18 School shootings this year

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http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...hool-shootings-so-far-in-2018/article/2649183

No, there have not been 18 school shootings so far in 2018
by Siraj Hashmi

The problem is that it's not accurate. There haven't been 18 of what we would refer to as "school shootings" in 2018. The media is either sheepishly or deliberately moving the goalposts and widening the definition of what constitutes a school shooting.

Of the 18 school shootings as listed by the pro-gun control group, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, here's what actually happened in each of these cases:

1) A man committed suicide using a gun in an elementary school parking lot when the school was closed and there were no children present in Clinton County, Mich., on Jan. 3.

2) Shots were fired at New Start High School near Burien, Wash., on Jan. 4. No one was hurt or injured, and no suspects were apprehended.

*3) A 32-year-old man shot a pellet gun at a school bus, shattering a window, in Forest City, Iowa, on Jan. 6. No injuries were reported, and the suspect was apprehended.

4) A Grayson College student confused a real gun with a training gun and accidentally fired a bullet into a wall on Jan. 10. No injuries were reported.

5) A 14-year-old seventh-grade student shot and killed himself inside the bathroom of Coronado Elementary School in Cochise County, Ariz., on Jan. 10.

6) Gunshots were fired at a campus building at Cal State-San Bernardino on Jan. 10. No injuries were reported.

7) Two people in a car exchanged gunfire at a Wiley College dorm parking lot on Jan. 15. No deaths or injuries were reported and no suspects were arrested, however, one bullet was fired into a dorm room with three female students inside.

8) A Winston-Salem State University football player was shot and killed at a sorority party following an argument in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Jan. 20.

9) A 16-year-old male student shot a 15-year-old female student in the cafeteria at Italy High School in Italy, Texas, on Jan. 22. While the victim was injured, she was expected to make a full recovery. The shooter was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. This one we would probably all refer to as a proper "school shooting."

10) An unknown assailant in a pickup truck drove by the NET Charter High School in Gentilly, La., and shot at a group of students on Jan. 22. A 14-year-old boy was initially thought to have suffered a gunshot graze, but it turned out to be an abrasion.

11) A 15-year-old male student shot and killed two students and wounded 18 others at Marshall County High School in Benton, Ky., on Jan. 23. The shooter was apprehended.

12) A 16-year-old student fired a gun at another 16-year-old student during an altercation at Murphy High School in Mobile, Ala., on Jan. 25. No injuries were reported and the suspect was taken into custody.

13) Shots were fired in the parking lot during an altercation between two nonstudents during a basketball at Dearborn High School in Dearborn, Mich., on Jan. 26. No injuries were reported, and no suspects were arrested.

14) A 32-year-old man was shot and killed in the parking lot outside Lincoln High School in Philadelphia, Penn., on Jan. 31 during what police believed to be an altercation between students from rival schools. No suspects were arrested.

15) A 12-year-old female student accidentally fired a real gun thinking it was a fake gun. Four students were injured, including one who suffered a gunshot wound to the head, at Sal Castro Middle School in Los Angeles, Calif., on Feb. 1. The 12-year-old girl was taken into custody.

16) A teenage boy was shot in the chest and nearly killed by another student who conspired with the boy's ex-girlfriend in the parking lot of Oxon Hill High School in Oxon Hill, Md., on Feb. 5. The suspect was taken into custody and charged with attempted murder.

17) A third-grade student pulled the trigger of a police officer's holstered weapon at the Harmony Learning Center in Maplewood, Minn., on Feb. 5. No injuries were reported.

18) A 17-year-old student was arrested after firing a gun into the floor of a classroom of Metropolitan High School in the Bronx, N.Y., on Feb. 8.

19) The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday that left 17 dead.

Now, you'll notice that there are 19 shooting incidents listed above, not 18 like the media were trying to make you believe. That's because the third incident on the list involving a pellet gun and a school bus has at least been ruled out as a "school shooting," after it was included in the list of 11 school shootings by the media after the shooting in Benton, Ky., on Jan. 23. But frankly, most of the incidents above — probably at least 14 of them, don't really qualify as what we think of as "school shootings" at all.

