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#25 - Reactions to the school shootings in Colorado
A school shooting once again happens. And the blame goes out against the guns once again with people stating that these school shootings that have occurred in the last two years would not have occurred if we had strong gun control laws. To believe all these reports violence in school is something totally new.
First if gun control is the way to stop these senseless school shootings, why is that they have only occurred in the last two years when the United States has the strongest gun control laws it has ever had. It appears that the evidence points in the opposite way. We did not have these mass shootings (at least widely reported) until the last two years and that is the time following the Brady Bill passing and the background checks became mandatory to get a gun. To follow this evidence then maybe the gun control laws should be thrown out.
However I think it goes much deeper than that. It is interesting that as the Nintendo/Playstation generation is reaching high school that these mass shootings start occurring. I think that this may be a major factor. For many of these kids, they have been playing these shootem up games continuously in their homes for years, and they get shot and the games and keep going and obviously just pressing reset brings all the characters back to life. I don't think that many of them realize the finality of getting shot.
Secondly, they have been playing the games continuously and have known played outside or made more than one or two friends. The games in moderation I think are fine, just like TV and the computer. However the kids need to socialize with their age group. Out playing games, be it soccer, basketball, baseball, football, or active learning to play various musical instruments and playing in the orchestra or band or church choir, or going fishing or learning how to use a gun responsibly through shooting education programs that the Jaycees, 4-H, the Boy Scouts and other organizations conduct.
The parents need to encourage their children to become more involved in a variety of activities. I realize that this can be hard in so many one parent homes, but the parents need to communicate with their children. The surrogate parents need to also and these include the teachers, day care workers, church leaders, etc.
On another note to these shootings, it is interesting that when the first ones occurred it was blamed on the Southern gun culture, but now they have occurred in suburban Denver and in Oregon. The last I checked the map neither of these fits in the traditional south. However what no one seems to notice is that this has been a problem in inner city schools for years. Agreed usually only one gets shot at a time in the inner city schools, but consider it has been a problem a long time there. We have for over 20 years been putting police on patrol in inner city school and metal detectors in the entrances. The main reasons always given for the problem there is that of gangs and drugs which tend to go together. Wake up America! These are a part of the problem in these recent shootings also. Drugs and gangs as most police chiefs in America will tell you are no longer an inner city problem, much less only a urban problem but is a problem in the suburbs and rural areas also. Until we get the drug problem straight I fear we will continue to see problems like this one occur again.
To the families of those killed in Colorado, yesterday I hope God gives you comfort. Further I hope that we as the American people make decisions to prevent these from occurring again and not make decisions that sound good but have no impact.
Dwight
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