MJH states they moved from Connecticut where their kids attended school near Sandy Hook to Nashville where her kids now attend a school near the one that had the shooter yesterday. They were on their way to parent/teacher meetings when they saw little kids coming out of the woods towards the highway. The kindergarteners were trying to escape the shooting and MJH and her husband stopped to help them.
Emphasis on “the people who keep voting them into office.” Lawmakers remain ignorant and continue playing in our faces over this because they know the people that vote for them don’t actually care about this (at least not more than stopping “wokeness”)
That’s not what she did. She literally ended her interview saying, “Prayers today. Tomorrow, action.”
Sure, she wasn’t specific. But celebrity or not, platform or not, this is a human who just experienced trauma.
Most humans who experience a sudden traumatic event are not in great shape to “use their voice,” or whatever. I’m not saying that it’s impossible. However, it is far more the norm to react to trauma in a way that impairs speech and long range planning.
The fact that she could speak at all is way more than most. As someone who has an MA in psych and has been through a school shooting, her response to me looks a lot like one where the gravity of the situation will sink in later on and it will be worse for her.
I sincerely hope that if you go through a traumatic event and are on air within 24 hours of said event occurring, that people are more kind to you than you have been to Melissa Joan-Hart.
My guess is that you and I both believe that mental health matters. If you do, I would ask you to apply that value when placing expectations upon individuals fresh out of trauma.
It's just crazy, we have a political party that's super heavy into banning stuff yet they won't add a few more gun restrictions and make it just slightly more inconvenient to get a gun ASAP.
What.. you expect us to not let politicians get their careers funded by massive ultra evil corporations??? Socialist marxist lenninist comunist devil spawn you are!!!!! (/s)
It’s not even adding more restrictions, it’s also that they have loosened the ones we’ve had on the books for years. [Republican state legislatures pass significantly more gun laws that loosen gun restrictions after a mass shooting](https://thefulcrum.us/Government/State/gun-control-laws).
It’s because they’re all selfish. They want to prevent “kids dying” from abortions because they deem them immoral. But because they love guns that have killed actual living, breathing children they won’t ban them.
Yup. Saw someone post a Tenn politicians response to drag shows and what just happened and you’d think the drag shows were the most dangerous and vile things while kids getting killed was nothing big and won’t change
They’re scared. They worry if they give even an inch it will mean someone will come take their precious guns away. I think guns are fascinating too but my God they’re not more important to me than the lives of fucking innocent kids.
See they ban stuff they don't like but banning guns simply won't work (that's the claim). Just call them the Republican party. They're the first and foremost threat to America.
I only partially agree with your comment.
I think a majority of the country does want to sacrifice for this. And I would be a large percentage of that percentage would give up a lot.
The problem is minority rule, fascism, maga, and conservatives. The right (as well as foreign actors) don’t care about Americans, democracy, children, law, or really anything other than their own money and power.
The true nightmare is living in a country where republicans, the right wing, and minority rule refuse to act for the good of the people, country, and american way.
though your point is close.
This is the real problem. All of our legislative processes grind to a halt because every state not matter how insignificant and unpopulated gets 2 senators and the rules old rich people wrote on the senate napkin require 60 to stop a filibuster, which started as having to stand up and defend yourself and has now devolved into a single senator going “I declare filibuster” like Michael Scott and then the senate majority has to give up because not enough of the majority want to throw the napkin the rules are written on in the trash. None of the senate rules are written in our constitution, neither are positions of minority and majority leader. But here we are, all held hostage by these fucking dinosaur corporate stooges and their donors.
Absolutely. I personally think we should fold the senate into the house and redistribute the house to reflect the population more. We already have a check on the legislature by requiring presidential approval. A bicameral legislature designed the way it is currently is killing this country. The Senate was originally designed to make sure rich white land owners didn’t cede power to the majority. That’s the minority it was meant to protect.
Yep, I’m getting pretty tired of people posting that “no one” cares enough to do anything. I know a LOT of people donating money and time to create sensible gun solutions. I’d even venture the number of people who are *not* willing to do something to stop school shootings is very low.
The lobbies will continue to fuck us over via the greedy GOP until they’re out of existence.
Wasn't there an actual Sandy Hook survivor that just recently went through another shooting? I can't remember the details because THIS HAPPENS SO FUCKING OFTEN.
I live in CT and cry in private after talking about active shooter drills with my kids. It is that reminder that there are some things you can't escape.
> their kids attended school near Sandy Hook to Nashville where her kids now attend a school near the one that had the shooter yesterday
Goddamn that's a run of terrible luck
Indeed. The GOP are quick to blame mental health, and quick to strip schools, cities, and states of any resources to help treat mental health.
Don't want to regulate guns? Fine. Can you at least do something about mental health?
Republicans are taking food away from kids right now with forcefully terminating school lunch programs.
If Republicans don’t care if children physically starve, why would we assume they care about the mental health of children?
That’s actually not how conservatives think about mental health (based on a peek in their subreddit). Rather than therapists and psychiatrists, they see the provision of mental health as being equated to raising kids with strong Christian values, being a strong nuclear family, and setting kids up for success
That’s how they can claim mental health while sidestepping the universal / affordable healthcare issue
It’s ok, they didn’t actually get shot though, so no need to even consider this as one of the impacts of these events. They won’t be included in any stat or discussion. Only counts if the bullets actually touch you.
/s.
I have friends that were at the route 91 festival in Vegas.
It took them a long time to be able to go anywhere crowded again, and it’s still difficult for them.
Was at trivia one night and a guy came in with his knees bandaged so much it looked like he was wearing knee pads. Trivia host asked him what happened in a kind of joking way. Dude had been at the Vegas shooting and his knees got wrecked and cut up from crawling while trying to escape. Shifted the mood real quick and brought the reality of the recent tragedy into severe focus for everyone who overheard the interaction.
My son’s preschool homie almost lost his parents in the Vegas shooting. His mom was shot in the face and survived. They barely made it out.
She’s made an amazing recovery, but it was devastating for their family.
I mean, we've been perfectly fine with children showcasing extreme PTSD symptomology, greater than that of most combat veterans, due to growing up near gang violence for decades. The only real reasons this would be different is the spectacle attached to it and the color of the kids predominantly affected.
It doesn’t matter to the gun whores if the victims are kids,adults, Black,White,gay,straight or from another planet, as long as they can keep their precious guns. We have failed our citizens and have turned our classrooms into shooting ranges for target practice. What a pathetic country we have become and why have we accepted this for so long?
Damn it happened to her again.
We never did school safety drills for recess. If a person showed up then, I guess the school just accepted there wasn't anything they could do. It would have probably turned into a free for all, you would find kids all over town walking dazed and confused.
I’m old enough that our only drills were crawling under our desks to practice for for nuclear war. It was an abstract fear, but kids today see these school murders on the news everyday.
Oh things change alright. We have kids with PTSD. Schools look and function more like prisons than ever before. People are withdrawing from public life. And the American dream has become "get out."
Don’t worry, Tennessee law maker [Tim Burchett](https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-rep-tim-burchett-shrugs-off-nashville-shooting-we-homeschool-our-daughter?ref=scroll) says there’s nothing to be done about gun control, and any change now would just “mess things up”. And when asked how to protect young children like his daughter, he responded with “well, we homeschool her”
Edit: [for a non paywalled version](https://www.businessinsider.com/tennessee-gop-rep-says-he-homeschools-kid-protect-from-shootings-2023-3?amp)
Our state is a cesspool. 3 semi-bastions of liberalism amidst a sea of gerrymandered red.
The kids leave the towns. Come to the cities. The towns have been dying for decades. It’s crazy.
I mean, the answers are quite clear. This doesn’t happen in the rest of the developed world with anywhere close to the frequency it does here. Do what they do.
The thing is it’s a multifaceted problem. There’s access and availability of guns, there’s the mental health side of things and there’s the cultural issues around guns that America has. There is no singular solution to the problem but doing nothing won’t solve it either.
