...and nobody cared.
Before you get yourself into a tizzy over the title and subtitle, just know that this was the most toned down version of it. I’m sure some of you do care about these easily-triggered, pubescent know-it-alls and their brilliant insight into how the real world works. Even if I think it’s sad that you care so much about the opinions from their not-fully-formed brains, I do acknowledge that at least some people did care about the protests this past weekend.
Now, with that out of the way...
So much idiocy, so little time.
The knee-jerk reaction to these mass shootings is almost always the same: “BAN THE MURDERER’S TOOL!” While it may seem like a good step, there’s no evidence that it actually prevents more murders.
But let’s assume that creating a new law making it more difficult to get a certain tool could have an effect on whether or not mass killings would consequently be curbed to a noticeable degree. There’s now a new law on the books and it is now up to law enforcement to enforce that law. Everything is good and everyone is much safer now, right?
Not exactly.
In the case of the most recent school shooting that has caused this manufactured “political movement,” local and federal law enforcement already knew about this particular killer. They knew he was potentially dangerous. They had received tips about his activity both online and in real life. They had investigated those tips and other complaints many times over a period of many years. The FBI even received a tip that the shooter was potentially planning to conduct his own school massacre a month before he carried out the act.
Law enforcement did nothing to prevent it.
While the shooting was active and students were being murdered inside the school, local law enforcement stood outside and did nothing. Not only did local law enforcement not enter the building to confront the active shooter – as is standard operating procedure for active shooter scenarios – but they even failed to form a secure perimeter and apprehend the shooter once the incident was over.
It was not until over an hour later that the shooter was confronted and arrested by a police officer...two miles from the school, after he had walked to Walmart, purchased a soda, and then went to a McDonald’s.
How would more laws have prevented any of this from happening?
Making threats to harm or kill others is already illegal. Having a gun at a school is already illegal. Murder is already illegal.
At the point that someone decides they’re going to murder others, what effect will a law about the tool being used have on their decision-making process? Would a mass murderer care that an illegal weapons charge will be added to their list of crimes? If they also plan on killing themselves in the process, as most of them do, what difference does it make to them? Raising the age minimum for gun ownership or making a certain type of gun illegal will simply add to the number of laws that a murderer will undoubtedly break.
Laws do not make actions impossible. They only identify what act is or is not legal and they prescribe punishment for committing the act. A criminal that doesn’t care about the punishment won’t care about the law. There must be another viable solution to realistically protect individuals from harm.
And let’s not forget that it’s not only the “evil assault rifle” that can be used or that can inflict a great deal of harm and casualties. In 2007, a senior student at Virginia Tech killed 32 people...
With pistols.
What were these “evil assault weapons” that caused such mass destruction? One was a 9mm Glock. The other was a Walther P22 – a .22 caliber pistol, which is the most popular and one of the smallest calibers commercially available.
So what would an “assault rifle” ban have done for the Virginia Tech victims? What would it do for future potential victims of a mass shooting perpetrated by a deranged murderer?
If you think that another shiny new law will keep everyone safe, then – quite frankly – you’re an idiot.
Is deferring responsibility the answer?
So we have a bunch of teenagers protesting guns and violence and offering up suggestions on how to make themselves safer at school. It’s cute to see these kids with such confidence that they have all of the answers, but to have adults actually entertain their ignorant “solutions” is simply beyond comprehension. It’s particularly disturbing given that the “solutions” offered are so tragically inept. Emotional ranting always seems to supplant any sense of reason and there’s never any indication that politicians actually care about results.
After all...you can never let a good crisis go to waste, right?
But what I really find disgusting in all of this is that everyone on the “let’s ban all the things!” side of the debate seems to be completely content with leaving children entirely at the mercy of rampaging murderers.
They’re fine with telling kids to just cower in the corner of their classroom until the perpetrator bursts through the door and starts slaughtering them.
They’re fine with telling teachers that faculty is too irresponsible and untrustworthy to even have the chance to protect their children in an active shooter scenario.
They’re fine with telling private security firms or even law enforcement that it’s too dangerous or that they’re too incompetent to be trusted with school security. (I may actually agree with them on the latter about law enforcement, given the recent events at Parkland.)
Instead of acknowledging the one thing that remains true – which is that confronting a shooter and returning fire usually ends the assault – they’d rather entertain the moronic ideas of screeching, hormone-driven half-wits. The so-called “adults” in this debate are content with handing over their responsibilities as parents and protectors of their children to the absolute cowards in politics and law enforcement that have done NOTHING to actually protect anyone from gun violence.
