Revenge of the Nerds and School Shootings

a reply to: JinMI

If anyone is going to die, I'd prefer they be innocent victims of criminals as opposed to law abiding citizens killed by their own government for refusing to surrender their ability to resist the government if it became tyrannical (such a course of action would by definition prove that the government had indeed become tyrannical and resistance to it was justified).

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: odzeandennz

The 'guns gotta go' and 'come take em' argument can only be kicked along for so long.

Simple math is guns gotta go = bloodshed

Come and take em = bloodshed

Continuing on the same path = bloodshed.

so is American society at an impasse?

where do we go from here?

my kids or yours could be next.. it's a harsh reality, and we don't live in Yemen or Syria...

originally posted by: odzeandennz

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: odzeandennz

The 'guns gotta go' and 'come take em' argument can only be kicked along for so long.

Simple math is guns gotta go = bloodshed

Come and take em = bloodshed

Continuing on the same path = bloodshed.

so is American society at an impasse?

where do we go from here?

my kids or yours could be next.. it's a harsh reality, and we don't live in Yemen or Syria...

To be fair, what we a facing now is a lot less bad than turning america into syria... which is what happens in the event of gun confiscation.

I am starting to think to the problem lies mainly within the US School system.


Maybe it is time to re-think the way we educate our children in the US, since this is a mainly US problem.


I don't have answers.....but something is definitely wrong.

a reply to: odzeandennz

We're only at an impasse as long as we keep blaming the object.

I'll do my part and teach my boys and niece to shoot straight and responsibly as well as being good people.

originally posted by: Whoisjohngalt

originally posted by: odzeandennz

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: odzeandennz

The 'guns gotta go' and 'come take em' argument can only be kicked along for so long.

Simple math is guns gotta go = bloodshed

Come and take em = bloodshed

Continuing on the same path = bloodshed.

so is American society at an impasse?

where do we go from here?

my kids or yours could be next.. it's a harsh reality, and we don't live in Yemen or Syria...

To be fair, what we a facing now is a lot less bad than turning america into syria... which is what happens in the event of gun confiscation.

Heh. Why Syria are you worried the Russians will invade, I mean bomb American cities for humanitarian reasons...

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

originally posted by: Whoisjohngalt

originally posted by: odzeandennz

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: odzeandennz

The 'guns gotta go' and 'come take em' argument can only be kicked along for so long.

Simple math is guns gotta go = bloodshed

Come and take em = bloodshed

Continuing on the same path = bloodshed.

so is American society at an impasse?

where do we go from here?

my kids or yours could be next.. it's a harsh reality, and we don't live in Yemen or Syria...

To be fair, what we a facing now is a lot less bad than turning america into syria... which is what happens in the event of gun confiscation.

Heh. Why Syria are you worried the Russians will invade, I mean bomb American cities for humanitarian reasons...

Well, while you're talking about it, if there was a civil war in america again, russia probably would back a side heavily. Probably the side that would interfere with russias machinations the least...

a reply to: Whoisjohngalt

I find it doubtful American people from either side of politics would side with the Russians, especially if they were invading, Americans are a lot of things but traitors they are not...

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

In the hypothetical situation of a civil war brought about by gun confiscations, id say there wouldnt really be an 'america' anymore and people would take whatever help they could get.

a reply to: Edumakated

I've been saying this since 1999 and it seems that society turns a blind eye to it. There is one truism about bullying and that is it either rolls down hill or it builds up like a bomb. The bullied either turn around and give what they got to someone younger/smaller or they are a pressure cooker waiting to go off.

I know from when I was in school the teachers are just as much at fault as the children in this stuff. Some actually bully students as well while others actively support and give cover to some bullies who they "like". Where I was from it seemed like it had a lot to do with church affiliations and if you didn't go to one of the primary churches of the school, it was A OK to pick on those people and when the bullied would fight back, they were sent to the office or repreimanded in another way.