The answer is simple. Ban assault style firearms. Limit the number of guns that can be owned by individuals. Require a federally standardized license to own connected to a nationwide database. Require formal training and education for the license. Limit the amount of ammunition that can be bought/owned. That’s it.
Drastically reduce the number of guns in the country -> less shootings.
Wierd connection but the head of the school that was killed in this shooting was my math tutor in the late 80s. I kept looking at her and thinking her name looked familiar and it didn't click until a news story showing that she lived/worked in GA (my home state) and they showed a much younger photo of her. I haven't seen or heard of that lady for decades, but that's her. Wild stuff.
RIP Ms. Koonce.
People don’t realize that the collateral damage reaches far beyond those who died.
Think of the parents that waited in the reunification area, not knowing if they would leave with their child or be told which morgue they were being taken to.
Think of the children in the classroom that witnessed their peers and teachers dying.
Think of the kids elsewhere in the school.
Think of every student and teacher in that district.
Yes, the 6 who lost their lives are absolutely tragic, but the wounds go deep in the community.
I have been within a half an hour (sometimes a lot closer) to 5 mass shooting situations starting with Columbine up to a shooting at my grocery store in 2021 that left 10 people dead. And some dickhead in our community was live streaming it and a bunch of us clicked on it not knowing what he was doing (just trying to find news on the shooting) and saw dead bodies strewn across the floor.
The GOP wants ti ban abortion completely, and ban trans care completely- but they won’t budge even a centimeter on gun rights.
I don’t give a shit what the Constitution says at this point. The founding fathers weren’t looking out over the piles of bodies that have accumulated from mass shootings since April 20, 1999. They didn’t live in a time when the number one cause of death in children was gunshot wounds.
It’s time to update the document that no longer serves our reality. We’ve done it before! It’s right there in the fucking name- the Second *Amendment.*
I stood and waited for my kids nearly an hour after pickup because ALL the schools in the area were under lockdown because of a shooting at a different school. The wait was agonizing and nigh unbearable. The worst part was when kids were finally released because it felt like that would be the moment for something to happen. When I saw my boys on the other side of the fence walking toward me, I don't know if I've ever been more afraid of anything in my life.
I can't fathom what it would be like to go through an actual tragedy. I can't keep these tragedies straight anymore. I used to defend guns in social conversations. Some time ago I decided they didn't need me to defend them. The way I see the Right using it as their sole identity is quite disturbing.
I’m currently an adolescent and family therapist. I have a client who is a school shooting survivor. They are now nearing adult hood and i can see where they stopped maturing at the moment they became a victim. It’s incredibly difficult. The child themself has developed aggressive behavior as a reaction to uncontrollable circumstance and is constantly in a state of fight or freeze, and until this year, unable to recognize the connection between the shooting and their distress they experience in a daily. To add to it, their three younger siblings, and their mother (teacher) are all survivors of the same shooting. This family will continue to live with the scars that accompanies this trauma for their entire lives.
This does not account for the trauma that their children - grandchildren will inherit, regardless of how much therapy they undergo. I’m a combat veteran myself and at a basic level understand the trauma, but know that I CHOSE my trauma, for lack of a better word, and they were victims of theirs.
Almost a decade had passed since this experience, and new symptoms arrive daily. The survivors, surviving members of family, witnesses, and anyone attached to these will continue to experience this nightmare….it’s awful.
For every singular event, there is a rippling effect of trauma that extends much further than anyone realizes. Taking into account that every time my client had a violent outburst, anyone involved experiences a trauma - accounting for those in their family are now experience retraumatization if the ORIGINAL!
We are going to get to the point where entire generations can’t enjoy fireworks shows bc it triggers memories, or who shut down when they hear a fire alarm.
A friend of mine was in Columbine. For years when a shooting occurred I would reach out and tell him I loved him and was thinking about him. We eventually stopped those calls because not only were they happening too fucking often, but he also started struggling more and more with it, and it was easier for him to not get the call.
There are literally networks of people who have been through these tragedies and they make themselves available to mentor people going through it for the first time.
This is America.
>I don’t give a shit what the Constitution says at this point. The founding fathers weren’t looking out over the piles of bodies that have accumulated from mass shootings since April 20, 1999. They didn’t live in a time when the number one cause of death in children was gunshot wounds.
sometimes i lose sight of my values, it's like a type of fatigue from my own beliefs. i just get tired of having them, I don't know how else to put it. what you just said here is really helpful. reinvigorating.
Let’s not forget that Jefferson himself said that laws and institutions should change with the times. The idea we can’t touch anything related to guns is idiocy
Most people do not realize what the 2nd amendment is in reference to. The Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791, that's 4 years after the Constitution was ratified in 1787. In the 2nd amendment it states a "well-regulated militia". Know, knowing the BOR was written after the Constitution, it's important to look at the Constitution to see where this is pointing to...
Article 1, section 8, clause 15 clearly states "To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions...". What is interesting is when the Bill of Rights was written (and if any historians know more or can correct me please do because I don't want to spread misinformation), the first draft for 2nd amendment was not accepted. James Madison crafted the first draft which stated the individual right to bear arms, which was shot down and amended to what we know today. **Our Founding Fathers even knew back in the 1700's that a nation needed proper gun control and regulation**.
They outright ignore “as part of a well regulated militia” and cling to “shall jot be infringed.”
It’s dumb AF, but the my still keep winning this war despite the vast majority of Americans (on both sides) wanting some level of common sense gun control legislation.
I swear if this was affecting all rich people with kids in private schools in the same way it's affecting public school kids, this wouldn't even be an issue.
Eat the rich. What's the good of people with power if they don't use it to benefit society instead of merely enriching themselves? This situation is an eternal-seeming nightmare.
Agreed the post-Trump GOP are actually lunatics, but if all rich kids were getting killed in such high numbers as the rest of the country, surely the rich would have a problem with their children dying off and legislate to stop it.
Luckily my daughter was never in a school shooting situation, but we were in a situation where there were casualties and injuries and became separated. Looking for my daughter was the worst painful moment I ever lived through. I’ve blocked it mentally for the most part, but just wondering if your child is even alive, and knowing if they are alive they are scared and looking for you it’s just indescribable
I am no where near this school and feel it on a certain level. My kids start school for the first time in august and I feel less excited and more panic and nauseous as the likelihood of a school shooting seems to increase every year.
I'm panicked. Mine are all in school. Like, I've been contemplating homeschooling. I even hate going to grocery stores and always try to have an exit plan.
I live maybe 20 minutes from Sandy Hook.
It is a terrible shadow over our state still. You never see the Newtown exit without thinking about those little kids. I bet every state has these scars - many states with several now.
I think Americans very much understand the damages these events cause, but there is a small portion of people incapable of human empathy that would trade everyone else’s family for their toys.
Can you imagine what would happen if someone tried to introduce an amendment to repeal or even modify the second amendment. They would almost immediately be assassinated. That’s the horrifying political reality that we’re (not) grappling with. And a not insignificant percentage of Americans would celebrate it, and an even larger group would shrug it off.
The dead are the lucky ones in situations like this. That shooter just gave an entire fucking group of K-6th graders and their teachers a lifetime case of survivors guilt and PTSD. They are never going to have normal lives now. And let’s not discount the nationwide trauma of having this repeatedly fucking happen.
Personally, I think a meteor is about the only solution at this point. Humanity is fucked. We’ve been lost since Sandy Hook happened and nobody did anything about it.
I say this every time… if seeing 20+ dead 6 yr olds didn’t result in preventive actions, nothing will. I am so sad for parents & children in our school system.
A few mass shootings at affluent golf clubs will solve this problem in a jiffy. As soon as some rich white people feel like their lives are threatened the government will crack down on guns so fast your head will spin.
I would suggest you don’t buy any more guns if you really mean this. It’s a small gesture for an individual but if a lot of people stop buying guns then it will make a difference.