Far too many people continue to defer their own responsibility of self-defense and self-preservation and the protection of their own families to third parties and incompetents, which are usually one and the same if that third party is the government.
There’s the old saying that goes, “When seconds count, police are only minutes away.”
And how sad is it that this undeniable fact continues to go unacknowledged by people who claim to care so much about safety and their children? How much more embarrassing can it be to continue asking for that third-party protection when they continually fail to prevent crimes – even when these trusted third parties cower outside the building when at the scene of an active school shooting?
So no, I’m not buying this nonsense about simply “wanting to protect children.” The parents, students, teachers, politicians, and pundits who keep proclaiming that this is their goal are utterly full of shit – either through willful deceit or willful ignorance.
When it comes to protecting your own life, there is only one person who has the best means of providing that protection...and that is you. You can choose to be your own protector or you can choose to relinquish that responsibility to someone else who may or may not be willing or able to provide protection for you, but you can’t make that choice for another individual and you cannot control how your third-party protectors respond when you need protection.
This is how responsibility and human behavior works in the real world. This is how individual rights work in the real world.
You can choose to deny this reality and you can cry and clamor for laws to pawn that responsibility off, but make no mistake about it – this denial and deferment will not resolve anything related to safety and gun violence.
But looking at the bright side...
There are some valuable lessons to be learned from all of this ill-conceived whining and protesting, so the teachable moment has not yet been entirely lost.
The first thing that came to mind as a positive outcome when these protests began was that the students were at least getting out of the classroom. I don’t believe that there’s much more good that can be done than keeping kids out of their school environment as much as possible. The school systems in the United States are atrocious, especially public schools.
Even if these students are acting out, like good little government-brainwashed adolescents, they’re at least not being filled with another dose of stupidity in class. The more days they miss due to walk-outs and other protests, the less bullshit they’ll absorb from the government-approved curriculum.
In Florida, the government has made another acknowledgement about what the age of adulthood should be. This is a valuable second lesson.
Whether intentional or not, the state has again agreed that actual adulthood may begin later than previously thought. Now you must be 21 in order to purchase a firearm, which is in line with the drinking age (21), purchasing recreational marijuana (21 in most places), staying on your parents’ health care coverage (26), industry standards of businesses for things like car rentals (21), and even tougher regulations and laws for credit cards, which make it harder for people under 21 to get them.
If only we can apply the same reasoning to things like the voting age, we may all be better off.
And while I’m on that subject, I’d just like to mention that politicians who are actually listening to the uninformed rantings of attention-seeking teens, their charlatan adult supporters, and the agenda-driven media pundits, are nothing but morally-depraved and/or logically-impaired dupes and cowards. If threats of voting from a shrieking teenager scares you, you’re an imbecile. We all know that teens don’t turn out to vote. They just literally can’t even, especially with all of their selfies that need to be taken and uploaded to social media every 15 minutes.
Voting is such a drag. That’s what old people do. The real revolution takes place on Instagram. Everyone knows this.
Finally, the best lesson to be learned from all of this is the one that is learned by the most vocal students themselves: the Parkland protesters.
While these students are out there demanding that the government impose new laws and regulations on everyone because of the act of one person, their own school administrators decided to impose new rules on all high school students because of the actions of a person who wasn’t even a student at their school. And how are these teens reacting to this news?
They’re upset about it, of course.
This is both the ultimate hypocrisy of these students and the sweet irony of reaping what you sow. It’s the definitive lesson of government in action and these students are lucky to learn it early in life. The lesson is this:
When you ask for more government, you shall receive more government.
The question is – will anyone learn this lesson or will they continue down the same path of obliviousness? Will they be able to identify the source of their own contradictions, grief, or oppression, or will they once again fail to make the association? They most likely won’t comprehend what’s happening, but we can at least remain hopeful for a select few.
Closing Thoughts
This entire situation and debate once again fails the test of reason. What may have begun as genuine concerns over safety has quickly become another political charade of frauds and suckers.
The “solutions” being thrown around by many of these political swindlers do nothing to actually protect individuals from harm. They’re feel-good measures that address emotionally-charged nincompoops who lack both insight and foresight.
When it comes to protecting children – especially your own – it should be expected that adults and parents would have more to offer than “Ban the guns!” or “Make murder more illegal!” If you’re not considering real solutions that actually address stopping an active shooter as quickly as possible, then you’re just another useful idiot. And “real solutions” involve those that can eliminate the threat as it happens, not pretending that laws and posted signs on the premises of a school or any other property will be enough to stop a crazed killer.
