Washington School Shooting

[Rhoda D'Ettore]

From what I could find, two are dead (including the shooter) and several injured. The reports state a student walked into the cafeteria and opened fire. Then he left the building and continue shooting before killing himself.

We have a serious problem in this country with violence in teens. From what I saw, this boy was popular and a good, quiet student. That means we can no longer "profile" kids that are susceptible to such actions. It might sound bad, but I truly blame much of the violence and even all of the medical disorders (ADD, ADHD, biploar, etc) on two parents working. Care takers have the kids more often than the parents, parents are stressed from over work and overwhelmed with bills. They spend half their income on day care. Kids are undisciplined and de-sensitized by the media, video games, movies.

We as a society are failing our children, and there does not seem to be any improvements in sight. What do you think we could do?

 

[LongShot]

From what I could find, two are dead (including the shooter) and several injured. The reports state a student walked into the cafeteria and opened fire. Then he left the building and continue shooting before killing himself.

We have a serious problem in this country with violence in teens. From what I saw, this boy was popular and a good, quiet student. That means we can no longer "profile" kids that are susceptible to such actions. It might sound bad, but I truly blame much of the violence and even all of the medical disorders (ADD, ADHD, biploar, etc) on two parents working. Care takers have the kids more often than the parents, parents are stressed from over work and overwhelmed with bills. They spend half their income on day care. Kids are undisciplined and de-sensitized by the media, video games, movies.

We as a society are failing our children, and there does not seem to be any improvements in sight. What do you think we could do?

I was with you until you started talking about mental disorders. Obviously, you Know nothing on that subject so using as a base for your argument is quite silly to be honest. This kid to me seemed like any other typical kid that went to school. Was hurting inside from either issues at home or something else that made him unstable.

From what I read it seems he went after his cousins and friends. From the way it has been reported it seems as though that he wasn't going after anyone else. In fact, it seems that he was focused on just his cousins and maybe his other friends was caught in the crossfire.

I've known kids that are all happy and "popular" in school. Though, they can be the saddest person around. Mental health is a real issue and while I don't know if he was suffering from any issues. You can't ignore it by simple trying to put the blame on something else.

 

[Patrick]

This is saddening news. I think it is premature to lay the blame on any party, however, with a spate of recent school shootings it is important that we start improving security measures. With gun ownership being extended to all citizens, children or teenagers can procure them from their parents with or without their consent. I think that we need to seriously consider measures such as installing metal detectors at school premises to ensure that no weapons are brought into schools.

 

[diecarmona]

I agree with Pat. There is no reason to generalize or jump to premature conclusions. On the first point, I think it's not intelligent to say that we have a problem with teen violence these days. There has always been teen violence, we are just more aware of it now. This isn't bad, being aware of it is the first step to fixing it.

As to the people involved, I feel very bad for the families of the deceased. There must be a way to stop this kinds of things from happening so often.

 

[DancingLady]

I know some of you will not believe me, or will even think I am nuts for saying this, but based on what I heard of what this guy did, I think it very likely he was demon possessed at the time he did the shooting. Most people in America do not believe in demon possession, but I know for a fact it is real and can happen to a person if they are getting into witchcraft or occult activities.

 

[askanison]

I know some of you will not believe me, or will even think I am nuts for saying this, but based on what I heard of what this guy did, I think it very likely he was demon possessed at the time he did the shooting. Most people in America do not believe in demon possession, but I know for a fact it is real and can happen to a person if they are getting into witchcraft or occult activities.

You are right I don't believe nor agree. How anyone can believe in demons in this day and age is beyond me. There is no proof that demons exist or that they can take someone over and make you do wrong. The media will blame gun control, video games, MTV and a ton of other crap. It all boils down to he flipped out and did a horrible thing. How is anyone shocked? I am shocked that it doesn't happen more often since society is so screwed up.

 

[sillylucy]

A lot of these teens have mental health problems because they are on SSRIs and these drugs change our brain chemistry. The only reason why people don't want to hear it is because big pharma pays to keep this information out of the media. They don't want to lose the money they make off of these pills.

 

[Rhoda D'Ettore]

A lot of these teens have mental health problems because they are on SSRIs and these drugs change our brain chemistry. The only reason why people don't want to hear it is because big pharma pays to keep this information out of the media. They don't want to lose the money they make off of these pills.

This coupled with the fact that many parents are too busy to actually see a real problem early enough was my point. I do know a LOT about mental illness. I also know the medical industry (and yes, it is an industry, meaning for profit business) comes up with a "gotcha" diagnosis from year to year. For awhile it was ADD, then ADHD, then bipolar. This year it seems that children are being diagnosed with sleep disorders. Children are still growing and we seriously have no idea what the long term affects of the meds (or even our food sources) are causing. And for those who have mental issues, it is naive to assume it is genetic and not a result of their environment (single parenthood, not enough time with families spending together, families texting each other from room to room instead of talking face to face).

As far always having had violence? That is true to a point, but we did not hear of the number of shootings like this. The FBI claims the first college campus shooting was in the 1960s. When Columbine happened, the whole nation cried--because it was rare (even unheard of). Now, we see a shooting on the news and its, "Oh wow. Sad." We are all becoming desensitized. Our communities are not as safe either. Perhaps it is that kids get to be less responsible today than they used to be? Twenty years ago, kids got married by 22 ish, bought a house and worked. Now it seems the government, parents, and even car insurance companies expect the newer generations to be living with their parents well into their mid-twenties.

 

[Fifty]

Honest question - is there any way to deal with this aside from putting more weapons into schools or taking weapons away from everyone? I don't want either, and I don't think either can be done, so we need a solution facing away from those two things rather than beating up a brick wall.

 

[Teens In Crisis]

I'm not sure that you can say mental disorders are relevant to the number of parents that work, or anything like that. There is zero cause & effect evidence to base that on. However, I do think that a today, and not just in our youth, there seems to be a lot more people with entitlement issues, kids & adults that feel they are "owed" and "deserve" more and more each day. People that don't feel the rules apply to them, feel that they are "smarter than the system", or think that they can get away with it. When you combine entitlement like that, with a general lack of personal responsibility, it seems like a breeding ground for this type of behavior. Not always, and not just this type of violent behavior, but others as well.

 

[LongShot]

I do know that the medical industry is all about the money. That is why we keep finding ways to treat instead of something to cure these diseases. The whole parent issue is something that is relevant but saying that ways more then if their is a mental issue. Is something that most can't agree with as most parents are there for their kids. Though, even with the parents that are their for kids who have issues. You will still find that those kids still somehow end up doing something no one thought they would do. No one truly knows what is going on in the minds of these kids as well this shooter. The fact that he targeted people he knew and relatives. Says to me that there is a deeper issue in all of these. If not a deeper issue then it could be something fairly petty which caused him to do this.

It is no clue that a lot of crimes are done all because of something most would consider petty. They called you a name and now you want to kill them. Then you have that someone did something you didn't really like so you want to hurt them. This has always happen but is now becoming more normalized in a sense with the media coverage given to the criminal and not the victims.

 

[jgon3491]

I don't know why we don't just ban guns in the U.S. If we don't this is going to keep happening. We already had countless school shootings and countless victims dead. How many more do we need?

 

[shreklock]

I don't know why we don't just ban guns in the U.S. If we don't this is going to keep happening. We already had countless school shootings and countless victims dead. How many more do we need?

I agree, USA is notorious with guns. Banning them would be too harsh, I think the solution should be stricter laws, lessons and more paperwork to get a gun.