Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

“The Kids Are Out of Control”

—

by

James A. Bacon
in , ,

Here’s more evidence that the social fabric is fraying: a high school senior was stabbed to death in a fight that spilled into an Alexandria neighborhood shopping center a couple of days ago. Just as Americans seem powerless to stop tragedies like the Uvalde school shooting, we seem impotent to halt the far more common number of incidents with smaller body counts.

Several elements fuel the combustion. One is the ubiquity of guns in the United States (although it must be noted that the Alexandria student was stabbed, not shot). Another is the surge in mental illness. Democrats emphasize the guns, Republicans the mental illness, each in line with their respective desires to indict or absolve firearms. But I suspect there are other factors at play, at least in incidents like the Alexandria fracas: cell phones and the erosion of adult authority. Arguments originating in social media during the school day often get resolved outside school. As one of the parents in the video above observed, “The kids are out of control.”

And adults are helpless to control them, she could have added.

Better physical security inside schools will help prevent lone shooters from entering into the schools. (See Jim Sherlock’s recent column.) There is something to be said for that. But I question whether school “hardening” can do anything to curtail fights that take place outside schools in nearby parking lots. — JAB

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78 responses to ““The Kids Are Out of Control””

  1. vicnicholls Avatar
    vicnicholls

    Guns and knives aren’t the problem. Hearts, attitudes, culture, relationships are.

  2. Kent Williamson Avatar
    Kent Williamson

    On February 8, 2011, Harvard Professor Clay Christensen, the Robert & Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, observed:

    “Sometime ago I had a conversation with a Marxist economist from China.

    He was coming to the end of a Fulbright Fellowship here in Boston, and I asked him if he had learned anything that was surprising or unexpected.

    And without any hesitation he said ‘Yes, I had no idea how critical religion is to the functioning of democracy …’”Christensen continued:

    “‘The reason why democracy works,’ he said, ‘is not because the government was designed to oversee what everybody does.

    But rather democracy works because most people, most of the time, voluntarily choose to obey the law.

    And in your past, most Americans attended a church or synagogue every week. And they were taught there by people who they respected.’ … My friend went on to say that

    ’Americans followed these rules because they had come to believe that they weren’t just accountable to society, they were accountable to God.’”

    Professor Christensen continued:

    “My Chinese friend heightened a vague but nagging concern I harbored inside that as religion loses its influence over the lives of Americans, what will happen to our democracy? … Where are the institutions that are going to teach the next generation of Americans that they too need to voluntarily choose to obey the laws?

    Because if you take away religion, you cannot hire enough police.”

    1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
      Eric the half a troll

      Really…? The only thing keeping us from all being mass murderers is a fear of God…?? I suppose if one is incapable of compassion and empathy for another human being, one is only left with fear of God…

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        must be a whale of a difference between religion in other countries and religion in this country,, eh?

        we’ve heard of confirmation bias. We also have confirmation denial where people purposely avoid dealing with truth.

        1. walter smith Avatar
          walter smith

          Look in the mirror for confirmation bias!

      2. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
        f/k/a_tmtfairfax

        But for a higher power or a willing agreement to the contrary, there is no reason for a human being to subordinate himself or herself to another. The individual is everything.

        1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
          Eric the half a troll

          That is a most sad philosophy. If that is true for all on the Right, it explains a great deal. No wonder we are where we are today. Half of society has to be coerced into putting the needs of others and society above their own.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            worse than that – their education was provided by others along with their right to public roads and electricity… health care, etc… they got it all by themselves, nope.

          2. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
            f/k/a_tmtfairfax

            But you cannot rebut it. What requires us as individuals to move beyond our own self interest? If we each are at the top of the pyramid of life, logically, we should look out for our own interests. It does you no good to consider my interests if there is nothing above you. And vice versa.