Parents need to make a choice about their children’s safety. They can continue sending their children to potential slaughter by pretending that advertised gun-free zones are safe or they can use their brains for once and try accepting some responsibility as parents.
One of these things can work out in the end. The other is nothing but a pure gamble with the lives of your children on the line.
The results are in. Gun-free zones have failed. Law enforcement responses have failed. Banning tools doesn’t work. Children are being murdered.
Don’t you think it may be time to take your child’s safety and self-defense seriously? Or do you prefer to continue playing the odds with laws, signs, and cowards?
I was triggered by your title. I was triggered to read the post and upvote it!
Every time this topic comes up I roll my eyes so hard.
Kids are far more likely to die in a car with other teens than to be shot. One of the biggest killers of teens is driving, another is drug abuse. So, if you want to spend a lot of time being worried about something that is highly unlikely to happen go March about guns.
Let's attempt to fix a problem that is horrific, but overly sensationalized, with laws that will not work or be enforced, in the name of security and safety that will not acheived!
I try not to engage in the gun argument because I get triggered by the stupidity. I liked your approach of considering what we are achieving.
There's just so much that I usually and literally can't even. The fact that people continually exploit these events for their own political douchebaggery is enough to make me want to vomit on all of them. To use "the safety of our children" as an excuse to ban things they don't like, while still sending the actual children to be completely vulnerable in their potential slaughterhouse, is pretty sickening to me.
Trying to wish away gun violence with their pretentious and useless bullshit while little Billy and Sally hide under their desks and wait for a murderer to find and kill them is the perfect example of dereliction and impotence. And for parents to evade this reality...I don't even have words for them.
Actually, I do:
They're pathetic wastes of human life and their children would probably be better off without them.
Hmm, I find myself unclear about how you feel about these people.
I guess they don't realize they are being manipulated and used in a political debate that is gaining millions of dollars each time the topic comes up. NRA donations go up, DNC donations go up, gun sales go up, anti-gun lobbyist... shall I go on?
This is not about saving lives. It is about creating tension, generating support for specific parties and people, and frankly making money. It is great for media ratings as well.
It's also great for bloggers, amirite? ;)
Oh @whatsup. I always love your clever comments. Every time.
I'll take this opportunity to share Barbara's video about this topic simply because I like her and want to support her:
If people care about the stuff presented in this post, check out Barb.
She's prettier than David. I'm glad he's not vlogging.
She is great. I hadn't seen her before. I consider most vloggers as idiots. Interesting.
She's the best! Glad I helped someone discover her. Love her to bits. And I agree about most vloggers.
No, France doesn't have "the stricter laws against guns" as she says around 3:20 because France has a hunting tradition and a strong hunting lobby. France has been hit specifically by terrorist attacks but overall the number of gun-related deaths per population in France is still about a gazillion times lower than in the US. Heck, when it comes to gun-related deaths the US is in a league with Uruguay, Panama and Colombia rather than with developed countries.
And saying that it's "highly unlikely that when we have stricter laws the people who want to murder people are going to obey those laws" is a fallacy and beyond the point. When you have stricter laws against guns the people who want to murder people should find it almost impossible or prohibitively expensive to get hold of an assault rifle and very, very hard to obtain a hand gun.
If the laws are well designed and well enforced. If the laws are not well enforced then you should vote for better politicians that change the officials in charge of enforcing the laws.
And the fact that laws were not enforced is never a justification not to try to craft better laws. "Ah, why bother ! Even the laws we have are not enforced so let's just sit by and wait for the next mass shooting ..."
I just wrote a post about this myself. Getting tired of the damned ignorance around this. Many people are blatantly lying to push a narrative. It's sickening...
@shayne
In Russia people using guns to kill people in schools is almost never the case. Cause it's prohibited. Very hard to reach out for a gun.
And he did slay again on this one... in the US it is relatively easy to gain access to a firearm. Building the arsenal that many of these school shooters use in their crimes would be hardly possible in other countries with tougher gun regulation
lol You obviously didn't read this post.
Dont just conclude cos its a long piece, so i read it half and half
Aaaaand reading only half of it brought you to the wrong conclusion about the post, so...
Lesson learned? lol
Most certainly sir
Lesson learnt the hard way!
What could possible go wrong if someone is able to buy a gun, a bottle of booze and some weed all on their 21st birthday?