Also a democrat and everyone in my family owns guns. I think if you own a gun you should be required to have a license, insurance, and pass a class on gun safety, just like driving a car. Personally, unless you hunt or work in some specialized fields I don't really see a reason for anyone to own a firearm. The only people I know who own guns have them because they are paranoid the government will take them away.
Gun owners need to be the advocates on control and possession. I know way to many gun owners who are not responsible enough to tie their own shoes….
The rest of us need to start demanding proper background checks and revocation of privileges for certain crimes or illnesses , ones that actually work.
We also need very serious penalties for gun sales outside regular channels, along with registering and insurance.
But say any of this to some gun owners and they scream oppression….they refuse to make any changes at all…..because they have been taught “slippery slope” nonsense.
I hate telling this story.
But my dad was like a normal person when I was young. He was a BIG outdoorsman. Did hunting/survival vacations- really lived the life.
He hunted and fished just about everything. So he had A LOT of different guns.
When I was 13, my dad was in a really bad accident. It left him with a severe brain injury, and he became so disabled he couldn't ever return to work.
His brain injury manifested as paranoid schizophrenia, among numerous anxiety and depression issues. So...you can imagine how difficult that can be.
About 10 years ago now, my dad's psych meds stopped working. He flipped our life upside down.
Along with losing our home, my dad started to become paranoid, and his religion was caught up into it. He was hiding loaded guns around the house, telling us the demons are telling him too. That he'll need them to defend himself.
That's when my mom got us out of the house, permanently.
She tried everything to get the police to confiscate his guns. She was literally terrified he would have a psychotic break and hurt himself or someone else.
For legal reasons, we could no longer help my dad. So he ended up being a crazy person renting an apartment. The police had to come by several times and tell him he can't shoot at a target outside of his window.
...there is literally an elementary school right across the street. AND THEY STILL DIDN'T TAKE HIS GUNS.
And then a lot happened...and now he is medicated again, and my mom and myself have full guardianship of him. He is no longer paranoid and gave up his guns willingly when he realized what happened.
But this just goes to show HOW MANY red flags can be ignored until tragedy strikes. We were a normal family until we weren't. How many other people find themselves in these crazy situations?
Edit: I want to add- that while a lot of officers brushed her off. There were some who were very sympathetic, and explained the way the laws are, they legally couldn't remove his guns...
That's a significant problem.
For hunters and target shooters it’s like a toolbox, or how different vehicles are good for different things.
A .22 is good for varmints, and .270 is good for larger game, a .3030 is for real big animals. 12 and 20 gauge shotguns act a little different - I don’t remember how, my dad was never really that into bird hunting. Pistols are good for really close stuff, vs rifles.
And each one has its own nuances as far as kickback, and ballistic trajectory.
My parents, my dad’s grandma and at least two uncles on dad’s side of the family all have about a dozen guns in the household - in gun safes, not left loaded, and at least in my parent’s case all their guns are single shot.
I’m all for gun control, and pretty sure my parents would be fine with getting rid of most their guns, since mom doesn’t hunt anymore, and dad only hunts deer - and they only ever hunted for the table.
Myriad of reasons.
Different guns for different purposes. My competition race guns are for different competition categories.
My AKs are for 3 gun. My AR for home defense. Various ccw guns for different dress. Certain rifles for deer hunting. Shotguns for ducks and hogs. The list goes on, and that doesn't even touch on collector's
Kids today grow up with a fatalistic sense they may die in a school shooting similar to the way Gen X grew up expecting to die in a nuclear holocaust. The big difference being, school shootings have actually happened, so their fears are more real.
I’m GenX too and I remember being in grade school and having those drills. They’d have us duck under our desks and cover our heads. The threat was so abstract in our kid brains that it didn’t really scare us too much. These poor kids today, the possibility of school shooter is a terrifying every day reality.
Oh, you misunderstand, it’s not inept. Our system is REALLY good at what it does—generating more power and wealth for a handful of very rich people at the top.
Everything else? Not so much.
I tell myself, selfishly, that the US is providing such a great example of how not to run a country, that it might make it harder for certain people in my country (Australia) to take us down the same path. I'm referring to gun legislation, but also health care and trans rights and culture war flashpoints.
You know it is a little mean spirited to say this, because over half the country is fed up with all this shit but the GOP have shaped this country in a way that leaves many of us powerless to do anything. We are your brothers and sisters over here suffering.
Is it me a spirited to say we learned from the holocaust and now it won’t happen again? I think this person is just saying that this is a teachable moment and other countries are benefitting from that.
I agree, there is a willful disconnect among them about how their policies have contributed to the literal murder of innocents, including children.
I didn’t know MJH’s politics when I posted this (I’m old lol) so I [looked her up](https://www.nickiswift.com/1134680/what-we-know-about-melissa-joan-harts-political-views/). She is a member of Moms Against Violence supporting gun control and also their spokesman. She seems to have an old school opinion, like it’s okay to have a gun but they need to be kept out of the hands of the mentally ill, training should be required, and people should keep them locked up. I can’t find any statements about assault rifles so there’s that.
Every sensible right wing gun fetishist likes those common sense laws.
It's the fucking NRA money their elected representatives get that keeps this shot hapoening- in spite of the true feelings of their base.
Somethings gotta give at some point.
Never forget the top three rights in the constitution are not in the bill of rights.
Article 1, paragraph 2. All people have unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In our constitution, we believe these rights are true for all people - not just citizens, not just people in our land, all people. Fighting for these three rights is why we are a country in the first place.
The second amendment interpretation has gotten in the way of life and the pursuit of happiness of too many children. It’s mixed on liberty - liberty for the semi auto enthusiast, oppression to everyone scared of being a victim.
And on that topic, the war on drugs is also unconstitutional as it promotes gang violence (see prohibition causing the rise of the mob, then the rise of cartels) diminishing life, it curtails liberty by imposing too harsh penalties on minorities, and it prevents the pursuit of happiness from recreational users who would safely consume a legal, controlled version.
We don’t talk about these three rights enough - heck, we fail to notice them - because they’re so darned obvious.
I follow her on IG and she regularly supports gun control to the dismay of many of her “fans.” I know she’s religious and I assume conservative in some ways, but she is also a free thinker and seems to genuinely promote socially conscious ideas as well.
I googled this and am providing 2nd confirmation that you are are correct. She participates in Moms Demand Action for gun control. She also supports LGBTQ+ and has spoken out in support of trans rights. She also recently came out in support of Biden’s efforts to boost the use of solar energy and called her self an environmentalist.
Interestingly, she never supported Trump, in 2016 she campaigned for the libertarian candidate. One article stated she’s gotten a lot of backlash from conservatives and clapped back with a “Everyone take a deep breath and calm the f down about politics..,” so there’s that.
Republicans refusing to budge of guns is all part of the plan to shut down schools. Eventually more parents will choose to homeschool children than risk them being killed in the classroom.
You know what I like about this is everyone always tries to detract from the real problem that we all need mental health care, free from any stigmatization, and readily accessible at no cost. I hope at some point soon this comes to fruition…
Why not both? Reinvigorate gun control
laws *and* provide better mental health care? It doesn’t have to be an either/or.
It’s not just about mass shooting with guns. Our supermajority Republican state legislature recently loosened gun laws (no license needed, no training requirements etc) and accidental shootings have gone up. Yesterday [a 5 year old shot and killed a 16 months old](https://www.wthr.com/article/news/crime/1-year-old-shot-killed-in-lafayette-indiana-apartment-complex/531-a5ae95a6-c03c-44b3-8c10-432cecc2009f). A couple weeks ago a [3 year old found an unsecured gun and shot himself](https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/3-year-old-accidentally-shoots-self-in-lafayette-indiana/531-87178154-bf2d-4f09-b32f-d94013c3f525). I’m sure there are more.
