But most of the kids you’re talking about haven’t killed anyone.
Most what kids? The young white males you don’t want to talk about? Are we talking about them now? You can’t seem to make up your mind about that.
Um, what? You are not even making sense now.
I just wanted to echo what Nesrie said: these white boys who think that Straight White Male is some sort of cross to bear should imagine taking a walk in another color and/or gender. Their disconnect with reality is so huge it’s boggling.
As an asian immigrant growing up in America, I get Enidigm’s point. I faced racism and bullying as a child due to my race, but I also saw other minorities facing the same treatment. While it was rough, the reasons why it occurred were never in doubt: it was my skin. There was also comfort in knowing that others were in the same situation for the same reasons. So while it was about me, it wasn’t just about me.
A white kid facing bullying may find it a lot harder to identify a group in the same situation, a lot harder to find compatriots to share the pain. While I’m not going to go through the exercise of which childhood is worse (what use is that?), I can empathize with the situation.
They ended up dumping the shotgun prize today and replaced it with a $250 gift certificate.
“We changed it because of the events on Friday,” said John Wittman, a campaign spokesman.
He also said this today:
“We need to do more than just pray for the victims and the families,” Abbott said at a news conference. “It’s time in Texas that we take action to step up and make sure this tragedy is never repeated ever again in the history of the state of Texas.”
Abbott, who has long cast himself as a staunch opponent of new gun control measures, said that he would begin working with state lawmakers and communities across Texas on proposals to prevent gun violence in schools.
The governor said he had been planning to unveil several proposals for new gun laws in the state before the shooting took place, with plans on “speeding up background checks” and preventing those “who pose immediate danger” from obtaining firearms, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Holding gun manufacturers liable for crimes people commit isn’t something I can agree with. I don’t think you should be able to sue Ford because someone ran you over with a F150 either.
I’m cool with it but it’ll never happen. I mean the gun manufacturers are literally making something designed to kill. Newer models are made to kill more efficiently, etc. We’ve been over that before quite a bit in this thread though.
I know, but where does something like that stop? Is Apple liable because someone hacked using a Macbook? A computer is something made for hacking! It’s made for other things, but it’s made for hacking too.
If we’re talking ludicrous and impossible solutions, it’d be much better just to ban gun ownership.
Sign me up! :).
I kinda saw it that if you threw that in there, maybe you could get the rest.
How about adding a finger print reader trigger/safety lock? That way, the kid can’t shoot Dad’s gun. Seems somewhat analogous to seat belts or other vehicle safety systems.
A lot of law enforcement procedure, rules of engagement, etc, are based on trying to assure that a policeman’s gun will not be taken and used against him. “Smart” guns are another solution for this but the market has repeatedly chosen to reject these options. Sometimes the complaint is couched as a reliability concern, but often it is just “we don’t want this”.
I think it is for the same kind of reasons teens can get their parents’ guns for murder sprees: because most parents who have guns know and approve of their older kids having access to the guns for “emergency” situations. In other words, romantic notions of a hero grabbing a weapon and saving the day. Preparing and bringing a gun which only you can use is somehow selfish, and denies everyone else around the chance to use your gun if you are incapacitated.
Disagree with this, but gun owners (not just parents) should be liable if their gun is used in a crime.
The best argument for holding gun manufacturers liable is about their culpability in flooding the market in ways designed to circumvent reasonable restrictions in order to increase profit.
In other words gun manufacturers are knowingly and intentionally complicit in, for example, the flow of guns from Indiana into Chicago in ways designed to circumvent background checks and other enacted gun control measures. In fact they market and position things explicitly to sell more guns, knowing they will be illegally moved. That is the argument for holding manufacturers liable I could agree with. Not the ‘this murder was done using a Smith and Wesson, ergo they should be charged with murder’.
But coming down on a manufacturer that is intentionally fuelling and marketing for greater violence through turning a blind eye? Yeah, come down on that shit. You may not have killed those people, but when you see abnormal gun sales in areas, and work to prevent or circumvent any measure designed to reduce gun violence in those areas so you can sell more product? Don’t give me the ‘we didn’t know’ bullshit. Gun manufacturers know damn well their northern Indiana sales are being funneled by the hundreds into gang violence in Chicago. Not only do they know, but they make every measure possible to increase their sales. Because gang violence, and funneling guns into that, is profitable for them.
That I agree with.
Isn’t the real problem with gun manufacturer liability the fact that they explicit immunity at the moment? You don’t have to make them legally liable but you could remove their protection and let the courts the figure it out. Something comparable might be the tobacco industry. People can still choose to smoke but that industry has still been held accountable for their long history of crappy behaviour.
I don’t think “Straight White Male is a cross to bear” is what’s being said here at all.
Like Stepsongrapes mentioned from his personal experience, if you are being bullied by racists or homophobes, chances are you understand why it’s happening (because they’re racists/homophobes), see it also happening to others, and while it’s still a terrible thing you can understand that it isn’t just about you in the end…it’s not anything you did or are doing, it’s because you are -blank- and these idiots hate -blank- people because they are racists/homophobes.
If you are a straight white male being bullied on a daily basis by other straight white males, rejected by females, and essentially shunned by everyone in your very limited high-school world on a daily basis…you begin the thought process of “it’s not racism or homophobia, because I’m white and straight, so it must be everyone hates me because I really am just a worthless piece of shit loser like they say…and I’ll be that way forever”. From there it’s a short path to either suicide or revenge fantasy, or a combination of both, which the media have glorified with all the coverage of school shooters since Columbine.
The only way to fix this problem in this country is a multi-faceted approach. We need better gun legislation that closes purchasing loopholes, reforms the registration and purchasing process and includes longer waiting periods with more comprehensive background checks both criminal and mental health oriented. We also need better mental health resources in schools themselves. Teachers and Counselors trained to spot and respond to students in crisis before it goes too far and programs designed to guide parents and students through the healing process. This wouldn’t just be for possible gun violence, but for suicide prevention as well (another increasing problem with American youth). Finally, we need education reform and healthcare reform across the board. The more money we spend on education, the better our children will be educated. The quicker we move to single-payer healthcare, the sooner we can make healthcare affordable for everyone, including mental health care that so many Americans of every age so desperately need but do not have access to currently.
Turning our schools into prisons where the faculty is armed and students pass through metal detectors at a limited number of entry/exit points while armed resource officers watch over them from guard posts is NOT the answer. The answers are difficult, expensive and unpopular with several political interest groups…but if we want to stop seeing kids dying on the nightly news, it’s what America needs to do.
No, you do not understand that when you are ten years old, or five…and you barely understand this as a teen.
Are you really requiring teenage boys and girls to have the understanding of a middle-aged adults? I do not know why you think there is this great understanding that makes these experiences somehow more magical and easy to bear than being a white nerd.
This forced maturity on women and minorities is just… it is just really shocking to me that the idea of forcing minorities into maturity as soon as possible is now considered a good thing and everyone thinks it just happens. Why do you think there is this great understanding out there? Who told you that?