(05-18-2018, 06:03 PM)jagibelieve Wrote: [ -> ]So sad and depressing to see something like this... AGAIN.
A couple of things pointed out by some of you.
1. Firearms should be stored safely responsibly. I think a major key also is education regarding the handling, use, etc. of firearms at a younger age.
2. I think in today's day and age social media/technology has changed us. People don't really socialize anymore. Twitter followers, "likes", "up votes" etc. are more important than actual relationships.
I personally think that the root of the problem is a culmination of a lot of things. As pointed out already, firearm safety and education (or lack thereof) is just one part of the problem. Also as pointed out social media and technology are part of the problem. This second part leads to poor mental health and development. For many people "friends" is a number on a website rather than close personal relationships. Go to a restaurant or a bar and just observe how many people are staring down at their phones rather than engaging in conversation. I'm a "techie" myself and recognize how technology and social media is destroying people's lives. I saw a report recently where high school teachers have a hard time keeping kids off of their phones during class.
Along with technology another major contributor is the entertainment industry. Violent movies and video games are "normal". Many children nowadays spend more time "gaming" or watching movies on Netflix, Hulu, etc. that are pretty violent and graphic.
One other thing that I have tried to discuss while staying in line with the CoC on this website is the lack of morals in today's society. Religion is openly mocked and "looked down upon" by certain groups of people. Common sense is out-the-window when it comes to acceptable behavior. Suspending kids for pointing a finger in the shape of a gun? Young kids not sure which bathroom to use? Removing historical monuments and renaming schools because someone is "offended"? This all ties in to "political correctness" and what is "popular" on social media.
This whole problem is going to get worse before it gets better.
1. Firearms should be stored safely and responsibly, and anyone who owns one should undergo training and education about how to use them and how not to use them.
2. I will not argue this. There is plenty of research out there indicating that the amount of time a person, particularly a child, spends on social media is directly proportional to incidents of depression. Connecting with friends and family is good. Comparing your life to the cherry-picked moments your friends and family post is bad, regardless of age. I think the shark jump for Facebook was when they opened it up to high schoolers. To be blunt, I don't think high schoolers (and those younger!) are psychologically ready for a highly unfiltered look at the worst of the world, and I don't think that Facebook should be filtering it for them.
3. Mental health has been a silent problem for a long time. It's coming to light now, to the point that I think blanket mental health restrictions would be unfairly limiting access to firearms. If nothing else happens, the mental health of the person buying a gun
and the people in their household needs to be considered. Have an incident of depression in your past, or have you been diagnosed with bipolar disorder but are treating and controlling it? Yes, you probably should be allowed to own a gun. Do you have schizophrenia? Does your kid have a history of putting kittens in a garbage disposal? Sorry, no guns for you. There needs to be a comprehensive process in place that includes review of your medical history and an interview with a psychologist before clearing you to buy a gun. Yeah, that's going to make purchasing a gun a more expensive, longer process, but when the alternative is your kid taking that .30-06 and sniping ten classmates and a teacher from the gym roof, I'm cool with that.
4. If violent movies and video games turned people into killers, I'd have a body count on par with James Bond at this point. I think you'd see many, many more mass murderers among us. Playing GTA 5 at 12 years old will only teach you some bad words (that you probably learned from Facebook already anyway). It doesn't make someone a killer.
Also, it's a really fun game. If you've never shot a tanker to get the driver out, hopped on top, dropped C4, then let 'er rip to see how high you can go, you haven't lived.
5. I am a moral person in many ways, but perhaps not by your definition of morality. If someone being born with the wrong parts makes you a killer, I think it's you who has a problem. Suspending someone for making a gun shape with their fingers is stupid. I can't even begin to count the number of "gunfights" that we had in elementary school, and again, none of us (that I know of) grew into psycho killers. The issue I see with this whole statement from you is that you're picking extreme outliers. The six-year-old boy who lived as a girl is an aberration. There's a reason that's only hit the news once--every parent out there except for those two understands that a six-year-old is too young to understand the concept of "gender" at all. Hell, when I was six, I spent most of the year convinced that I was a robot. Seriously. Six-year-olds are dumb.
For as much noise as some make about transgender rights, I can count on zero fingers the number of times I've seen a transgendered individual make a scene about using a bathroom designed for people with the opposite plumbing. I suspect everyone else on this forum would have the same number of fingers to hold up. That's not making people shoot people.
Renaming monuments? Maybe. I'm not going to rehash my thoughts there, but I will say that the shooter had a full on Nazi uniform at his house, so maybe that contributed to it in some remote, miniscule way?
Political correctness does not make school shootings happen. School shootings happen because a person with a severe undiagnosed (or poorly treated) mental illness feels slighted in some way to the point that they go grab their parents' guns (or buy their own) and light the place up. Does other stuff contribute to that? Sure, but going to a morality school on a specific morning every week didn't stop Dylann Roof from shooting up a church. Didn't stop Dylan Klebold from shooting up Columbine. I don't see too many people here moan when a certain form of morality prevalent on the other side of the world is openly mocked and looked down upon. Morals are learned many places in many ways, and suggesting that attending weekly morality classes would in any way stem the tide of school shootings is as ludicrous as it is a violation of the CoC that you enforce.