Major law enforcement response after reports of shooting at a school in Texas

[Thor]

I am shocked (truly) that not one family has sued over having their minor child oh TV after such an event.

This I would do.

 

[ghuns]

It’s more than just being fed up with life. People whonare just fed up with life just take themselves out. You have also to be fed up with people. Or at least certain people.

We all get rejected by the opposite sex. We all don’t kill people to get even. Most of us don’t even see it as a thing to get even for. Yer up to bat. You strike out. You move on. But rare individuals make it into a much more existential personal and problem than it is.

Try reading the Columbine shooters’ writings. Yeah. They wanted out. And they blamed humanity for all their problems real and perceived. Kliebold wrote something to the effect that humans deserve to die. That the world would be better off without us, just give it back to the animals. You don’t get to that place without 1) blaming everyone else; 2) having utter contempt for those you blame, bad enough that you want them dead, and you’re willing to make that happen.

IMHO, many young men get to that place today for reasons nobody wants to talk about. They are indoctrinated at a young age that everyone gets a trophy, everyone is a winner, you are super-duper special, you must NOT display aggression EVER, etc, etc. They aren't allowed to experience all the little failures that teach them how to deal with life. They were raised in a reality TV world where being famous, or at least infamous is the end all, be all. Then they hit high school with a sense of entitlement and inflated self esteem that's based on nothing. They realize that they've been lied to their whole life. There's nothing special about them. They are are losers who've accomplished nothing. The real world is a couple years away and they know they are unprepared to handle it. Most retreat to mom's basement and stay there. But a few lose it completely. All the aggression that they've been forced to suppress come out in a single event that will make them the most talked about person in the whole country for a time. People will suddenly care what they were saying and beg to know what they were thinking.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

It’s more than just being fed up with life. People whonare just fed up with life just take themselves out. You have also to be fed up with people. Or at least certain people.

We all get rejected by the opposite sex.

Reminds me of the joke floating around...

Ladies... that kid being bullied in your class? Give up some c**ter, prevent a school shooter.

 

[thunderchicken]

Two books I would recommend that help explain the type of mind-set it takes to get to the point of committing mass murder like this:

"The Gift of Fear" - Gavin Debecker
"12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos" - Jordan Peterson

Both delve into the topic fairly extensively from a psychological perspective. And no, it's not as simple as just "mental illness."

I haven't read either of these books. But, IMHO all it really takes is enough hatred or anger to plant the seed of thought and planning. And then to either become obsessed with the notion that its a good idea or to be motivated to see how far they can go without being caught. At some point I'd speculate they feel they have reached the proverbial point of no return. Once a person has reached that point, I would speculate all it takes is a willingness to trade your life for theirs.

That is all purely my speculation as I am not a psychologist and have never studied such issues.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Would You Ever Agree to Be a Teenager Again?

When the tales of school shooters are told, the portraits of their life reveal mundane problems — loneliness, bullying, social isolation and alienation; an attraction to a girl that isn’t reciprocated. These aren’t wildly deprived, abused lives. Raise your hand if you were never bullied. Raise your hand if you never felt like an outsider or a loser. Raise your hand if you’ve never been rejected or turned down by someone you liked. Yeah, I didn’t think so.

What changed, and defines the post-Columbine world, is that a mass shooting is now the quickest way to get not merely your high school, but your town & perhaps the country wondering about what was going through the mind of an otherwise anonymous teenager.

We don’t have the option of not covering these events — imagine that there was a school shooting in the next town over, and your local media chose to simply not cover it, lest they inadvertently glamorize it or inspire copycats.

It may be that we’ve created the expectation among certain teenage boys that when they feel sufficiently alienated and isolated and rejected and angry about the world, this is what an angry teenage boy is supposed to do.

Maybe we do need to spotlight — again and again — that a lot of these commonplace teenage feelings of loneliness and disappointment are commonplace. There’s nothing wrong with you if you’re having these feelings.

Probably the vast majority of the people who you envy, who seem to have it all figured out, are dealing with their own doubts, their own fears, their own feelings of inadequacy. Better days are ahead, even if you can’t see them.

 

[ghuns]

Would You Ever Agree to Be a Teenager Again?

What changed, and defines the post-Columbine world, is that a mass shooting is now the quickest way to get not merely your high school, but your town & perhaps the country wondering about what was going through the mind of an otherwise anonymous teenager...

We don’t have the option of not covering these events...

But the media has the option of HOW to cover them. The name and images of the perpetrator need never be seen by the general public. What was going through the mind of that anonymous teenager is irrelevant. Applying rational thought to irrational acts is an exercise in futility.

 

[jamil]

I haven't read either of these books. But, IMHO all it really takes is enough hatred or anger to plant the seed of thought and planning. And then to either become obsessed with the notion that its a good idea or to be motivated to see how far they can go without being caught. At some point I'd speculate they feel they have reached the proverbial point of no return. Once a person has reached that point, I would speculate all it takes is a willingness to trade your life for theirs.

That is all purely my speculation as I am not a psychologist and have never studied such issues.

It seems to me that some seeds of thought lead to hatred or anger, which dwelt on enough, causes thoughts to turn dark. Humans figured this out a long time ago. But because they're just considered old ways and traditions, "social constructs", we throw out truths humans learned long ago.

