“We've endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. And each time I hear the news I react not as a president, but as anybody else would -- as a parent. ...I know there are parents in America that feel the way that i do. The majority of those who died today were children -- beautful little kids who were between five and ten years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them -- birthdays, graduations, weddings; kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers -- men and women devoted to helping others fulfill their dreams. ”
—Excerpted remarks from PRESIDENT OBAMA, reacting to the Newtown, CT school shootings.
People think school shootings are just now becoming popular but look at this.
Aug 1st, 1966 - University of Texas, 17 dead.
May 4th, 1970 - Kent State university, 4 dead.
May 14th, 1970 - Jackson State university, 2 dead.
July 12th, 1976 -California state university, 7 dead.
January 29th, 1979 - Cleveland elementary school, 2 dead.
January 20th, 1983 - Parkway south junior high school, 2 dead.
January 17th, 1986 - Cleveland elementary school, 6 dead.
November 1st, 1991 - University of Iowa, 6 dead.
May 1st, 1992 - Lindhurst high school, 4 dead.
December 14th, 1992 - Simon’s rock college of Bard, 2 dead.
January 18th, 1993 - Eat carter high school, 2 dead.
November 15th, 1995 - Richland high school, 2 dead.
February 2nd, 1996 - Frontier junior high, 3 dead.
September 17th, 1996 - State college, 1 dead.
February 19th, 1997 - Bethel high school, 2 dead.
October 1st, 1997 - Pearl high school, 3 dead.
December 1st, 1997 - Heath high school, 3 dead.
March 24th, 1998 - Westside middle school, 5 dead.
April 24th, 1998 - Parker middle school, 1 dead.
May 21st, 1998 - Thurston high school, 4 dead.
April 20th, 1999 - Columbine high school, 15 dead.
February 29th, 2000 - Buell elementary school, 1 dead.
March 5th, 2001 - Santana high school, 2 dead.
January 16th, 2001 - Appalachian school of law, 3 dead.
April 24th, 2003 - Red lion area junior high school, 2 dead.
May 9th, 2003 - case western reserve university, 1 dead.
September 24th, 2003 - Rocori high school, 2 dead.
March 21st, 2005 - Red lake high school, 10 dead.
November 8th, 2005 - Campbell county high school, 1 dead.
August 24th, 2006 - Essex elementary school, 2 dead.
September 27th, 2006 - Platte canyon high school, 2 dead.
September 29th, 2006 - Weston high school, 1 dead.
October 2nd, 2006 - Amish school, 6 dead.
April 16th, 2007 - Virginia tech, 33 dead.
September 21st, 2007 - Delaware state university, 1 dead.
October 10th, 2007 - Success Tech academy, 1 dead.
February 8th, 2008 - Louisiana technical college, 3 dead.
February 12th, 2008 - E.O Green school, 1 dead.
February 14th, 2008 - Northern Illinois University, - 6 dead.
August 21st, 2008 - Central High school, 1 dead.
October 27th, 2008 - university of central Arkansas, 2 dead.
November 12th, 2008 - Dillard high school, 1 dead.
February 5th, 2010 - Discovery Middle School, 1 dead.
February 12th, 2010 - University of Alabama, 3 dead.
March 9th, 2010 - Ohio state university, 2 dead.
January 5th, 2011 - Millard South High School, 2 dead.
January 5th, 2011 - Worthing High School, 1 dead.
May 10th, 2011 - San Jose State University, 3 dead.
December 8th, 2011 - Virginia Tech, 1 dead.
February 10th, 2012 - Walpole elementary school, 1 dead.
February 27th, 2012 - Chardon High School, 3 dead.
March 6th, 2012 - Episcopal High School, 1 dead.
April 2nd, 2012 - Oikos University, 7 dead.
December 14th, 2012 - Sandy Hook Elementary School, 27 dead.
School shootings have always been bad. They’re just getting closer together now.
The video I just reblogged segues into something sent along to me earlier. After the death of Aurora shooting victim Alex Teves (who notably sacrificed himself to save his girlfriend's life), his family set up a page called "The Alex Teves Challenge" which pushes the media to play down the suspects in mass shootings. The challenge to media organizations, in full:
alexteveschallenge.comThe media organization will:
• Refuse to promote the identity of an alleged assailant by withholding their name and likeness from all forms of public communication.
• Acknowledge that the prospect of infamy could serve as a partial motivating factor for disturbed individuals to cause the death of innocent victims.
• Concur that individual names and likenesses are irrelevant to media coverage of such acts, where an emphasis should be placed on specific details of the act, alleged assailant’s background, and possible motivations.
• Raise public awareness of the root cause for such acts, as to increase the likelihood of their future prevention.
• Agree that in cases where an alleged assailant is still at large, their name and likeness should be published to aid in the capture and incarceration of this individual. Once incarcerated, the assailant’s name and likeness will be withheld from future communications.
• Recognize that The Alex Teves Challenge is an initial step in the process of eliminating random acts of mass violence. As such, we agree to promote data and analysis from experts in mental health, public safety, and other relevant professions, where this will support further steps in the elimination of this type of criminal behavior.
In a statement on the site, Teves’ father, Tom, makes this point: “If we all don’t stand together to save our children and our friends then we are, by doing nothing, culpable to a certain extent.” Is there room for media organizations to take such a situation seriously? And how does that play into the current situation?
Personal take: I like the heart behind this idea (especially considering the video Anthony posted is so accurate), but I will be the first to admit that there are many challenges to enacting it — one, that media organizations who run this kind of info have a natural encouragement to do so, and two, that social media makes it easier than ever for this sort of info to spread. But is there something to be said for points like this? — Ernie @ SFB
(ht @stastnyisnasty)
Twenty-six people died today in a horrific tragedy at a Connecticut elementary school - six adults and twenty children. According to news reports, one of the weapons found on the scene was a legally obtained Bushmaster .223 semi-automatic rifle (pictured above), a weapon described by a retired U.S. Army sergeant major as a gun for “those who want the general feel of a military weapon.” One of the witnesses said over 100 rounds were fired.
Sandy Hook Elementary School is not the only school that experienced major violence today. In China, a man attacked primary schoolchildren with a knife. Gun control does not stop violence, and it does not stop people who are determined to attack children at school.
But here’s the thing: none of the kids in the school in China died today. Twenty-two children were wounded, two of them seriously, and while that is surely a horribly traumatizing experience for them, they are all alive. In Connecticut, there was only one injury. One. All those deaths, all those bullets, and only one person who was attacked made it out alive. Maybe the gunman was an excellent shot. Maybe he was just really determined to kill a whole bunch of little kids. Or maybe, just maybe, his weapon, described by the retired U.S. Army sergeant major as so easy to use that “almost an eight-year-old child can be taught to do that in an hour, an hour-and-a-half,” performed exactly as a weapon designed for killing should.
People want to say that guns don’t kill people? I say bullshit, but sure, fine, whatever, I’ll give you that: guns don’t kill people, people kill people. But semi-automatic assault rifles, designed to kill and available at your local Wal-Mart, make it a hell of a lot more efficient to take out a classroom full of five-year-olds.
tl;dr: fuck anyone sputtering defensively about the Second Amendment; those little kids had the right to go to kindergarten without getting gunned down by a military-style semi-automatic assault weapon. Fuck that so hard.