            Now when enough of us living in an area, it makes sense to come to some agreement to accommodate each other. But even then, it is in one’s self interest to limit the “agreed-to protections” to as few people as possible and not allow newcomers any protections except as necessary for the betterment of those in power.

            If you are at the center of your universe because there is nothing above you, you would and, indeed, should act accordingly.

            What guiding principle of life gives your neighbor any dignity if you are at the top? None.

          3. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            we all have self-interest but some of us know that we actually got help from others to achieve what we have.

            Public education is central to that but so is the idea that we take land from people to build roads for all of us.

            without public roads and public education – what would you have achieved on your own?

          4. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
            f/k/a_tmtfairfax

            Please address my argument, if there is no higher power than us, why should any person subordinate his/her interests absent a mutually beneficial agreement?

          5. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            do you consider public education, public roads, health care, safe food and drugs, prisons, clean water and air – etc – as “mutually beneficial” and not subordinate to your own well being absent those things? Better here than in 3rd world countries where your self-interest would be different? Be careful, you might be a liberal!

      3. James Kiser Avatar
        James Kiser

        well your democrat thugs called antifa and black lies matter sure weren’t afraid of the LEOs.

  3. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    The mental illness thing is totally bogus if there is not a system that looks at it BEFORE a mass murderer kills.

    What kind of process/procedure for mental illness would have detected and intercepted the Uvalde killer?

    How would a background check actually detect his illness before allowing him to buy weapons?

    As important, why do background checks not include a look at statements made on social media by the applicant?

    Many employers nowdays actually require a look at one’s social media activity as part of their vetting.

    If a social media “look” had been done for the Uvalde killer as well as the Buffalo killer (and many others prior) – it would have been crystal clear that they were planning on killing people. Why can’t we vett people who buy ANY weapons capable of killing many people quickly?

    It’s like we are “protecting” the “right” of wackos to make plans to kill….

    1. James Kiser Avatar
      James Kiser

      now you have become conservative lol you should watch the clip of Charles Krauthammer after the Navy Yard shooting it is almost impossible to commit anyone till they do a crime and even then someone will claim the killer is cured. I hope John Hinckley knows that Biden has been sniffing Jodie Fosters hair lol

  4. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    Other countries have mental illness, cell phone, eroding adult authority, etc. They do not experience the level of gun violence we experience. Yes, there are stabbings but mass killings are tougher (not impossible, mind you) with knives.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      exactly – mental illness seems to have much more terrible consequences in the US than all other countries on earth.

      why?

      and WHY is it almost always a WHITE GUY in the US?

      1. walter smith Avatar
        walter smith

        Um…because there are more whites? As usual, you are wrong. Whites are slightly less proportionally. Biggest disparity is Muslims. Those evil Asians are below their percentage, probably too busy studying… I read an article yesterday. I think by Heather McDonald with facts and stats.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          white gals? white guys in Europe?

          1. walter smith Avatar
            walter smith

            Non sequitur. What does Europe have to do with the US? Usual one note Johnny guns proof? Did you see my comment about looking in the mirror for your confirmation bias?
            How come there are no mass shootings in Antarctica?

          2. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            has to do with all the reasons given for mass killers in the US. Aren’t there mentally ill folks in Europe also, in Australia? in Antarctica?

          3. walter smith Avatar
            walter smith

            Larry – in general, your comments can be categorized as race, income, SCIENCE!, guns, and always consistent with the dominant narrative of the Left/CNN/Dem “leaders”
            First, we do not keep up with all news from all over the world. Heck, we don’t even in the US. Every weekend, the proof that BLM is fake occurs because black lives are ended, generally – mostly – mostly by far – by other blacks. Is the news saturated with those stories? No.
            Murders occur all over the world. Knives, baseball bats, poison, you name it.
            Meanwhile, in the US, nearly all of these situations have ample warnings. Why don’t we act? Fear of ACLU lawsuits? Notice that the shooters usually choose gun free zones? Why would that be? Societal breakdown is the largest factor. And that is a fact. The great social capital built up for centuries by Judeo Christian Western Civ is being spent and can no longer be ignored. We are spending our inheritance.