For example, that's what Peterson was getting at when he made the "forced monogamy" comment. He's not saying "should", he's saying "is". It's why the most successful cultures have monogamy as a social norm. In terms of human nature, it gave those cultures advantages over other cultures. Today, people think monogamy is outdated. But it gave a societal structure which advantaged those societies to thrive. But now the ISJ's would say that monogamy is a social construct designed by the patriarchy to oppress women.

 

[jamil]

Would You Ever Agree to Be a Teenager Again?

Well. Kids are safer now than they were in the 70s when I was in high school. Because it's all that's talked about for weeks after a school shooting, it gives people the impression that it's a problem that's grown worse. And to the extent that the blip has appeared to change the downward trend, it is at least some of the media's fault.

 

[Dead Duck]

They should have protected themselves.
Didn't the school give them miniature bats or at least a bucket of river rocks?



(I forget what else some schools are actually arming the classrooms with..... other than a gun, of course)

 

[ArcadiaGP]

But the media has the option of HOW to cover them. The name and images of the perpetrator need never be seen by the general public. What was going through the mind of that anonymous teenager is irrelevant. Applying rational thought to irrational acts is an exercise in futility.

Just not possible. Someone involved, someone that goes to the school, will say who did it. And in the information age, it's just a matter of time before all the details are posted somewhere.

 

[jamil]

They should have protected themselves.
Didn't the school give them miniature bats or at least a bucket of river rocks?



(I forget what else some schools are actually arming the classrooms with..... other than a gun, of course)

Nah. I think you're thinking of Florida. This was Texas where each child should have at least a cricket slung over their shoulders.

 

[jamil]

Just not possible. Someone involved, someone that goes to the school, will say who did it. And in the information age, it's just a matter of time before all the details are posted somewhere.

Well, yeah. It's going to get out on social media. That's a bit different kind of notoriety than what they get from 3 solid weeks of panel discussions about the shooting on CNN. The fact that people are talking about it for weeks, even if the subject pushed is about guns and not specifically them, it's still infamously about them. They caused that national conversation. And they know it. Every shooter who does this knows that it'll be talked about on the news for weeks.

The only way it won't be talked about for weeks, is when the shooting doens't serve the media's purpose. Citizen stops the shooter with a firearm? Full stop. That's what needs to happen. Full stop.

 

[Libertarian01]

Professor James Fox talks about the media coverage and does CNN reporter get massively defensive when he suggests their coverage is inappropriate!

<span style="font-family:arial;"><font size="3"><span style="color:#000000;">[video=youtube_share;aQB7ji1wc1I]https://youtu.be/aQB7ji1wc1I[/video]

 

[jamil]

Professor James Fox talks about the media coverage and does CNN reporter get massively defensive when he suggests their coverage is inappropriate!

They have to get massively defensive. They want to get the views, because that’s what pays the bills, but they don’t want to admit any kind of responsibility. She probably had producers screaming in her ear to shut that guy down.

 

[Expat]

You could also see that look where she was demanding that the other expert defend her...

 

[LockStocksAndBarrel]

Has there been any reports of the prescription drugs, behavior altering pills he has been/was on or stopped taking? It seems to me this is a common thread in these shootings. No mention of anything on the Florida shooter, either. Keeping it under wraps, perhaps?

 

[Cygnus]

Professor James Fox talks about the media coverage and does CNN reporter get massively defensive when he suggests their coverage is inappropriate!

<span style="font-family:arial;"><font size="3"><span style="color:#000000;">[video=youtube_share;aQB7ji1wc1I]https://youtu.be/aQB7ji1wc1I[/video]

Ha! That empty airhead. It's funny to see her expression change when challenged.(seen it other times too)
What we should do instead of tell this dirtball's story is continue to make fun of him being a loser. Ya know, turn the fame thing around. Ridicule the (and prosecute) his family's choice of gun storage, ability to raise him, him dance group, etc. Continue to diminish him instead of sympathy. I normally have sympathy for those bullied, picked on , etc. However you lose all that when you become worse than your tormentors.
It is totally correct that the media coverage helps fuel this.
It is modeling of reinforcement for being a school shooter and they should effing stop it! I'm just calling for some common sense media reform.....

 

[actaeon277]

Professor James Fox talks about the media coverage and does CNN reporter get massively defensive when he suggests their coverage is inappropriate!

<span style="font-family:arial;"><font size="3"><span style="color:#000000;">[video=youtube_share;aQB7ji1wc1I]https://youtu.be/aQB7ji1wc1I[/video]

She says, we're not trying to make celebrities, we're just trying to report the news.

Over and Over.
Day after Day.
Hour upon Hour.

 

[actaeon277]

Oh, and reporters want to be the ones pointing the fingers. Not the ones having the fingers pointed at them.

The guy wasn't telling them to stop reporting.
He was telling them to report it and be done.

 

[KG1]

They should have protected themselves.
Didn't the school give them miniature bats or at least a bucket of river rocks?



(I forget what else some schools are actually arming the classrooms with..... other than a gun, of course)

Canned vegetebles.