I also saw teachers use grades to bully some students. Two people could have written the same answer for a 5 point question and one would get 4/5 the other 2/5 (the one the teacher didn't like). If this was brought to the attention of the teacher I saw him make down the 4/5 to 2/5 to make it "fair" but what it did was make the kid a target for the other kid loosing points.

Similar things happened with class projects. It was clear that the kids teachers didn't like had to go above and beyond to even get close to the same grade as those the teacher liked and they were lucky to get the same grade with much better work, often it would be lower by a grade (10%) and since it was subjective as per the teacher, there was no recourse in the matter.

Bringing issues like this up to administration only made things worse. you could be having a problem with one teacher and after talking to the principle, the rest of the staff seemed to have found out and then the problem seemed to spread to other teachers, so reporting such things often just made the situation worse.

I can only imagine that things have gotten much worse with social media and from what I've read, there are more younger teachers now than ever before (not sure if this is nation wide or just in various counties). I remember in college when I knew people training to be teachers and I was scared to death for the youth both in the maturity level of the soon to be teachers and the knowledge level of many of the teachers (there were also very good ones as well).

I can understand why many people have migrated to homeschooling and I think there needs to be much more support for this. Even having something like group homeschooling where 5-10 kids can take classes from a teacher online (or in person) for subjects the parents don't feel they can adequately handle, especially when it gets to high school level classes.

a reply to: GBP/JPY

Very. But at over 6 foot i could see where i was going. The lehigh valley is growing fast.

a reply to: Edumakated

This may have been replied to before but anyhow .

I think what is different now is that Columbine put into the minds that this was an acceptable form of revenge.

Acceptable huh . Hmmm . Perhaps the answer to your school shootings is in the quote above . Maybe you should substitute the word acceptable with the word normal . 300 million guns and not one school shooting has been stopped by a responsible gun owner this year , perhaps you need more guns . America when will you treasure your children more than your guns .

a reply to: hutch622

Logical fallacy.

Nice try though.

Logical fallacy.

Pretty sure its 22 school shootings this year .
Pretty sure none have been stopped by responsible gun owners .
Feel free to point out the fallacy .

Interesting topic.

I was horribly bullied at school when i was younger. Really bad. And I didnt have the best home life though not as bad as some.

It got so bad that I wanted to take my own life; I hated myself, the situation, the people around me. Obviously I never did. But, and this is where I make a strong point, I never wanted to 'kill' anyone. Well, apart from myself...

I never wanted to see my antagoniser dead. Yes, I wished I was bigger and more capable so I could defend myself or, in hindsight, give them all a good and proper beating. But dead? Never.

And I love action films with loads of gratuitous violence, hyperrealistic video games of aggression and violence. But.. I don't want to kill my aggressors. Or people around me.

a reply to: hutch622

Please show me how many guns killed kids without someone pulling the trigger.

a reply to: JinMI

Please show me how many triggers were pulled without there being a gun . Guns dont kill people , people kill people . granted . People without access to guns find it impossible to shoot people . Get where i am coming from .

originally posted by: Edumakated
One thing that seems to be glossed over in all these school shootings with the focus on guns is that the perpetrators almost always seem to be social misfits who were bullied.

People that do this sort of thing are social misfits who should be bullied.

I put the blame squarely at the feet of trenchcoat manufacturers.

What is always missing from gun discussion are valid statistics.

On one side you get a false narrative pushed of "gun deaths" in the US compared to other nations. Since they outlaw guns it seem absurd to even mention it. Getting decent murder stats isnt easy due to reporting issues amd what each country classifies as murder (vs homocide, etc). There isnt much apples to apples comparison to look to.

On the other side you get stuff like blaming SSRIs without links to studies supporting the assertion. Or blaming video games despite evidence showing the opposite.

Its all unsupported supposition.

a reply to: Edumakated


We need to teach children how to cope with bullies.

We could remove bullies from schools, but who's going to remove bullies from adulthood?


If we don't teach the children how to cope and deal with adversity, then we will see another school shooting.