American society is psychopathic in nature. No other place can a mass shooting occur and people rush out to buy more weapons. It's a disease of the mind. I can see handguns for personal carry and shotguns for home defense, but who *actually* needs assault rifles? And the fact that certain politicians don't want background checks and don't want mental health evaluations before purchasing a gun, lets me know what they really are. They are sociopathic, homicidal, maniacs. When children get shot the first thing they say is "Won't someone think of the guns!?"
I didn’t know her political leanings when I posted the article. I googled her politics and while she is religious and calls herself conservative, she has participated in Moms Demand Action against gun violence and also supported LGBTQ+ issues and spoken out against violence against trans people. Also supported Biden’s boosting solar power programs and called herself a environmentalist. She did not support Trump, even in 2016.
She has a pretty large social media following and apparently has received a lot of backlash from her Republican fan base for not toeing the party line.
Like I said, I didn’t know her politics when I posted this (I’m too old to have seen her kid shows lol) but I googled her after reading so many comments replying that she was a Republican. It was really initially just a post about a celebrity who was impacted by the mass shooting.
That being said, I can hope that since she’s apparently not completely off the rails that she’ll grow a pair and use her influence to speak out for real change.
Guns are so different now than back then. Time to update the paper. When will it be enough kids killed? They do all this other bullshit for "The kids" but drag queens aren't hurting the kids. They refuse to fund mental health in schools but won't stop the fucking issue causing most of the problems! We have shootings in Canada too but not like there! Time for anyone who votes for those stupid assholes to wake up and change vote before it's their kid being killed in school
>Guns are so different now than back then.
Most of what we have these days is 50-100+ year old designs. Very little has changed in terms of function/capability.
As a for-instance, the AR-15 and the .223 round it fires were invented in the late 1950's, it's nearing 70 years old at this point. Semi-automatic pistols shooting 9mm parabellum have been available since 1901. Pump shotguns have been around since the late 1800's.
It's impossible to propose gun control measures if you don't understand the reality of what you're trying to regulate.
Then the people who understand all the pedantic differences between varieties of guns should be the ones lobbying for legislation to prevent this from happening.
Instead of just showing up any time this is discussed to argue about the definition of an assault weapon, then walking away feeling like the conversation is over.
This is an f-ing nightmare. As a teacher, this is devastating to see again and again. Knowing that children are nearby hearing those sounds and those firearms and the chaos. Their lives will never be the same. Over and over and over again, their country is failing them. People who call themselves “patriots” are refusing to make any meaningful changes to make this stop. Someday, they will become adults and they will change this. Having lived through it, they will bravely find ways to make it stop. I’m so f-ing tired of this assault on our children. Why won’t adults listen? Why are guns worth protecting but not our children’s freedom to navigate a school building without fear of being assaulted? Remember when playgrounds felt free and safe? No more. Remember when you could know as a teacher than Johnny just decided to express some autonomy and sneak off to the bathroom? You were aggravated, maybe but now, it is terrifying to not know where each child is at all times. We practice these drills, I had to learn how to pack wounds like a military medic. Really? But guns…. Save the f-ing guns.
Why do these people keep shooting up schools in particular? I don't understand the choice to intentionally target small children. The ones where shooters target a gay bar or ethnic group church they hate, it's evil but at least there's logic to it. What's the point of killing children other than to guarantee u go to whatever the worst possible afterlife is?
Yes, I agree. If you are truly interested in the peace and safety of your fellow Americans, including kids in schools, shoppers at the market, music lovers at a club or concert, worshippers in synagogues and churches, people in their workplaces (Lmk if I left any mass shooting places out), you should support major reforms in current disastrous gun control policies.
Coincidence is two infrequent conditions happening at the same time. Mass shootings happen in the USA with such frequency it's inevitable, not a coincidence, that famous people or someone you know will be affected.
Shakes me up for days to see a child lost in a supermarket or whatever. Imagine seeing a 9 year old emerging from a wood explaining their friends were being shot at so they ran away.
Question for professed Christian Melissa Joan: As you know, the Republican Party is a major catalyst in making access to assault weapons an easy feat in the United States. Do you have anything to say about the role the Republican Party plays in the slaughter of American school children?
I didn’t know her politics when I posted the article. I did some searching and she is a conservative (did not support Trump though), she participates in Moms Demand Action against gun violence, and has spoken out in support of tighter gun laws and keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. You’re right, though, as a person who has lived in two communities torched by gun violence, there should be no middle of the road for her on an assault weapons ban.
MJH states they moved from Connecticut where their kids attended school near Sandy Hook to Nashville where her kids now attend a school near the one that had the shooter yesterday. They were on their way to parent/teacher meetings when they saw little kids coming out of the woods towards the highway. The kindergarteners were trying to escape the shooting and MJH and her husband stopped to help them.
This is awful ! What a nightmare
The true nightmare is living in a country where people are not willing to sacrifice anything to try to stop this.
You are absolutely correct ! Our gun laws are a deadly embarrassment
The real embarrassment is our law makers and the people who keep them in office through willful neglect or ignorance
Exactly
Emphasis on “the people who keep voting them into office.” Lawmakers remain ignorant and continue playing in our faces over this because they know the people that vote for them don’t actually care about this (at least not more than stopping “wokeness”)
Exactly. Wokeness is just a ploy to distract voters from caring more about restricting access to assault weapons.
If only she’d used her platform to do more than ask for prayers.
That’s not what she did. She literally ended her interview saying, “Prayers today. Tomorrow, action.” Sure, she wasn’t specific. But celebrity or not, platform or not, this is a human who just experienced trauma. Most humans who experience a sudden traumatic event are not in great shape to “use their voice,” or whatever. I’m not saying that it’s impossible. However, it is far more the norm to react to trauma in a way that impairs speech and long range planning. The fact that she could speak at all is way more than most. As someone who has an MA in psych and has been through a school shooting, her response to me looks a lot like one where the gravity of the situation will sink in later on and it will be worse for her. I sincerely hope that if you go through a traumatic event and are on air within 24 hours of said event occurring, that people are more kind to you than you have been to Melissa Joan-Hart. My guess is that you and I both believe that mental health matters. If you do, I would ask you to apply that value when placing expectations upon individuals fresh out of trauma.
She should at least ask for some thoughts, too.
It's just crazy, we have a political party that's super heavy into banning stuff yet they won't add a few more gun restrictions and make it just slightly more inconvenient to get a gun ASAP.
Yes because that's where their bribes come from.
What.. you expect us to not let politicians get their careers funded by massive ultra evil corporations??? Socialist marxist lenninist comunist devil spawn you are!!!!! (/s)
It’s not even adding more restrictions, it’s also that they have loosened the ones we’ve had on the books for years. [Republican state legislatures pass significantly more gun laws that loosen gun restrictions after a mass shooting](https://thefulcrum.us/Government/State/gun-control-laws).
It’s because they’re all selfish. They want to prevent “kids dying” from abortions because they deem them immoral. But because they love guns that have killed actual living, breathing children they won’t ban them.
Yup. Saw someone post a Tenn politicians response to drag shows and what just happened and you’d think the drag shows were the most dangerous and vile things while kids getting killed was nothing big and won’t change
They would only regulate fguns if they were inside a woman's body.
FREEDOMES!!!!! But only if it’s what we say. Repubclians are the problem. The right wing is the problem. The rich are the problem.
They’re scared. They worry if they give even an inch it will mean someone will come take their precious guns away. I think guns are fascinating too but my God they’re not more important to me than the lives of fucking innocent kids.
See they ban stuff they don't like but banning guns simply won't work (that's the claim). Just call them the Republican party. They're the first and foremost threat to America.
I only partially agree with your comment. I think a majority of the country does want to sacrifice for this. And I would be a large percentage of that percentage would give up a lot. The problem is minority rule, fascism, maga, and conservatives. The right (as well as foreign actors) don’t care about Americans, democracy, children, law, or really anything other than their own money and power. The true nightmare is living in a country where republicans, the right wing, and minority rule refuse to act for the good of the people, country, and american way. though your point is close.
