This is a long rant, but read the first half dozen paragraphs for sure. It really concerns all of us and I believe that it addresses the REAL problem in this country.
I was up in the air about where to put this. It's not about carry or defense and it's not about legislation, so I thought I'd put it here to kick around.
Most of us believe that laws and restrictions are not an answer to violence. Why has violence gotten so out of control in this country? It's the culture of violence that immerses people so deep that they believe that the only choice they have and the answer to all their problems is violence. A man killed something like 8 people in the late 1940s. Then in the 60s the Texas bell tower sniper went on a modern day shooting rampage with no automatic weapons and I don't believe he had any detachable magazines on rifles. It was shown that a brain tumor was shown by the medical community to have very likely caused his behavior, he was a model student/citizen before the rampage and begged people for help to get whatever was causing those thoughts out of his head. Very sad story.
Fast forward to 1984. Post office worker kills 21 people.
1986, another postal worker
1991 Shoot in cafeteria kills 23 people in OK.
1999 Columbine
I think our memories can take over from there. Since then the number of mass shootings has increased exponentially. There were six mass shooting in 2015.
Weapons are only a symptom of the real disease. People need to be taught that there are levels of response before you jump straight to violence and killing. People need to be taught coping skills because life IS very frustrating. We can't ask movie/TV.video game people to stop producing violent shows and products. But we can educate people not to lose themselves in this to the point of thinking that violence is normal. Children early on should be warned and prepared that their peers are going to pressure them into more of this behavior, especially if they are exposed to 'street' culture. (I can speak first handed there.) and we KNOW that they WILL be influenced that way. Let's have mental health at school and home as well as learning to wash our hands and brush our teeth.
We played army and cops and robbers and cowboys and indians but we kniew it wasn't real and when we stopped playing, we stopped pretending. People today don't seem to understand that as they are programmed to live in a virtual or media driven world. We were able to put it aside. If we played ultra realistic violent games or watched violent TV and movies and listened to violence ridden music and never listened to our teachers, parents or other adults, we may have turned out the same way. Nowadays its cooked into people's brains.
We've already heard how this continued exposure desensitizes people to the point that they think that violence and killing is no big deal. With all that I"ve mentioned, I'd be more surprised if we DIDN'T have a deep streak of violence now.
It's going to do a lot more good if we can get people away from influences. They aren't going to go easy for sure. I suggest that one way is to involve people in healthier pursuits, like sports that DON'T call for violence. Or if they do, make sure that it is a healthy outlet for aggression. Team sports are very good for several reasons, but they take set times and resources. I'd like to see individual sports brought back
Fencing, billiards, ping pong, fishing hunting, shooting, hiking, tennis, slot car racing. handball archery, RC modeling, swimming kayaking, canoeing, trail bikes. boxing/martial arts, Chess, magic tricks, handball, music, model rockets reading reloading, model trains carpentry mechanics, I could fill up this page with activities that are fun and interesting. Get away from the TV and computer and DO something.
We usually had a 'main' hobby in the summer that all friends would participate in. One summer it was half-rubber, next it was slot cars. another was playing musc (garage band stuff)
You can't tell me that kids with all the durn money that they have today, can't get into some of these activities. They pay two hundred bucks for a pair of shoes.
Ok, I got really long winded and I wonder if I should press the save button, but this is something that's weighing on me in light of all the revived talk about 'gun violence'.
I was up in the air about where to put this. It's not about carry or defense and it's not about legislation, so I thought I'd put it here to kick around.
Most of us believe that laws and restrictions are not an answer to violence. Why has violence gotten so out of control in this country? It's the culture of violence that immerses people so deep that they believe that the only choice they have and the answer to all their problems is violence. A man killed something like 8 people in the late 1940s. Then in the 60s the Texas bell tower sniper went on a modern day shooting rampage with no automatic weapons and I don't believe he had any detachable magazines on rifles. It was shown that a brain tumor was shown by the medical community to have very likely caused his behavior, he was a model student/citizen before the rampage and begged people for help to get whatever was causing those thoughts out of his head. Very sad story.
Fast forward to 1984. Post office worker kills 21 people.
1986, another postal worker
1991 Shoot in cafeteria kills 23 people in OK.
1999 Columbine
I think our memories can take over from there. Since then the number of mass shootings has increased exponentially. There were six mass shooting in 2015.
Weapons are only a symptom of the real disease. People need to be taught that there are levels of response before you jump straight to violence and killing. People need to be taught coping skills because life IS very frustrating. We can't ask movie/TV.video game people to stop producing violent shows and products. But we can educate people not to lose themselves in this to the point of thinking that violence is normal. Children early on should be warned and prepared that their peers are going to pressure them into more of this behavior, especially if they are exposed to 'street' culture. (I can speak first handed there.) and we KNOW that they WILL be influenced that way. Let's have mental health at school and home as well as learning to wash our hands and brush our teeth.
We played army and cops and robbers and cowboys and indians but we kniew it wasn't real and when we stopped playing, we stopped pretending. People today don't seem to understand that as they are programmed to live in a virtual or media driven world. We were able to put it aside. If we played ultra realistic violent games or watched violent TV and movies and listened to violence ridden music and never listened to our teachers, parents or other adults, we may have turned out the same way. Nowadays its cooked into people's brains.
We've already heard how this continued exposure desensitizes people to the point that they think that violence and killing is no big deal. With all that I"ve mentioned, I'd be more surprised if we DIDN'T have a deep streak of violence now.
It's going to do a lot more good if we can get people away from influences. They aren't going to go easy for sure. I suggest that one way is to involve people in healthier pursuits, like sports that DON'T call for violence. Or if they do, make sure that it is a healthy outlet for aggression. Team sports are very good for several reasons, but they take set times and resources. I'd like to see individual sports brought back
Fencing, billiards, ping pong, fishing hunting, shooting, hiking, tennis, slot car racing. handball archery, RC modeling, swimming kayaking, canoeing, trail bikes. boxing/martial arts, Chess, magic tricks, handball, music, model rockets reading reloading, model trains carpentry mechanics, I could fill up this page with activities that are fun and interesting. Get away from the TV and computer and DO something.
We usually had a 'main' hobby in the summer that all friends would participate in. One summer it was half-rubber, next it was slot cars. another was playing musc (garage band stuff)
You can't tell me that kids with all the durn money that they have today, can't get into some of these activities. They pay two hundred bucks for a pair of shoes.
Ok, I got really long winded and I wonder if I should press the save button, but this is something that's weighing on me in light of all the revived talk about 'gun violence'.
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