          4. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            we do need to understand why and how the US differs from the rest of the developed world especially when some folks are deluded with mythology and worse.

          5. walter smith Avatar
            walter smith

            Larry – we need to understand why it happens here and it isn’t that hard. Societal breakdown. To compare Icelandic single parenthood to the US is silly as that is a totally homogenous society (and it still is not a societal plus, wherever it occurs!)

          6. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            only in the US there is societal breakdown?

          7. kls Avatar
            kls

            We got to the moon, none other did. We freed millions of people in the 1940s, none other did. etc etc….

  5. walter smith Avatar
    walter smith

    It isn’t guns – they don’t magically run out and decide to shoot random people, just like the van did not kill the people in the Christmas parade in Kenosha – it was an evil person.
    Why? Surely loss of Christian influence in society overall.
    No fault divorce, single motherhood (a euphemism for subsidized illegitimacy), ACLU lawsuits asserting it violated civil rights so we have armies of homelessness so for fear of lawsuits we subsidize that, then school systems that fear lawsuits so they hide mental and other issues and hide the problems, the stupid gun free zone laws (notice these things happen in gun free zones – let administrators and teachers pack). Then there is the alienation – I will point to two things usually present – no father in the house and psychotropic drugs.
    We had it right 60 years ago before all the “improvements.”
    Quit subsidizing illegitimacy. Get rid of no fault divorce. Bring back vagrancy and other laws requiring hospitalization (which means funding that, but as less illegitimacy, more families to act to make sure that is the right answer. Funny how the ACLU asserted it was wrong to drug these people who were not “danger to themselves or others” but not the hundreds of millions of responsible Americans with respect to Covid).
    Sorry for making liberal heads explode. When I was a kid in Warsaw VA in the Northern Neck, students had gun racks in their trucks, with guns and the windows down and went hunting after school or before school. That world was better.
    Maybe we should also stop rampant illegal entry into the US and have some stability – nothing like bringing in tons of cheap labor or greater dependency on government- surely that helps the social fabric, amirite?
    Seems to me everything the Libs do doesn’t work… Hey, how come so many teens are unhappy and have suicidal ideation? Could it be the daily indoctrination of you are either an oppressor or a victim and the general breakdown of norms like a family and boys are boys and girls are girls? Wondering in the pursuit of SCIENCE!

    1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
      Eric the half a troll

      “Why? Surely loss of Christian influence in society overall.”

      Yes, Christianity is alive and well in Europe and the rest of the developed world. Why didn’t I notice that?!

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        I think Europe and rest of world must have “better” religions than the US has….

      2. walter smith Avatar
        walter smith

        You are still clueless. Do you know the percentage of regular church attendance in Europe?
        How about the EU bureaucrats? Think they are clutching their Bibles? Seriously Troll, you are a know nothing.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          so they are LESS religious in Europe?

          1. walter smith Avatar
            walter smith

            Yes

          2. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            and have LESS killings?

          3. walter smith Avatar
            walter smith

            NO. A false analogy. They have killings. When all politicians agree not to have armed guards, I’ll trust that that they mean well. Except I won’t, because of human nature. The only people who will be harmed by the gun confiscation you crave are the law-abiding.
            Go try to buy a gun. It is not easy. The problem is people and these kids give off plenty of signs, but we have inept government and checked out parents and a society in decline. You will never get my guns from me. And most gun owners feel that way. And guess what, they aren’t the ones committing crimes. They are the ones stopping them!

          4. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            I don’t want your gun Walter. And I don’t want to keep others from owning guns either unless they are a clear threat to all of us.

            And I don’t want you to be able to buy a machine gun or other uber deadly weapons to “defend” yourself. Sorry.