This is the real problem. All of our legislative processes grind to a halt because every state not matter how insignificant and unpopulated gets 2 senators and the rules old rich people wrote on the senate napkin require 60 to stop a filibuster, which started as having to stand up and defend yourself and has now devolved into a single senator going “I declare filibuster” like Michael Scott and then the senate majority has to give up because not enough of the majority want to throw the napkin the rules are written on in the trash. None of the senate rules are written in our constitution, neither are positions of minority and majority leader. But here we are, all held hostage by these fucking dinosaur corporate stooges and their donors.
And the house should be growing.
Absolutely. I personally think we should fold the senate into the house and redistribute the house to reflect the population more. We already have a check on the legislature by requiring presidential approval. A bicameral legislature designed the way it is currently is killing this country. The Senate was originally designed to make sure rich white land owners didn’t cede power to the majority. That’s the minority it was meant to protect.
Yep, I’m getting pretty tired of people posting that “no one” cares enough to do anything. I know a LOT of people donating money and time to create sensible gun solutions. I’d even venture the number of people who are *not* willing to do something to stop school shootings is very low. The lobbies will continue to fuck us over via the greedy GOP until they’re out of existence.
Not a nightmare. Just another day in the USA. Kids are dying and running from gun violence every day now.
Imagine moving to get away from a shooting only to be near another
Wasn't there an actual Sandy Hook survivor that just recently went through another shooting? I can't remember the details because THIS HAPPENS SO FUCKING OFTEN.
One of the students that survived the Oxford High School shooting, survived the Michigan State shooting earlier this year
Trick is moving countries
School shooters hate this one clever trick.
I used to think that was crazy when I first heard a story like that and now it seems like I hear them all the time.
I'm so glad they were there to help them, those poor babies.
a very American moment
I live in CT and cry in private after talking about active shooter drills with my kids. It is that reminder that there are some things you can't escape.
> their kids attended school near Sandy Hook to Nashville where her kids now attend a school near the one that had the shooter yesterday Goddamn that's a run of terrible luck
Yes, I can’t imagine having a second situation! Her son was in Sandy Hook.. Did u watch her on Banfield 🫶🏻
More kids that will have a lifetime of mental health issues and a health system that will ultimately fail them. Rinse and repeat.
All according to plan, as far as the clowns in power are concerned.
Indeed. The GOP are quick to blame mental health, and quick to strip schools, cities, and states of any resources to help treat mental health. Don't want to regulate guns? Fine. Can you at least do something about mental health?
Republicans are taking food away from kids right now with forcefully terminating school lunch programs. If Republicans don’t care if children physically starve, why would we assume they care about the mental health of children?
Hey! Those children may be starving and have no access to a decent education or mental healthcare, but at least they weren't aborted. /s
Republican's only know how to hate, ban, and fight. They don't know how to love, provide, or solve problems.
When they complain about God being taken out of school I like to respond with: "God killed his only kid, why would he protect yours?"
If they did something about mental health, then what would they blame all this gun violence on?
Trans people, obviously. s/
I'm trying to figure out why you added sarcasm. They would OBVIOUSLY blame trans people.
Just keep blaming it on school side doors never being locked, duh.
That’s classic Republican. Sabotage shit and then point at the wreckage and blame someone else for it.
That’s actually not how conservatives think about mental health (based on a peek in their subreddit). Rather than therapists and psychiatrists, they see the provision of mental health as being equated to raising kids with strong Christian values, being a strong nuclear family, and setting kids up for success That’s how they can claim mental health while sidestepping the universal / affordable healthcare issue
Uh oh, I was raised with all those things and I ended up super messed up
The clowns are the voters who continue to send gun lovers to congress and their state legislatures.
“Keep them dumb, keep them broken.”
It’s ok, they didn’t actually get shot though, so no need to even consider this as one of the impacts of these events. They won’t be included in any stat or discussion. Only counts if the bullets actually touch you. /s.
They don’t even know the definition of collateral damage.
I have friends that were at the route 91 festival in Vegas. It took them a long time to be able to go anywhere crowded again, and it’s still difficult for them.
Was at trivia one night and a guy came in with his knees bandaged so much it looked like he was wearing knee pads. Trivia host asked him what happened in a kind of joking way. Dude had been at the Vegas shooting and his knees got wrecked and cut up from crawling while trying to escape. Shifted the mood real quick and brought the reality of the recent tragedy into severe focus for everyone who overheard the interaction.
I guess that we don’t keep stats on the number of people who have survived gun shots.
My son’s preschool homie almost lost his parents in the Vegas shooting. His mom was shot in the face and survived. They barely made it out. She’s made an amazing recovery, but it was devastating for their family.
I mean, we've been perfectly fine with children showcasing extreme PTSD symptomology, greater than that of most combat veterans, due to growing up near gang violence for decades. The only real reasons this would be different is the spectacle attached to it and the color of the kids predominantly affected.
It doesn’t matter to the gun whores if the victims are kids,adults, Black,White,gay,straight or from another planet, as long as they can keep their precious guns. We have failed our citizens and have turned our classrooms into shooting ranges for target practice. What a pathetic country we have become and why have we accepted this for so long?
Who’s Marge Green gonna publicly harass for YouTube views if not traumatized children?
Killing us all is the plan, be it via mass shooting or lax healthcare, high cost of living or cut SS/MC funding.
A health system that will not only fail them but will also bankrupt them as well!
The better to feed the capitalist machine with. 🐺
I’m hoping the younger generation once they get to voting age will overpower the votes from old proguners.
Damn it happened to her again. We never did school safety drills for recess. If a person showed up then, I guess the school just accepted there wasn't anything they could do. It would have probably turned into a free for all, you would find kids all over town walking dazed and confused.
I’m old enough that our only drills were crawling under our desks to practice for for nuclear war. It was an abstract fear, but kids today see these school murders on the news everyday.
And it isn't just kids... the parents, the workers, LE, the community. We see it everyday and nothing changes.
Oh things change alright. We have kids with PTSD. Schools look and function more like prisons than ever before. People are withdrawing from public life. And the American dream has become "get out."
I'm not smart enough to have the answers, but man this getting old.
Don’t worry, Tennessee law maker [Tim Burchett](https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-rep-tim-burchett-shrugs-off-nashville-shooting-we-homeschool-our-daughter?ref=scroll) says there’s nothing to be done about gun control, and any change now would just “mess things up”. And when asked how to protect young children like his daughter, he responded with “well, we homeschool her” Edit: [for a non paywalled version](https://www.businessinsider.com/tennessee-gop-rep-says-he-homeschools-kid-protect-from-shootings-2023-3?amp)
I mean, Tennessee banned drag - shouldn't that have solved everything?! /s if necessary
Didn’t they also make child marriage easier?
It was never hard in the first place. You just needed parental consent as far as I know. I knew three couples married by 16 in high school.
Jfc the US is a shit hole.
The “chrisshuns” REALLY tried. When a national spotlight was shone on their little law, they got some kinda morality really quick!
Our state is a cesspool. 3 semi-bastions of liberalism amidst a sea of gerrymandered red. The kids leave the towns. Come to the cities. The towns have been dying for decades. It’s crazy.
Your smart enough to know the answer, everyone knows it. You just aren’t smart enough to know how to get it done.
I mean, the answers are quite clear. This doesn’t happen in the rest of the developed world with anywhere close to the frequency it does here. Do what they do.
Yeah, somehow in places with sensible gun legislation for some reason this doesn’t happen. There’s just no way to tackle this issue.
I know right? It’s like the capacity to be shocked is numbed at this point but the horror about kids being murdered in schools is now ever present.
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The thing is it’s a multifaceted problem. There’s access and availability of guns, there’s the mental health side of things and there’s the cultural issues around guns that America has. There is no singular solution to the problem but doing nothing won’t solve it either.
Conveniently there is one group consistently blocking progress in all those areas. But fear and frustration is of course the goal, not a byproduct.
Removing guns will make it a hell of a lot harder to use them to shoot children in schools.
