Tragedy in Parkland, FL

 

Photos above: School shooting inspired school letters going out around the country this week. How to talk to your kids about senseless violence (brought to you by toxic masculinity and our gun worshiping militarized society).

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Another school shooting. I don't want to keep saying that. But here are the details:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43081361

The victims:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/15/us/florida-shooting-victims-school/index.html


An action:



There is always a rash of calls for gun control or an assault weapon ban after a mass shooting. Liberals calling Congresspeople to account for their NRA money. All good things. Conservatives always responding with - wait a minute families need time to grieve and don't politicize these children's deaths. Of course we should be beating down the door of elected representatives and calling them to account and voting out those who prize guns over our lives and safety. We need laws. Thoughts and prayers don't make laws. Lawmakers make laws. Sometimes. Gun control is a very good thing, we should absolutely be talking about that after a shooting, but not the only issue. Also, mental health and health care are very good topics to talk about, but not as a convenient excuse for another white male abuser. The gun fetish and misogynistic culture along with white supremacist terrorism in America is a better place to start.

From Facebook:

Why is this happening to us?? 

“In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate,” Dan Hodges, a British journalist, wrote in a post on Twitter two years ago, referring to the 2012 attack that killed 20 young students at an elementary school in Connecticut. “Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.”

What Explains U.S. Mass Shootings? International Comparisons Suggest an Answer
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/world/americas/mass-shootings-us-international.html

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Ultra Violet and others have been pointing this out for some time, that there are some very real correlations between gun violence and toxic masculinity. It's a welcome change from thoughts and prayers and the mental illness cop out. If mental illness were the driving force here, the statistics would look a bit different. 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gun-violence-toxic-masculinity-tweets_us_5a85ead4e4b05c2bcac8ec08

A thought and a prayer from Twitter:

After the Las Vegas shooting four months ago, it became popular to declare that that common condolence, thoughts and prayers, is not enough. This is still true and we need to call Congress again.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/thoughts-and-prayers-politicians-las-vegas-shooting/

Also from Facebook:

But it is good to see a spotlight even if only journalistically on mass killings and domestic violence:

Of Course Florida School Shooter Was A Girl-Hating White Supremacist. Of Course I Am Tired Of Writing This Article.
https://wonkette.com/629807/of-course-florida-school-shooter-was-a-girl-hating-white-supremacist-of-course-i-am-tired-of-writing-this-article

Control and Fear: What Mass Killings and Domestic Violence Have in Common

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/16/world/americas/control-and-fear-what-mass-killings-and-domestic-violence-have-in-common.html

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My post on Facebook with accompanying links:

Along with guns, white supremacist violence is a problem no one (Congress, White House, FBI and police) wants to identify. Everyone wants to excuse the men who kill this way as a lone wolf or mentally ill, yet there are more telling patterns with these guys (white supremacy, domestic violence, basically toxic masculinity).

https://www.salon.com/2018/02/15/white-supremacy-group-florida-school-shooter-was-a-member/

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/the-resurgent-threat-of-white-supremacist-violence/550634/
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And Twitter with another reality check:

Aaand finally, just what are these gun rights that are so important they trump the lives of school fulls of children:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/second-amendment-guns-michael-waldman/

Tale of two shootings: NYC on Halloween and several dozen in a TX church Sunday

There's something that reeks in the Republican response to recent violent attacks involving guns. We all know what it is. Some don't want to say (or act) because they are afraid of the gun lobby, but feel quite comfortable attacking marginalized groups as though that's the common denominator.

I mean besides the absurdly unequal response depending on skin color, which we will return to a little ways down the page. . . 

Try GUNS. This is the problem. Common sense regulation, not free for all zero restriction fearmongering about taking away your dubious "right to bear arms" and demonizing those who desire safety.