            I just don’t want weapons that can easily kill dozens of people sold to those who should not have them and we get told afterwards that they should not have had them – but never how we could have stopped them … when/how can we stop them BEFORE they do it?

            Could we have seen who this guy was if we included a look at social media history as a condition for gun ownership?

          5. walter smith Avatar
            walter smith

            And where do we draw the line where the Attorney General of the United States considers parents domestic terrorists?
            Builds up a lot of trust, don’t it?
            IF we had trustworthy people in positions of power, but we are ruled by abject fools.
            Men can get pregnant say our betters
            Climate Change is ending the world! (And it is not)
            We need $10 gas to force wind power, which is too expensive and unreliable, but our cronies will get rich…and we’ll get more power.
            The kid will have had all sorts of warnings. And Biden wants to bring back Obama’s discipline policy, akin to defund the police. All of our institutions are corrupt. Personal integrity matters. Like all the other ones, there will be plenty of signs.

          6. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            geeze… Walter.. what was the original subject?

            Do you agree we need to stop mentally ill from being approved to buy weapons?

            Can we BUILD on that?

          7. walter smith Avatar
            walter smith

            Not really as you people on the Left define parents as terrorists or Trump voters as deplorables. You cannot be trusted with power as you break the Nuremberg Code to mandate injection of an experimental medical product – that doesn’t work! – into children who didn’t need it. So, as a general matter, if someone is crazy, that person out of compassion should receive care, and perhaps institutionalization. But the ACLU blew that up. And school discipline has been blown up. Our society needs standards. Men cannot get pregnant. Men should not compete in women’s sports. Man cannot control the climate. Let’s start back towards reality…

        2. Eric the half a troll Avatar
          Eric the half a troll

          I was being sarcastic, obviously… They are less religious in Europe… and have lower murder rates… by far…

          1. walter smith Avatar
            walter smith

            Which is a false analogy. Let’s deal with the US.

  6. Deborah Hommer Avatar
    Deborah Hommer

    One’s worldview and morality has a lot to do with this. What are they reading? What are they watching? Who are their role models? What does our culture promote? How do they see the world? Is there concern only for self or concern for society as a whole?

    I think the fact we live in a postmodern culture has a lot to do with this.
    Let’s go back to Ancient Greece and Rome. The Philosophers taught ethics (Plato wanted to get at the essence of justice, piety, beauty, what’s best for society, the Good – think of the 4 virtues of wisdom, justice, temperance, and fortitude; Aristotle is a virtue ethicist expanding on Plato and adding other virtues and expounded upon that an individual’s habits create character). The Stoics taught about living the ethical life, self-control, virtue ethics following Aristotle in many ways.

    There are several characteristics of the ancient world that the modern world truncated and/or altered. In other words, the ancients had a worldview that consisted of a wholeness to living and thoughts; the modern worlds has chopped off half of the wholeness functioning on half of the concepts of the modern world, distorting reality. This truncation that the modern world created has slid into absurdity in the postmodern world:

    – the ancients operated on an objective worldview (versus the modern subjective world – thanks, Kant; what matters now is relative and subjective thoughts and feelings, not objective facts)
    – the ancients felt that ethics concerns both what ought to be and what is (versus the modern world concerning only what is – thanks, Machiavelli and then Hobbes)
    – the ancient world was concerned with the combination of rights and duties (versus the modern world is only concerned with rights with little thought of the duties that go along with rights (think of the ’60s and the sexual liberation in addition to the welfare state)
    – the ancients were concerned with both the means and the ends; the greek word “telos” means the end purpose of something (versus the modern world that cares about the means OR the ends, but not the wholeness or entirety of both)
    – the ancient world and society thought that there is a natural order to nature and society (versus the modern thought that world is chaotic – the absurdity of the complexity of the world came out of a bang)
    – the ancient world was concerned with metaphysics, meaning what is reality – think facts (where the modern world is concerned with feelings and subjectivity and relativity. For example, the motto “find your own truth.” That’s so ridiculous. The truth is the truth no matter what you think)
    – the ancients believed in natural justice, natural law, higher law that positive law (manmade) must conform with (versus the modern perspective that positive law reigns supreme – didn’t we learn this lesson with the Nazis? There are some laws that are so contrary to doing what’s right that we should be held accountable for violating)
    – the ancients thought that justice had many elements to it, as illustrated in Plato’s Republic (versus the modern jurisprudence that reduces justice to contracts)
    – the ancients felt that the definition of happiness was living a virtuous life (versus the moderns that define happiness as whatever makes you feel good)
    -the ancients thought that there was a mind (spiritual)/body (physical) dualism (versus today where the mind is separated from the body – thanks Descartes).

