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This Year Had More School Shootings Than Ever - Rolling Stone

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Firearm deaths in the United States reached a 20-year high in 2017, while school shootings skyrocketed in 2018.

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10 ways to put brakes on mass shootings in schools - cnn

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10 ways to put brakes on mass shootings in schools - CNN

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A shooting Friday in a Connecticut elementary school was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. What can be done now?

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Everyone's off-target. Another horrible shooting, another young shooter. Eighteen years of death since West Paducah, Kentucky first warned of an epidemic. Finally, there's invigorated debate about gun control and mental health care. But, there's a glaring problem.

Guns and mental illness are merely attributes of these shootings, they are not the reason why numerous kids are killing people. It is time we stopped fooling ourselves and started asking why our youth are so disaffected that they're lashing out, murderously, at the world we've given them.

While increased regulation and improved mental health may decrease the number of deaths from these tragedies, to suggest they are solutions to a society-wide epidemic of youth killing people is a logical fallacy: Guns don't cause people to kill, and one individual's illness does not create a nationwide epidemic of unprecedented killings.

Our children are disaffected because they are angry, and have every right to be, and no one's listening to them. Why, because, we have raised them in a society that is in blatant moral contradiction of what we teach them, and yet we deny it. We tell them "do unto others," to live equally, and in peace, while everything we do proves otherwise.

As a musician and poet, it's my job to take the pulse of my country and world and express it in service to the betterment of humankind. From the day that Michael Carneal walked into Heath High School on December 1st, 1997, I knew something was terribly wrong. Something bigger than guns or individual illness.

I immersed myself in the issue of school shootings, and toured the country singing to and speaking with thousands of youth the same age as the shooters, would-be killers. In my song "West Kentucky" about Carneal's rampage, I reflected as a southern boy reared in gun culture aware that in this disaffection, something horrifying was at our doorstep:
"Now this young boy is charged with murder
And not one tear flows from his eyes
When they asked him for a reason
All he says is I don't know why...
I myself am from Virginia
And one thing I know is clear
Regardless of a reason
This did not used to happen here."
Immediately after the Columbine shootings occurred, I wrote my song "The Darling Son," a song based on an ancient ballad called 'Edward' or 'The Twa Brothers,' in which a mother questions her son who has killed his brother and fails in his attempts to falsify his story.

In my song, the mother confronts her son who has just killed his classmates, shortly before he kills himself:

"Where, oh where did you get that gun? Son, please talk to me.
I got it from your husband, mom, who rarely talks to me.
But where did you learn to be so cruel? Son, please talk to me.
I learned it in the books at school that taught me history.
But where did you learn to kill my son, son please talk to me.
I learned it from this great, great land, that kills across the sea.
Oh, where will you go, my only one? Son, please talk to me.
I'm going far beyond the sun, where no one's eyes can see."

The thousands of high school and college student that you hear in this live recording, all the same age-group as our school shooters, are cheering each word because the song is giving voice to what is bothering them, to something they live with everyday that is making them angry, but that no adult has ever admitted to them.

Everywhere I've gone, youth have come up to me after shows, often in tears, thanking me, asking if they can hug me, telling me I'm the first adult who's ever talked to them about the truth of their world, thoughts they say they're afraid to express openly to adults they think are not receptive.

Our children are not stupid. Armed with the internet, they have access to more information than prior generations could ever imagine. As much we may like to ignore it, we cannot pull the wool over their eyes as though it were 1975.

We have given them a world in which they know millions have been killed or made refugees in a war waged over oil that is causing global warming, voted for by politicians bought by corporate interests, while their own parents, many of whom are divorced, work day and night to make ends meet, unavailable to them, while pop culture sells unprecedented wealth, debauchrery and violence to them daily. And we act as though the problem is guns and mental health.

We have created a society that is morally bankrupt, and the victims are our children who have lost faith in authority due to our moral duplicity. This is the cause of school shootings.

By failing to engage our youth in honest conversation about their world as they see it, we sentence the most sensitive, already neglected, but often most gifted, inquisitive of our youth, to despair. If we continue this denial, we will have more of these children pushed to the point of breaking, regardless of gun control.

Every child of ours could become a killer, or a changemaker. It is up to us to give them the necessary moral consistency, inspiration and support to become the latter.

But, in the 18 years since the dawn of school shootings, I have yet to see our politicians or mainstream media respond to one of these tragedies by asking the youth themselves what it is they are angry about. Now's the time to start.

We need a campaign to listen to our youth. We need to work with and inspire them to channel their justified feelings into groundbreaking work for good before it festers in them unresolved and explodes. I'm prepared to dedicated myself to the effort.

