<p>Two kids dead.
<a href=“Oregon high school shooting: Police say shooter and student victim at Reynolds have both died (live updates) - oregonlive.com”>Oregon high school shooting: Police say shooter and student victim at Reynolds have both died (live updates) - oregonlive.com;
<p>So sorry EK, I know this is in your “area”. </p>
<p>There are days that I can look beyond this stuff. But some days - like today - it’s hard to handle. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, yes. I received an alert on my phone, and just ignored it. It’s so incredibly sad it has gotten to this point.</p>
<p>I know what you mean. I used to be an outspoken critic of 'Merica’s gun rights/gun violence advocates. Used to give quite a bit of our money, convinced my parents to ditch the NRA …no more. Clearly, a large monied portion of American citizens are convinced that a few children/youth every week is not a big price to pay in order to have a handy firearm. It is completely hopeless to think it is going to change (I mean that seriously, not sarcastically) </p>
<p>Guy who was shot in Vegas was the “good guy with a guy” who never fired a shot. Students who took out the campus shooter (see? I can’t even remember the names anymore!) didn’t have a gun, but peppersprayed and tackled him without a weapon. But none of that matters. We’re gonna shoot children, law enforcement, who ever we want, whenever we want, how often we want – and the NRA people will keep saying it’s their constitutional right. </p>
<p>More women were murdered with a gun by someone they considered a domestic partner in the past ten years than in the gulf wars , afghanistan, and iraq wars have taken soldiers. But that’s fine with gun owners, who inhabit some fantasyland where we arm teachers and every citizen, and it turns out okay. Because, you know. years of law enforcement training is unnecessary. If a guy pulls out a gun, we’ll just all pull out ours. And wonder who the bad guy is – but just shoot! And when the police arrive, they can shoot, too! (This happened in NYC at the Empire State Building – bad guy was wounded, several bystanders seriously wounded, one killed). </p>
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<p>I naively thought that something might change when Newtown happened, but no. If slaughtering two dozen six year olds doesn’t bring about a change, nothing will. Ever.</p>
<p>^ Yes. This.</p>
<p>I am particularly demoralized by the position of many: “nothing could stop it, so there’s no point trying”. </p>
<p>Yes, alwaysamom. I too had my hopes up thinking that maybe there would be something coming out of that tragedy. Nope.
CNN got rid of Pierce Morgan for being to vical about his anti-gun views. Sad. </p>
<p>I am not numb yet. I am increasingly disgusted. At least there is a growing acknowledgment that in some cases, like the Vegas shooting the other day, the perpetrators are home-grown terrorists motivated by extreme right-wing rhetoric.</p>
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<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/06/09/how-much-does-right-wing-rhetoric-contribute-to-right-wing-terrorism/”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/06/09/how-much-does-right-wing-rhetoric-contribute-to-right-wing-terrorism/</a></p>
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<p><a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/10/opinion/bergen-las-vegas-shooting-right-wing-extremists/”>Opinion: Right-wing extremists strike again - CNN;
<p>I agree. I remember thinking “if laws/people don’t change after the slaughter of children, then there’s no hope.”</p>
<p>Guess what? There’s no hope…at least that’s how I feel, and I’m not normally so hopeless.</p>
<p>Here’s another thing that makes me crazy - I just heard the CNN reporter say, “the shooter [in Oregon] had a semi-automatic weapon, so it could have been much worse.” Well, that’s a relief, because we know that two dead kids (instead of ten) is no big news. Nothing to see here, people, let’s keep moving…and if you were expecting more carnage, well it’s only Tuesday. </p>
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<p>What I find more demoralizing is that there are people who are decide to try to kill other people and then decide to take their own life.
There is magical thinking out there that implies “well, if they didn’t have a gun this wouldn’t have happened” as if that would solve the underlying issue.</p>
<p>Half of the SB deaths were from a hammer/machete, the LV deaths were from the policeman’s own gun. </p>
<p>No, not numb. Sick, sick, sick of gun toting, angry, suicidal psychos determined to take a few with them when they go. </p>
<p>I don’t recognize this country anymore. Not that there wasn’t senseless violence back in the day, but I can’t help but think there would have been some national consensus and some action by public leaders in times past after so many similar tragedies. Seriously, where’s Governor Al Smith? Where’s Senator Estes Kefauver? Where’s Senate investigator Bobby Kennedy? Where are the people who will reveal this sad situation for what it is, and do the hard work to end this nonsense? Where are today’s Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Martin Luther King Jr. and Fannie Lou Hamer with “a call to resist the illegitimate authority” of people who insist on an unfettered right to own a gun?</p>
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<p>And one of the deaths was of a “good guy with a gun” who was trying to help.</p>
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Exactly how I feel. Nothing will change. </p>
<p>Every time something like this happens, there’s another handwringing thread with posters thinking that there is something they can do, something that will change. But, no. </p>
<p>They thought there were three shooters because when they patted down the students they found TWO MORE kids carrying guns???</p>
<p>^^^^^WOW.</p>
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<p>That is a really good question.
This is far beyond a gun issue or even a violence issue. It is this incredible indifference about the lives of others.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine what MLK Jr. of FLH would think about the following:</p>
<p><a href=“http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-04-10/trayvon-martin-black-murder-victims/54135730/1”>http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-04-10/trayvon-martin-black-murder-victims/54135730/1</a></p>
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<p>The black community is broken and will continue to be broken if the mindset does not change. </p>
<p>These events make me terrified to work on a college campus. It’s no longer a question of whether it will happen to our campus, but when. </p>
<p>I had not heard that this was an African American school.
I had to look up Troutdale. It is a small town, with above avg income for Oregon.
78% are white, 3.5% are black, so Im probably safe to say the high school does not have a high population of blacks.</p>
<p>Not much information has been released, although students have said they recognized the shooter as a student.</p>
<p>We will ban books " to protect the children", but what are we doing to make it more difficult for our kids to get firearms?</p>