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12-04-2021, 04:45 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-04-2021, 04:46 PM by sbarrera.)
Ethan Crumbley, the recent Michigan school shooter, is age 15. This means the earliest he can have been born is 2005, making him Homeland generation. I think he is the first headline-making shooter from his generation. It's also noteworthy that his parents have been charged with manslaughter in the case. Could this be a Homeland generation trend : passing responsibility for their antisocial behavior on to their parents? It might just be the particulars of this case, but it could be the start of a trend. It should make red zoners happy (we shall see if it does) since they have argued that mass shootings are because of failed parenting, rather than easy access to firearms.
Steve Barrera
[A]lthough one would like to change today's world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation. - Hagakure
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12-05-2021, 02:37 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-05-2021, 02:38 AM by Eric the Green.)
Well, of course, Ethan had easy access to firearms too, because his Dad gave the gun to him!
Of course, easy access to guns is the primary issue, and so is the reason for the access: the violent nature of the USA and its built-in gun obsession, creating the least effective gun laws and the most gun possession of just about any nation, and by far more than any developed nation. It is just one of the ways in which our unequal and divided society has the resulting high level of social and health problems that is far worse than any developed society.
And it will be yet one more case when the USA fails to come to grips with its disease, hampered by a political condition in which one nefarious, fascist political Party has the ability to enforce this disease upon us and stop any efforts to cure and deal with it. As long as gun laws remain as they are, as dictated to us by the Republican Party, there will be more and more of these shootings-- as I have pointed out here for decades, and the sad truth remains just as I have indicated for decades. And there is and will remain no other reason for these shootings except our lax gun laws, which is a part of the general condition of inequality and division in our country.
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(12-04-2021, 04:45 PM)sbarrera Wrote: Ethan Crumbley, the recent Michigan school shooter, is age 15. This means the earliest he can have been born is 2005, making him Homeland generation. I think he is the first headline-making shooter from his generation. It's also noteworthy that his parents have been charged with manslaughter in the case. Could this be a Homeland generation trend : passing responsibility for their antisocial behavior on to their parents? It might just be the particulars of this case, but it could be the start of a trend. It should make red zoners happy (we shall see if it does) since they have argued that mass shootings are because of failed parenting, rather than easy access to firearms.
Laws generally recognize 15-year-old kids unready to sign contracts, join the Armed Services, drive, vote, drink, smoke, fornicate, get access to pornography, or do certain jobs. They are generally considered unready for adult responsibilities or in participation in actions that are likely to be exploitative. Using a firearm is rightly for someone with adult discretion... and as we all well know many people are unready for a responsibility involving life and death irrespective of an age well past 25, 21, 18, 16... or whatever. Just think of the fellow accused of running over a large number of people in Waukesha. (And some people get the age without a mature level of responsibility, like ... that will be another cheap political statement, of course. Right?)
I can imagine parents having easily-accessible alcohol and car keys. Would they be responsible for a DUI-related vehicle crash?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
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I definitely think the fact that his parents have been charged is notable. Perhaps it's a step in the direction of viewing these shootings as a systemic problem rather than individual moral failings by lunatics (which is a shift from a 3T way of thinking to a 1T way of thinking).
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(12-05-2021, 09:11 AM)galaxy Wrote: I definitely think the fact that his parents have been charged is notable. Perhaps it's a step in the direction of viewing these shootings as a systemic problem rather than individual moral failings by lunatics (which is a shift from a 3T way of thinking to a 1T way of thinking).
If it is impossible to outlaw or greatly restrict firearms, then legal consequences (criminal or civil) might have as much of an effect.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
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12-06-2021, 06:58 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-06-2021, 07:01 PM by Eric the Green.)
(12-05-2021, 09:11 AM)galaxy Wrote: I definitely think the fact that his parents have been charged is notable. Perhaps it's a step in the direction of viewing these shootings as a systemic problem rather than individual moral failings by lunatics (which is a shift from a 3T way of thinking to a 1T way of thinking).
It's definitely a systemic problem, mainly that concerning the obsession with guns in the USA. The USA has by far more guns, more crime and more gun violence than other developed countries. This is also associated with the nation's racial and economic-inequality systemic problems.
I don't think the fault of parents for shootings by younger people is a systemic problem. This is a problem with this single case, one of estraordinary negligence, gun carelessness and gun obsession by the parents, although the Sandy Hook case also revealed some careless actions by the shooter's Mother. I doubt however that parents do a worse job in the USA than they do in other countries. But the USA is definitely a big outlier in the other 3 concerns I have mentioned. What is notable is how nefarious, negligent and gun-obsessed the parents areas well as the young shooter in this case.
Distracting attention once again from the USA's gun problem onto parents is just another way of avoiding the issue, which has become a political problem of long-standing caused by one particular cruel and outdated political party, the Republicans of today, as well as by the gun lobby.
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(12-06-2021, 06:58 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: (12-05-2021, 09:11 AM)galaxy Wrote: I definitely think the fact that his parents have been charged is notable. Perhaps it's a step in the direction of viewing these shootings as a systemic problem rather than individual moral failings by lunatics (which is a shift from a 3T way of thinking to a 1T way of thinking).
It's definitely a systemic problem, mainly that concerning the obsession with guns in the USA. The USA has by far more guns, more crime and more gun violence than other developed countries. This is also associated with the nation's racial and economic-inequality systemic problems.
I don't think the fault of parents for shootings by younger people is a systemic problem. This is a problem with this single case, one of estraordinary negligence, gun carelessness and gun obsession by the parents, although the Sandy Hook case also revealed some careless actions by the shooter's Mother. I doubt however that parents do a worse job in the USA than they do in other countries. But the USA is definitely a big outlier in the other 3 concerns I have mentioned. What is notable is how nefarious, negligent and gun-obsessed the parents areas well as the young shooter in this case.
Distracting attention once again from the USA's gun problem onto parents is just another way of avoiding the issue, which has become a political problem of long-standing caused by one particular cruel and outdated political party, the Republicans of today, as well as by the gun lobby.
Churchill was right: we try everything else before we do the right thing. I have no idea what will finally trigger an end to gun madness, but I hope it's not armed anarchy. That would be nearly impossible to stop once it starts.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.
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