And of all the shootings listed above, only two qualify as mass school shootings — the one in Benton, Ky., and the shooting in Parkland, Fla. this week. Everything else was either an isolated incident, non-school-related, or an accident.

Make no mistake, every shooting incident listed above is concerning and indicative of a cultural problem in how people deal with conflict resolution, but, in no way is a mass shooting at a school happening every 2-3 days in the United States. It's an unfair, dishonest, and disingenuous characterization by the media. Don't let an emotional issue like gun violence prevent you from remembering to report the facts.
 

RamFan503

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2018 isn't even 7 weeks old and we have 18 of these horrible events.

I don't blame "guns" or "gun laws" because they haven't really changed all that much over the years. If anything, they are slightly more restrictive. So it's not the law.

What the freak is causing these to occur at an ever increasing rate???

Gun culture?

Violence in modern music?

Video games?

A sense of despair among young people?

I would bet that the US has more school shooting than the rest of the world combined.
First I'll just say the obvious. Even one school shooting is too many. It is tragic and though difficult to prevent, we need to look at all aspects to try to stop it.

As to the 18 school shooting stat, it is intentionally misleading. Three were actually intentional attempts to kill students. The rest were either gang related fights, suicides (one just outside of the parking lot of a school), or accidental. While all 18 are disturbing and need to be addressed, the lumping of them all together is not only wrong but irresponsible and is an attempt to use stats in a dangerously misleading way for the sake of an agenda.

The suicides need to be looked at as just that. The gang violence needs to be addressed. The accidental stuff is the result of unfathomable stupidity. The actual shootings are the most troubling to me though. And the causation needs to be looked at with an intense eye - not one that is aiming at making new laws or protecting big pharma or turning a blind eye to ANYTHING.

There is no evidence of that, and that kind of speculation and supposition isn't fair.

In other words..........that's just bullcrap.
Bullshit? Almost every mass shooting in this country has been committed by someone who has been prescribed and taking psychiatric drugs. Dismissing this FACT as bullshit is exactly what will ensure that this cycle continues. Big pharma is pushing these drugs even though they KNOW the side effects are often deepening depression, and the inability to associate behavior with responsibility. It is the easy answer by schools and doctors to just give the kid some Prozac or Ritalin, or......

When my kids were in elementary school, they tried to get us to allow our boys to go on one of them (I honestly don't recall which one off hand). We were having none of it. Anyone who has met our boys knows they are very normal kids. But because our oldest was a bit of a loner in school - much like me - and our youngest was "very distracted" - again, also much like me - they wanted to put them on drugs that would correct this behavior and make it easier for them and their teachers.

Fast forward - my oldest was Valedictorian and my youngest tested as genius and is majoring in Astrophysics. My oldest is in the Air Force and received a medal of achievement (one of only five handed out) for his work in Turkey and early advancement 9 months early. My youngest is working almost full time while attending UofO. Yeah - they needed to be drugged.

Unfortunately, too many parents just accept what they are being told by teachers and physicians. IMO - it's an epidemic. And the more you look into it, the facts are there. At minimum, it bears more light being shed on it. What has changed? Drug use on our children is a huge change.

Here are some excerpts from an article that discusses it. There are many more studies that have come up with the same conclusions. They simply can't be dismissed as bullshit as if the medical profession is infallible.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/drugs...dness-and-the-las-vegas-mass-shooting/5612178