    For clarification, I literally mean the classic philosophers of Ancient Greece and Rome when I state “ancient”; back then they also had those philosophers that promoted a truncated worldview.

    1. YellowstoneBound1948 Avatar
      YellowstoneBound1948

      Deborah, this took a long time to write. Thank you.

      1. Deborah Hommer Avatar
        Deborah Hommer

        You are welcome

    2. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I’ve read this several times

      ” One’s worldview and morality has a lot to do with this. What are they reading? What are they watching? Who are their role models? What does our culture promote? How do they see the world? Is there concern only for self or concern for society as a whole?

      I think the fact we live in a postmodern culture has a lot to do with this.”

      When you say the above and then continue below are you thinking in terms of ALL the 195 (or so) countries on earth (since you do start off talking “worldview’).

      Do we have any countries on earth that operate the way you seem to advocate?

      If not, then what are you really advocating for and does it mean that all countries have strayed from those Greek /Rome values?

      Do you see the US in a different light than the rest of the developed countries in the world?

      1. Deborah Hommer Avatar
        Deborah Hommer

        This is Western Civilization, not Eastern Civilization. Obviously ancient and classical Greece are the beginnings of Western Civilization. Eastern Civilization has a different worldview.

        Let’s go back to Herodotus, the world’s first historian (5th c. B.C.) who wrote the book The Histories. He went all over the Near East and Greece exploring, asking lots of questions, and tells fantastic stories. As an aside it’s important to note that he tells you what they told him; he does not verify the veracity of the stories he’s told. I digress. Herodotus asked why it was so difficult for the East and West to live in peace. He started the conversation. He was the first to see the East-West clash of civilizations. He wondered why the East hated and was suspicious of the West, why there were such cultural differences. Think of the oligarchical/democratic governments started in Athens and Sparta and the many other city-states of Ancient Greece. They fought for freedom, they were integrally involved in their communities. Then think of the Near East; they were merely subjects and not involved in any democratic means in their communities. Think of the odds that the Greeks would have won the Persian Wars. You would have bet on Persia, not Greece due to numbers alone. However, the Greek won. But why? They were fighting for their liberties as free men; the subjects were fighting as subjects.

        Let’s move forward in history. Again it was the Crusades – East-West clash of civilizations.
        Now let’s move forward again. In college I read Samuel Huntington’s the Clash of Civilizations. It was profound when he wrote it. It was Frances Fukuyama’s The End of History rebuttal that caused much debate. Many scholars now believe that Huntington was correct. As do I.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          This relates to modern day civilization across 195 countries in a practical way?

          I’m just not sure what your point is.

          that all the countries on earth are headed to hell in a handbasket?

          1. Deborah Hommer Avatar
            Deborah Hommer

            whoa, you sure made a jump on your conclusion.
            Let’s go back to history again.
            The nation state is a creation of the modern world.
            Go back to the Near East. There were many empire that kept changing hands.
            Then go to Greece, which was conquered by Alexander the Great before he went on the conquer many Near East Empire. He dies. The kingdom is split in 4. The Rise of the Roman Empire begins with many different changing kingdoms throughout Europe. I think it was the high Middle Ages where the nation states were starting to emerge.

