School Shooting in Texas (Santa Fe, TX) 05/18/2018

Yesterday a student killed 8 students 2 teachers wounding 10 more in yet another mass shooting at a school in the United States. As the news continues to showcase stories of various mass school shootings from across the country I think back to the time I spent in the public school system and a few thoughts come to mind.

I was a High School Student in the early 1990's (Class of 95) and can recall that as a Senior I never once had heard of a mass school shooting. In fact... my school had a High School Marksmanship and Shooting Team in which we regularly fired hi-power assault style rifles at state and national matches. A gun rack with a 12 gauge or 30-06 wasn't uncommon in a pickup truck parked in the school parking lot. It never occurred to me nor anyone I knew that such a mass shooting could or would occur.

Bullying / Teasing are two things identified as at times being the catalyst for the modern day school shooting.

Despite our best efforts there will always be a class bully... The Biff Tannen vs McFly (Back to the Future Reference) dynamic will continue to be played out across generations - When I was a student growing up there were no police officers on campus, no metal detectors! Conflicts and disputes were sometimes solved with our fists after school out behind the gym or in the student parking lot. I personally found the few fights I was involved in important to my development as there are lessons to be learned while we are developing intellectually, going through puberty, and learning about problem solving, conflict resolution, relationships, integrity, and standing up for ourselves or those who cant stand up for themselves (disabled/handicapped).

I'm not condoning school ground fights but simply highlighting the fact that they were much more common place and students generally were not escorted to jail as a result. After an altercation often both students were called into the office and were usually both punished with the aggressor or instigator receiving the harsher of the punishments. A week or two of detention was normal or, perhaps even a 3 day suspension. In the end the students usually settled the conflict.

I think there are valuable lessons to be learned from the experience of getting your ears boxed. We learn boundaries and how to set them, we also learn how to accept people that are different then ourselves and are taught tolerance and restraint. As we age we acquire more tools to better enable us to solve conflict and deal with stress and unpleasant people or situations. Recently I was talking to a student who informed me that they had never seen a fight at school as if they are in anyway associated with a physical altercation (fight) both parties are brought to Juvenile Detention and arrested. My initial reaction was a bit of surprise as I was not aware that such a response is relatively common practice.

Thinking back to stories I was told growing up I can remember a time and age when if you went running your mouth about someone's family, telling your momma jokes, insulting someone's character or crossed certain boundaries you could expect to be called out and should be prepared for a fist in the face. "Them are fighting words" Our grandparents and parents settled their disputes and dealt with stressful situations very differently then youth today..

I see the millennials walking out of classrooms and marching for a solution to the mass shooting trend that has shaped into an unfair attack on Assault Style Weapons and reinforced a narrative that strips us of our protections to privacy and further undermines our civil rights while creating opportunity for legislatures and special interests to further erode our civil liberties protecting us from unreasonable search and seizure. As mentioned many of the students where I went to school had easy and ready access to firearms. Many had 30.06 and shotguns in their vehicles parked on campus. Despite the easy and ready access to weapons our nation had yet to have a significant mass shooting event at a school.

I began thinking back to the conversation I had with the High School Student and had to wonder... If kids today were not threatened with Juvenile Hall and arrest and were instead encouraged to solve their problems non violently... punished... and returned to school would we still have the trend of mass shootings within our schools or might those same disturbed students ended up out back behind the school and received some experience in conflict resolution that didn't result in mass shootings, murder, and suicide.

Though I don't condone bullying, some amount of "kids being kids fighting" can help build character. Take me for example. At age 13 I moved to Oregon from Southern California. My first day of public school I was taking the bus and being new started cracking jokes and making fun of "Oregonians" as I thought referring to ones self as an Oregonian was lame and quickly took to making fun of people from Oregon. A few kids on the bus decided to teach me a lesson and I found myself on the other side of a knuckle sandwich. When I arrived home and explained to my parents why I had gotten in a fight I was punished and it was explained to me why making fun of kids for being from Oregon while riding a school bus to school in Oregon probably wasn't the best idea if I weren't looking to start a fight. Years earlier after being bullied by 3 brothers at school and eventually getting into a fight with them I came home with my first shiner. I was a victim of classic bullying and got beat up while walking my very first girlfriend home from school at about age 12. The entire experience was very humiliating. The students were suspended for 3 days and I was told something that would stick with me my entire life.

I was told the next time should I find myself in a similar situation - So long as the circumstances were similar and I was not provoking or rightfully deserving of a whooping. I was to pick the tallest and biggest of the bullies and without participating in the name calling and trash talking simply punch the kid as hard as I could. The bullies would likely jump in and kick my butt but that I was likely going to get beat up anyway if I didn't throw the first punch. I was told if I came home with two black eyes and had done what I was told and hit the biggest of the kids that based on the details I would not be in trouble at home but that if I came hold with two black eyes and did not throw the first punch instead allow myself to be bullied like the first time I'd be in more trouble. The principal being that when you stand up for yourself, even if you get beat on or a butt whooping if every single time your bullied and you find yourself in imminent danger of being assaulted you throw a punch... eventually those bullies or kids are going to say... "Hey we can pick on the new kid... but every time we corner him and pick on him he punches one of us and then we kick his butt...." lets pick on someone else as after a short while they decide its not worth taking the punch and its not as much fun bullying someone who fights back even when you win. This teaches us boundaries, how to define them, and how to stand up for ourselves and or our friends and principals. It also reinforces a method of vetting our differences, dealing with bullies, that though not ideal is also not a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

The second part I'd like to talk about is so incredibly logical (to me anyway) that I'm unsure why I haven't heard other people proposing something similar to what occurred to me. Many states have begun charging accomplices or co-defendants with capital murder in instances where their partner in crime was killed either by a homeowner, policeman, or intended victim while in the commission of a crime.

There are cases in which two teens are committing a home invasion and the police are dispatched. The police arrive and a chase ensues in which police use deadly force whether it be justified, a case of "I thought he had a gun", or other scenario. Even though the police officer shot suspect #2 for example… suspect #1 may be charged with the murder of suspect #2. If we can hold suspect #1 responsible and legally charge them with murder given the example above why then do we not see parents charged in cases in which the parents guns are used by the kids to commit these shootings?

As parents it is your responsibility to keep the uncontrolled access to firearms by your kids from happening. In instances where a student simply opens a parents sock drawer or uses a cache of unsecured, uncontrolled, easily accessible weapons to commit mass shootings these parents in some cases should be charged with a fitting felony. Criminal negligence leading to accidental death or child endangerment or other charges that reflect the failure to adequately secure firearms. In cases where reasonable and sensible safeguards have been taken (Trigger Locks, Gun Safes, Etc) then perhaps parents need not face our justice system. In such cases where reasonable and prudent safety measures are taken but the kids obtain the weapons anyway the parents themselves are collateral victims.

If your teenager has ready and free access to unsecured and loaded firearms and uses your weapons in a large mass suicide and its clear that there was a culture which did not restrict the access to or that basic minimum recommended safety practices were ignored which allowed for their child to easily use the weapon in a mass shooting perhaps the parents should be held in someway criminally accountable. We can not legislate our way out of this problem nor will letting the government and law enforcement unlimited access to our diaries, blogs, facebook accounts, email prevent such shootings and incidents in the future. Though such mass school shootings are a tragedy we should not compound that tragedy by allowing these incidents to be used as justification and reason to allow others to more easily intrude on our inner most thoughts and electronic privacy in the name of security. As without privacy and the freedom to express our own thoughts without fear of reprisal we can not have an true democracy.