[Taltarzac725]

If It's A School Week In America, Odds Are There Will Be A School Shooting

Anyone have any practical suggestions about how to stop these shootings? More education about how to stop marginalizing kids done by other kids? Bullying has always been around but why has it gone to such extremes? Copycat shooters who feel that's the only way to get what they want?

[Bogie Shooter]

And its going to be solved on TOTV? Really?

[buggyone]

It will not be solved on TOTV but certainly it is a good topic for discussion as an open forum is supposed to do.

I wonder how long it will be before some our gun enthusiasts will come on and say that schools should not be gun free zones since that encourages someone to come start shooting since it will be a safe area for them to do their shooting with no danger. Yeah, stop guns by bringing in more guns. That is going to end well.

Are the shootings the result of bad parenting, coddled children, violent video games, gratuitous violence in movies, removal of God from schools, or just plain crazy people?

Before jumping to a quick answer remember that one answer may not fit all circumstances.

[SantaClaus]

I think that teaching our kids that we are just grown up germs and that morality is a mere social contract (to protect the weak) might have a big hand in it. Add in a coddling parent who applauds the slightest effort and shelters little egos like a hen on the roost and I'd say you've got a pretty good handle on the problem.

[buggyone]

Originally Posted by SantaClaus

I think that teaching our kids that we are just grown up germs and that morality is a mere social contract (to protect the weak) might have a big hand in it. Add in a coddling parent who applauds the slightest effort and shelters little egos like a hen on the roost and I'd say you've got a pretty good handle on the problem.

You are not saying that a parent should scoff at a child's mediocre achievement and say that you expected him to do better when the child performed at their peak level, are you? Remember, there has to be some kid playing in right field - not everyone is capable of playing first base. Applaud that catch in right field even though it was a complete accident!

I do not believe in the t-ball games where there is no winner. Everyone has to learn that life has winning moments and losing moments. Rewards are not given for participation.

However, it is important to put your arm around your child and say, "I am proud of you."

[SantaClaus]

Yep, you're really good at stating the things I'm not saying. You might have guessed from my chosen occupation that I do not hate children. I do hate it when parents pretend the precocious is precious, or that disrespectfulness is passed off as playfulness. Your child is not the center of the universe, not even YOUR universe (or certainly should not be), and if you teach him that he is you have completely failed to prepare him for the real world (the ultimate goal of parenting). The father who fails to discipline his child (yes, including corporeal) hates his child, according to the scriptures of all three major world religions.

[BobnBev]

Are the shootings the result of bad parenting, coddled children, violent video games, gratuitous violence in movies, removal of God from schools, or just plain crazy people?

Yep, all of the above

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Many of the statistics with regards to school shootings, especially those reported by former NYC mayor, Michael Bloomberg's anti gun groups, are exagerated, built up or completely false.

Here's one article. There are hundreds more showing how these people will say whatever they think will get them the results they want.

Bloomberg

[Rags123]

Everytime this kind of thing happens, it becomes a discussion of guns.

We ignore the beating deaths, the stabbing deaths, etc and etc and on and on.

My opinion is very strong that as the family unit breaks down in this country and is actually becoming the butt of jokes it will get worse. We have watered down marriage, parenting so much it means very little.

That, to me is the reason. I do agree that children are coddled terribly today....if you punish, our society says you are bad.....I really get discouraged at how our society talks about and manifests its disgust toward marriage and family.

My vote on many things is moral decay in this country. We keep looking for issues to blame, and it is right in front of us, but it would be difficult to defend marriage or family thus we need issues to blame !

[ilovetv]

There are various factors that feed into each shooter's dark scheme of murder and suicidal quest for fame, but one of the biggest, I think, is kids left unattended and unsupervised, pretty much raising themselves. The parent(s) are indeed around, but their focus is on other things...pursuits of their own.

Then when they start to go off track in school and start getting marginalized by other kids for acting weird, they are often just a number in a sea of 2,000 other students.