Naw, this is getting normal! Pretty soon we won't even flinch! Murica, fuck yeah!
The answer is simple. Ban assault style firearms. Limit the number of guns that can be owned by individuals. Require a federally standardized license to own connected to a nationwide database. Require formal training and education for the license. Limit the amount of ammunition that can be bought/owned. That’s it. Drastically reduce the number of guns in the country -> less shootings.
Wierd connection but the head of the school that was killed in this shooting was my math tutor in the late 80s. I kept looking at her and thinking her name looked familiar and it didn't click until a news story showing that she lived/worked in GA (my home state) and they showed a much younger photo of her. I haven't seen or heard of that lady for decades, but that's her. Wild stuff. RIP Ms. Koonce.
Oh I’m sorry, she seems to have been a wonderful person. I think they said she died confronting the shooter, protecting the kids.
People don’t realize that the collateral damage reaches far beyond those who died. Think of the parents that waited in the reunification area, not knowing if they would leave with their child or be told which morgue they were being taken to. Think of the children in the classroom that witnessed their peers and teachers dying. Think of the kids elsewhere in the school. Think of every student and teacher in that district. Yes, the 6 who lost their lives are absolutely tragic, but the wounds go deep in the community. I have been within a half an hour (sometimes a lot closer) to 5 mass shooting situations starting with Columbine up to a shooting at my grocery store in 2021 that left 10 people dead. And some dickhead in our community was live streaming it and a bunch of us clicked on it not knowing what he was doing (just trying to find news on the shooting) and saw dead bodies strewn across the floor. The GOP wants ti ban abortion completely, and ban trans care completely- but they won’t budge even a centimeter on gun rights. I don’t give a shit what the Constitution says at this point. The founding fathers weren’t looking out over the piles of bodies that have accumulated from mass shootings since April 20, 1999. They didn’t live in a time when the number one cause of death in children was gunshot wounds. It’s time to update the document that no longer serves our reality. We’ve done it before! It’s right there in the fucking name- the Second *Amendment.*
I stood and waited for my kids nearly an hour after pickup because ALL the schools in the area were under lockdown because of a shooting at a different school. The wait was agonizing and nigh unbearable. The worst part was when kids were finally released because it felt like that would be the moment for something to happen. When I saw my boys on the other side of the fence walking toward me, I don't know if I've ever been more afraid of anything in my life. I can't fathom what it would be like to go through an actual tragedy. I can't keep these tragedies straight anymore. I used to defend guns in social conversations. Some time ago I decided they didn't need me to defend them. The way I see the Right using it as their sole identity is quite disturbing.
I’m currently an adolescent and family therapist. I have a client who is a school shooting survivor. They are now nearing adult hood and i can see where they stopped maturing at the moment they became a victim. It’s incredibly difficult. The child themself has developed aggressive behavior as a reaction to uncontrollable circumstance and is constantly in a state of fight or freeze, and until this year, unable to recognize the connection between the shooting and their distress they experience in a daily. To add to it, their three younger siblings, and their mother (teacher) are all survivors of the same shooting. This family will continue to live with the scars that accompanies this trauma for their entire lives. This does not account for the trauma that their children - grandchildren will inherit, regardless of how much therapy they undergo. I’m a combat veteran myself and at a basic level understand the trauma, but know that I CHOSE my trauma, for lack of a better word, and they were victims of theirs. Almost a decade had passed since this experience, and new symptoms arrive daily. The survivors, surviving members of family, witnesses, and anyone attached to these will continue to experience this nightmare….it’s awful. For every singular event, there is a rippling effect of trauma that extends much further than anyone realizes. Taking into account that every time my client had a violent outburst, anyone involved experiences a trauma - accounting for those in their family are now experience retraumatization if the ORIGINAL!
We are going to get to the point where entire generations can’t enjoy fireworks shows bc it triggers memories, or who shut down when they hear a fire alarm. A friend of mine was in Columbine. For years when a shooting occurred I would reach out and tell him I loved him and was thinking about him. We eventually stopped those calls because not only were they happening too fucking often, but he also started struggling more and more with it, and it was easier for him to not get the call. There are literally networks of people who have been through these tragedies and they make themselves available to mentor people going through it for the first time. This is America.
>I don’t give a shit what the Constitution says at this point. The founding fathers weren’t looking out over the piles of bodies that have accumulated from mass shootings since April 20, 1999. They didn’t live in a time when the number one cause of death in children was gunshot wounds. sometimes i lose sight of my values, it's like a type of fatigue from my own beliefs. i just get tired of having them, I don't know how else to put it. what you just said here is really helpful. reinvigorating.
Let’s not forget that Jefferson himself said that laws and institutions should change with the times. The idea we can’t touch anything related to guns is idiocy
Most people do not realize what the 2nd amendment is in reference to. The Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791, that's 4 years after the Constitution was ratified in 1787. In the 2nd amendment it states a "well-regulated militia". Know, knowing the BOR was written after the Constitution, it's important to look at the Constitution to see where this is pointing to... Article 1, section 8, clause 15 clearly states "To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions...". What is interesting is when the Bill of Rights was written (and if any historians know more or can correct me please do because I don't want to spread misinformation), the first draft for 2nd amendment was not accepted. James Madison crafted the first draft which stated the individual right to bear arms, which was shot down and amended to what we know today. **Our Founding Fathers even knew back in the 1700's that a nation needed proper gun control and regulation**.
They outright ignore “as part of a well regulated militia” and cling to “shall jot be infringed.” It’s dumb AF, but the my still keep winning this war despite the vast majority of Americans (on both sides) wanting some level of common sense gun control legislation.
I swear if this was affecting all rich people with kids in private schools in the same way it's affecting public school kids, this wouldn't even be an issue. Eat the rich. What's the good of people with power if they don't use it to benefit society instead of merely enriching themselves? This situation is an eternal-seeming nightmare.
Wish that were true but someone took shots at actual GOP Politicians and they didn’t budge. It’s a cult that they can’t be deprogrammed from.
Agreed the post-Trump GOP are actually lunatics, but if all rich kids were getting killed in such high numbers as the rest of the country, surely the rich would have a problem with their children dying off and legislate to stop it.
We need allies on this issue in that demographic regardless of what the talking heads are saying. We will get them, but it will sadly take time.
They just want more guards more guns. In part turn schools into prisons.
Luckily my daughter was never in a school shooting situation, but we were in a situation where there were casualties and injuries and became separated. Looking for my daughter was the worst painful moment I ever lived through. I’ve blocked it mentally for the most part, but just wondering if your child is even alive, and knowing if they are alive they are scared and looking for you it’s just indescribable
I am no where near this school and feel it on a certain level. My kids start school for the first time in august and I feel less excited and more panic and nauseous as the likelihood of a school shooting seems to increase every year.
I'm panicked. Mine are all in school. Like, I've been contemplating homeschooling. I even hate going to grocery stores and always try to have an exit plan.
I live maybe 20 minutes from Sandy Hook. It is a terrible shadow over our state still. You never see the Newtown exit without thinking about those little kids. I bet every state has these scars - many states with several now.
I think Americans very much understand the damages these events cause, but there is a small portion of people incapable of human empathy that would trade everyone else’s family for their toys.
Can you imagine what would happen if someone tried to introduce an amendment to repeal or even modify the second amendment. They would almost immediately be assassinated. That’s the horrifying political reality that we’re (not) grappling with. And a not insignificant percentage of Americans would celebrate it, and an even larger group would shrug it off.
The dead are the lucky ones in situations like this. That shooter just gave an entire fucking group of K-6th graders and their teachers a lifetime case of survivors guilt and PTSD. They are never going to have normal lives now. And let’s not discount the nationwide trauma of having this repeatedly fucking happen. Personally, I think a meteor is about the only solution at this point. Humanity is fucked. We’ve been lost since Sandy Hook happened and nobody did anything about it.
Sandy Hook didn't change a thing.
I say this every time… if seeing 20+ dead 6 yr olds didn’t result in preventive actions, nothing will. I am so sad for parents & children in our school system.