“Psychiatrist Peter Breggin’s Medication Madness is a fascinating, frightening and dramatic look at the role that psychiatric medications have played in 50 case histories of suicide, murder (including mass shooters), and other violent, criminal and bizarre behaviors…Psychiatric drugs frequently cause individuals to lose their judgment and their ability to control their emotions and actions…Many categories of psychiatric drugs can cause potentially horrendous reactions. Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta, Xanax, lithium, Zyprexa and other psychiatric medications may spellbind patients into believing they are improved when too often they are becoming worse. Psychiatric drugs drive some people into psychosis, mania, depression, suicide, agitation, compulsive violence and loss of self-control without the individuals realizing that their medications have deformed their way of thinking and feeling…the FDA, the medical establishment and the pharmaceutical industry have oversold the value (and undersold the dangers) of psychiatric drugs.” – From the liner notes to Peter Breggin’s Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-altering Medications

I end with a few of the many examples of school shooters whose brains were adversely affected by the drugs prescribed by their psychiatrists (who were obviously ignorant of the homicidality and suicidality consequences that were known adverse effects of the drugs.


  • Charles Whitman, age 25, the “Clock Tower Sniper” at the University of Texas/Austin (1966), an Eagle scout and an ex-Marine sharp-shooter was taking (and/or withdrawing from) prescribed Dexedrine (amphetamine) and barbiturates. 14 dead, 31 wounded.
  • Eric Harris, age 18, was on Luvox when he and Dylan Klebold killed classmates and a teacher in Littleton, Colorado (1999). Klebold’s medical records were sealed. Both Harris and Klebold shot and killed themselves. 15 dead, 23 wounded.
  • Jeff Weise, age 16, was on 60 mg of Prozac (three times the average starting dose for adults!) when he shot and killed his grandfather, his grandfather’s girlfriend and 8 fellow students at Red Lake, Minnesota (2005). He then shot himself. 10 dead, 12 wounded.
  • Seung-Hui Cho, age 23, the shooter in the Virginia Tech Massacre (2007) was on Paxil. 33 dead, 29 wounded.
  • James Holmes, age 29, the Batman Shooter at Aurora, CO (2012) had been prescribed the brain-altering drugs Zoloft (sertraline), Klonopin (clonazepam), and Inderal (propranolol). 12 dead, 70 wounded.
  • Kip Kinkel, age 15, the “Killer at Thurston High” (1998), was taking Prozac and withdrawing from Ritalin when he shot up his cafeteria in Springfield, OR. 4 dead (including his two parents) 22 wounded.
  • Steven Kazmierczak, age 27, had been taking Prozac, Xanax and Ambien when he went on a shooting rampage before killing himself at Northern Illinois University. 5 dead, 16 wounded.
  • Shawn Cooper, age 15, was taking Ritalin when he fired a shotgun at school.
  • Elizabeth Bush, age 14, was on Paxil when she shot at fellow students in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, wounding one.
  • Mitchell Johnson, age 13, was taking an unspecified psych drug when he shot at fellow students in Jonesboro, Arkansas. 5 dead, many others wounded.
  • T. J. Solomon, age 15, was taking Ritalin when he shot six classmates in Conyers, Georgia.
  • Jason Hoffman, age 18, was on Effexor and Celexa when he shot at fellow students at his high school in El Cajon, California. 5 wounded.
  • Asa Coon, age 14, was on Trazodone when he shot and wounded four students at his school before killing himself.
 

LesBaker

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As to the 18 school shooting stat, it is intentionally misleading.

You are correct it is misleading.

bullcrap? Almost every mass shooting in this country has been committed by someone who has been prescribed and taking psychiatric drugs.

I was calling bullshit on the occult part.

Way too many kids are medicated and I would bet in many cases it's really unnecessary. And it's pretty much impossible to assign the actions to a drug. Considering how many kids are on drugs like this we would see this more often I would guess.
 
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bluecoconuts

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Sort of contradicting yourself.
But this is one of those issues that will always lead to contradiction.
Some things that need to be done....forcing clearly mentally ill people to get mental health care would require the funding and infrastructure to provide that care. It would also require a politically active judiciary to leave it alone. Neither, sadly, is likely to happen. Hell, in Ca mental hospitals for the criminally insane the staff cannot force prisoners to take their meds.
A lot of fascits to it.