            Throughout history there’s been this East-West divide on worldviews.
            What Huntington was speaking of was after the Cold War there would be primarily be these identities according to cultural and religious identities and the wars would be between cultures, not countries. So, no, you cannot conflate/reduce this discussion to countries. It’s an ideology, not boundaries.

            First, I was just answering your questions and wondering about the sincerity of such questions.

            Now my point is that I was just describing for those who are intellectually curious the foundations of our Western Civilization (and I didn’t even touch upon the intertwinement of our Judeo-Christian heritage with the classics during the Middle Ages. For instance, it was St. Augustine that synthesized Plato with Christianity, and it was Thomas Aquinas who synthesized Aristotle with Christianity). In any event, the ancients had a wholeness to their philosophical concepts that several different modern world philosophers have divided in two. I see many of our seemingly unsolvable problems due to the split of concepts that are meant to be whole.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            re: ” So, no, you cannot conflate/reduce this discussion to countries. It’s an ideology, not boundaries.”

            okay – so how are you relating this ? To the US as a country or to western civilization in general? or what?

            re: ” I see many of our seemingly unsolvable problems due to the split of concepts that are meant to be whole.”

            we seem to have different ways of solving/addressing problems by country. No?

            And some ways seems more effective but as far as I can tell, almost none of them are based on the concepts you are opining about.

            so, yes sincere questions but a hefty dose of skepticism…. also….

            for better or worse, the world is pretty much divided up into countries with boundaries and each with their own governance and laws but all of them are dealing with problems of the same earth with it’s human inhabitants..

            So perhaps you’re not advocating but just explaining what you think and not much more?

          3. Deborah Hommer Avatar
            Deborah Hommer

            Yeah, you really missed the point. I gave you the reasons why I think we are where we are here in the postmodern world.
            Of course, it’s incredibly obvious that different countries have different ways of solving/addressing problems. And, yes, they’re trying to address/solve through a modern/postmodern lens, not the lens of the classics.
            And if you were paying attention, you would have realized that I think by virtue of the fact we no longer see the world through lens of wholeness we have more problems to solve than we would have otherwise.

            Advocacy? Nope, didn’t come out and state point blank that I advocate looking at certain issues from the ancient lens. But let me go ahead and do so.

            Yes, many issues would go away if we addressed them on an objective basis, not how someone “feels”
            Yes, we need to be looking at situations as how they should be, not just how it is.
            Yes, we need to reunite rights and duties, not just a concern of someone’s rights without their correlating duties.
            Yes, we need to be looking at the means and the ends, including the ultimate purpose, not just the means OR ends.
            Yes, there is a natural ordered nature to the universe and man; and when it is perverted, there are consequences.
            Yes, natural law is higher than positive law, and positive law should conform to natural law. The consequences of this violation can be horrific such as the Holocaust.
            Yes, justice is more than just a contract and we should treat it as such.
            Yes, happiness reduced to hedonism really doesn’t lead to happiness. The virtuous life that Aristotle and the Stoics spoke of does lead to true happiness.
            And finally not utilizing the mind/body dualism creates incomplete solutions.

  7. walter smith Avatar
    walter smith

    How do you stop a bad guy with a gun?
    A good guy with a gun.
    Or a good gal with a gun in this case. Won’t make the news…
    https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/west-virginia-police-credit-ccw-holder-with-saving-lives-stopping-a-mass-shooting/

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      worked real good in Buffalo and Uvalde, eh?

      1. walter smith Avatar
        walter smith

        How was the kid in Uvalde stopped Larry? Why didn’t the good guys act? A failure of PAID GOVERNMENT SERVANTS. Don’t you think keeping the parents out was horrific? They were prepared to act, but the armed and trained people weren’t. And what do you think the odds are we will discover that this kid had problems for a loooooong time? Wanna bet?

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          good guys with guns in Buffalo?

          kid had “problems” but background check did not find them? How do we identify kids with ‘problems’ BEFORE we give them deadly weapons?