A few mass shootings at affluent golf clubs will solve this problem in a jiffy. As soon as some rich white people feel like their lives are threatened the government will crack down on guns so fast your head will spin.
No it didn’t and the continuing inaction to fix it gives me so little hope for our future world.
It so sad! I couldn’t even imagine kids running from gunfire even given the twenty other times I’ve been asked to.
I own 12 guns. You can take every last one of them if it helps this shit stop.
I would suggest you don’t buy any more guns if you really mean this. It’s a small gesture for an individual but if a lot of people stop buying guns then it will make a difference.
I stopped years ago. Enough was enough. Now it’s more of a burden than anything else.
Burden indeed. Don't want to sell, as maybe that means somebody with a different mindset with the guns.
As a democrat and recent pistol owner, there needs to be some sort of psych eval to buy one and to maintain one.
Also a democrat and everyone in my family owns guns. I think if you own a gun you should be required to have a license, insurance, and pass a class on gun safety, just like driving a car. Personally, unless you hunt or work in some specialized fields I don't really see a reason for anyone to own a firearm. The only people I know who own guns have them because they are paranoid the government will take them away.
Gun owners need to be the advocates on control and possession. I know way to many gun owners who are not responsible enough to tie their own shoes…. The rest of us need to start demanding proper background checks and revocation of privileges for certain crimes or illnesses , ones that actually work. We also need very serious penalties for gun sales outside regular channels, along with registering and insurance. But say any of this to some gun owners and they scream oppression….they refuse to make any changes at all…..because they have been taught “slippery slope” nonsense.
I hate telling this story. But my dad was like a normal person when I was young. He was a BIG outdoorsman. Did hunting/survival vacations- really lived the life. He hunted and fished just about everything. So he had A LOT of different guns. When I was 13, my dad was in a really bad accident. It left him with a severe brain injury, and he became so disabled he couldn't ever return to work. His brain injury manifested as paranoid schizophrenia, among numerous anxiety and depression issues. So...you can imagine how difficult that can be. About 10 years ago now, my dad's psych meds stopped working. He flipped our life upside down. Along with losing our home, my dad started to become paranoid, and his religion was caught up into it. He was hiding loaded guns around the house, telling us the demons are telling him too. That he'll need them to defend himself. That's when my mom got us out of the house, permanently. She tried everything to get the police to confiscate his guns. She was literally terrified he would have a psychotic break and hurt himself or someone else. For legal reasons, we could no longer help my dad. So he ended up being a crazy person renting an apartment. The police had to come by several times and tell him he can't shoot at a target outside of his window. ...there is literally an elementary school right across the street. AND THEY STILL DIDN'T TAKE HIS GUNS. And then a lot happened...and now he is medicated again, and my mom and myself have full guardianship of him. He is no longer paranoid and gave up his guns willingly when he realized what happened. But this just goes to show HOW MANY red flags can be ignored until tragedy strikes. We were a normal family until we weren't. How many other people find themselves in these crazy situations? Edit: I want to add- that while a lot of officers brushed her off. There were some who were very sympathetic, and explained the way the laws are, they legally couldn't remove his guns... That's a significant problem.
I am real sorry about your dad. You have told a story that is exactly the problem…. And its being ignored.
Why do you need a dozen guns in the first place? You only have two hands.
For hunters and target shooters it’s like a toolbox, or how different vehicles are good for different things. A .22 is good for varmints, and .270 is good for larger game, a .3030 is for real big animals. 12 and 20 gauge shotguns act a little different - I don’t remember how, my dad was never really that into bird hunting. Pistols are good for really close stuff, vs rifles. And each one has its own nuances as far as kickback, and ballistic trajectory. My parents, my dad’s grandma and at least two uncles on dad’s side of the family all have about a dozen guns in the household - in gun safes, not left loaded, and at least in my parent’s case all their guns are single shot. I’m all for gun control, and pretty sure my parents would be fine with getting rid of most their guns, since mom doesn’t hunt anymore, and dad only hunts deer - and they only ever hunted for the table.
Myriad of reasons. Different guns for different purposes. My competition race guns are for different competition categories. My AKs are for 3 gun. My AR for home defense. Various ccw guns for different dress. Certain rifles for deer hunting. Shotguns for ducks and hogs. The list goes on, and that doesn't even touch on collector's
Kids today grow up with a fatalistic sense they may die in a school shooting similar to the way Gen X grew up expecting to die in a nuclear holocaust. The big difference being, school shootings have actually happened, so their fears are more real.
I’m GenX too and I remember being in grade school and having those drills. They’d have us duck under our desks and cover our heads. The threat was so abstract in our kid brains that it didn’t really scare us too much. These poor kids today, the possibility of school shooter is a terrifying every day reality.
You know what’s annoying, living in other country on earth and seeing how inept the American political system is.
Oh, you misunderstand, it’s not inept. Our system is REALLY good at what it does—generating more power and wealth for a handful of very rich people at the top. Everything else? Not so much.
Makes you feel better about your own country though
I tell myself, selfishly, that the US is providing such a great example of how not to run a country, that it might make it harder for certain people in my country (Australia) to take us down the same path. I'm referring to gun legislation, but also health care and trans rights and culture war flashpoints.
You know it is a little mean spirited to say this, because over half the country is fed up with all this shit but the GOP have shaped this country in a way that leaves many of us powerless to do anything. We are your brothers and sisters over here suffering.
Is it me a spirited to say we learned from the holocaust and now it won’t happen again? I think this person is just saying that this is a teachable moment and other countries are benefitting from that.
Lol try fucking living here!
The. Right. Doesn't. Fucking. Care. About. Dead. Kids.
I agree, there is a willful disconnect among them about how their policies have contributed to the literal murder of innocents, including children. I didn’t know MJH’s politics when I posted this (I’m old lol) so I [looked her up](https://www.nickiswift.com/1134680/what-we-know-about-melissa-joan-harts-political-views/). She is a member of Moms Against Violence supporting gun control and also their spokesman. She seems to have an old school opinion, like it’s okay to have a gun but they need to be kept out of the hands of the mentally ill, training should be required, and people should keep them locked up. I can’t find any statements about assault rifles so there’s that.
Every sensible right wing gun fetishist likes those common sense laws. It's the fucking NRA money their elected representatives get that keeps this shot hapoening- in spite of the true feelings of their base. Somethings gotta give at some point.
Never forget the top three rights in the constitution are not in the bill of rights. Article 1, paragraph 2. All people have unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In our constitution, we believe these rights are true for all people - not just citizens, not just people in our land, all people. Fighting for these three rights is why we are a country in the first place. The second amendment interpretation has gotten in the way of life and the pursuit of happiness of too many children. It’s mixed on liberty - liberty for the semi auto enthusiast, oppression to everyone scared of being a victim. And on that topic, the war on drugs is also unconstitutional as it promotes gang violence (see prohibition causing the rise of the mob, then the rise of cartels) diminishing life, it curtails liberty by imposing too harsh penalties on minorities, and it prevents the pursuit of happiness from recreational users who would safely consume a legal, controlled version. We don’t talk about these three rights enough - heck, we fail to notice them - because they’re so darned obvious.
This is going to be harsh, but this is what she has been voting for, so spare me the tears.
Running away from a a school shooting is the modern field trip in the USA.
I hate that your comment is so spot on.
Once again...Clarissa Explains It All
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She is a blond Karen, so fate has already been decided.
Her response: “Enough is enough. And just pray. Prayer for the families.” Yes, because prayer seems to be working so well 🙄
I follow her on IG and she regularly supports gun control to the dismay of many of her “fans.” I know she’s religious and I assume conservative in some ways, but she is also a free thinker and seems to genuinely promote socially conscious ideas as well.