I dont think its contradictory. For sure I think there are things that can be done. The evidence is already there in the sense that we're the only modern country who has this issue as often as we do. However, it's not as simple as "better mental health care!" or "ban all guns!" Or "ban violent video games/TV/music/whatever"

It requires multiple angles.

I think the reason why it happens here more than other places is largely due to how everything has to be political now days, which means nothing gets done. There's enough minor issues spread across multiple different areas that creates a perfect environment for it to occur. There's no one single simple answer, it's more complicated than that.

I mean the kid was all over the internet listening to conspiracy theories and talking repeatedly how he wanted to kill everyone in those stupid Antifa groups, and people didn't say "hey that's too far" they encouraged it, and agreed. That's a problem, isn't It? That it became "normal" to threaten to shoot and kill people to express frustration over politics and things that relate? I think that's a problem, but how do you fix it?

I've shot people, I've watched them bleed out, when it comes to war that happens. It's real and it changes how you look at things, no matter who you are.

But people talk about it like it's a joke. And then when people who have serious issues and should be watched say the same thing, not joking, nobody can tell. It's hard to tell who's joking and who's serious.

The more it happens the more likely it is to occur again, because the more people have it on their mind.

It's a complicated issue that requires a complicated answer. It's not simple.
 

RamFan503

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You are correct it is misleading.



I was calling bullcrap on the occult part.

Way too many kids are medicated and I would bet in many cases it's really unnecessary. And it's pretty much impossible to assign the actions to a drug. Considering how many kids are on drugs like this we would see this more often I would guess.
The occult was a topic in the Columbine shooting. I'm not sure it was a factor or even a side story to any of the others. The two were however, in a very dark place and on medication. There were lots of warning signs. To me, being that young and dark is a pretty bad sign. Combine that with the drugs and you are potentially compounding the problem.

We only see the extreme cases. There are many other cases where these drugs have resulted in violent or self destructive behavior. We shouldn't only care if it results in a mass shooting. I'm sorry but the mass drugging of society is a huge problem. I don't care much about social drug use. It's the government run and sanctioned drug pushing that is IMO criminal.

The real thing I think needs to be looked at with an intense eye is what role these drugs have played in violence in this country. Instead the big money in education and pharma studies with a goal of disproving the claims and promoting the use of these drugs. It is worse than the tobacco industry trying to prove no ill affects from tobacco use. These people using the drugs are not just killing themselves. And the pushers spend billions distracting with bullshit theories and more useless laws.
 

Rmfnlt

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Some kid brought a handgun and ammunition into a local high school here today... this WILL become a bigger problem
 

Mackeyser

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We're all walking a tightrope trying not to kill this very important thread.

Well, I'm gonna shake the wire a bit. Cuz... I think it's important. And I'll keep it short and to the point.

1) Mentally Ill people should not have guns. Period. Neither should anyone on the No-Fly list. If anyone knowingly allows, supports or hides the fact that a mentally ill person (as defined by current and future laws) is in possession of a firearm OF ANY KIND or ammo OF ANY KIND, then they should be considered co-conspirators and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. So, you know Uncle Larry is really mentally ill and has that stockpile of rifles from when he was an avid hunter? You know they were all legally obtained, but you also know that he's unstable? Okay. Say nothing and YOU also go to jail if anything happens.

And yes, that means the background checks need to be a meaningful thing, private sales need to be at the very least brokered by a certified gun dealer (for a reasonable fee which would include certifying the background check) and the gun show loophole CLOSED.

2) Mental health care in this country cannot be less available than dental insurance. We're in a time of massive social change and in every period when that happens, there have been issues that society struggled to address. Mental health has to be addressed or this never ends.

