America is going through one of its regular paroxysms of grief and outrage over yet another mass school shooting, this one in Uvalde, Texas. We’re in the midst of the predictable calls for a response that would make sense, namely gun control, which is certain to go nowhere. Biden punted before an effort even got started:
America really wants a president whose default is “What can I do?”
Biden says gun control up to Congress: ‘I can’t dictate this stuff’ | The Hill https://t.co/TwIkt4D9Pv
— Mr BumpyFace (@MrBumpyFace) May 31, 2022
Another line of thought is to “harden schools” as if they weren’t already on the way to being prisons. Will all the doors have bulletproof locks? Armed guards? Presumably all lower-floor windows will have to have metal grills, since an assailant could shoot out glass. And fortifying buildings is not foolproof, since kids are vulnerable when the walk from the street to the school entrance.
Since we found out that police with active shooter training hung outside the Uvalde school till they (mistakenly) thought the threat was over, it seems that the idea of arming teachers is likely to be ineffective at best and potentially worse than the disease. Recall that police officers, who have more regular weapons training than teachers would, hit their target only 15% or so of the time when they shoot. Some of that is being jacked up on adrenaline, some of that is moving figures are hard to hit. In a crowded classroom situation, it’s not hard to imagine students being victims of friendly fire.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have variants on the “thoughts and prayers” level of effectiveness. For instance, from Vogue’s Following the Uvalde Shooting, Here Are 5 Steps You Can Take to Help:
Donate to organizations working to pass anti-gun legislation and support victims of gun violence…
Attend a march or protest in your area….
Call your representatives to demand stricter gun-control regulations…
Divest from gun manufacturers…
Donate blood
We already know from the Biden statement that political measures will go nowhere. Divesting from gun manufacturers is virtue-signaling, since cold-blooded value investors and gun enthusiasts will bid up their stock prices. So we are left with admissions of failure: supporting victims of gun violence, and a subset of that idea, giving blood.
But have no fear, there is a real and effective remedy!
Our modest proposal: All public school students will wear bulletproof vests and bulletproof helmets when they are on school grounds. They may take their helmets off their heads once inside as long as they can be put on immediately, as in they are hanging on the back of their neck, are in one hand, or are placed on their desk or are suspended by their chinstrap from their chair.
The vests don’t have to look like SWAT gear. This discreet model is $279:
But for traditionalists, there are multi-threat jackets (this one $449) that are also “strike and slash resistant”. And the macho look is a deterrent in and of itself:
I would imagine schools could buy the material in bulk and it could be a local/regional grifting entrepreneurial opportunity to stitch them up from approved patterns. They could even have school logos or be in school colors.
A bulletproof hoodie is even an option (this one retails at $479) but schools would presumably want a uniform and hoodies have bad connotations with gens d’armes:
Or the sporty outdoor jacket look (for you at $475):
Some of these items are not unduly expensive. For instance, this is a used unisex military surplus helmet, from Italy, only $49 when in stock:
But what about the lower body? For very nervous school systems, additional options include groin protectors. Forgive the camo gear colors but this one is a screaming bargain at $27…if it’s ever in stock. This image allows you to see that they typically attach to the vest. And the point isn’t just to protect the crown jewels but also the femoral artery:
Another choice would perfectly ordinary looking yet bulletproof pants, yours for a mere $525:
Needless to say, the prices may seem a bit daunting, but remember, these are retail offerings sold individually, while schools should be able to order in bulk at police or even US military prices (oops, that might not be a bargain). And remember these items are super durable, so they would presumably be used over several school years, by different students, greatly reducing the effective cost.
There are some problems to be solved, like phys ed classes and school sports, but perhaps schools could limit the use of armed guards to those occasions.
Before you reject this scheme, pray tell how do you plan to go about protecting students and teachers in America, when we are allergic to gun control?
And a further benefit: the sort of people who hated masks are likely to embrace this proposal.
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Why not a child soldier in every class while we are at it? Lots of underage mercenaries for hire in Africa last time I heard, and I am sure they are available for pennies. When they inevitable graduate with their cohorts they can immediately join the US Army or the local police departments. Win win!!!
