Elephant In The Room...

Here we go again with another school shooting apparently by another POS. Obviously there's some mental issues involved but, in my opinion, that doesn't excuse his alleged action. What a sad time for all involved, I have no words to adequately describe their loss.

Nothing can excuse the action. This guy seems to have had a tough life, both parents dead by the time he's 18, living with friends. The question in my mind is why these people (kids) think this is a rational response?

We used to have guys come to school with their rifles in the truck so they go hunting after school. We never worried about it and nobody even though about attacking with them. What's the difference?

I'd still like to find out how he got his hands on the weapons. Did they belong to the family that he was living with? I hope not, if they had them unlocked near this kid they made a big mistake. Did he purchase them? If so, then I'm of the belief that this "juvenile" court has where everything you do before you turn 18 is erased has outlived it's usefulness. Any violence beyond a "you piss me off" fight needs to go into the record to be used to decide if your mental health is good enough to purchase a firearm.

The Sound Guy said:

Nothing can excuse the action. This guy seems to have had a tough life, both parents dead by the time he's 18, living with friends. The question in my mind is why these people (kids) think this is a rational response?

We used to have guys come to school with their rifles in the truck so they go hunting after school. We never worried about it and nobody even though about attacking with them. What's the difference?

I'd still like to find out how he got his hands on the weapons. Did they belong to the family that he was living with? I hope not, if they had them unlocked near this kid they made a big mistake. Did he purchase them? If so, then I'm of the belief that this "juvenile" court has where everything you do before you turn 18 is erased has outlived it's usefulness. Any violence beyond a "you piss me off" fight needs to go into the record to be used to decide if your mental health is good enough to purchase a firearm.

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I do believe that histories of violence or certain mental illness should survive the juvenile court process. The danger would come if judges decided that teen angst was enough to get you on the list. Any law would have to be very specific. Convictions for animal cruelty, domestic violence, repeat physical bullying, the use of any weapon to commit a crime, possession of a weapon on school grounds, as well as any involuntary commitment longer than 72 hours for potential violence or suicide should be there. There are signs, and apparently this kid displayed pretty much all of them.

But by all means let's go after the tool he used instead.

lotstodo said:

I do believe that histories of violence or certain mental illness should survive the juvenile court process. The danger would come if judges decided that teen angst was enough to get you on the list. Any law would have to be very specific. Convictions for animal cruelty, domestic violence, repeat physical bullying, the use of any weapon to commit a crime, possession of a weapon on school grounds, as well as any involuntary commitment longer than 72 hours for potential violence or suicide should be there. There are signs, and apparently this kid displayed pretty much all of them.

But by all means let's go after the tool he used instead.

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From what Cain reported, this was his dad's rifle that he got when his parents died. That's a loophole that I'm not sure can be closed without stomping many of our rights into the ground.

The Sound Guy said:

From what Cain reported, this was his dad's rifle that he got when his parents died. That's a loophole that I'm not sure can be closed without stomping many of our rights into the ground.

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That would be a tough one to enforce, but people with serious mental illness do not need to possess weapons regardless of how they obtain them.

Turns out he was reported to the FBI for a threatening post made on YouTube, but apparently the FBI didn't or couldn't properly identify him. The more we hear about him, the less surprising this is.

lotstodo said:

That would be a tough one to enforce, but people with serious mental illness do not need to possess weapons regardless of how they obtain them.

Turns out he was reported to the FBI for a threatening post made on YouTube, but apparently the FBI didn't or couldn't properly identify him. The more we hear about him, the less surprising this is.

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But more government is the answer.

Never mine that government already failed to deal with him

More government is still the answer.

I was flipping through the channels...
Saw all the news channels are running endless 'high emotion' stuff...
Yet literally NOBODY seems to want to solve the issue... just make $$$ off the issue.

IMO until the public decides they want the issue solved... it will not be.
That is, until it becomes a frenzy... and a STUPID law is passed... which does more damage than it fixes.

Until there are mental health facilities that are also schools for these troubled youth, we will continue to see this.

Schools are scary places when you have these angry young people who are not sent early enough to an appropriate place for help. How many kids said they knew it would be him? Many.

Every middle school and high school can name their top 20 hot-head, at risk youths.... who none of the students who went to school with these hot-heads would be surprised if they lost it and did something as anti-life as this recent miscredente. Yes, sad background... predictable outcome.

