Not good

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/24/us/washington-school-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

I lived near Newtown, when that happened as well... ugh.

Why is this the new normal?

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:

This is the new normal because it produces a media circus. Someone who can't get people to listen in life has found a way to make the world know they exist and directly punish those who hurt them.

And it's not normal or it wouldn't create the media circus. Remember, millions of kids went to school today in the US who did not get shot at.

Because we can't just fight after class and be done with it anymore and we have parents that do too much to protect the bullies. There's no repercussions anymore. When I was a teen, I was an outcast. Kid kept starting E36 M3. I laid him out. No one ever berkeleyed with me after that and the teacher let it ride. Nowadays I'd be in jail and hed be the victim, so this crap keeps getting bottled til these kids have no place left to go.

mndsm wrote: Because we can't just fight after class and be done with it anymore and we have parents that do too much to protect the bullies. There's no repercussions anymore. When I was a teen, I was an outcast. Kid kept starting E36 M3. I laid him out. No one ever berkeleyed with me after that and the teacher let it ride. Nowadays I'd be in jail and hed be the victim, so this crap keeps getting bottled til these kids have no place left to go.

I basically have to agree with this 100%. I was the lone wolf in school myself. I had easy access to guns. People gave me crap from time to time, I got in fights. I did not go on a shooting rampage because once the fight was over 99.9% of the time the issue was over. Parents as a whole were not as over protective trying to sanitize the world a kid grows up in. Everyone was NOT a winner. You did not get trophies for just showing up. There was no worry that if you got in a fight with someone lawyers or the cops would become involved. Things were far less touchy feely than they are today and honestly the kids were tougher back then. People are getting far to thin skinned and thinking that they should be the center of the universe because they are "special". I am sorry just being alive does not make you special. What makes you special is what you do with your life to become a useful and productive member of society. For the most part kids are no longer disciplined in any way shape or form. They are not taught to be responsible for their actions. Everyone is looking to have the spot light on them because they feel they deserve it just for getting up in the morning. When they find out that no one gives a flying berkeley about them they start doing crap like this because they media will make sure every damn person in the country knows who they are.

Sorry rant session going off.

It truly is a sad situation for the victims. My heart goes out to their families. May the shooter rot in hell.

What you say rings true, I went to a baseball game for my brothers son....everyone got to bat every inning, run around the bags and there were no outs. What are we afraid of? My dad was there and he said you have to learn how to lose, in real life not everyone wins.

We as a society are sanitizing life.

So wherever you go school shooting follows?

Exactly. Theres no losers. There's no reason to learn to fight for oneself both physical and life wise. Everyone does it for you. Suddenly Tue hand stops and they've got an ill iqupped kid that can't just go pound someone and take a suspension. Were dsmn close to Fahrenheit 451.

Two students are dead and four more are injured after a school shooting in Washington state.

The other dead student, a female, has not been identified.

Q: If your theory about not everyone being a winner is right... how do you spot the losers?

A: They are the suicide at the shooting.

How come all the other kids that got a trophy didn't kill anyone? Perhaps... perhaps he was just broken. Or, maybe he couldn't handle the power that comes with being Prom King. Not everyone is cut from Royal cloth.

Seems like some folks need to put away the jump to conclusions mat

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Q: If your theory about not everyone being a winner is right... how do you spot the losers? A: They are the suicide at the shooting. How come all the other kids that got a trophy didn't kill anyone? Perhaps... perhaps he was just broken. Or, maybe he couldn't handle the power that comes with being Prom King. Not everyone is cut from Royal cloth.

He had no idea how to cope with his chick locking braces with someone else, never lost before.

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:

It's the only exercise I get.

Unfortunately when things like this happen we may never know why since the shooter has either killed himself or been killed. Instead we all get to engage in America's new favorite past time, armchair psychologist. Was it because he was mollycoddled? Bullied? Is it because we haven't done enough to ban guns and gun shaped pastries? Maybe he was an ISIS sympathizer? Luckily I'm sure in the coming days wherever I take my meal break I will get to see Nancy Grace and co. get to the bottom of it.

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:

Probably because the media keeps screaming about how it's the new normal, even though violent crime of all forms has been dropping.

Wally wrote: Nancy Grace

Here's a story with details. He seems like a troubled guy who targeted people he knew or family. http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024866104_marysvillepilchuckxml.html

Such a tragedy all around.