Perhaps I am McKinsey material after all …….
we already have those on campus. they’re called ROTC.
Those are college aged kids. You’re probably thinking of JROTC.
This is actually funny as opposed to the article above
Here’s another idea. Educate only the children of families with enough money to afford private educations, and their private schools will be guarded by privately-funded, heavily-armed security forces. The children of the poor don’t need to go to school and can work in factories. We can bring back car manufacturers and Apple plants from overseas and the children of the poor can work in those factories thereby learning useful job skills. No need to buy expensive Kevlar vests for any of these children, rich or poor. This will also end all school shootings. Problem solved. Charles Dickens might have had something to say about this, but he’s dead and we can burn his books.
I am literally waiting on the proposal to arm the students themselves and have them trained in sharpshooter class in lieu of shop class. Everyone wins!
Simpler…mandatory track and field.
What if you get shot in the face like when Dick Cheney was the shooter, didja think about that? We need Kevlar N95 masks! They protect you from both covid and gunfire. Only from Naked Capitalism! We think of everything.
You can die from trauma if shot in the chest while wearing one of the lower grade vests, because they don’t spread the ½mv² very well.
Pretty funny.
More seriously, if the media continues to report on mass shootings like they’re a spectator sport, it will continue to be a magnet for crazies. Social contagion theory is proven in the case of suicide and that’s why news ethics doesn’t allow reporting on teen suicide.
The press is fanning the flames and making this all worse.
Introducing humour, even if in something as serious as this, is sign of mental health. We are facing a problem with so many people particularly the Very Important and Serious People being incapable of ridiculing themselves, having ample vision, and therefore doing the sensible things to do.
War, war, war! The paranoid blob is in charge in the US and I don’t see any way to get rid of them. They are going to do harm, harm, and more harm to US citizens and elsewhere.
Mark Ames perfectly explains the American elite’s embrace of gun culture:
https://truthout.org/articles/from-operation-wetback-to-newtown-tracing-the-hick-fascism-of-the-nra/
I’m a retired teacher. I, knowing many teachers for decades, leads me to believe it is a horrible idea to arm teachers or school employees. The danger of an innocent person being shot would be very high. In fact if this happened while I was teaching , I would be looking for a different job. I can’t imagine having kids dressed in armor. If it was issued to them, very few would actually wear it. Who would be responsible to enforce all of this? Ideas like this sound good but aren’t practical. I worked in schools for 35 years. Schools reflect the people that attend them. What we need to do is address the problems prevalent in our society. One parent families are one example. In the HS I taught in probably 75% of the students were from one parent families. Many times grand parents raise them. Another problem is the large number of kids having kids. When it happens they lose their childhood. Often in their 20’s or 30’s they get burned out and want to return to their teens. The kids suffer because they become neglected.My kids did sports. It is amazing how few parents actually go to see their kids at an event. It is always the same people. Society needs to return to respecting the family and everything connected to being a family. On the issue of guns, there are too many and guns that shouldn’t be allowed to be owned by the public. I say this as a gun owner and hunter.The last shooting is like watching a rerun. We go through stages and in a short time it is the same old same old with nothing changing.
if your recommendation is for people to stay in marriages that don’t work to equate to a “family”, then your solution is not feasible.
you appear to be blaming a lot of society’s ills on single mothers. what would you have these women do? stay with husbands who aren’t cut out to be husbands?
even in two parent households, often both parents have to work and the children are in daycare or being watched by granny. why do these families magically not have problems?
Dylan and Klebold both came from nuclear families and pretty well-off ones financially, if you remember at all.
Yves may have meant this post as tongue in cheek, but in all seriousness, can you come up with a less bad solution?
All your ideas require societal change, when all the trends are going towards even more fragmentation and anomie. For starters, how are you going to reduce teen pregnancies, particularly when access to abortions and emergency contraception pills are going to be even more restricted? Your ideas will take at least 10 years to show progress, and that assumes enough will and persistent effort to turn the supertanker of personal priorities and survival pressures around.