3) As long as we see healthcare as a profit center, we'll have drug companies trying to make money off of every symptom known to man (and before anyone gets confused, when it comes to medical devices and many of the drugs we use, they are created in Europe, Japan or South Korea, all countries with some kind of socialized medicine, so it's not like if the drug companies can't rip us off, that they won't still make drugs. They do and still make skads of money). Virtually every shooter had some drug in them that changes their brain chemistry such that it actually exacerbates their inclination to harm others(edit: or themselves). In other words, until we get to the point where it's not a question of "which pill" as soon as someone deviates from some norm, this stuff is gonna keep happening. That sorta goes back to the mental health care deal. We all own a house or a car (most of us anyway). Duct tape is a short-term fix for a lot of things, but would you buy a house that was clearly duct taped together? A car? But somehow, it's okay for us to treat our brains that way? Makes absolutely NO sense.

Having lost a child, I'm intimately familiar with what these family's losses can look and feel like (while acknowledging that no loss is the same and I would never assume I knew what someone else's loss meant to them).

I think there is a way to respect everyone's humanity, respect the rights of law-abiding citizens and address this crisis.

That's gonna require ALL OF US to focus on the issues and the solutions and let go of any dogma.

And since dogma and opinion seem to be the only political currency these days, I think we're in for many more decades of these disgusting and unconscionable tragedies.

If facts, data, humility, humanity, and respect were brought to the table, we'd have a chance.

But if we could just start on getting guns out of the hands of CLEARLY mentally ill people and/or terrorists that have already been vetted enough to end up on a NO FLY list... Well, I think that'd be a start.

And yeah, that was short for me.

Hopefully, I didn't shake the wire so much that I kill the thread.

Best to all and prayers for all of those who have and continue to suffer from these tragedies as well as prayers for those who will in the future.
 

Angry Ram

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Some kid brought a handgun and ammunition into a local high school here today... this WILL become a bigger problem

This sentence really pisses me off. If he did as a joke, it's sickening. And I've seen dumbass kids do this when I was in high school and [substitute] taught in high school.
 

Memento

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I honestly think the murdering bastard would be a psychopath with or without medication. He apparently talked about killing animals like cats and dogs for fun on his social media account. Only psychopaths do that.
 

fearsomefour

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The occult was a topic in the Columbine shooting. I'm not sure it was a factor or even a side story to any of the others. The two were however, in a very dark place and on medication. There were lots of warning signs. To me, being that young and dark is a pretty bad sign. Combine that with the drugs and you are potentially compounding the problem.

We only see the extreme cases. There are many other cases where these drugs have resulted in violent or self destructive behavior. We shouldn't only care if it results in a mass shooting. I'm sorry but the mass drugging of society is a huge problem. I don't care much about social drug use. It's the government run and sanctioned drug pushing that is IMO criminal.

The real thing I think needs to be looked at with an intense eye is what role these drugs have played in violence in this country. Instead the big money in education and pharma studies with a goal of disproving the claims and promoting the use of these drugs. It is worse than the tobacco industry trying to prove no ill affects from tobacco use. These people using the drugs are not just killing themselves. And the pushers spend billions distracting with bullcrap theories and more useless laws.
More than one, not near all.
 

fearsomefour

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I honestly think the murdering bastard would be a psychopath with or without medication. He apparently talked about killing animals like cats and dogs for fun on his social media account. Only psychopaths do that.
Clearly a psychopath or sociopath or narcissistic or depressed or a combo of all of the above.
Psychotropic meds (anti depressants) can have paradoxical effects....particularly with teenagers.
Maybe he was on meds (one would assume), maybe he was and stopped taking them. It's not an exact science.
The issue is the bigger picture.
 

fearsomefour

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We're all walking a tightrope trying not to kill this very important thread.

Well, I'm gonna shake the wire a bit. Cuz... I think it's important. And I'll keep it short and to the point.

1) Mentally Ill people should not have guns. Period. Neither should anyone on the No-Fly list. If anyone knowingly allows, supports or hides the fact that a mentally ill person (as defined by current and future laws) is in possession of a firearm OF ANY KIND or ammo OF ANY KIND, then they should be considered co-conspirators and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. So, you know Uncle Larry is really mentally ill and has that stockpile of rifles from when he was an avid hunter? You know they were all legally obtained, but you also know that he's unstable? Okay. Say nothing and YOU also go to jail if anything happens.

