Scarform’s Blog

School Shootings and Gun Violence in General

Until we live in a Utopian society, school shootings are something we are going to have to deal with. But why are they so horrible compared to the rest of the types of shootings that take place? Although it would seem that more youths die by gunfire(link), whether self inflicted or not, school shootings hardly make up the bulk of this.

“School shootings and white denial” (link) would be a good post to read.

Also, if music is to blame, then what part are we to blame? The fact that the parents are letting their children listen to what the media deems influential music, or the fact that the music is influential? The same goes for movies. And literature.

Is youth violence discriminatory? It seems to me that two black kids could get shot while walking to the store and nobody would say a thing. The media might look into possible gang affiliations, or the fact that they just lived in a bad neighborhood. Replace those two black kids with two white kids. How might the media portray that then?

A long time ago, in a high school far away, there was a kid that belittled and spit on a much taller kid who was not of the same group as him. The much taller kid, obviously not liking being spat on, punched the kid in the face, breaking his jaw. Things like this happen all the time. It doesn’t just come from school violence - it’s reaping what you sow. Getting what you give. If you push a person so far, there’s only so much further that person can go before they fall over whatever edge of sanity there is. The teenage years are hard and tumultous times. We grow and we are shaped into the people we become. When the people around us retard this process, then how do you think the brain and emotions of that youth will react in regards to what they would have otherwise seen as right or wrong?

There is no clear defined reasoning behind why school shootings happen. And yet, there is. However, blaming the media is not the correct path. Blame your community. Blame your children. Blame your parenting. Blame your school system. Blame everything that you never thought to blame before. Because only when you stop pointing fingers at people who had nothing to do with it and pointing them at the people who had EVERYTHING to do with it will you finally make progress towards understanding and possibly preventing more unnecessary death.

These kids aren’t bad to begin with - they are made this way through our own actions and the tools available to them to cope with their life.

I’m sorry, but to the people and the parents of the lost, I have to say this: You are to blame. If you had payed more attention to your children and less attention to trying to keep them sheltered from the supposed bad influences, you would have seen that something was wrong. If you had taken the time to talk to your children, and get to know them, and have a household that promoted instead of hindered discussion and open door policies and pure love, then you would have known. You should have done something and you didn’t. Now you’re blaming everybody else for your own mistakes.

Just because we’re human doesn’t excuse us for the fact that we make mistakes. It is because we are human that we have the ability to progress instead of regress. Learn from the mistake and move on, hopefully better in some way.

To the victims, I’m sorry. But the fact that you didn’t deserve it doesn’t overshadow the fact that you had a hand in it, too. Just because you were shot and killed doesn’t mean that the 3+ years of bullying, punishing, torturing, and outright cruelty for the sake of being cruel never happened.

And I’m not advocating school violence or gun violence in any way. Guns are not the answer. But I am advocating knowledge. And being a nice person to your fellow man. (Yes, being an asshole can be funny. And it often is. But watch who you pitch your shit on.) It’s acceptable to do this within a group of friends. That’s just fucking around. No harm, no foul. But when you do that to somebody outside of your circle with malicous intent, that’s just plain sick.

I will never shed a tear for any school shooting. Because like every other story - there is another side to it. Put yourself in their position. What would you have done? What could you have done? (And don’t give me this I would have done something different bullshit, I mean really - what would you have really done?)

And to the rest of the world - if you don’t act now and stop blaming everything else but yourselves, then you will be blinded by the signs until it’s too late.

And if that happens, then maybe you deserve it. If you don’t hold life in the highest respect, then why go up in arms when it’s taken away?

A few videos from YouTube.com that are relevant to the subject.

The following videos are not recommended for those viewers who can not take the subject matter of school violence without turning it into a religious crusade.

This post contains an embedded video from Youtube. Click the title of the post, or the “read more” link to view.