Wearing gear is a least intrusive remedy. It does not require training. It does not require kids or teachers or administrators or specially hired armed guards to take risk and be expected to bear arms and use them. And yes, kids can be made to wear special attire the same way that schools that require uniforms do. The kids get sent home or get sent to a room, with no phone, no books, no window, no nothing, and get punished by total boredom.
The problem is cost. The other issues are not hard to solve. This could be implemented quickly. And the costs will shift the debate back to the gun fetishists, that they are responsible for school cost hikes that will result in property tax increases.
As a retired teacher, let me address your points one by one. Though anecdote /= data, during my career, the number of teen pregnancies actually went down in my area. Granted, I share your concern about the impact of the possible SCOTUS decision.
And to amplify Jackiebass63’s concern over fragmented families, I also had quite a few students who had come from places like Guatemala on their own, sans parents. Some stayed with extended families, others placed in homes. Do I think parents should stay together for the kids? No, but I do think they need solid plans for raising their kids. Too often they’re so narcissistically wrapped up in their own vendettas that the kids are collateral damage. Things that might ameliorate the situation is to enforce child support collection, raise the minimum wage, and reinforce the social safety net. These would allow single parents of all stripes room to breathe. These would have immediate impact.
Now to the gear: it was next to impossible in my district to implement a serious dress code (forget about a uniform). Parents complained about the cost and having to have different clothes for school than home. It was harder still to enforce it. Many days I spent so much time dealing with dress code infractions that it took away from teaching time. As for sending kids to a room without a phone. Good luck with that one. The vast majority of teachers have at least one horrific story about trying to take a kid’s phone away. If the kids don’t border on violence in their reaction, the parents usually will. And as for sending kids home, parents often won’t come pick kids up because “they’re the school’s problem.” There’s also the fact that all discipline outcomes are tracked and can impact the money a school is given. Ultimately, kids won’t be sent home for dress code violations, which is what they’ll amount to in the end.
Cost is more of a factor than you can even imagine. Aside from the complex and arcane methodology of school budgets, there is no money for such gear. Schools are cut to the bone. In some places falling apart. No new books or technology or infrastructure for technology. We can’t get schools to fix ventilation to forestall COVID, how on earth will we get them to have decent air conditioning for the kids who are layered in all of this gear? I know of quite a few schools who have zero air conditioning. And AC would have to be turned on earlier to accommodate the added layers. Who will pay those costs?
And what about having resources on hand for kids who “forget” or can’t afford their tactical gear? Where does the money for that come from? Where is it stored? How do kids access it? How do we ensure there’s enough in various sizes? How do we get the gear back after kids wear it? Whose job is it to track and maintain the gear (especially when there’s not enough staff to begin with)? Is that someone’s duty? When is staff trained to maintain the gear? Who pays for that? What is sacrificed for this harebrained, albeit facetious, scheme?
Lastly, but in some ways most importantly, schools are hemorrhaging staff. People (teachers, support staff, admin) are living mid-year, which is almost unheard of in education. Teachers are willing to lose their license for walking away from their contracts because they are leaving the profession entirely. It used to be that the teachers who remained were the most passionate about their jobs and those who were stuck. In the future, it’ll just be those who are stuck. The best either have, or will, leave. I know of several HR people who always interview former teachers because they know we are trainable and hard working…which brings me to the non-starter of arming teachers. You’ll have young teachers or perhaps those who shouldn’t be teachers with access to guns. I can envision a teacher with zero classroom management skills facing a classroom full of rowdy eighth graders in the spring who snaps and shoots at least one kid using the gun they were issued by the school. It’ll happen. I can guarantee it.
I feel certain that the MIC would endorse this solution and give the federal government a great contract price for 100m pieces of gear. Indoctrinating 100% of kids to gun culture would be a dream come true for them.
Hey, we’re already getting them accustomed to being in prisons. Why not do a two-fer?
A proposal for saving the kids that includes punishing kids (already locked into a fortress and traumatized by “drills”) with even more extreme isolation if they don’t comply with the military dress code isn’t a solution. It will hurt them emotionally as well as add risk to their safety without any means of escape or getting help in any emergency.