Teachers individually try to help them, but their year or semester with them ends. Then the parents often will not accept that their child is doing anything wrong, much less that he's showing signs of deviant behavior/thinking....and the child digs himself deeper into a hole of isolation and aberrant thinking fed by drugs, solitude, internet research, violent/bloody video games, and wayward friends into some really sick topics.

I think many of the school shooters feel unloved and home is the first place where they felt that. One thing different about parochial schools, which seem to have few if any shootings, is that the students are taught and reminded at every turn that when nobody else loves you, God always does, and He can be accessed 24/7/365 thru prayer.

I'm not advocating prayer in public schools at all, nor that parochial schools are the answer. Public schools are foundational to our nation. But kids being taught who God is, and how to access Him in our deepest, darkest moments could well be a big defining factor in the path the shooters took.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Bloomberg's latest stats on school gun violence ignore reality | Fox News

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by ilovetv

There are various factors that feed into each shooter's dark scheme of murder and suicidal quest for fame, but one of the biggest, I think, is kids left unattended and unsupervised, pretty much raising themselves. The parent(s) are indeed around, but their focus is on other things...pursuits of their own.

Then when they start to go off track in school and start getting marginalized by other kids for acting weird, they are often just a number in a sea of 2,000 other students.

Teachers individually try to help them, but their year or semester with them ends. Then the parents often will not accept that their child is doing anything wrong, much less that he's showing signs of deviant behavior/thinking....and the child digs himself deeper into a hole of isolation and aberrant thinking fed by drugs, solitude, internet research, violent/bloody video games, and wayward friends into some really sick topics.

I think many of the school shooters feel unloved and home is the first place where they felt that. One thing different about parochial schools, which seem to have few if any shootings, is that the students are taught and reminded at every turn that when nobody else loves you, God always does, and He can be accessed 24/7/365 thru prayer.

I'm not advocating prayer in public schools at all, nor that parochial schools are the answer. Public schools are foundational to our nation. But kids being taught who God is, and how to access Him in our deepest, darkest moments could well be a big defining factor in the path the shooters took.

Religion, country, causes, art, sports, etc. are worthwhile endeavors that can turn teens away from loneliness, despair, depression, and/or other bad influences. Of course, they have to be tempered too so as not to take over one's life.

I also hardly believe that if you take away US and other army used weapons from the civilian population--which is an impossible task anyway-- that will stop school shootings or others acts of violence in schools. They will use pistols, shotguns, rifles or whatever else is available like bows, crossbows, knives, bombs, slingshots, javelins, machetes, swords, etc.

[Doctommft]

[QUOTE=buggyone;890928]It will not be solved on TOTV but certainly it is a good topic for discussion as an open forum is supposed to do.

I wonder how long it will be before some our gun enthusiasts will come on and say that schools should not be gun free zones since that encourages someone to come start shooting since it will be a safe area for them to do their shooting with no danger. Yeah, stop guns by bringing in more guns. That is going to end well.

Well here is what you wanted. If a creep knows that a school has a guard with a gun, he/she may think twice unless their goal is death by cop. You have eliminated 50% of proposed solutions to the problem. Very narrow of you.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

[quote=Doctommft;891127]

Originally Posted by buggyone

It will not be solved on TOTV but certainly it is a good topic for discussion as an open forum is supposed to do.

I wonder how long it will be before some our gun enthusiasts will come on and say that schools should not be gun free zones since that encourages someone to come start shooting since it will be a safe area for them to do their shooting with no danger. Yeah, stop guns by bringing in more guns. That is going to end well.

Well here is what you wanted. If a creep knows that a school has a guard with a gun, he/she may think twice unless their goal is death by cop. You have eliminated 50% of proposed solutions to the problem. Very narrow of you.

So you're saying that having armed guards in the schools would cut school shootings by 50%? Sounds like that's something that should be in the mix.
In addition, an armed guard may stop a shooter before he kills anyone or may lower the number of people shot.
I'm not saying that this is the sole answer as I agree with a lot of people on this thread. These problems are not caused by the availability of guns, but are the result of many complex sociological problems that we currently have in this country.

[DaleMN]

Love all the arm chair psychologists.