Very nice
I appreciate your news
At 16 you are old enough to own a gun or drive a car? You have to be 21 before you can legally drink a beer?
This is the definition of a “free” country.
If lethal weapons are freely available they will fall into the hands of kids. Some kids are so bullied that they will go beyond we as adults consider reasonable because they do not see all the solutions out there.
Not really sure where you got this information, but it's far from correct. US/state laws say that you must be 18 to buy any form of long gun and 21 to buy a pistol....Not that US/state law matters, because if I wanted to buy a pistol at the age of 15, I could easily do it regardless of what some old fat guy in a chair proclaimed that I can't do....Why? Because laws only matter if you're caught.
Freedom is the ability to do what I want, when I want.
Without having to listen to someone else tell me that I can't.
LOL. Thanks for correcting me about the age (18). I must have picked that up from some comedian in the UK who knows shit about America. How old was the shooter in this case?
19
Unsure, I stopped reading propaganda many moons ago. ;)
Oh man that was looong
but thanks for time and creativity
In a world that laughs at advises . And respectable is null
There is no place for life ...
General access to weapon bear consequences. More destructive the weapon the more casualties involved and let's be honest, maniacs, psychopaths and simply people with chronic depression walk the earth and in acts of desperation will use all the available resources to cause harm.
It's easier to rent a moving truck to drive through a march than to sneak a gun close enough to use it.
Rent a moving truck? Well, you need a license, credit card, planning. But yes, this happens too, more through terrorist attacks than frustrated teenagers but it happens. I think there's something in the guns which empowers weak people, gives them a sense of strength which they are lacking in the real life. It's usually kind of "you hurt me so now I hurt you". You don't achieve that with a truck, unless your goal is not to damage specific group of people, just take as many as you can (which terrorists do).
No, people use guns because they are constantly thrown in their faces as evil. Like kids smoking, most do it because they are told it is bad. Don't be coy on what is really happening with social media and justice.
Its about time you wrote something worth reading.
You mean SnapChat® Insta is for old people like @ats-witness
I could probably not disagree with you anymore. But we're not going to change each other's minds, so I'll just leave it at that.
Glad you still felt the urge to comment without making an argument. You basically showed up, provided nothing of value or substance, just to shit on the post.
There's no shitting. I simply said I disagree. Why does that trigger you? I can't have a basic disagreement without getting into a long drawn out post battle where nobody convinces each other of anything?
I find it a crappy move on the internet to simply state "I disagree" without making a case. That way, the person can shield him or herself from criticism, but still shoot it at someone else.
It's about having manners.
Again there was no critique. I didn't attack him or any point he made. Any case I would attempt I'm sure he's heard before. If he feels the way he does currently given the opposition to his position of this long running debate, there's probably not much I can say to change his mind. I write for David's network, so it was just a simple note putting out where I stand on the issue. Just because I state disagreement with something doesn't mean I feel like debating it at the moment, or ever, especially with someone so adamant about their position.
Even if you don't think we'll change each other's minds, I would still appreciate why you disagree and what you think the solutions might be. Sure, I may ridicule you, but that's half the fun of being on the internet, isn't it?
UR WRONG N I THINK UR DUM! FAKE NEWS! WE NEED M0AR LAWS!
psa: the above line was sarcasm; the only way to protect yourselves from a deranged person picking up an ink pen and shoving it into your temporal lobe is to take self defense into your own hands. A new law that bans ink pens isn't going to stop said person from using a flathead screwdriver.
It's just awful! What is happening to our world? A real human catastrophe. A world woven from negligence, incompetence, and lack of preparedness for action in an emergency. In my country now, too, large sorrow. Recently burned down shopping center in one of the cities. killed a lot of children and adults, according to some 100 to 300 people. Rescuers and were totally unprepared for such a situation. They did not have a clear plan of action, they missed the time. The fire alarm didn't work because it was already broken 2!!! years. She was 2 years is faulty, and all was not caring. People have died just from the fact that all our society is negligent and irresponsible attitude to their duties.
did you see this post from @tftproject?
https://steemit.com/guns/@tftproject/fl-students-who-begged-gov-t-to-take-their-rights-away-now-angry-gov-t-took-away-their-rights
Ah...the irony of it all.
When will kids ever learn?
We should disarm the police, and arm the homeless. Things will sort themselves out soon enough.