If parents to kids like this cannot, or do not get them help... which is sadly very hard to find ... the schools will do little to isolate and expel them. Most of these volatile-loner-odd-angry-antisocial children have special rights to an education because most of them by middle school have Individual Educational Program - IEP. My understanding is it is very hard to expel them. IMHO at the expense of the kids who are average predictable citizens. And yet he was expelled and the Broward County school district Superintendent Robert Runcie said they had no knowledge of problems with Cruz. (I call B.S.) see news articlebelow.

We no longer institutionalize children. Are we willing to accept this outcome by embracing an inclusive environment for all children?

Some kids interviewed gave information that there were problems back in Middle School too. Administrators will not do anything because then it causes the state to have to provide help, and there is no funding to do that. A political hot potato of funding issues.

Everything I read said his foster mom did everything she could to give the brothers a great life and help them... I do not think that is where the problem was... just a mental one. His brain and the way he is wired seems to be messed up. He needed a different type of help a mom, and apparently public schools could not provide.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article200126034.html

Charo, his former classmate, said Cruz had earlier been suspended from Stoneman Douglas High for fighting — and also because he was found with bullets in his backpack. Sheriff Israel said at a news conference that Cruz had been expelled for “disciplinary reasons” but he did not provide any details of what led to that action.

Math teacher Jim Gard remembered that the school administration earlier sent out an email warning teachers about Cruz.

“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” said Gard, who had him in class. “There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.”

Drew Fairchild, a Stoneman Douglas High student stranded at the Marriott Heron Bay, where students were taken after the shooting, said he shared a class with Cruz during their freshman year.

“He used to have weird, random outbursts, cursing at teachers,” Fairchild said. “He was a troubled kid.”

The parent of another student agreed, saying his son, Daniel, had warned him about Cruz.

“If you were to pick one person you might predict in the future would shoot up a school or do this, it would be this kid,” said John Crescitelli, quoting his son.

Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that he did not know of any concerns raised about the student. “We received no warnings,” Runcie said. “Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didn’t have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.”


Houston here is the problem! Look at the statement above from the Superintendent. vs what everyone knew!

Two more incidents this week, but because one was stopped (using a knife - 14 YO) and the other only shot himself in the school bathroom (at 13YO!) you won't hear about it on the national news.

We've got a bigger problem than just "Guns".

HARDINSBURG, Ky. (AP) — Police say a Kentucky middle school student who brought a large knife to school has been charged with attempted murder.

A statement from Kentucky State Police says administrators at Breckinridge County Middle School found the knife while searching the 14-year-old boy Tuesday morning as he entered the building. Police said the boy told detectives that he planned to stab other students.

Authorities say school officials were “acting on information and familiarity” with the juvenile when they searched him.

After finding the weapon, school officials called police, who took the boy into custody and charged him. His identity wasn’t released due to his age.

Police say he was ordered to remain in juvenile detention until a hearing date can be set.

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Newslink

MASSILLON, Ohio (AP) — A seventh-grader who died a day after shooting himself inside a middle school restroom had fireworks and extra ammunition in his backpack, police said on Wednesday.

Investigators were reviewing cellphones and other electronics found at the boy’s home, but it was too early to know whether the shooting was intentional or if the 13-year-old had other plans, said Jackson Township Police Chief Mark Brink.

“We can make assumptions,” he said. “I’m not willing to do that.”

The boy shot himself on Tuesday just before classes began at Jackson Middle School, near Massillon, police said. No other students were injured.

He died at a hospital on Wednesday, according to the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The boy took the .22-caliber long gun from his mother’s house and managed to conceal it under his clothes while he rode a bus to school, Brink said. Others who saw him that morning didn’t notice he was hiding anything.

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Newslink

One problem in all of this is the lack of parenting by a large percentage of the adult population who have children. Rather than being a parent, they would much rather be their child's best friend. Discipline is lacking in homes and computers and television are being used as babysitters. Many of these kids and young adults today lack social skills, responsibility, and think everything should be "fair."

The entertainment industry produces garbage promoting violence and sex; this includes video games. The problem is not guns. The problem is society.

This week has been exactly what this shooter, and the next one, want. Non-stop news of their act. Stop going apoplectic every time and this crap will stop. They see themselves as going out "with a bang" and becoming infamous.