And even with such regulation of cars, there are still 100 deaths every single day. Kind of suggest something else that we’re missing. Big time.
And I assume, based on your comments, that you have done nothing to curtail the traffic deaths? So would it be fair for me to make you a villain because an issue I care so deeply about is ignored by you?
Have all the gun control you want. I don’t own any guns, and I don’t see the point in having most of the guns out there.
I can’t reason with that kind of illogical thinking. I’ll just point you to post #35.
And that comment is exactly why this problem will not be solved.
“To put this in perspective, 100 people die on our roads every day. Yes, Colorado is very tragic, but is it worth reducing other people to villains for an event sensationalized by the media?”
That is one of the most nauseating reactions I have seen to a school shooting. I’m sincerely disgusted.
Colorado is a strange place.
@doschicos I feel for the kids. Many are genuinely scared of this happening to them in their lifetime - if not in a school, then somewhere. I share with them a lot of what I learned in the AF, telling them I never expected to have to teach schoolkids how to defend themselves, but such is the new normal in today’s day and age. In the AF we had people who generally responded to fright with fight. In school we get a lot who naturally respond with flight or freeze. We talk about how to handle it all in my classes. We go beyond the official “script,” because they might truly need it in their lifetime, and if so, having some trained neurons in their brain could save their lives or their friends’ lives. Even learning how to be quiet when terrified can be helpful. We discuss how different shooting situations are IRL than via Hollywood.
But hopefully, getting through to the small population who might consider shooting an “ok choice” also works if any are present. Those discussions are as important as the “how to barricade/fight/run” topics.
Then I hope they never have to fall back on those trained neurons because they never encounter a shooting situation.
@Creekland You seem like a truly wonderful teacher. Your students are lucky to have you
@Siena19 It’s mutual. I like them - they like me. When it comes to drills quite a few have told me they hope they’re in my classroom if something really did happen as “You know what you’re doing.” I know in the last two drills classes near us wouldn’t have all survived due to bad choices from the teachers (opting to run through the line of fire). I suspect the AF skills/training makes a big difference there. One thing I tell them is, “We’re either all going to survive or I’ll be the first one dying trying to save you,” knowing full well that some teachers/profs have had to do that. Virginia Tech is my Alma mater. I had classes in Norris Hall. H had one of the Profs killed as well as having had classes in Norris. We graduated years earlier than their horrid shooting, but I know full well that things could happen anywhere, anytime. Some folks have gaps in their basic education.
The gun culture of our country is sad if you ask me. But it’s there. Many are unwilling to change. We have to teach how to deal with it.
“Colorado is a strange place” In what way is Colorado stranger than Florida, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas (I could go on) ?
We had access to guns forever. My question is what is going on in our culture that makes 18 year old boys want to shoot and kill their classmates?
That’s the question we need to answer. I’m afraid we might not like what we hear.
Also the teen suicides and the 100,000 people a year overdosing. And so many are so young.
So much doesn’t even make it to news in our new normal.
This is horrific but let’s have a few more hearings on capital hill about who is running the show. Get to work and talk to mental health experts.
And let’s limit guns to hunting rifles and shotguns . I can fight a totalitarian government with my rifle and a few million of my friends.
No one outside of Leo’s need a handgun. You have one you’re a criminal. No one outside of the armed services and swat need assault rifles. You have one you’re a criminal. Smith and Wesson has to transition to making high end cutlery or something. This is all nuts.
@katliamom: Lack of diversity. Gun culture. Unexpectedly very redneck outside of the major cities. Scary rednecks, not just good ole country folks.
Publisher - you are so wrong and your comments about Colorado and the people who live there don’t add any value to a discussion on school shootings.
@evergreen5 Sorry to hear this is affecting your family and community directly. 
@Publisher If you travel more, you’ll likely find that Colorado isn’t all that different than many other places.
Having traveled quite a bit and getting to know plenty of people all over, one thing I tell my kids (school and home) is that they can find great folks and idiots in all areas, in all races, all cultures, all religions, all genders, and pretty much every other category they can think of.
When it comes to shootings, take a look at the gun violence page I linked. CO is really no different than other states. Cultures might vary some, but it doesn’t matter. Shootings are everywhere within the US.
I have traveled very extensively throughout the US. Spent a lot of time in Colorado. Colorado is about 83% white. I like diversity.
One of my best friends was a major party nominee for governor of Colorado. Family has worked as attorney in several Colorado counties.
The lack of diversity is disturbing, even though I am very comfortable in Maine & New Hampshire.
The gun culture is also a concern.
P.S. I enjoy Colorado Springs & Boulder.
@Creekland Me too. I’m a CE and Norris was my building. But, like you, I went through years before the shooting, though one of my profs was killed. We had an intensive intruder training workshop at my workplace two years ago, complete with several mock drills with the instructors chasing people with real sounding/looking guns. It was unnerving for someone like me, even though I knew it wasn’t real. I did have one minor complaint. Before the drills, we watched several videos of prior events, one of which was VA Tech. We had to watch live footage and try to count gunshots to see how reliable we would have been as witnesses. That was just too close to home for us. One of my co-workers was there.
My heart goes out to those students and I wish I knew the answer. Security has improved. Before Sandy Hook, for 20+ years, my spouse was responsible for ALL non-breakfast eating kids before school. He literally had a couple of hundred kids in his gym all lined up with 1 teacher in charge - and 1 door in from the outside and 1 door into the the rest of the school. They would have been sitting ducks. That routine has now changed, and people are more aware. Some plots have been stopped. But obviously it is not enough.
“there’s absolutely no way to prevent this,” says the only country in which this happens regularly.
Sandy Hook school had been locked and “secured”. The killer just blasted his way through. The door locks aren’t the real problem here.
Being a lifelong redneck, albeit a traveled one, I’d like to clear up a couple of points.
Rednecks shoot: wives, husbands, step-fathers, ex-wives, best friends who’ve become intimate with a couple of the previous, etc. What they tend not to do is: shoot up schools, theaters, venues of most any sort unless it’s one where people are between them and: a wife, husband, step-father, ex wife, etc.
The desire to kill random people unknown to the shooter seems to center in nihilist suburban kids and the mentally insane. Some people might group the two, but…
The media attention, social and corporate, will keep chumming these people up, like sharks.
This is a charter school, so the security decisions are made by those who run the school (probably a parent board with some staff and faculty). There was not a safety officer on site but there is a police station just a few blocks away. It is a fairly new school as they’ve been adding grades since 2011, and is a complex of remodeled office buildings, so I’m sure all the security measures are the most modern
The two shooters were students at the school. They had all the IDs they need to just walk through the doors and go to class.