STOP THIS BUS…..I WANT OFF!

STOP THIS BUS…..I WANT OFF!

(Los Angeles Times, Saba Hamedy, Soumya Karlamangle)

(Nate Silver, Jenny Deam, Washington Post, Susan Svrluga)

(New York Times, James Risen, Chris Maag, Frazer Chronicle)

The carnage continues, more defenseless kids wounded by some wing-nut shooter at a Colorado high school Friday, December 13, 2013. The incident, at Centennial, Colorado, Arapahoe high school thus far has cost only the life of the gunman, from a self inflected gunshot, teenager Karl Halverson Pierson.

Few people remember, or think about the perpetrators of these dastardly attacks, but obviously they are victims too. Misunderstood, disturbed or sick individuals, as a society we need to understand their pain and try and fix it before it manifests itself into one of these shooting incidents that are becoming far to numerous.

We are a developed country, an advanced civilization, with the intellect to land a man on the moon, and to drop a bomb down the old pickle barrel from hundreds or even thousands of miles away from the target. Yet we have incidents of wanton murder that make absolutely no sense, maybe several in a country the size of the United States would be acceptable…..but ten or more a year…..no way, completely unacceptable.

There have been 22 shooting incidents so far in 2013; there have been 18 deaths and 29 that were wounded. A particularly bloody year, 2013 so far, but 2012 saw the U.S. school students suffer 42 deaths, 18 injured in only 13 shootings. It seemed that over the past three years, beginning in 2011, shooting attacks usually student on student shootings, things have been increasing…..not a good sign.

Gun violence by pre-teens and teenagers is not new, it’s been tracked since the 1760’s in the United States, really before it was a united-states. During the Pontiac’s Rebellion school massacre on July 26, 1764, four Lenape American Indians entered the schoolhouse near present day Greencastle, Pennsylvania, shot and killed the schoolmaster, and then killed 9 or 10 children, three children escaped.

The first recorded student shooting in a school occurred November 2, 1853 in Louisville, Kentucky; Mathew Ward brought a pistol in the morning, went to school and killed the schoolmaster as revenge for the excessive punishment of his brother the day before.

In a way we are becoming desensitized or numb to what is going on here in our own country, it occurred to me that most of the victims of school shootings are kids…..innocent kids. I’ve got at least 200 reports of school shootings in front of me, and the realization hit me like a bolt of lightning. Kids are supposed to be safe, safe at home and safe at their schools…..but to a degree they’re not.

These people are crazy, each and everyone, no matter the reason, to kill somebody in a grade school, a high school or college setting, man, you got to be nuts. There is also another similarity that most of these people share, they are cowards, because mostly after the dirty deed is done, they commit suicide; yes…..cowards to the bitter end.

NUMBERS ARE SURPRISING, BOYS AND THEIR TOYS

My dad owned a rifle, and a pistol, kept the rifle in the bedroom closet, and the pistol in his nightstand drawer. How did I know this, after my father’s death my mother asked me to remove and dispose of them. It was the closest that I ever came to possessing a firearm.

My dad kept the rifle and pistol for protection, but at 5’-5” and 150 pounds, he probably could run faster than grab a gun and shoot an intruder. My point here is simple, my dad was a lover, not a fighter, yet he felt like he needed some sort of protection aside from his physical presence…..which was short.

According to a Gallup Poll of adult respondents that own guns, since 1959, the numbers have fluctuated between 36 and 51% ownership of a weapon in their home. I suppose, it’s surprised that more Republicans than Democrats are gun owners. In 1973 55% of Republicans owned guns, while about 45% of Democrats were gun owners. A poll in 2010 listed 50% of Republicans and 22% of responding Democrats as gun owners.

Gun ownership has declined over the past 40 years…..but almost all of the decrease has come from democrats. By 2010 a national exit poll showed that people identifying themselves as Democrats had a drop in gun ownership by 22%, while Republican ownership of firearms remained at about 50%. It seems as if gun ownership is deeply embedded in political identity, and vice versa. Other variables on why people might own firearms include race, where a person lives, and their level of education.

Having school-age children in the household did not significantly affect gun ownership rates, a majority of Republican-voting parents of minor children had guns in their homes, while only about one in four Democratic-voting parents did.

Having school-aged children in the household, in the suburbs had nothing to do with gun ownership, 58% of Republican voters said that they owned guns, and that they took gun safety classes with their young children. Gun ownership rates are highest among the middle class, rather than the poor.

Over the past three decades people that attacked public, private, or special needs schools overwhelmingly had access to a pistol or rifle from their home. Teens and in some cases pre-teens in the United States have grown up with violence, sometimes on the streets, but most assuredly on the family television, or at the local theater.

American has an alternative environment relative to many other industrialized nations with regards to gun ownership rates. There are several levels to dissect when examining the differences from the U.S. and other countries when the question of gun ownership is raised.

Gun ownership in the United States is fanned by gun and ammo makers; prowess with a firearm is a highly skilled profession and is glorified by fathers, grandfathers, uncles and boyhood friends. Firearm advertisement can also be directed at a father and his teen-aged children…..both boys and girls. It seems to be the old axiom, a man or women with a gun is safer, and better able to protect themselves from aggression.

The long debate of gun ownership in the United States is not going away any time soon, there is a whole new generation of gun advocates that were born between 1980 and 2000, and after they reach maturity, they’ll be another batch of gun ownership advocates that will be born between 2010 and 2025…..it’s a never-ending legion to pick up the staff of guaranteed rights directly from the U.S. Constitution.

TWO OPTIONS AND TWO OPINIONS HERE

Without exception the problem is simple…..if you want to send your kids off to school with a kiss on the head and a good natured pat on the behind, and feel reasonably satisfied about where they’re going, and their safety, reduce gun ownership and the access to them by kids. It’s not rocket science; actually it’s the overall safety of your kids, and I don’t know about you, but when I was sending my kids to school, I wanted to make as sure as I could that they were safe.

I really could care less about what gun advocates might say about my stance, and their perceived freedom of choice, let one of their children be put in harm’s way by some crazy eyed shooter, and see how quickly their tune changes.

The other option is to let things go along the way that they are going, and you’ll read about some innocents being shot in the head, unrecognizable to everybody except the medical examiner and finger prints, or dental work that is retrieved from your loved ones corpse, and rest easy with the knowledge that the casket will be closed, your child too hideous to be seen by grandpa, grandma, aunts, uncles or friends. The choice is ours…..but the clock is ticking on the next innocence shooting.

HAVE A NICE DAY!