<p>Looks like kid did national extemp. (That’s a form of speech, not really debate.) He was good at it and was an officer of the high school team. He came in 3rd in the Colorado state tournament last spring and was an alternate for NFL Nats. </p>
<p>Kid was argumentative and had run ins with coach. Coach kicks him off team. Kid’s upset and says something like “I’ll kill you for this.” Words were just said in anger…</p>
<p>Coach insists kid be suspended from school. Kid was suspended.</p>
<p>Kid was trying for Air Force Academy and felt the suspension ended his chances of getting in. </p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I am not sure what your definition of “bubba” is (I can guess) but as in most cases, this school shooting seems to be the work of yet another disaffected suburban kid who didn’t get what he wanted and whose parents didn’t seem to be engaged enough to know what was going on in their kid’s head (or at the very least to make sure he didn’t have access to guns). It’s not the stereotypical “gun-totin’ rednecks” who are shooting up their classmates. It’s the (often) spoiled middle- or upper-middle-class kids with inadequately treated mental-health issues who live among many of us here on this site.</p>
<p>“It’s the (often) spoiled middle- or upper-middle-class kids with inadequately treated mental-health issues who live among many of us here on this site.”</p>
<p>Those are pretty harsh words to describe some of the posters on this site.</p>
<p>She’s not describing those on this site. Sally said the KIDS are middle/upper class, spoiled, with inadequately treated mental health issues and LIVE AMONG the (middle/upper class) posters here. You’re making something out of nothing.</p>
Sounds like you think the suspension was an over reaction. Seems to me that the coach was justified. Had the student not been suspended this time, he would eventually have gotten mad enough to shoot at somebody else. I don’t believe he turned violent because of the suspension. I believe it was in him all along. His access to guns is what made this tragic. </p>
<p>I guess I’m glad he never made it to the Air Force Academy</p>
<p>Even if he was suspended, I wasn’t drawing any conclusion as to whether the suspension was warranted. I don’t have enough information to know one way or the other.</p>
<p>“But it’s the pandering to them and their you’ll-pry-my-guns-out-of-my-cold-dead-hands mentality that enables guns to be out there.”</p>
<p>I want to begin by saying that I am not a gun guy. But the mainstream gun control lobby is equally guilty of pandering and inflaming the situation. On the one hand they demonize gun owners (while adding lame caveats which suggest that they aren’t). On the other, they propose mickey mouse regulations that research has clearly demonstrated has no effect on the incidence of mass shootings or gun violence generally. By doing so, they pander to their anti-gun base and inflame the passions of gun owners, and thereby help to contribute to the spate of pro-gun legislation of the sort that we have seen in the past year.</p>
<p>I am not a gun guy either having never owned or even shot any firearm. These attacks are not going to be stopped by any of the gun control legislation that is being talked about or voted upon.</p>
<p>EMM1, the problem is the mentality that the way to solve problems is to shoot someone. “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” But everyone thinks that they’re the “good guy.”</p>
<p>I’m not “the mainstream gun control lobby” (whatever that’s supposed to be) but I won’t mince words: I don’t respect people who own guns without a rational basis for doing so. I think those people who do so - and implicitly and explicitly encourage others to follow suit - are the problem. You may think you’re mentally stable - and you may or may not be right. But 99.999% of the gun owners think that about themselves, and many are wrong. An immature and erroneous belief in personal competence and invulnerability to error is the hallmark of most “security” gun owners. </p>
<p>People who own guns “for safety” are making the country less safe for themselves and for everyone else, because they perpetuate the myth that having a gun and shooting “bad guys” is the way to make everything right. What will lessen the frequency of these events is confronting that myth and exposing its falsehood. And Tom - they did it in Australia and it worked. Look it up.</p>
<p>kluge- I will. Like I said I never owned/fired a gun and could care if all handguns were banned. I just do not think short of banning most if not all guns we can stop this.</p>
<p>I am not a gun fan myself but I live in a state where hunting is huge. I don’t think people in urban areas always understand the very different mindset of those who have grown up with hunting as a family activity. The deer hunters in my state play an important role in keeping overpopulation down and culling the herd of animals with chronic wasting disease, and many who don’t consume their own meat donate it to food pantries where it gets a lot of people through the long, cold winters. I just object to the stereotype that it is these people who are the cause of mass shootings in this country, when in fact it is almost always disaffected middle-class young men from the suburbs. These people are not getting the idea to shoot up their schools from a bunch of burly guys dressed in blaze orange and camped out in tree stands in 15-degree weather the week of Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>I do feel strongly that we need FAR harsher punishments for those who enable weapons to be procured by those who shouldn’t have them–the mentally unstable, children, and criminals (of course).</p>
<p>Sally, I get it. I lived in an area for a while where schools know that the first day of hunting season is an unofficial holiday. The majority of your students aren’t going to show up. I get it. </p>
<p>MOST hunters I know support gun control legislation. The majority of hunters I know will not keep guns in their house while they have young children. They keep them elsewhere and get them when they’re going hunting. The ones who keep them in their house are the people that PG describes- and honestly, they’re people that should NOT have guns. </p>
<p>I don’t think the majority people think responsible hunters are the reason for gun culture. I certainly do not- but then again, I grew up in a hunting area. It’s the people that cling to their guns for “safety” that cause our gun culture. I think most people understand that.</p>
<p>Completely agree. And there are plenty of “bubba” types like that. But there are also the Nancy Lanzas who live at the end of the cul-de-sac in leafy suburban neighborhoods. There are many faces of the paranoia that leads people to put themselves and their loved ones in greater danger via a mistaken belief that a gun in the bedside table makes them safer than they would be without one.</p>