The gun fetishists will love it. They get to keep their guns. They get to see evidence that people are scared of them.
This doesn’t prevent mass shootings in all the other places where they’re perpetrated.
> Yves may have meant this post as tongue in cheek,
That’s how I read it.
It could also be a snarky, but perhaps true, suggestion that moving military-grade protective gear into the general population is the only workable (in US) solution for the movement of military-grade weaponry into the general population.
One could take that further. I’ve read that there has been research into materials with adaptive rheology, that are soft when stressed slowly but hard if suddenly compressed — such materials would be ideal for personal armor, and would be much less constraining than current forms of body armor.
Lambert has said that it would be beneficial for population health if high quality respiratory protection could become fashionable. Perhaps we’ll see something like that in terms of bullet-resistant fashion-wear.
re: I’m a retired teacher. I, knowing many teachers for decades, leads me to believe it is a horrible idea to arm teachers or school employees.
Not if the real goal is to disrupt and destroy public schools to privatize everything and make more loot.
If almost all public school teachers would quit were they forced to carry a gun by the administration, this increases the likelihood this proposal will be taken seriously by lawmakers.
Can you just imagine what would happen to the sport of deer hunting if occasionally the deer shot back
probably because they are working one of their two jobs.
If this is what you think about giving guns to teachers, imagine what cops with guns are like.
I took the post as a sarcasm piece. Maybe we should close all schools to stop the shootings. /s
“I took the post as a sarcasm piece.”
The post isn’t sarcasm, it’s irony. (And your comment about closing all schools isn’t sarcasm, either.)
If parents in the US want to protect their children from school shootings, they should leave that crazy violent country!! Not snark
But a couple of things come to mind with this proposed “solution”.
The first one is weight, how is the weight of this protective gear going to harm the developing bodies of children?
Second, how are you going to put a backpack on over your protective vest?
Also, eouldn’t this approach just make a potential school shooter more excited about the increased difficulty of their project?
And lastly, what would this do to a child’s perception of safety when they’re not in school? I know that sometimes when I ride my bike I feel weird because I’m not wearing a seatbelt. I know that doesn’t make logical sense but the instinct to protect myself with a seatbelt is so strong that I’m uncomfortable traveling in a seated position without one, on a subconscious level.
Honestly, I’ve been gone from the US for 6 years now and it’s incredible to watch from a distance. The US is going to stay the way it is until the bitter bitter end.
No, its not going to stay the way it is, its going to get much, much worse. By that time many will welcome the end.
The deep reality is that fifty years of militarism has imploded on the nation and finally driven it insane.
@stefan: THIS.
If I had children today, I would not send them to school. Our society has completely failed in its most basic function: safeguarding our people. It is impossible for me to adequately express my disgust and despair.
That begs the question: how much of conservative gun rights zeal and deliberate inaction regarding school shootings is due to a longer term goal of school privatization?
I don’t know the answer, but it’s worth pondering.
The right wing is very skilled at leveraging any real or manufactured issue to serve multiple items on their agenda.
https://thefederalist.com/2022/05/25/tragedies-like-the-texas-shooting-make-a-somber-case-for-homeschooling/
Democrats are among the most rabid militarists in this country. And exactly how many liberal peace activists have we seen protesting the U.S.’s orchestration of the war in Ukraine?
Hence I always say to anti-gun activists who approach me: “Good idea. Let’s start at the top.” I am sincere; I would like to see some arms reduction all around, including the ruling class and their government. But most antis then tell me, “You know we can’t do anything about militarism.”
It’s ongoing blowback. As ye sow, so shall ye reap …
I’ve said it before, but militarism is also equal to and reinforced by two other pillars – corporate administration and religious institutionalism. All are top-down in their organization and goals, with a few minor exceptions. How we ever considered ourselves “democratic” at all, considering these 3 pillars of US life, is a wonder. To aid and abet such nonsensical phrasemongering today shows the deep chasm we have all fallen into.