In the meantime, if you want to read about feasible means to beneficial gun regulation, check out Nick Kristof's excellent piece. If you prefer to contemplate mental illness and improving health care, check out John Oliver's biting response.

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The Cause of School Shootings: We're Missing the Mark

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Everyone's off-target. Another horrible shooting, another young shooter. Eighteen years of death since West Paducah, Kentucky first warned of an epidemic. Finally, there's invigorated debate about gun control and mental health care. But, there's a glaring problem. Guns and mental illness are merely attributes of these shootings, they are not the reason why numerous kids are killing people.

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Last week's school shooting Santa Fe, which resulted in ten deaths, is only the latest in a series of school shootings over the last several years, and only three months after the infamous Parkland, Florida shooting on Valentine's Day. As with that shooting, many are attempting to politicize the issue in order to push various agendas.

We see this same vicious cycle after every modern shooting - the left lobbies for gun control, and the right counters. As a college student, one of the most common complaints I hear is that the right doesn't have any solutions to the problem - that the right just wants to sit back and do nothing. This is patently untrue and ignores the plethora of potential fixes that have been forwarded by those on the right. Nonetheless, I do not believe we can just sit back and hope the school shootings will stop with time. While gun control is not the answer, neither is doing nothing.

So, in light of these recent shootings, what can we do to secure our schools apart from gun control? To answer that, let's look at another public institution: airports. How many shooting incidents have occurred at airports in recent decades? Very few. In fact, if you look globally, only 22 shootings have occurred at airports since the tightening of security following 9-11. By contrast, the New York Times reports that there have been over 200 shootings (16 of which can be classified as mass shootings) in the United States alone since Sandy Hook in 2012.

This raises the question: why do potential shooters seem to favor schools as opposed to airports, which see far more traffic than schools? The answer may be the difference in security the two receive.

According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), $7.6 billion a year goes to airport security. By contrast, in 2016, the U.S. spent approximately $907 million on school security, according to the Wall Street Journal. Of course, airports require more security because of the constant flow of new passengers, but in the United States, there were 5,136 public airports as of 2016, compared to 98,271 public schools in the United States in the 2013-14 school year. The effects of this wide disparity in public funding for security becomes apparent in the spotty presence of armed guards at schools. According to a study cited by the Guardian, only 43% of schools have an officer present at least once a week. This suggests that 57% of schools do not have a security guard present on a regular basis.

There are those who say bringing in a large presence of armed guards won't stop school shootings. This is nonsense.

We do not see the same people protesting more school security also objecting to security at government institutions, the New York Stock Exchange, and - as we already discussed - airports. Other than the common complaints of lengthy airport security lines and the occasional overly inquisitive guard, people understand that these measures are necessary in defending these facilities against terrorists and deranged criminals.

So why is there so much pushback against schools being armed?

Well, some of it comes down to the common opposition people have toward change and the left's ignorance on security and human nature. However, the more pressing motivation behind the opposition is the fact that if more armed security prevents shootings, then it is reasonable to suggest that good guys with guns do in fact stop bad guys with guns.

So, in short, here are some solutions to the problem:

More funding for school security.

Better training for security guards - as was made apparent by the Parkland shooting.

More funding for mental health institutions and prisons.

Allow teachers who have a concealed carry permit to carry their weapons on campus.

Don't mention the shooter's name or show his picture - there is no need to give the shooter any more attention than necessary. Such measures have already been undertaken by some media outlets, the Daily Wire being one of the first examples.

As a long-term goal - educate young people on responsibility and values in their education in order to create more upstanding citizens and fewer shooters.

In the end, our kids are our greatest asset. To argue against protecting our schools is to argue for leaving the next generation of leaders and citizens at the mercy of crazed individuals. If the left truly believes we should do something, then surely this is the most reasonable solution.

Consider one more thing: there was an attempted school shooting in Illinois that occurred just a few days before the shooting we saw in Texas, one that received very little media coverage. At the Dixon High school, a former student and potential mass shooter arrived and fired upon the resource officer at the school. The shooter was injured in the exchange and fled - a potential disaster averted by the presence of a single, well trained officer, Mr. Mark Dallas.

Last week's school shooting Santa Fe, which resulted in ten deaths, is only the latest in a series of school shootings over the last several years, and only three months after the infamous Parkland, Florida shooting on Valentine's Day. As with that shooting, many are attempting to politicize the issue in order to push various agendas.