And yes, that means the background checks need to be a meaningful thing, private sales need to be at the very least brokered by a certified gun dealer (for a reasonable fee which would include certifying the background check) and the gun show loophole CLOSED.

2) Mental health care in this country cannot be less available than dental insurance. We're in a time of massive social change and in every period when that happens, there have been issues that society struggled to address. Mental health has to be addressed or this never ends.

3) As long as we see healthcare as a profit center, we'll have drug companies trying to make money off of every symptom known to man (and before anyone gets confused, when it comes to medical devices and many of the drugs we use, they are created in Europe, Japan or South Korea, all countries with some kind of socialized medicine, so it's not like if the drug companies can't rip us off, that they won't still make drugs. They do and still make skads of money). Virtually every shooter had some drug in them that changes their brain chemistry such that it actually exacerbates their inclination to harm others(edit: or themselves). In other words, until we get to the point where it's not a question of "which pill" as soon as someone deviates from some norm, this stuff is gonna keep happening. That sorta goes back to the mental health care deal. We all own a house or a car (most of us anyway). Duct tape is a short-term fix for a lot of things, but would you buy a house that was clearly duct taped together? A car? But somehow, it's okay for us to treat our brains that way? Makes absolutely NO sense.

Having lost a child, I'm intimately familiar with what these family's losses can look and feel like (while acknowledging that no loss is the same and I would never assume I knew what someone else's loss meant to them).

I think there is a way to respect everyone's humanity, respect the rights of law-abiding citizens and address this crisis.

That's gonna require ALL OF US to focus on the issues and the solutions and let go of any dogma.

And since dogma and opinion seem to be the only political currency these days, I think we're in for many more decades of these disgusting and unconscionable tragedies.

If facts, data, humility, humanity, and respect were brought to the table, we'd have a chance.

But if we could just start on getting guns out of the hands of CLEARLY mentally ill people and/or terrorists that have already been vetted enough to end up on a NO FLY list... Well, I think that'd be a start.

And yeah, that was short for me.

Hopefully, I didn't shake the wire so much that I kill the thread.

Best to all and prayers for all of those who have and continue to suffer from these tragedies as well as prayers for those who will in the future.
Point number 3 is laughable.
 

fearsomefour

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I dont think its contradictory. For sure I think there are things that can be done. The evidence is already there in the sense that we're the only modern country who has this issue as often as we do. However, it's not as simple as "better mental health care!" or "ban all guns!" Or "ban violent video games/TV/music/whatever"

It requires multiple angles.

I think the reason why it happens here more than other places is largely due to how everything has to be political now days, which means nothing gets done. There's enough minor issues spread across multiple different areas that creates a perfect environment for it to occur. There's no one single simple answer, it's more complicated than that.

I mean the kid was all over the internet listening to conspiracy theories and talking repeatedly how he wanted to kill everyone in those stupid Antifa groups, and people didn't say "hey that's too far" they encouraged it, and agreed. That's a problem, isn't It? That it became "normal" to threaten to shoot and kill people to express frustration over politics and things that relate? I think that's a problem, but how do you fix it?

I've shot people, I've watched them bleed out, when it comes to war that happens. It's real and it changes how you look at things, no matter who you are.

But people talk about it like it's a joke. And then when people who have serious issues and should be watched say the same thing, not joking, nobody can tell. It's hard to tell who's joking and who's serious.

The more it happens the more likely it is to occur again, because the more people have it on their mind.

It's a complicated issue that requires a complicated answer. It's not simple.
We agree.
Basically what I have been saying.
Complex issue without simple answers.
I think we are all tired of the same platitudes and nonsensical political BS.
Of course, the question becomes where and how to start?
Once started and more shooting happen people will scream and yell that it's (whatever attempts were being made) not working. This is the issue with prevention. It is hard to measure.
 
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