The industrialization of the US demanded centralized authority, fast decisions, plenty of corruption, and a go-along population pressed into “muzhik” service. Couldn’t be a different outcome from such basis.
can’t remember if NC linked to this or not
The Pentagon Is Protecting and Funding the Same Gun Makers Democrats Want to Regulate
Daniel Defense, the company that made the gun used by the Robb Elementary shooter, has been handed over 100 federal contracts.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/pentagon-global-arms-trade-gun-lobby-uvalde-texas-robb-elementary
Nonsense, poppycock! Dyneema vests, with ceramic plates. With kids all asymptomatic vectors of ever more virulent mutation and schools become airless cesspools of off-handed contagion; like some medieval plague party. Put the diseased little boogers to work? Tiny, virus-inflamed fingers, learning to stitch between the arymid thread and obviously, face to face, maskless to preclude any passing-out from pro-inflammatory cytokine arthritic, PASC circulatory or CNS & heart damage. White kids could learn from upstate vacation cottages? Via suitably armed drone?
These basic models are fine, but if you really want to accelerate adoption, they need to be smart vests. Web-connected, monitoring vitals, and serving up relevant content.
Aha! Maybe you could create a bidding war between Google and Apple for the real estate. That could significantly reduce the cost to schools.
Today’s duck and cover drill brought to you by xyz!
Lucrative aftermarket and arbitrage opportunities, with kid life futures derivative instruments, too.
Now, how to work that into a math class?
Hah, but Meta is offering virtual armor for half price…
— and coffee.
The only real solution is Kevlar masks, which stop both COVID-19 and AR-15 rounds in their tracks!
By the way, my Kevlar vest is vaccine needleproof too!
Got my kid some Kevlar Captain America underoos, so he’s bulletproof even when he’s asleep!
Poe’s Law states: “Without a clear indication of the author’s intent, it is difficult or impossible to tell the difference between an expression of sincere extremism and a parody of extremism.”
Jonathan Swift asks, “How can you distinguish between a satire of fundamentalism and a statement by a genuine proponent since both seem equally insane?”
Mandatory gun skill and safety classes should be part of a working plan to end school violence. We live in a country obsessed with gun culture. We shouldn’t pretend that we can wish it away. (IIRC, this has been mentioned amongst the comments here before.)
We shouldn’t pretend that we can wish away the fact that this country is circling the drain…
You mean it’s circling inside the drain. All these shootings and the Congressional inaction is making me want to go far, far away. We need a wholesale firing (pun intended) of the three branches of our federal gov.
Ummm… if you’re distributing body armor to all the kids doesn’t that in turn now mean that any youth shooters now have ready access to body armor? You better also start distributing armor piercing bullets to the police departments and those armed teachers.
An even more modest proposal: since the school facilities themselves are the site of mass shootings, the obvious solution is to abolish group schools! Every child remains at home and receives ‘home schooling,’ via Zoom and the internet.
A public-private partnership could create a smorgasbord of on-line learning options. No more tedious arguments at local school committee meetings over sex education in kindergarten, or new math vs old math, or do we teach that slavery was benign or a blight on the nation. Communities would save thousands on teachers’ salaries, buses, and maintenance of buildings, which could then be converted to ‘starter prisons.’
Parents could chose: from ‘Ultra-conservative Jesus is Lord” option to ‘Ecole Francaise,’ to ‘I Have Two Daddies,’ to ‘Solid Midwest Values.’
Wealthy parents, would, of course, still send their offspring to $45,000 per year private schools, where they can bond with others in their appropriate social groupings, as they are groomed to become the nation’s ruling class.
re: An even more modest proposal
Hold my beer…
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/05/the-future-of-education-is-in-experiential-learning-and-vr
Well, there you are, Stick’em! As we speak, a private entity (The Abu Dhabi University Holding Company) is presenting its proposal for ‘experiential learning’ …. without ever having to actually ‘experience’ anything …. to the ruling class gathered at Davos!
Am especially taken by the ‘Empathy Agent.’ Sounds like an additive to make one’s car engine run smoother. Maybe they can add it to the before dinner drinks at Davos?