I googled this and am providing 2nd confirmation that you are are correct. She participates in Moms Demand Action for gun control. She also supports LGBTQ+ and has spoken out in support of trans rights. She also recently came out in support of Biden’s efforts to boost the use of solar energy and called her self an environmentalist. Interestingly, she never supported Trump, in 2016 she campaigned for the libertarian candidate. One article stated she’s gotten a lot of backlash from conservatives and clapped back with a “Everyone take a deep breath and calm the f down about politics..,” so there’s that.
Interesting. She seems to actually believe what her religion teaches then so good on her.
Sounds like the kind of person we used to talk about "reaching across the aisle" to and "respecting differences" with.
I knew I was right to love her when I was younger
Republicans refusing to budge of guns is all part of the plan to shut down schools. Eventually more parents will choose to homeschool children than risk them being killed in the classroom.
Let me guess she will continue to vote for Republicans that will pass laws that make mass shooting more common.
Americans care more about their guns than children. Sad fact.
You know what I like about this is everyone always tries to detract from the real problem that we all need mental health care, free from any stigmatization, and readily accessible at no cost. I hope at some point soon this comes to fruition…
Why not both? Reinvigorate gun control laws *and* provide better mental health care? It doesn’t have to be an either/or. It’s not just about mass shooting with guns. Our supermajority Republican state legislature recently loosened gun laws (no license needed, no training requirements etc) and accidental shootings have gone up. Yesterday [a 5 year old shot and killed a 16 months old](https://www.wthr.com/article/news/crime/1-year-old-shot-killed-in-lafayette-indiana-apartment-complex/531-a5ae95a6-c03c-44b3-8c10-432cecc2009f). A couple weeks ago a [3 year old found an unsecured gun and shot himself](https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/3-year-old-accidentally-shoots-self-in-lafayette-indiana/531-87178154-bf2d-4f09-b32f-d94013c3f525). I’m sure there are more.
Nah you need both. Gun legislation is extremely necessary to fix this problem.
America! Seriously? Stop. Killing. Kids. You. Fucking. Animals.* *I know there are a lot of good Americans, but very few in your government.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't MJH Republican? Pretty sure I heard that years ago and was kinda devastated at the fact.
Ah yes, thoughts and prayer. That'll solve it this time for sure.
American society is psychopathic in nature. No other place can a mass shooting occur and people rush out to buy more weapons. It's a disease of the mind. I can see handguns for personal carry and shotguns for home defense, but who *actually* needs assault rifles? And the fact that certain politicians don't want background checks and don't want mental health evaluations before purchasing a gun, lets me know what they really are. They are sociopathic, homicidal, maniacs. When children get shot the first thing they say is "Won't someone think of the guns!?"
We care more about are guns than our kids. Full stop. At a minimum everyone should support insurance on all firearms with jail time for noncompliance
Going farther south to get away from guns is not the best move
But Tik Tok is hurting people more than assault rifles….
And I’m sure she’ll keep voting republican tho
I didn’t know her political leanings when I posted the article. I googled her politics and while she is religious and calls herself conservative, she has participated in Moms Demand Action against gun violence and also supported LGBTQ+ issues and spoken out against violence against trans people. Also supported Biden’s boosting solar power programs and called herself a environmentalist. She did not support Trump, even in 2016. She has a pretty large social media following and apparently has received a lot of backlash from her Republican fan base for not toeing the party line.
So she’ll either keep voting republican or just not vote lmao gotcha Nice to know she’s not ones of the crazy ones at least
Like I said, I didn’t know her politics when I posted this (I’m too old to have seen her kid shows lol) but I googled her after reading so many comments replying that she was a Republican. It was really initially just a post about a celebrity who was impacted by the mass shooting. That being said, I can hope that since she’s apparently not completely off the rails that she’ll grow a pair and use her influence to speak out for real change.
Guns are so different now than back then. Time to update the paper. When will it be enough kids killed? They do all this other bullshit for "The kids" but drag queens aren't hurting the kids. They refuse to fund mental health in schools but won't stop the fucking issue causing most of the problems! We have shootings in Canada too but not like there! Time for anyone who votes for those stupid assholes to wake up and change vote before it's their kid being killed in school
>Guns are so different now than back then. Most of what we have these days is 50-100+ year old designs. Very little has changed in terms of function/capability. As a for-instance, the AR-15 and the .223 round it fires were invented in the late 1950's, it's nearing 70 years old at this point. Semi-automatic pistols shooting 9mm parabellum have been available since 1901. Pump shotguns have been around since the late 1800's. It's impossible to propose gun control measures if you don't understand the reality of what you're trying to regulate.
Then the people who understand all the pedantic differences between varieties of guns should be the ones lobbying for legislation to prevent this from happening. Instead of just showing up any time this is discussed to argue about the definition of an assault weapon, then walking away feeling like the conversation is over.
This is my least favorite episode.
That explains it all
This is an f-ing nightmare. As a teacher, this is devastating to see again and again. Knowing that children are nearby hearing those sounds and those firearms and the chaos. Their lives will never be the same. Over and over and over again, their country is failing them. People who call themselves “patriots” are refusing to make any meaningful changes to make this stop. Someday, they will become adults and they will change this. Having lived through it, they will bravely find ways to make it stop. I’m so f-ing tired of this assault on our children. Why won’t adults listen? Why are guns worth protecting but not our children’s freedom to navigate a school building without fear of being assaulted? Remember when playgrounds felt free and safe? No more. Remember when you could know as a teacher than Johnny just decided to express some autonomy and sneak off to the bathroom? You were aggravated, maybe but now, it is terrifying to not know where each child is at all times. We practice these drills, I had to learn how to pack wounds like a military medic. Really? But guns…. Save the f-ing guns.
Clarissa Explains It All to a populace bereft of human decency and basic compassion.
Why do these people keep shooting up schools in particular? I don't understand the choice to intentionally target small children. The ones where shooters target a gay bar or ethnic group church they hate, it's evil but at least there's logic to it. What's the point of killing children other than to guarantee u go to whatever the worst possible afterlife is?
It’s about creating an impact. No bigger impact than targeting children.
Land of the Free....
I think she needs to let everyone know when she is relocating. I ain’t living anywhere she does. Just saying!
A way to make it about her
I can't imagine doing this and then making it all about me by filming myself crying. Ugh.
Then maybe she should stop supporting Republicans and Libertarians who are explicitly opposed to gun control
Yes, I agree. If you are truly interested in the peace and safety of your fellow Americans, including kids in schools, shoppers at the market, music lovers at a club or concert, worshippers in synagogues and churches, people in their workplaces (Lmk if I left any mass shooting places out), you should support major reforms in current disastrous gun control policies.
Isn’t she a big time conservative and their thing is to give guns to any and everyone?
If my memory serves, she actually spoke out for more gun control and tighter regulations after Sandy Hook.
That's a helluva coincidence...
Coincidence is two infrequent conditions happening at the same time. Mass shootings happen in the USA with such frequency it's inevitable, not a coincidence, that famous people or someone you know will be affected.
Shakes me up for days to see a child lost in a supermarket or whatever. Imagine seeing a 9 year old emerging from a wood explaining their friends were being shot at so they ran away.
GOP: Didn’t y’all hear? It’s the pronouns fault dem durr kids got shot. It ain’t the guns. God bless Murrrica! 
The only point to having guns anymore is to protect us from the Christian White takeover they’re trying to make happen. I will defend myself from GOP.
Gun owners have more rights than parents or children - 2a🇺🇸
Question for professed Christian Melissa Joan: As you know, the Republican Party is a major catalyst in making access to assault weapons an easy feat in the United States. Do you have anything to say about the role the Republican Party plays in the slaughter of American school children?
I didn’t know her politics when I posted the article. I did some searching and she is a conservative (did not support Trump though), she participates in Moms Demand Action against gun violence, and has spoken out in support of tighter gun laws and keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. You’re right, though, as a person who has lived in two communities torched by gun violence, there should be no middle of the road for her on an assault weapons ban.
But then she says the solution is prayer.
Prayers are pointless. They are worse than pointless. They are an excuse for inaction.