10 myths about school shootings

[Ceicei]

MSNBC news ran an article today regarding 10 myths about school shootings. Did any of these myths fit with what you thought when you hear or read of yet another school shooting?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15111438/

- Ceicei

 

[punisher73]

Thanks for the link. As a school liaison officer, I always read as much as I can about this topic.

 

[Archangel M]

I honestly believe the media shares a slice of blame here. They give these disenfranchised people a platform [posthumously] they wouldnt normally get. The folks "on the edge" of doing these things feel that they will go from a nobody to a celebrity, and in a way they do. Do we really need the coverage that these stories get? Do we all need to know every detail of these peoples lives and their twisted reasons for doing what they do? While these events are news worthy, the coverage is over the top. The media machine is only helping to fill the meat grinder for the next story.

 

[thardey]

I honestly believe the media shares a slice of blame here. They give these disenfranchised people a platform [posthumously] they wouldnt normally get. The folks "on the edge" of doing these things feel that they will go from a nobody to a celebrity, and in a way they do. Do we really need the coverage that these stories get? Do we all need to know every detail of these peoples lives and their twisted reasons for doing what they do? While these events are news worthy, the coverage is over the top. The media machine is only helping to fill the meat grinder for the next story.

That's exactly it, some people are sick enough to kill themselves and others for attention. And we keep giving it to them.

 

[grydth]

I honestly believe the media shares a slice of blame here. They give these disenfranchised people a platform [posthumously] they wouldnt normally get. The folks "on the edge" of doing these things feel that they will go from a nobody to a celebrity, and in a way they do. Do we really need the coverage that these stories get? Do we all need to know every detail of these peoples lives and their twisted reasons for doing what they do? While these events are news worthy, the coverage is over the top. The media machine is only helping to fill the meat grinder for the next story.

The cowardly loser who murdered at Virginia Tech actually paused in his killings to mail packages to the media...... who, as usual, gave him just what he wanted. The recent mall shooter also wrote he was going to be " f'ing famous" courtesy of a faning media.... and, of course, he was. Hey, maybe they'll run a new reality/survival series...... "America's Shooting Stars".

 

[Big Don]

They missed the biggest gun myth of all:
Anti-gun laws stop crime...

 

[KenpoTex]

They missed the biggest gun myth of all:
Anti-gun laws stop crime...

You beat me to it...

I believe it was "myth #7" that talked about the fact that the police often (always?) arrive too late.

What people need to understand is that in a situation such as this, the police are irrelevant. I'm not saying anything negative about LEO's, I have the utmost respect for them. However, they are a reactive entity, they just can't respond quickly enough to do anything in most of these situations.

The Illinois shooting is just another example of a situation where, if people were not prohibited from exercising their Constitutional rights, the ending might have been much different. I guess the incident in Colorado Springs (CCW holder STOPS the bad guy before he achievs his goal) wasn't enough of an illustration for the boneheads in positions of authority.

 

[jks9199]

You beat me to it...

I believe it was "myth #7" that talked about the fact that the police often (always?) arrive too late.

What people need to understand is that in a situation such as this, the police are irrelevant. I'm not saying anything negative about LEO's, I have the utmost respect for them. However, they are a reactive entity, they just can't respond quickly enough to do anything in most of these situations.

The Illinois shooting is just another example of a situation where, if people were not prohibited from exercising their Constitutional rights, the ending might have been much different. I guess the incident in Colorado Springs (CCW holder STOPS the bad guy before he achievs his goal) wasn't enough of an illustration for the boneheads in positions of authority.

It's not that the police arrive too late.

The police only arrive after they have been summoned. Policing is, by it's nature, reactive. We do our best to prevent crime -- but our job is really to respond afterwards and find the people who committed the crime. (Among other things, there is no crime until it's happened; we can't lock people up for thinking about committing a crime, at least not until the take some concrete step towards committing it.)

Who's responsible for your safety? YOU. If you can legally carry a gun, and are willing to do so -- go for it! Whether or not you carry a gun, accept, right this moment, that YOU are responsible for your own safety. That if you don't lock it up, someone may steal it. That if you walk around with your head up your ***, that, as someone once said, if you look like meat, you will be eaten. And live that way; learn to move to Code Yellow awareness the moment you move out of a KNOWN safe area. (Note that a safe area can instantly change to unsafe... like when you open your door to a stranger.)

 

[Archangel M]

Yup. If we had a society where police COULD stop this before it happened, you probably wouldnt want to live in it.

 

[KenpoTex]

It's not that the police arrive too late.

The police only arrive after they have been summoned. Policing is, by it's nature, reactive. We do our best to prevent crime -- but our job is really to respond afterwards and find the people who committed the crime. (Among other things, there is no crime until it's happened; we can't lock people up for thinking about committing a crime, at least not until the take some concrete step towards committing it.)

agreed...my point was simply that, as you said, the police won't be there unless they're called and by that time it's often too late to do anything but clean up the mess.