Schools are minimum security prisons now, lets up the ante with guard towers looking like mock minarets on the periphery, and the outer perimeter festooned with land mines, we’ll teach would be shooters to let loose in a medical center in Tulsa instead.
local school board guy in the beer store the other day, pontificating to random bystanders about dan patrick’s great idea to weld all but one door shut.
when he paused to breath, and as i elbowed my way to the counter(seriously, get out of the damned way…)…i said “…and a moat…with alligators…”
paid my money and left…and there was silence all around.
Well when your government spends billions upon billions to start wars that merely enrich them and weapons corporations and corporations have NO accountability to create violence in video games and violence in TV shows what do you expect. All we do is violence and the mantra we are the good guys is such BS who believes it?
The solution is small community, parent driven schooling at home. The ed system here is totally corrupt like every other institution so get rid of it.
It kind of funny you mention that, since it’s been a while since US executive was held accountable for actions of their company. Now, German ones, we arrest those bastards on sight.
More seriously, it’s a real issue in the US, this idea that corporations are these faceless entities with their own will. I was always a proponent of taking the people who work at a company and persecuting them. Can’t get to higher level ones? Persecute low level employees, because next time they will refuse to do illegal things just because their boss told them to. It’s unfair, but no more unfair for a corporation to murder people and get a fine.
“Presumably all lower-floor windows will have to have metal grills, since an assailant could shoot out glass. And fortifying buildings is not foolproof, since kids are vulnerable when the walk from the street to the school..”
Why make it so tight that kids can’t escape?
Maybe approach this like it is going to be an inside job. Approach this problem like the assailant and weapons are already inside the building. They’ve already cased it.
Then you’ll be getting somewhere.
In general, there is still so much overlooking that most violence is people against people they know. Domestic. Somebody just shot their lover right now. Things like that.
Most violence starts at home..so that’s where we have to begin nipping it now.
Some people are serious about hardening the schools even more. I am wondering what would happen when there is a fire? The fire codes (and earthquake, flood, tornado, and hurricane) were all written by death, melodramatic as it is to say. Something happens. A bunch of people die. Then all the codes are rewritten. When someone suggested having a single exit at a school, I remembered reading about the horrible examples of piles of bodies found at an exit after a fire.
One obvious solution: tour of active duty as a mercenary, required for purchase of AR-15 knock-offs? Our mass killers, toe-to-toe with evil Rooskis, in the bowels of Azovstal, at their own expense (black sun, Тризуб & sexy Hitler tattoos, optional). Just THINK of the financial possibilities? Instead of paying overtime law-enforcement to lollygag about million-dollar Bearcats eating Hostess Ho-Hos as kids are blown to pieces by 55GR .223 ZMax JHPs. The likely perpetrators would all be self actualizing their way out of unresolved early childhood trauma, under constant artillery bombardment, on the other side of the planet, amongst Azov, al Qaeda, Daesh or Israeli settlers? They’d likely improve their interpersonal relationship coping skills?
School shooting drills train future school shooters.
Incident response training in schools should involve faculty and staff, not the students.
Not the Board members — their children and grandchildren.
(not serious, you understand, because abhorrent, but in the spirit of the scenario offered)
I would suggest a more proactive approach by equipping the schools with products from the ACME Corporation.
My own thought was to appeal to/shame/beg to what must be (hopefully?) a somewhat sensible majority membership of the NRA to pressure the leadership to allow some change.
Their position that any compromise is total capitulation could well lead to the eventuality of the government prying guns from “cold dead fingers” IMO
Now, as to the psychological aspects…
aye
the frelling NRA
i say school boards should send the bills for the armor and fortifications to Wayne la Pierre.
this is, after all, the world he helped so much to build.
Since CDC is about to disallow PASC as a diagnosis, just as ED drug ads proliferate and most of us are too disgustingly fat, hypoxic and arthritic to engage in coitus if we could maintain an erection; “brain-fog” would likely preclude or Wordle distract from procreation, to the extent that our worrying about kids, survival & education seems kinda specious conjecture? Perhaps, a generation of hardened alloy chassis cyborgs?