    2. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Fewer exits. Teddy says we need more guns and fewer doors. Sure, okay.

  8. Charles Nesbit Avatar
    Charles Nesbit

    Consider also the glorification of violence and death in the media and video games. The content of movies and television shows are obsessed with violence and sex. Video games allow players to kill at will in a virtual world with no consequences. Virtual headsets are making the virtual worlds almost real. Children learn to solve problems by picking up a gun and killing. When they become 18 they can buy real guns and make the virtual world real.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      They play those same video games throughout the world, like say, Australia. Not in Ukraine though. They’re busy.

  9. kls Avatar
    kls

    How many articles will we see written Tuesday about the carnage in Chicago? Baltimore? over this past weekend? How many comments about the fall of the Black communities? NONE, I bet.

    People are blaming everyone and everything EXCEPT the criminal in the Uvalde shooting. If that is the paradigm, let’s start with the teacher who violated procedure and security policy and left the door propped open. Should Chuck Schumer be pushing some sort of ‘Stupid Teacher Control’ legislation?

    Mass shootings are not a ‘white’ thing, nor a typically ‘American’ thing [ https://amp.france24.com/en/africa/20220526-suspected-jihadists-kill-dozens-in-eastern-burkina-faso?utm_source=Join+the+Community+Subscribers&utm_campaign=0ccc1168bb-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_05_27_01_42&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_02cbee778d-0ccc1168bb-122471833&mc_cid=0ccc1168bb&mc_eid=5626402ddf ]

    The one academic study which started that myth has been debunked many times since. The professor’s study was not peer reviewed, he didn’t explain his methodology and refused to share his data when asked. It later came out he only examined US open source information [newspapers and media] to document non-US events. John Lott did a much more thorough study examining foreign press reporting about mass shootings – it’s insightful.

    Just as a data point, as many are looking for comparisons to use to counter this mass crime: April murders in Chicago = 49, in Baltimore = 32, in Wyoming for the entire year = none.
    Look at Utah. No school shootings. Could it be because most citizens are church goers? Could it because the fathers are at home around the dinner table each night? Could it be because the schools are not so called ‘gun free zones’ because any adult with a permit can carry his/her concealed firearm on the premises? Bad guys don’t go where it is known good guys are armed —- examine the text messages from the Pulse Nightclub crime. He passed up his first target because an armed guard was outside. He passed up his second target because there was a metal detector outside the entrance. The Pulse had neither.

    Signs of this shooting were not ‘missed’. The many that existed were ignored. Read Charles Krauthammer’s December 2012 article. It’s on the spot, as most of his observations were.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      comparing 3rd world anarchy with developed countries mass killings much?

      One on one crime versus lone wolfs slaughtering dozens of individuals they don’t even know?

      get confused much? crime is crime right?

      1. kls Avatar
        kls

        Ahhhhh… so you are saying some cultures and nations are better than others… interesting..

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          on different things, yes if using objective measures not subjective perceptions based on ignorance and bias.

  10. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Look! Look! Oooooh, bright and shiny!

    Couldn’t find a defenestration example?

  11. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Time for the well regulated part of that well regulated militia.

  12. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    I grew up attending one high school south of Alexandria along Rt 1. This is nothing unusual.

    Many years ago, when I attended high school (at Groveton), two kids from an adjoining high school (Ft Hunt) tried to erase the records of their academic failure by setting fire to the office where the records were kept. The fire spread and much of Ft Hunt burned.

    Just after I graduated, one of my friends tried to stop a fight and was stabbed to death.

    Some years ago a person from Mt Vernon High School pulled into the West Potomac High School parking lot and took a shot at some students. Fortunately, he missed.

    More recently, an 18 year old was arrested for killing another recent graduate of Mt Vernon over a dispute about shoes. The killer had been arrested previously for bringing a gun with the serial number scratched off to a high school basketball game at my old high school. The killer traded information about a homicide for a lenient plea deal.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Yep. Not a new thing.

