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InSiDeR
Maniac (V) Inmate

From: Elizabethtown, KY
Insane since: Sep 2001

posted posted 11-11-2005 06:40

Some of you may have heard about the recent school shooting in Tennessee where a 15 year old boy 'smuggled'... let me repeat that again because it's vaguely important, SMUGGLED a .22 pistol into his school, shot at and wounded two men and killed an assistant principal.

Alright, now this goes without saying but just for the record I'll enlighten everyone anyway...

The events that occured in Tennessee and anywhere else that have had school shootings have been and always will be a tragic desaster and significant reminder of how fragile life is. Yes, it really makes you think. Yes these events are horrible acts of violence and I am not at all trying to convince you otherwise.

However... The constant social fear that the media and schools have been propagating are inept solutions to an issue that is being investigated in all the wrong ways.

Let me give you an example: http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1297980&page=1

quote:
First, "Primetime" installed cameras throughout Shawnee High ? in the classrooms, hallways and cafeteria.

The school staff and students were asked to behave just as they would if there were an armed intruder in the school. The students filed calmly to their designated classrooms where the teachers locked the doors, turned off the lights and waited for the all-clear signal.

To get an idea of how well the lockdown would work in a real-life situation, Stuber and his assistant Daniel Bauman acted as simulated gunmen the second time around ? without telling the students beforehand.



Now, what these educators and enforcers of the law (and apparently ABC primetime) are doing for the school and community, is indeed a mature and useful effort to a preventive disaster. The idea of educating students and faculty on 'what to do in this situation' is logical, and meant to be helpful. And I have no doubt in my mind that in many ways it is. But I also have no doubt as to how many ways they're doing this all wrong.

The first and most obvious flaw of having a 'mock school shooting' for the benefit of saving lives, is having it during school, with teenagers. Being one myself, I can promise you that after discovering they've been had by their school in some practice lockdown, a majority of these teenagers will NOT take it seriously. As seen in the news segment on TV (I am not sure if ABC's website will preview any clips yet), several students were seen standing around doing nothing, several students were seen walking carelessly through the hallways while a man in all black impersonated a shooter pretended to shoot nearby students, many students were seen loitering outside the building as if nothing of any severe importance had occured within the past five minutes, and several students were seen walking purposely in the path of the pretended shooter. Now, trying to sound too negative and cynical, there were also MANY students that acted in a mature and intelligent way, by actually running, and not only running but in the opposite direction of the pretended shooter. Several students did what they were taught to do and ran into a nearby classroom and waited for the teacher to lock the door.

The next major flaw in this rat-like experiment, was to have two grown men run around the school with plastic guns and a maglight pretending to be intruders intent to kill. Actually, that idea really doesn't sound too bad, the problem is that they did it quote 'without telling the students beforehand.' What better way to prevent a school shooting then to have a pretend one right? I don't think so. To me the idea of having two shooters barge in a school unannounced and pretend to kill everyone they can is a great example of scaring teenagers and even teachers into a primitive state of fear, thus perpetuating this sort of propaganda and further creating a paranoid sense of morality in a very unpredictable social structure (teenagers).

The issue at hand isn't kids bringing guns to school and shooting people. The issue is kids killing people, and maybe even more just people killing people in general. Ok, yea, people killing people happens every day. It's kind of a broad gereralization of the issue but despite popular belief, it's more on point than kids bringing guns to school and shooting people. Why? Because focusing on the one way you see some kids killing other people is ignorantly neglecting the blatant and quite obvious truth that, if a kid (or anyone for that matter) wants to kill someone else, they're going to regardless of what preventions you take.

Why was it important that I emphasized that the boy in Tennessee smuggled in a pistol? Because nobody smuggles anything into a school, they walk in with it.

Suppose you make it a rule that students have to tuck their shirts in, thus inevitably preventing anyone from hiding a firearm around their waist. Ok, what's to stop a kid from bringing an uzi in his backpack and shooting up his cafeteria? I can just hear the students talking now 'Well I was gonna shoot up my school, but then they made everyone tuck in their shirts. Damn, those crafty bastards really got me there. I can't possibly think of another way to kill someone.'

Ok, suppose you make it so they have to tuck in their shirts and have transparent or mesh bookbags. What's to say they aren't going to hide a pistol in their side pocket? Or an even larger cargo pocket on the pant leg? Or how about hiding a pistol in a lunch box inside the mesh backpack? What if a student that happens to be a member of his school band brings in a sawed off (or even not) shotgun hidden in his trumbone case? What's to stop somebody from just walking in and shooting everyone?

Well clearly there is a solution to all of this. METAL DETECTORS! We can install them at every entrance/exit to the building and we'll pay a hired trained security team to thoroughly examine each student as they enter, just like at the airports. Well I have another situation for you. What if a student, before ever entering the building, approaches with his shirt untucked with two uzis hidden around his waste, two smaller pistols in each side pocket, a 12 gauge shotgun in his trumbone case, and a bomb in his backpack. Let's say he walks up to the metal detector but stops before passing through and just pulls out any fire arm from the plethora of selection that he has concealed and randomly shoots the guard(s). He can just walk through the metal detector not caring whether or not it beeps, and begin mercilessly slaughtering people.

I'm going to stop there because I think that I've proven how ridiculous it is to assume these things are actually out to solve problems rather than create them. The media has also a hand in scaring their audience into believing that if you don't watch their useful tips on 'how I can survive life today', that you will most certainly die and more than likely it will be a murder as it is statistically inevitable. Yes, it's sad that people kill people. But to keep reiterating it is to just perpetuate a state of disillusioned paranoia.

When something like this happens all you have to do is:

Acknowledge it, assess it's relevance to your life, and drop it. Speak of it only when casually discussed, or if absolutely necessary. Other than that, it's over and there's no reason why you should spend more of your time pondering why and how it happened.

I don't have a solution to stopping school shootings. I can't tell you why school shootings happen. Maybe it's the violent history of this country, maybe not. I don't know. That's not what this is about. But if any of you can think of a solution please let me know. Maybe it has something to do with that wise old proverb 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' I really don't know.

But I do know that if we spend all our time locking our doors, and buying guns, and focusing every waking hour into protecting ourselves from nothing, we'll eventually live in a severely anti-social, pathetic, paranoid world.

quote:
"You're dead," shouted Stuber, a former police officer and nationally renowned safety expert. "You're dead!"



(Edited by InSiDeR on 11-11-2005 06:49)

Bugimus
Maniac (V) Mad Scientist

From: New California
Insane since: Mar 2000

posted posted 11-12-2005 22:50

I read it. It seems you really needed to vent on that issue. My only comment is that I have a very low opinion of most school adminstrations. I think they are cowards. I say that because they are constantly thinking how not to get sued rather than how to educate children.

School shooting, thankfully, are a very rare occurrence. How can they be prevented? I think you rightly point out that if someone really wants to do that kind of damage, they're going to find a way regardless of how hard the authorities make it.

: . . DHTML Slice Puzzle : . . .

Tao
Maniac (V) Inmate

From: The Pool Of Life
Insane since: Nov 2003

posted posted 11-12-2005 23:57

It is still too radical to suggest the disarming of the "general public" over a period of time, with exceptions for gun clubs or shooting schools (or whatever they like to call themselves) who would keep a strict register of members and weapons?
Or is it still a case of prying them from "cold dead hands"?
I realise that this would not stop people who want to get a gun and shoot someone, but over time, it may reduce the acceptability of the "gun totin'" culture, which in turn would allow future generations not to look apon the ownership of firearms as a democratic "right".

::tao:::: ::cell::::::blog::::

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