There is a link between our worshipping of the military, war, police and men’s gun violence. Little boys get guns, camo clothes, military gear, etc for toys. Older boys play endless shooter video games. The media, TV, Marvel super-hero movies, endlessly venerates violence, especially male violence. As a country we love war. Look at our military budget for 2022, and liberals are no different than conservatives in all of this. Conservatives are just more consistent. All the dems that would supposedly vote for “sensible gun laws” vote to flood the world with an endless supply of weapons to Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, etc, the same as the repubs. These same dems who act horrified at domestic gun violence participate in the theatrical worship of our “warriors” who “protect our freedoms” with endless wars, just like the gun toting NRA supporting repubs.
Until there is some serious push back by a significant number of Americans to our love of war and the military I don’t see the male angry mass shooter phenomenon changing.
I’ve often thought that until the mostly “liberal” entertainment industry gives up guns in movies, video games, and tv (no cop shows!), I can’t take anything they say on gun control seriously. They won’t because $$.
I do think that much of the modern gun culture is a reaction to breakdown of our society…people want to feel safe and in control. I think much of the rush to the covid vaccines (ill advised imo) is part of the same impulse…people want to feel safe.
Our media’s constant hysteria is driving people insane with fear. It’s been going on for years…remember the hysteria around child abductions? This is still affecting our culture. I stopped watching TV news a few years ago because I found myself dealing with perpetual anxiety due to the emotions being deliberately elicited by the hyperbole. I think k TV is the worst for fear with social media the worst for anger. Now I read all my news on multiple blogs like this one which is much better for my mental health.
yes.
in all these years Being Jane Goodall among these here rural texans, in the last…20 or so?…i’ve often thought that social media…if not the internet, itself…was perhaps the worst thing we’ve ever done to ourselves.
rush limberger and faux newts were bad enough…the oddball bircher was never a real threat, just the weirdo people try to avoid being cornered by.
church was a problem…but in retrospect, i’d rather deal with the sociopolitical influence of a handful of lunatic preachers than the wall to wall insanity of Q twitter.
i don’t watch tv news, either…save when i’m over here at mom’s where msdnc is always on. even then, i try to ignore it…and bite my tongue so as not to invite conflict or being called a trumpy putin lover(!?)
let’s go back to print and radio,lol.
now that’s real conservatism.
After climate change occurs, I can imagine that print and radio will become dominant once again.
Why?
Why stop with bullet proof garments? Don’t we all deserve our own armored vehicles or tanks? Yes, let’s continue to reward the military industry. Kind of like paying the tobacco industry to deliver nicotine in more forms to more people.
Hmm, elimination of the separation of church and state also seems to be on the agenda, so maybe make the state religion official. School shootings of the week can be incorporated into National Moloch worship services.
Gun worship
https://www.thebulwark.com/doug-mastriano-christian-nationalism-and-the-cult-of-the-ar-15/
Actually, I have a serious suggestion. I don’t think it would work, but it might be worth a try. I reason that it takes a fair amount of manufacturing technology to make a good assault rifle, machine gun, bazooka, etc. They are presently made with serial numbers but I propose nanotechnology to make every gun part and piece of ammunition permanently identifiable. When a weapon is sold or given, recorded custody passes from the seller or donor to the recipient, who must be identifiable and capable of assuming responsibility for the weapon, including financial and legal responsibility. When a weapon is used to commit a crime (or impressive assemblage of crimes as in mass shootings) the authorities will follow the chain of custody back until they come to someone who can be sued for the damages. That person or organization will be _prima_facie_ responsible for those damages. Failures of custodianship, such as failure to secure the weapon(s) against theft or misappropriation, or by conveying the weapon to a criminal, mentally disturbed person, or bad custodian, will not be a legal defense. The law will include pricing for lives — say ten million per human being killed, or medical costs and compensation for pain, suffering, and psychiatry for the survivors. Note that no one is prohibited from having all the guns they want and can pay for and control; there is no Second Amendment issue. Even most extreme libertarians believe in lawsuits as remedies for material damages and should be the first to sign up to support my proposal.
