Friday, March 9, 2018

Responses to the Parkland Fl School Shooting - The Good, The Bad, and the Just Plain Stupid

Yes, whether we like it or not, the return to the blog can't go forward without addressing the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Fl three weeks and two days ago where Nikolas Cruz managed to carry an AR-15 to school and kill 17 people (14 of his former fellow students [he was expelled the year before] and three teachers) and managed to escape for 45 minutes before being arrested.  While naming him was necessary for this paragraph, he will be referred to as the Parkland shooter for the rest of this post so we can avoid giving him anymore publicity or coverage than we have to.

In the past few weeks there have been a number of reactions from both the surviving students to people who watched this unfold in horror on the news.  As such, there have been a variety of reactions to the horrific tragedy.  Since much of this has been gone over on the news, I will keep this brief and look at the good, the bad, and the truly stupid responses to what went down on Valentines Day 2018 in this Florida town.

THE GOOD:

The good response is from the survivors of the shooting, who went from being frightened to being hurt over the loss of their classmates to being pissed and wanting action to make sure kids in school don't have to worry about getting (to quote one survivor) "shot in the fucking face."  Their demands for some sort of action on how damn easy it was for the shooter to get a gun has ignited the debate on gun control, in part due to what they went through and part due to the students having a privilege that helps them get their points across to middle America in a way that might not have been available to those who were protesting in Ferguson a few years back would (to name one example).

It's not an easy path. Already these kids are facing a smear campaign on social media that seems to mesh part school bullying mixed in with the anonymous hatred the worldwide waste of time we call the Internet is known for.  Add to that the rumor that these kids were crisis actors and it's apparent that they have a struggle ahead.  However, their apparent refusal to give up and follow the advice of grown ups who seem to act more like middle school kids (have you seen our government these days) is a sign of hope.  Also find it interesting that some of them apparently plan to work with activists and teens in Chicago on the issue of gun violence, thereby taking down one of right's classic arguments on violence in this country (NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch even brought up Chicago in her speech at this year's CPAC conference just one day after a town hall appearance in Florida where she was confronted by one of the shooting survivors).

Yes, these kids have a long road ahead but never doubt adolescent anger as a fuel to push things forward in a society gone mad.

THE BAD:

The bad response involves the reaction from those who seem to want to blame the actions of the shooter on everything but the guns and his ability to get them so damn easily.  I'll focus on a few examples here since this can be very far reaching.

The first bad reaction (though the one that appears understandable on the surface) is to blame this on mental illness.  While there are reports of police making numerous calls to the shooter's home over the years (including some reportedly for mental health reasons)  this overlooks that many people have diagnoses of mental illness that don't commit violent crimes (some have suggested that they may be more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrate it). While I understand why some people may want to use this as the main reason it is a strawperson that, while it may have some role, is fairly far down on the list.

Then there's the idea that it's the culture's fault.  By this I don't mean a society where semi automatic weapons are plentiful and be purchased with few, if any, restrictions on them.  I'm talking about people blaming violent movies and video games for the shooting.  Some even extend this blame to music and songs.  While I know some parents may be concerned about violent media making them numb to the effects of violence, blaming the culture overlooks the fact that many other countries have many of the same violent movies, music, and video games yet don't have the shootings.  While the shooting happened just after the new print issue was for the most part completed (though before it got printed due to a combination of weather, the paying job,and illness), I plan on tackling why people like to blame culture for shootings and what their true goals may be by blaming something linked to the First Amendment rather then the Second Amendment in issue 154 (hopefully out in April).

The most ignorant response in reaction to the shooting is one I came across in a meme a relative shared on a social netowrking site (I won't name them since they don't need the publicity) that tried to blame lack of discipline from parents for what happened in Florida.  While it mentioned that parents both have to work, it also tried to smear the fact that discipline methods have changed in schools and tried to claim the removal of God from schools led to this.  People who believe this may sincerely think this to be the case they overlook a few things.  One, we don't know how the Parkland shooter was raised.  From news reports we learned he as adopted and lost his dad at a young age and began to unravel last year after his mom died.  However, we don't know exactly how he was raised by them and what happened along the way.  As for the removal of God from schools, parents who want their kids to learn about religion have a place to send them - it's called the place of worship of their choice.  Memes like this appear for several reasons.  First, some people actually believe them.  Also, sharing them online is also a great way to piss people off who disagree with you (I later came across a meme from the same source (though I don't know if it was posted before or after the one mentioned earlier in this paragraph) claiming those offended were "too narcissistic to consider views other than their own."   Either way it overlooks what we don't know about the shooter and tries to pin easy blame on things or beliefs they're against (further continuing the unfrtunate habit in this society that every adult generation likes to believe they're living in the fall of Rome and that the youth of today are at fault somehow) rather than seek actual solutions

THE JUST PLAIN STUPID

The just plain stupid reaction is the response that arming school personnel would guarantee things like this wouldn't happen in the future.  Putting aside the fact that there was an armed officer on school grounds who stayed outside while it was going down (for reasons we don't really know yet), the plan sometimes focuses on arming teachers.  This plan is widely unpopular.  Teachers hate it because they have enough to deal with without trying to make sure they're a good shot.  Students are likely not big fans of this response because of the simple reasons that sometimes teachers have bad days.  Can you imagine a teacher on a bad day with access to a fully loaded weapon?  The mind boggles at what could go wrong there. 

An honorable mention in stupid reactions is the claim that the school shooting happened because God wasn't allowed in school.  As I mentioned earlier those wanting their children to learn about religion can go to the place of worship of their choice for that.  This reaction is stupid for two reasons.  First, if their creator is all powerful and all knowing that how can he/she.it be stopped at the school door?  Also, it overlooks the church shooting in Texas a couple months back where people were killed while praying.  Nobody would claim God isn't allowed in a church so, while that wasn't a school shooting, it is a mass shooting with a body count - and that's where this line of reasoning falls apart.  While not as stupid as the idea of arming teachers and hoping they don't snap and take out some kids they're trying to teach, it's still pretty ridiculous.

IN A NUTSHELL...

The truth is there are a  number of reasons why this tragedy happened.,  Some have suggested bullying played a role but we'll learn down the road whether that's true or not.  Other have pointed out the shooter's alleged racism and misogyny, factors that lead him to fight and got him expelled a year before (the most extreme thing a public school can do).  While early reports he was actively part of a white supremacist group (in this case, the Republic of Florida) is murky at best, reports that the shooter had carved a swastika in his magazine and had plenty of ammo makes this one of many likely reasons (especially since the school was reportedly 40% Jewish).  Still, since initial reports of tragedies like this tend to be error filled, time will tell as we learn what is true and what is misinformation.

Having said that, we must realize that the good, the bad, and the truly stupid must be looked at and explored in kind.  To do otherwise is shoddy aat best and confirmation bias at worst.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For the time being I have decided to allow comments for this.  However, I am willing to delete racist, mispgynistic, anti LGBTQ, and anti-semetic comments and will shut down commenting altogether if necessary.

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