Today it’s a middle school in Indiana.
How many more children have to be murdered? Why are our extremist “right to life” groups so silent? No more “thoughts and prayers” from me. No more sympathy for grieving parents who steadfastly refuse to limit access to guns. No more. In particular, no more God-talk from Bible-belt hypocrites who eagerly jump to attack “immoral” behavior and have nothing to say about the torrent of innocent blood flowing from the flood of guns and ammunition that fills Red America.
We are behaving like pod-people from “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. Will ANYTHING move us to actually do something to protect our children?
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High school is where we tell kids they are equal. but they are not. Boys, many of whom are autistic, do not get dates with girls and take revenge on the world.
I think there used to be religious messages about your individual worth that you don’t hear any more and your worth is tied to your success now.
High school is where it’s first presented to boys that you may not be very or even minimally attractive.
Not the only reason for school shootings but it’s part of it that’s never addressed. We live under the romantic lie that all are equal and if we just respect each other it can resolve the inevitable jealousies that come during (let’s call it) courtship and mating.
Today’s shooting was at a middle-school. I don’t think that the social stresses of high school are any worse today than they ever have been.
Maybe boys are less equipped to deal with the stresses because the society gave up the tools. For instance, in the old country, if your son is autistic and violent, you kept him home. Why? Because if he hurt somebody the village would come and kill him, burn down your house, and kill you and your whole family.
In modern America before the discovery of autism these boys were just shunned by the rest of the class and told they were losers. I’m not suggesting we go back to that. But we are not being straight with them.
I really think this comment is, well, misinformed. Before we worry so much about being straight with anybody else, we should perhaps be straight with ourselves.
This comment assumes a link between autism and violence that itself reflects fear and ignorance. Sources like this and this compellingly show that when violent behavior occurs in subjects diagnosed with ASD, those students also suffer from other disorders (such as ADHD) for which violent behavior is already noted as a symptom.
In short, there is no link between autism and violence. Not in the “old country”, and not now.
This comment also demonstrates another dangerous aspect of the relentless fear-mongering of the far-right — the resurgence of old-school fear and rejection of those suffering ANY emotional disorder.
Millions of American boys and girls will and should benefit from therapy. Those who are fortunate enough to actually obtain it should NOT be stigmatized as potential mass murderers.
We should, instead, remove the guns and ammunition. If someone is to be stigmatized, I suggest that we hold liable (for civil damages) and prosecute (for criminal liability) the persons who provide the weapons and ammunition used by these killers. For minors, I suggest that we hold the parents responsible.
Autism isn’t the problem. Killing is the problem.
You are quite the excuse factory, aren’t you? We ARE all equal in the sight of God and ideally the law, but nobody pretends we all have the same talents or successes.
This is the worst litany of inane, enabling Fox News talking points. We used to get through the challenges of adolescence without shooting up a school.
I really wish people would use their own words and thoughts … but maybe I should be careful what I ask for.
Oh you Three Amigos…
There’s a city councilor in Waltham who wants to put a wall down the middle of town-owned forest in order to keep shooters away from the middle school across the street. I see taking away the guns as the inverse of this. A mechanical solution to a cultural problem, easier to do than to understand why boys hate their schools so much they want to destroy them.
Boys (and girls) have hated their schools for as long as there’s been schools. Boys only recently started mowing down classmates.
In my view, the “mechanical” problem is a 14 year old with a loaded weapon, and I happily embrace a “mechanical” solution that keeps that weapon away from him.