Great idea Starry. Another option I haven’t seen, although it may exist, is denial of service. We’ve all noticed that cell phones don’t work in certain areas due to protective electronics beamed in that location. Why aren’t guns, other than police issued firearms, fitted with mandatory devices that would prevent firing in certain protected areas like schools, hospitals and houses of worship?
Put in a metal detector alarm system that will go off loudly if anyone walks with a big metal item and simultaneously close off the hallway access with a rapidly descending barrier like the ones we see in movies when intruders breach an area. at the room entrance. Play Barry Manilow songs at ear numbing loudness level!
Right. Like at airports, courthouses, etc. Simple solution and I don’t know why it hasn’t happened yet. Except, pretty soon we’re gonna need them everywhere…
There were far more kids with easy access to guns 50 years ago than there are today, yet school shootings are almost entirely a product of the last 20-25 years. Any idea what other things might have changed?
I’ll give you a big hint:
https://www.ssristories.net/school-shootings/
This site appears to have gone dormant, but the list of shootings correlating with psych drugs (mostly SSRI antidepressants) is very long.
I have discussed the effects of SSRIs with a doctor and a pharmacist and they are 100% aware of the issue where SSRIs cause all kinds of bad behavior – suicide, homicide, weird sex crimes (like adult women seeking teen boys), etc But no one seems able or willing to act on it.
Gee, wonder why. Oh wait, I know why. The USA is just another narco-state, but our narco overlords have publicly traded companies and are “respectable.”
One other advantage to these body armour suggestions not mentioned is the weight of this equipment! When you consider the average weight of the full vest, groin protector, and helmet, it would be a boon to all those overweight children and would toughen up the smaller ones.
Considering that the average weight of all this to be in the neighborhood of 27lbs or more, just think how much it toughen up those 60 to 75 pound kids to haul this stuff around all day!
Seconds count with an active shooter, so the teachers can’t keep their ARs locked in a gun safe. They need to teach with the weapon loaded and on their person. They also will need to learn to write on the blackboard with their weaker hand so that their trigger finger is not hindered.
Excellent Post! Lol
And here I was thinking the solution was to eliminate Poverty!
The tipping point was the Ronald Reagan administration. There are some that would say the assassination of JFK. In either case the circling of the drain has gained momentum that is unlikely to be stopped. Gun control is unamerican because in many cases either one or both neighbours has a weapon to protect himself (yes him) from you. It follows that you have to have one to protect yourself. All perfectly logical in America the exceptional. My grandmother in Ireland knew where the weapons were buried, to get the weapons you would have to convince her that they would be put to good use. Grandmothers were the safety mechanism and it worked quite well.
I think the nation is just steps away from a general strike.
“I think the nation is just steps away from a general strike.”
Combine that with working from home.
I think everyone is tiptoeing around the real issue here. The solution to this, and many other problems, is simply to ban children.
Gaia looks around, nods solemnly.
Only male children…
As a side effect, this could be a path to a truly bipartisan approach to funding public education! We all know Republicans are allergic to the very idea of public education, but if the public school system was repositioned as a stealth subsidy to the arms industry via buying military equipment at inflated prices, I’m sure the Republicans would be all for it. And since military spending in the US is a giant black box with no accountability or traceability, it should be a simple matter to siphon off enough money on the way through to build a proper public education system!
Granted, it’s monstrously inefficient and diverts huge sums of money to pay for military equipment that isn’t actually needed, but let’s be real – that’s going to happen anyway. At least this way public schools get a cut of the action!
(NB: I wrote this as satire, but I’m realizing it would probably actually work, so it’s depressing me now).
OK, I have to chime in, how about a go fund me for Kevlar for children in schools, I realize my proposal may be late to “the game”, but I would think that the idea of being able to monetize and monogram the appropriate school uniforms with Kevlar would work for many, as we know there will be no change coming from the PMC front people.
You need a new TOPICS. File under Americana (1).
One wonders if the same people who decry forcing children to wearing masks in school will take a similar stance in regard to forcing children to put on helmets and body armor.