We see this same vicious cycle after every modern shooting - the left lobbies for gun control, and the right counters. As a college student, one of the most common complaints I hear is that the right doesn't have any solutions to the problem - that the right just wants to sit back and do nothing. This is patently untrue and ignores the plethora of potential fixes that have been forwarded by those on the right. Nonetheless, I do not believe we can just sit back and hope the school shootings will stop with time. While gun control is not the answer, neither is doing nothing.

So, in light of these recent shootings, what can we do to secure our schools apart from gun control? To answer that, let's look at another public institution: airports. How many shooting incidents have occurred at airports in recent decades? Very few. In fact, if you look globally, only 22 shootings have occurred at airports since the tightening of security following 9-11. By contrast, the New York Times reports that there have been over 200 shootings (16 of which can be classified as mass shootings) in the United States alone since Sandy Hook in 2012.

This raises the question: why do potential shooters seem to favor schools as opposed to airports, which see far more traffic than schools? The answer may be the difference in security the two receive.

According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), $7.6 billion a year goes to airport security. By contrast, in 2016, the U.S. spent approximately $907 million on school security, according to the Wall Street Journal. Of course, airports require more security because of the constant flow of new passengers, but in the United States, there were 5,136 public airports as of 2016, compared to 98,271 public schools in the United States in the 2013-14 school year. The effects of this wide disparity in public funding for security becomes apparent in the spotty presence of armed guards at schools. According to a study cited by the Guardian, only 43% of schools have an officer present at least once a week. This suggests that 57% of schools do not have a security guard present on a regular basis.

There are those who say bringing in a large presence of armed guards won't stop school shootings. This is nonsense.

We do not see the same people protesting more school security also objecting to security at government institutions, the New York Stock Exchange, and - as we already discussed - airports. Other than the common complaints of lengthy airport security lines and the occasional overly inquisitive guard, people understand that these measures are necessary in defending these facilities against terrorists and deranged criminals.

So why is there so much pushback against schools being armed?

Well, some of it comes down to the common opposition people have toward change and the left's ignorance on security and human nature. However, the more pressing motivation behind the opposition is the fact that if more armed security prevents shootings, then it is reasonable to suggest that good guys with guns do in fact stop bad guys with guns.

So, in short, here are some solutions to the problem:

More funding for school security.

Better training for security guards - as was made apparent by the Parkland shooting.

More funding for mental health institutions and prisons.

Allow teachers who have a concealed carry permit to carry their weapons on campus.

Don't mention the shooter's name or show his picture - there is no need to give the shooter any more attention than necessary. Such measures have already been undertaken by some media outlets, the Daily Wire being one of the first examples.

As a long-term goal - educate young people on responsibility and values in their education in order to create more upstanding citizens and fewer shooters.

In the end, our kids are our greatest asset. To argue against protecting our schools is to argue for leaving the next generation of leaders and citizens at the mercy of crazed individuals. If the left truly believes we should do something, then surely this is the most reasonable solution.

Consider one more thing: there was an attempted school shooting in Illinois that occurred just a few days before the shooting we saw in Texas, one that received very little media coverage. At the Dixon High school, a former student and potential mass shooter arrived and fired upon the resource officer at the school. The shooter was injured in the exchange and fled - a potential disaster averted by the presence of a single, well trained officer, Mr. Mark Dallas.

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Is There a Solution to School Shootings?

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Last week's school shooting Santa Fe, which resulted in ten deaths, is only the latest in a series of school shootings over the last several years, and only three months after the infamous Parkland, Florida shooting on Valentine's Day. As with that shooting, many are attempting to politicize the issue in order to push various agendas.

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I think that we should have more laws on guns. I also think that we should have security checks for schools, like airports. I feel like that would decrease the risk of school shootings.

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In this article, they talk about having permit-to-purchase policies and extreme risk laws. They also talk about the record number of gun-related deaths is largely the result of a spike of suicides. Also, according to the EFSGV, the highest rates of gun suicides in 2017 occurred in the three states with the highest rate of gun ownership Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska.

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I do agree that gun control isn't a Republican or Democratic Issue, it's a common-sense issue.

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In this article, it talks about what schools are doing to protect students. They are suggesting to placing guards around the school. for tha

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"When are you going to wake up and realize that you need to restrict the use of guns in your country?" - Emma Mitchell

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"Studies show that most attempters act on impulse, in moments of panic or despair." Harvard School of Public Health professor David Hemenway.
"Now this young boy is charged with murder,  and not one tear flows from his eyes when they asked him for a reason, all he says is I don't know why, I myself am from Virginia, and one thing I know clear, regardless of a reason
This did not used to happen here.”