That was terribly sad. It's difficult to sort it out right now since it's still being investigated, but I thought it was weird how he targeted his cousins, if reports are to be believed.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024866104_marysvillepilchuckxml.html

It looks like a combination of jilted lover and some sort of family dispute which came to a head at school. I'm guessing the kid wanted as big an audience as possible so he chose to do it at school.

I learned to shoot at 10 and grew up around guns that were never locked up. In school, I was picked on as much as anyone else, but shooting the people I didn't like never even occurred to me. I mean, it's not that I decided it would be immoral and wrong, or that I was afraid of getting caught. I mean I never even conceived that one could do such a thing.

I don't know. Maybe MNDSM is right, and that kids today are so sheltered that the first time something bad does happen to them, they have no idea how else to deal with it. I doubt that can be the only cause, but maybe it's part of it.

I was picked on a great deal in school. A lot. I used to fantasize about locking everyone of my tormentors in the auditorium and shooting them one by one.

Never did it.. but the thoughts did make me happy at the time.

I feel for these kids who act out in this manner. I do not condone their acts, but I understand.

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:

There is a giant leap off a cliff to from the one to the other though.

And Fwiw, these only seem the "norm" thanks to the ratings based news organizations.

I was in school back in the 1960's and 1970's. There was always friction and etc, that's a part of growing up. As noted earlier, typically these things were handled 'mano a mano', the teachers would intervene to stop things and at that point it was generally decided between the protagonists to handle it after school somewhere. I guess I was picked on, too; I'd say probably everyone was at some point.

The flip side: kids could and did bring guns to school. It was in no way unusual for someone to have a rifle in the trunk so they'd be ready to meet their friends or their dad for an afternoon's hunting after school. No one ever dug out a gun even to scare someone, that seems different now. The attitude has changed, now some kids find it acceptable to settle their scores this way. I don't know what to put that down to and have no idea how to fix it, or even have an idea that it's fixable.

I was in school during the 60's and 70's as well. I lived in north Phoenix. I drove an M37 weapons carrier to school. I usually had guns locked in it and went to the desert to go hunting after school almost every day. Most of my friends drove Jeeps and had guns as well. We never had an issue.

Now, we would be arrested. It's a different world.

A few years ago my youngest daughter went to HS on a Monday. We had been hiking on Sunday and she wore her hiking pants to school. When she went to her locker first thing in the morning she realized that she still had a small pocket knife in her pocket. She took it out and locked it in the locker. But, someone saw her do that and reported it to the authorities. She was removed from the classroom by police. She ended up suspended for a week.

No... it's not the militarization of the cops, at least outside of maybe some of the higher crime areas.

Back in the 1970's there were riots as bad if not worse than what's been seen recently. You want tension? That was right at the end of school segregation and also at the height of the Vietnam War demonstrations which involved cops in riot gear as well. The MP's even got involved.

There was just a different attitude among kids back then. Again I don't know what changed or how to fix it. I don't remember ever hearing of a kid using a gun to settle a score until probably the 1990's, although I am sure there were instances that may have flown under my radar.

Rap music: yeah there's a possibility. Glorifying the thug life to me can't have an upside.

I don't know that I want to blame it on music or games or whatever. Ive played guns since forever. I listened to straight out ta Compton on tape in grade school. I owned my own firearm by the age of 10. Never even considered shooting a kid. My father, even for being an addict, taught me some act right. I know how to take my lumps, I know when its good to hand em out. This coddling bs is what's causing these problems, not the content.

I don't know. Things that pop into my mind are the general escalation of violence.... Look back at Clockwork Orange and see youngish thugs who were portrayed as the very worst thing a society could imagine. Enough that it was considered shocking in it's day for "hyperviolence". And what were they using: chains and bats.

Today that would be considered cute.

Thirty years of increasingly violent video games perhaps. GTA teaches kids it's cool to shoot your way through any and all situations and I know everyone is stable and well adjusted to keep video games separated from real life so that couldn't possibly contribute.

I dunno, it makes me wonder for the future though.

KyAllroad wrote: I don't know. Things that pop into my mind are the general escalation of violence.... Look back at Clockwork Orange and see youngish thugs who were portrayed as the very worst thing a society could imagine. Enough that it was considered shocking in it's day for "hyperviolence". And what were they using: chains and bats.

Plus... dancing and singing "Puttin' on the Rape" (an Irving Berlin classic!)