with ACEs (Adverse Childhood Events) is staggering. Those events affect your health for LIFE. So let’s drop free access to weapons in the middle of this mess, shall we?
PS I wish at least one White House correspondent would ask what Barron thinks about the shooting.
I wish Michelle Obama would run against him. That would be some win!! #WomenRunIt