Or domestic violence (I put the dates for your information only, the content is relevant.) If you can't get angry over women being assaulted because we're human, perhaps you can pay attention because it often leads to violence that could affect YOU:
Oct 10, 2017: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/stephen-paddock-las-vegas-domestic-violence-fantasy-boston-bomber-orlando-shooting-a7993186.html

August 15, 2017: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/15/the-persistent-crime-that-connects-mass-shooters-and-terror-suspects-domestic-violence/?utm_term=.b0085fcbc58e

June 16, 2017: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-link-between-domestic-violence-and-mass-shootings-james-hodgkinson-steve-scalise

June 15, 2016: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/16/world/americas/control-and-fear-what-mass-killings-and-domestic-violence-have-in-common.html



The color of the shooter's skin determines what response Trump and Republicans give:

Link to follow her account: https://twitter.com/jemisha_johnson


The Republican response always reeks of xenophobia and politicization of anyone but white shooters.
These links are about Las Vegas but discuss the difference in coverage of a white shooter vs other shooters. 
http://www.scarymommy.com/terrorism-mental-illness/

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/double-standard-white-privilege-media-las-vegas-shooting_us_59d3da15e4b04b9f92058316

You can compare with the coverage of the Halloween attack in NYC and the attack on the church in Texas. I was dumbfounded by the immediate assessment of terrorism for the brown man and zero mention of the race, motive, identifying features or ideology that appear in initial reports of people of color. But it's how I knew immediately the shooter was white. No assumptions, no scouring of his social media to grab a phrase to quote as proof of assigned motive,  no pontifications on the role of his political or religious views and how we should crack down on those.


Here's a pretty good piece on the difference in reaction of the President to the two recent tragedies involving guns, but shooters of different skin colors:

https://www.bustle.com/p/trump-responds-to-the-texas-church-shooting-its-so-different-from-his-reaction-to-the-nyc-attack-3227741


Here is the transcript link and a significant passage on how disturbing it is to politicize and paint certain perpetrators in a light convenient to push an agenda that plays easily into the hands of actual terrorists, while urging caution and support for zero gun control when the guy is white like the people in power. Why do you think ISIS tries to claim responsibility for any attack, even Las Vegas? Recruitment. And Republicans apparently want to help with that.

Link to video: https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2017/11/2

From video transcript:

In contrast, the president immediately sought to try to divide Americans and further his own political agenda. And what do I mean by that? It’s things like what you were just discussing earlier: trying to basically score political points, to feed his agenda, his long-standing policy to radically transform our immigration system, to significantly curtail, if not outright stop, the immigration of nonwhites to the United States. And this—and we could just see, in contrast, after the Las Vegas shooting, after the Charlottesville attacks, we did not see the president calling for changes in policies, like gun control policies, after the horrific attacks in Las Vegas. But here we see the president immediately calling for changes to the immigration system.
The other concern we have is Senator Graham, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, claiming that he and the president had a phone call the evening of the attack and that they both agree that this is a religious war. This was deeply disturbing to us, because we know—and I think all Americans can agree—that violence, unfortunately, has no single faith, race or political ideology, whether—you know, you just look no further than the Charleston attacks, the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting, the congressional baseball game attack, to know that violence, unfortunately, it comes in various forms. And so this is just deeply, deeply disturbing. And furthermore, the New York Police Department’s own deputy commissioner, John Miller, yesterday, in a press conference, very explicitly and clearly said Islam is—had no role in this attack.

From a Twitter account you should probably follow:

On thoughts and prayers. . .

It's not so much that thoughts and prayers aren't nice, it's that sending thoughts and prayers to victims of mass shootings whilst accepting millions from the NRA makes you politicians look like liars and hypocrites. In case it wasn't clear.

People Fed Up With ‘Thoughts And Prayers’ Demand Action After Texas Church Massacre

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sutherland-springs-thoughts-and-prayers_us_59ffd663e4b0c96530005a31

Thoughts and Prayers and NRA Funding

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/04/opinion/thoughts-prayers-nra-funding-senators.html