Prime example of why kids should be seen, not heard. Of course they are stupid enough to become pawns, kids aren't taught how to think for themselves anymore. They are screwed anyway because apparently their parents are too stupid to figure it out either. The government already had every opportunity to avert this situation and it failed miserably. How can any laws change that? Good luck if you think the government will solve your problems.
More like innocent kids used in the biggest emotional blackmail job of 2018
Thanks for sharing!
Wow...amazing
Dear @ats-david, with all due respect, please take it from someone who lives in Europe. When you write:
please listen: you, like many others in the US, have been brainwashed. Actually there is AMPLE EVIDENCE, statistical, scientific, that it DOES prevent more murders.
For the sake of your country start opening your eyes and brains.
There is statistical evidence that it does NOT prevent more murders. But there is statistical evidence that certain cultures are more prone to mindless gun violence. One of those cultures is the US, and one of the major cultural differences we possess is the mindless regurgitation on the media to give it so much attention. No other country in the world does this. Most countries might make a 20 second mention, and move on. We don't. We obsess and cycle it over and over. Even though we've toned it down, there are direct correlations with how we deal with our media and our mentally unstable, and the death toll. It has nothing to do with the guns.
If it wasn't guns, it would be something else. Gas, bombs, you name it. It's not about the guns.
Again, you are wrong but obviously chose to be part of the clan of brainwashed zombies. You chose to believe lies and nobody can convince you of the contrary.
All civilized countries in the world give proportionnally at least as much if not more attention to gun violence than the US. But in absolute terms it's barely present in the media because there's overall GAZIOLLIONS less gun violence than in the US.
"It has nothing to do with the guns" - you guys sound like zombies whose brains have been eaten by the NRA or whoever. It has everything to do with guns.
Anyway, I have no skin in this game whatsoever, I don't live in the US, I'm just observing from the other side of the Ocean and I'm a bit upset for the humankind seeing that roughly half the US population has been emptied of its cerebral grey-matter by zombies and is now regurgitating counterfactual stuff.
Nevermind, keep living in your world of "alternative facts", keep saying "it has nothing to do with guns" every three months after each new mass shooting.
For other people who might have kept bits of their brains and could still recover, perhaps, I don't know what to recommend but maybe an article from Forbes, who I understand is a rather "right wing" publication, could maybe lean on ?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisladd/2017/10/06/ten-lies-distort-the-gun-control-debate/#56ef08931fad
I'll read the debate. I'm sure it's interesting. I feel like I've read them all. The main thing I like to read are statistical analyses, if you have any that prove you point, I'd prefer it.
The first thing for everyone is to set out who and what sources you believe.
That is absolutely essential in life, by the way. You are going to hear, read, see contradictory stuff being peddled by different sources. Reality can be manipulated.
How to prevent those that are best at manipulating the reality from winning the argument over those who simply say the truth but are not as good at "packaging" and presenting it ?
What are your principles in this respect, what is your recipe for determining whether something that you see, read or hear is close to the truth or is an untruth that has been masterfully twisted as to look like being the actual truth ?
Let's take a different topic that is still controversial in some circles in the US: creationism versus evolution. There are very good presenters on both sides who, when in front of a "virgin mind", could turn it their way. People who are extremly convincing when arguing for creationism (or intelligent design, or whatever other theory). And people who are very convincing when arguing in favour of evolution.
But when the theories are contradictory, then only one of these guys can be right and the other are either deluded or manipulative (or both) ...
So in this case, what is your mental path for separating the truth from the untruth?
That's the very first step. Because otherwise whatever statistics I can come up with you can always reply "oh yeah but those guys are ideologists" or "have a vested interest" or "are incompetent" or ... whatever, and dismiss the statistical analyses.
Excellent post, mah man! I 100% concur.
As usual, I love reading your philosophies. I miss the days when we had more time to write this kind stuff. I know you've got to focus and prioritize your energies, but just know, I love your writing.
Also, I saw you voted for the newb photographer I did a shoutout for: @cam.mcfarlane. I thought you might like him.
I appreciate your perspective so much.
That said, I also happen to believe that listening to our children and youth and giving them a voice is crucial to our rEvolution. The unfortunate thing is they are even more vulnerable to manipulation and brainwashing than adults.
It's so important to listen in for what the children are really trying to say. The wisdom that lies within their true voice is crucial in saving us from a bleak future. By nature, "grown-ups" are mostly removed from this source of pure experiential information and insight. How do we help support them and cultivate the knowing and expression of their unadulterated 😜 channel?
Let's try to fix a terrible problem, but too sensational, with safety and safety laws that will not be achieved!
Thank @ats-david