Yesterday, while a sick fuck murdered 17 kids a few miles away at MSD High, I was taking a break from working in the yard.
The Sims is my current game of choice and in that make believe world Katy was busy trying to teach her Corgi Penny to fetch.
It’s not going well.
Nobody older than 50 ‘gets’ this: shooting your classmates with an AR-15. When we were young (yeah, I’m going there) guns of all kinds were readily available. The boys driving trucks had gun racks with deer rifles clearly displayed and nobody thought anything of it because guns are tools. Period. Our parents taught us how to shoot them, how to clean them and how to respect them, just as they did with hammers and horse tack. But I can’t remember anything like this ever happening back then.
What’s the difference in generations? Well, my sister-in-law thinks pesticides are warping young brains. Someone else blamed the ubiquitous ADD drugs, which so many kids are on, even if nothing wrong with them. “Just to make him focus at school”.
We don’t know with this evil son of a bitch yet, in general I believe Snowflake Syndrome has ruined our kids. Can’t spank them. And they’re not allowed to fail. (Everyone gets a trophy!) Or fall down. Or be bullied. Or be offended. They’ve built no fitting response to any damn thing. So when the untoward occurs when they’re older and have access to weapons? Horror.
The answer does not lie in taking away weapons from law abiding citizens, but in a better response to mental health problems. When everything went to hell yesterday the kids knew it had to be this asshole; they knew. If everyone knew, what was he doing with weapons and why wasn’t he in treatment? Who failed? Who’s complicit?
Of course none of this will bring back those precious children. God help us.
Edited to add: Teachers ought to be able to carry concealed. Making schools a gun-free zone is the most shameful thing ever perpetuated on the American public.
And dammit, I wasn’t going to talk politics or current events on this blog.
That comment about “everyone knew…it was that guy” is just so wrong, Pam. That’s placing the blame on kids…kids who have been living in a world where school or mass shootings are occuring often enough to be considered commonplace. That’s not on them, it’s on us! We’ve allowed this to keep happening. As for what kids can and should do, reporting their suspicions to the school administration and/or the police, plenty of them do this. However, when the perpetrator no longer attends school and you don’t have contact with them, all you have is hindsight, which is where these students sit. THEY are NOT to be held responsible for this. The blame is firmly on the shooter. We adults need to adjust our moral compasses and get a reality on our beliefs that some ideal committed to law over 200 years ago should stand as is. A lot has changed since then. A lot has changed just in the past 20 years that should cause us to reexamine our need to place an ideal ahead of and above the lives of others.
Now, look, I believe in our Constitution and I don’t want to completely do away with the Second Amendment. I just want to…amend it. We have to do something because it’s become quite clear that doing nothing hasn’t worked out so well for us. As much as I know I should finish explaining, I think I’ve hijacked your comments long enough and will have to blog this out on my own.
Last thought, though, which I can’t seem to phrase any other way: fuck your sister-in-law’s cockamamie theory about pesticides. This kid wasn’t exposed to DDT or anything else. Same sentiment regarding ADHD meds for depression. Mental health is a complex issue and I’ll obviously dig into that on my own as well.
Just, please, stop assigning blame or partial blame to victims. We’re better than that. YOU’RE better than that. I’m sure you didn’t mean it to come across as it did, but we’re now at a point in time on an issue when we need to be precise with our words.
Okay, I’m done. I’m sorry if this causes strife between us, but I can’t pretend this isn’t an issue that requires a deep dig and reexamination into longheld beliefs.
I still love you. Know that.
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I would never assign blame to those kids, Joanie. EVER. Every time I look at one, I see the grandkids. I was only writing what I heard some of them say on tv – that they knew it had to be that guy.
The FBI failed and the Broward County Sheriff’s Department failed in ways so large and varied, we’re just now understanding them. That bastard sheriff was only interested in the spotlight and grant money. Fuck him.
And yes, I know my sister-in-law is full of crap. 😉
Now, which of my guns would you take away and why?
I love you, Joanie and we can agree to disagree on some subjects. Or tussle over others. It’s all good, my friend. ❤
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