    2. Eric the half a troll Avatar
      Eric the half a troll

      Riots (usually race-based) were a regular post-basketball game event in many high schools in the 70s.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        You shoulda gone to my HS football games in the late 60s. Alcohol played a big part!

        One kid in my school was beat senseless with a pipe… at 7:45 AM in the hallway leading from the buses. By senseless, I mean comatose with a huge permanent reduction in IQ and motor skills.

  13. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Every year, 68, 69, and 70, we had a memorial for classmates killed in automobile accident. Cars aren’t #1 anymore. Cars got safer. Guns more plentiful.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      indeed
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/efccb73457ea540a74c41dddeacbaff09bf126ef3b24d1a7683146a809a3b713.jpg

  14. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    The Executive Principal at Alexandria High needs to rethink the way the school is run. It actually has 2 campuses. With the Bradlee Shopping Center between the two. It appears that students on the day of the stabbing were not in a full day session of classes due to SOL testing. So you had a large number of students from both campuses at the Mickey Dees at Bradlee. The police say it’s not their fault even though they were on the scene prior to the stabbing. The fight was so large back up was needed.
    “Fights happen all the time in here,” a McDonald’s staffer said. “It’s bad.”
    Indeed, in the past year fights and a shooting. Alex High also has a 74 minute lunch and learn block. Students can go to lunch, go outside, seek extra help. 74 minutes of low supervision time. I can only imagine how many duck out and stroll to Mac Donalds. Not sure if students walk between campuses. Sounds like they do though.
    https://www.alxnow.com/2022/05/26/police-say-theyre-not-at-fault-in-response-to-fatal-stabbing-at-bradlee-shopping-center/
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06d50faea630f53500db07567934ab9c20d7fe08e95b5fef914d503e9c860133.jpg

  15. Stephen Haner Avatar
    Stephen Haner

    Gee, just like the Covid discussions. Politics takes over and evidence is ignored….As to this incident, gee, anybody ever see West Side Story or Blackboard Jungle? Gangs of New York? That was a gang rumble. And if you don’t think they happen in London and Paris, well, they do. The cops in Paris are usually packing fully automatic long rifles at all times. Calming effect….

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      yep. But are we comparing gangs and criminals shooting each other over drugs and such with lone wolf individuals killing dozens of innocents they don’t even know?

      The “evidence” is there, yes, but treating it as all the same ?

      Even criminals and gangs don’t usually go and kill kids in schools (or workplaces or other) en masse…. right?

      1. Stephen Haner Avatar
        Stephen Haner

        Plenty of collateral damage including children, other bystanders. Often here in Richmond. The common thread is a total disregard for the value of human life.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          Don’t disagree but still think there is a difference between two guys have a dispute and shooting each other and hitting a kid – and a guy who purposely is out to kill people he’s never even met much less has a dispute with to included kids.

          They are different problems that require different solutions.

    2. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
      James Wyatt Whitehead

      The Alexandria incident looked like a high school fight club to me.
      http://mathandreadinghelp.org/articles/High_School_Fight_Clubs_May_Be_Common.html

  16. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    I thought when they changed the name from segregationist T.C. Williams to Alexandria City High all of these problems would go away. What happened to that theory?

  17. James Kiser Avatar
    James Kiser

    More people die from blows from hands and feet ( see trial of VA tech football thug) than from all long guns combined. As firefighter with 31 years on line I saw more people killed by cars,knives and beatings than by firearms. No one wants to discuss the mass hate that has gripped the country mostly fomented by the democrat party

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f0480a554adbe62a6e5d63d78b5e9635590803e8ea47c815221387e52ae9c77.jpg

  18. Fred Costello Avatar
    Fred Costello

    Our society is reverting to ancient tribal warfare. We are turning the clock back more than 2000 years — before the time of Christ.

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