I can totally relate to all of this. Three months ago yesterday a hostage situation occurred in my school district (Pine Plains middle/high school). My neighbors/best friends had both kids in school at the time. 12 and 16 years old. Talk about in your face. I've known those kids since the oldest was going to kindergarten.
Astaren stated: "Just my opinion. About thirty years or so ago, our culture ditched the wisdom of childrearing which many previous generations had used to instill values. Psycologists supplanted these age old ideas and inserted their ideas about "building self esteem" and "rewards based discipline". We now have a culture that is truly nacisistic and weak. People can't deal with the occasional rejection or criticism, and feel their bruised self esteem is worth the death penalty."
Well said sir!
Another great quote - "Spare the rod and spoil the child."
Granted, on both these occasions, adults were the culprits. But it's children doing it more often than not. Would ANY of us ever consider bringing a weapon of any kind to school with harmful intent when we were still of that age? Heck no, because we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that our dads would kick our butts big time!
For crying out loud, it's getting so if a kid just has a string of bad days, his parents are thinking about putting him in therapy. Elementary school kids are being expelled for bringing squirt 'guns' to school. And what's with having your fingernail clippers confiscated before getting on an airplane. You've got to be kidding me. If 'Candid Camera' had an skit about some idiot trying to commandeer an airliner with a nail clipper back in the early 70's, the entire crowd would be laughing their butts off. A repeat of that same episode today would show quite a few genuinely worried passengers, especially if the 'hijacker' were Middle Eastern.
Now I'm kind of hardcore when it comes to watching this great country of ours slowly going down the crapper. The erosion of America's foundation is an ongoing thing that began many years ago, on many fronts. A lot of it's due to politicians bending over backwards to please everyone BUT Americans. I'm not liking what I'm seeing. Between the government, the media, and security everywhere, the majority of Americans are little more than timid sheep, afraid of their own shadows. There are still plenty of us out there that won't go to slaughter timidly - witness Flight 93 on 9/11. God bless each and every one of them.
You want to know how to stop 95% of all school shootings?
You make it law that ANYONE who brings a gun to school and threatens someone with it WILL BE TERMINATED WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE as soon as is feasibly possible. Even if they surrender. No trial. No extenuating circumstances - not even age. You knew the penalty. You did it. You're history. Period.
Do that two or three times and IT WILL STOP.
This hits close to home. The needs of the many must supersede the needs of the few. If only our government would take that statement to heart. I'm not going to get into arguments here with those of you who may disagree with this. I don't want to hear that the shooter was only 13 years old and took a bullet between the running lights just before he was about to open up on a classroom of terrified defenseless children.
